The Grace of Kings

[Zorral]

I've been trying to read this novel, but not doing well. It reads too much like a translation that has stuck fairly closely word-to-word, which is not enough to be a good translation. It's not as smooth inserting the more contemporary and vernacular English style of sentences as it should be either. Those sentences Jar the reader's mind's ear as they are seemingly randomly inserted into the more formal style of the surrounding text, Worse than that, the first 100 pages are one background read as one info dump block after another.

I do understand that the source material isn't structured as we've become used to a genre novel's structure and organization, and the source material in any case is from one of China's many classical eras of great literature. But it doesn't change that this hasn't been a felicitous reading experience, because the translation didn't go far enough. I'm at the point of abandoning Grace of Kings. Since it hasn't been interesting enough to engage me after almost 300 pages there is no reason to spend any more time to plot through the 300-plus more pages still to go.

There is another aspect that prevented this reader at least from engagement with this novel: the laments that the rightful ancient aristocrats have been deprived and displaced and COMMONERS sometimes now live in some of the palaces of the heritage nobility. Thus, of course, the Special One(s) to fix the invaders is, of course, a displaced noble scion. Ho. Hum.

[beniowa]

There is another aspect that prevented this reader at least from engagement with this novel: the laments that the rightful ancient aristocrats have been deprived and displaced and COMMONERS sometimes now live in some of the palaces of the heritage nobility. Thus, of course, the Special One(s) to fix the invaders is, of course, a displaced noble scion. Ho. Hum.

Without going too much into spoilers, I can see how you would think that given that you've read less than half the book. Maybe it doesn't turn out that way. Maybe Liu is taking a page out of GRRM's book and showing how people abuse power, whether they're common or noble.

I'm a little surprised that many here on bouncing off this book. I can see how those on other forums may not get into it, but I would have thought it was just the kind of book more people here would enjoy. I thought it was a fantastic book myself.

[Little Valkyrie]

There is another aspect that prevented this reader at least from engagement with this novel: the laments that the rightful ancient aristocrats have been deprived and displaced and COMMONERS sometimes now live in some of the palaces of the heritage nobility. Thus, of course, the Special One(s) to fix the invaders is, of course, a displaced noble scion. Ho. Hum.

Not to spoil anything, but...I think there's a lot of irony in how clearly we are told his interior thoughts, because he's also shown to be very, very wrong in the course of the novel.

[Darth Richard II]

Well now I need to read this soon so I can join a side. People on good reads have been pretty positive so far though.

[Of the Eastern Cliff]

I'm about a hundred pages in. I'll be the guy in the middle.

It took me a while to like it. At first the narrative style threw me off, switching between TPL and TPO. But as I continued I started to enjoy it. I read Romance of the Three Kingdoms when I was younger, and I got a similar feeling from GoK.

I also wasn't enthralled by the characters at first, but Kuni Garu (AKA Liu Bang) started to grow on me once the plot got rolling. And speaking of the plot pacing, that's the book's biggest weakness so far. It takes a long time to get going. The first eighty pages or so are stuffed full of background, setup, and info dumping.

I won't spoil anything, but I'm having a lot of fun going back to earlier sections after reading the discussions and banter that the gods have. It's enjoyable to pinpoint exactly where the gods are meddling in mortal affairs.

[Boar Island]

I liked:

+ The ever-changing POVs made this a very beautiful and enjoyable read. Even minor characters and "villains" were given time to be fleshed out, which is always a good idea.

+ The overall writing style oscillating between poetical metaphors and GRRMian levels of brutality is simply amazing.

+ The overall story is nothing but epic, thrilling, and tragic.

+ Kuni and Mata being nemeses in the latter half of the book. I knew that this was going to happen beforehand, thanks to every spoilery synopsis out there, but it was realised very well.

I disliked:

- While mostly working, some aspects of the story seem incredibly forced. The prophecy-in-the-fish thing was mentioned here in this thread, but I was okay with that. What broke the story for me at times were:

- The gods vow not to intervene directly, except when it's comfortable for the story. Would've been ok if we got more than one scene with them beforehand, or had their characters introduced a little better.

- Mata's army was at impossible odds on Wolf's Paw, but his soldiers became Rambos on crack only because their ships were burned? Yeah not buying it.

- The two wives of Kuni Garu - Why were there two? And also, why did Jia get sidelined almost completely? I guess that this was directly converted from Kuni’s historic reference, but I felt it made little sense for the story.

-The final battle: Mata’s army was trapped on a hill, breaks through, only to be pursued and surrounded on another hill, from which they also escape. Later, they are trapped on the beach again. Lame. Also, Mata and his riders must stop at some farmer’s home to ask for directions? Seriously? In their own home country?

[Deric Bonbarrion]

I actually created a subreddit for the book for people who want to discuss it more (/r/DandelionDynasty).

Obviously I enjoyed it quite a bit, although I can certainly see how the narrative style might throw some people, especially compared to GRRM's very much "show not tell" emphasis. Liu will narrate an entire character's backstory in a few pages almost as an historical account, which I actually liked as it gave the story a very mythic feel.