So. Im reading the dandelion dynasty right now, im currently on the fourth and final book of the series. And so far the series has been a v e r y mixed bag. Grace of Kings was incredible and it’s one of my favorite books ever, but the rest of the books are more like ‘typical’ books in their structure and storytelling. This isn’t to say that they’re bad by any means, I still love them a lot, but…man, did things go downhill after book one.
For one thing Ken Liu doesn’t know when to STFU. The most egregious example of this I think is in book two when Zomi is being taught the ano logograms by Luan Zya. The entire section is just Luan lecture Zomi and it reads like a language textbook and NOT in a good way. However I can forgive this because it’s the only real instance of it happening in the series.
.. when it comes to the language, I mean. Ken Liu also really likes dropping lengthy paragraphs about the tech in his series.. which is fine. Really, it is. The problem is there’s just so *much* of it all and the books suffer from serious bloat because of it because there’s like 50 new technologies debeloped per book. And this might be the biology brain talking but sometimes the explanations themselves are extremely hard to visualize.
My biggest gripe with Ken Liu’s writing in the newer books however is that sometimes he will cut away from an extremely riveting and gripping battle scene just to drop a lecture about the preparations that went into it. During the battle oc crescent island in book 4 this has happened three times. Three. And I haven’t even finished that part yet so there could be more for all I know.
My guy. There is no, absolutely NO good reason for you to cut away from a goddamn battle scene 3 TIMES IN THE MIDDLE! If you must, include preparations before the battle. Either that or condense it, but don’t drop a 40 page chapter that has nothing to do with the action just so we can find out why Phyro has a cool sword.
Imo the books are at their best when they focus on… literally anything else. The world building, the politics, hell even the romance, all of that is spectacular. Phyro and Zer-Kara’s relationship thus far is adorable, and the end of Thera and Takvals was heart wrenching. Still, the books suffer from so much bloat that I can’t help but think that Grace of Kings was the peak of the series.
by Unoriginalshitbag