The Veiled Throne

The Dandelion Dynasty, Book 3

De: Ken Liu

Narrado por: Michael Kramer

With the invasion of Dara complete, and the Wall of Storms breached, the world has opened to new possibilities for the gods and peoples of both empires as the sweeping saga of the award-winning Dandelion Dynasty continues in this third book of the “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR).

Princess Théra, once known as Empress Üna of Dara, entrusted the throne to her younger brother in order to journey to Ukyu-Gondé to war with the Lyucu. She has crossed the fabled Wall of Storms with a fleet of advanced warships and 10,000 people. Beset by adversity, Théra and her most trusted companions attempt to overcome every challenge by doing the most interesting thing. But is not letting the past dictate the present always possible or even desirable?

In Dara, the Lyucu leadership as well as the surviving Dandelion Court bristle with rivalries as currents of power surge and ebb and perspectives spin and shift. Here, parents and children, teachers and students, Empress and Pékyu, all nurture the seeds of plans that will take years to bloom. Will tradition yield to new justifications for power?

Everywhere, the spirit of innovation dances like dandelion seeds on the wind, and the commoners, the forgotten, the ignored begin to engineer new solutions for a new age. Ken Liu returns to the series that draws from a tradition of the great epics of our history from the Aeneid to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms and builds a new tale unsurpassed in its scope and ambition.

©2021 Ken Liu. All rights reserved. (P)2021 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Fantastic storytelling

Overall great, but takes a good chunk of time to indulge itself and enjoy the world; which all great fantasy sagas inevitably do. Looking forward to Speaking Bones

Odd cooking competition

The usual great story and characters take center stage and we prepare for a huge climax in the world. Then an odd cooking competition takes place. Still great, but they kinda lost me there.

still loving it. new characters get a spotlight.

I just love watching the story unravel, at times I wanted certain stories to be focused on but eventually I came around to just loving every second of it.

1 Star deducted due to lack of editor!

Another 5-star book but Im deducting a star because of the weird detour in the third act of the book for a really boring cooking competition. i mean, what? By the end of the book you find out why that plot device was used but it could’ve been done in a more concise way. Otherwise another great book in the series.

Epic in scope

Ken Liu is one of the best modern fiction writers. He builds a world and continues to expand on it in great detail. I love the character development and the prose he writes.

Michael Kramer breathes life into this beautiful narrative of a war between two people.

I cannot wait for the finale of the series.

A Rollercoaster of Emotions

having read the first two books, I can certainly say that I'm enthralled into this world at this point. while I like the way that the story is constantly evolving, I think that at times there's a omission of some of the things that originally made the story great. The idea of silk punk is unique to this story. I love seeing that included and I love seeing it rationalized throughout the story. while I think overall the story is still really solid and still very, very good. there are some chapters that dragged on a little bit too long for me. And, some characters that were given a little too much emphasis. where is the first few books moved around between the main character and secondary characters these ones seem to be more stagnant and the stories weren't as gripping or as enthralling as some of the previous ones. nonetheless really great story and excellent read very much looking forward to the last book.

Better Than Previous Installment

This was quite a pleasant surprise for me, having listened to the first two so long ago, and, for some reason, highly suspicious of the notion this could be, in any sense, well... Good!

It was... It truly was. Do yourself a favor and add this to your library

Phenomenal

I went into Veiled Throne with hesitant expectations due to numerous friends/reviews stating this is the "weakest" of the series, and I think this helped me appreciate this book more than I would have otherwise.

From a technical standpoint, Ken continues to be a master story teller weaving the intricate plots together, crafting such an incredibly well thought out world along with the magic and science to back up the decisions made, and is an absolute genius when it comes to characters.

What I was not expecting in this book (and what I am assuming threw most others as well) was the very intricate and detailed (and quite long) plot point of the cooking competition that takes up the majority of the 2nd half of this book.

Was it written badly? No. In fact, Ken put as much thought and detail into this as some of the war/fight scenes in other books and it truly shows his range.

Was it out of place? Also, somehow no. Ken found such a unique way of weaving the Blossom Gang's story into the overarching series.

Honestly, it felt like we put this epic story on pause for a holiday special that turned into a rather long side quest. I had a lot of fun with it, but I was also not expecting it whatsoever.

Overall, Ken Liu is still an incredible author and I am so excited about getting to Speaking Bones and his other works.

A Spectacular, Soaring Fantasy Epic

It’s hard to sum up anything about the Dandelion Dynasty. The scale, the vividness of setting, the deft and playful way in which Ken Liu interweaves the narrative with threads of culture, science and history and, most of all, the unabashed humanity of the story; these are things that can only be truly apprehended through direct experience. During my listening journey, I have been reminded of many other wonderful tales- from favorite translations of Homer, reconstructions of Beowulf and Gilgamesh and ever-changing oral “lung songs” of diasporic Chinese mythology, to the beloved fruits of 20th century anglophone fantasy. The pluralism and flair of LeGuin. The speculative “mind-pleasure” of Herbert or Asimov. The erudite charisma of Tolkien, the empathic whimsy of JK Rowling, the intensity of George RR Martin and the stylish patter of Susannah Clarke. These are, so to speak, adjacent nodes and connecting threads in the literary web of which the Dandelion Dynasty is part, but there is a flair, a boldness- a singular quality of “capacious mind”- which is unique to this story. Like the Ano Classics, or the Dance Songs of a Lyucu Shaman, this story is a living thing that intertwines with the life and perspective of the reader, raising questions and inviting growth on every page, at every twist of the exquisitely turned plot. From beginning to end, via hero’s journey, revealed wisdom and yes, even bilingual pun, this tale soars to new heights of form, function and vision like a silken airship, a stringless kite- or a dandelion seed, tossed on the wind.

Fun, but lots of filler

Overall, quite enjoyable. The narrator is great. only complaint is that the second half was full of unnecessary filler/fluff.