Tag: Ken Liu

  • The Grace of Kings

    Ken Liu

    The Grace of Kings is the first part of a trilogy named The Dandelion Dynasty. I really liked The Paper Menagerie & Other Stories (by the same author), so I bought this book soon as I came to know of its existence.
    Inspired by the Han dynasty, this is “silkpunk”‘s answer to the Game of Thrones! There is an emperor, there are palace intrigues, there are rebellions, and contenders vying for the throne. But that’s probably too broad a stroke, and is unfair to the differences.

    The main contenders are polar opposites – one is a sly wastrel who becomes a bandit and has an innate charisma and goodness that wins the hearts of the people, the other is a noble brought up in exile who believes in winning battles through sheer valour in the battlefield and has very clear ideas of right and wrong. They cross paths, become brothers in arms and rebel against the emperor. The metaphor of dandelion vs chrysanthemum is the philosophical underpinning of the book, and causes the clash of ideals. Also pertinent is how the gods of the realm have their own champions and do not shy away from meddling in the affairs of mortals.

    The book has a bunch of many interesting characters and though the pages devoted to them might not be many, the roles and their significance in the story arcs are very well defined. Between a narrative pace that is unflagging, and the twists that never end, the book creates a momentum that is hard to resist! That ensures that the few grammatical errors and the seeming ease with which main characters overcome obstacles, can be ignored.

  • The Paper Menagerie

    Ken Liu

    What is with these Chinese (/origin) writers? Ted Chiang’s “Stories of Your Life and Others” was the best collection of speculative fiction I had read. Then there was Liu Cixin’s “The Three Body Problem” trilogy that had a fantastic story arc even while retaining scientific accuracy. And now, Ken Liu, who had translated Liu Cixin’s work into English, and has also credited Ted Chiang as an inspiration for the last story in this book.

    All fiction, the author says in the preface, is about prizing the logic of metaphors over reality, which is irreducibly random and senseless. This is what I would call the DNA of the book, and teasing out the metaphors in some of the stories is what I considered the most exciting part of reading this book. Also mentioned in the preface is the author’s perspective that he does not pay attention to the distinction between fantasy and science fiction or genres in general, and a few stories serve as excellent examples. Good Hunting could be steampunk and fantasy, The Waves would be science fiction and fantasy, The Man who ended history could be historical fiction and science fiction. The genre is rendered irrelevant in the larger scheme of things. Everything is speculative fiction. (more…)