The Armies of Those I Love

By: Ken Liu

Narrated by: Auliʻi Cravalho

Length: 2 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

For Franny, the end of everything is just the beginning of her adventure. The world as we know it is no more. Cities are mobile. Electricity is rare. Reading is a relic of the past. After an explosive encounter with a mysterious stranger, Franny, a 14-year-old orphan girl, embarks on an epic quest to find the mysterious pilots who steer the cities, hoping that if she finds them, she will get answers about her family's past - and the world's future.

The Armies of Those I Love is a brilliant vision of the future from Hugo, Locus, and Nebula award-winning author Ken Liu, author of such sci-fi classics as The Grace of Kings and The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories and translator of the global best seller The Three-Body Problem by Cixin Liu.

©2020 Ken Liu (P)2021 Audible Originals, LLC.

The importance of questions

A haunting story about question and a girl's quest to find answers. It shows how important it is to ask questions even if one doesn't always find the answers.

Riveting Story, Deftly Performed

Deep, thought-provoking, not run of the mill apocalyptic sci-fi. Recommend Highly. I will listen again.

a very satisfying story

I loved this little story. This post-apocalyptic world is different enough, and presented at a decent pace, and makes one really care about it. Interesting that of all traits it's "selfishness " (defined somewhat loosely) that the System is conditioning out of humans.
This is my first experience with this author as an author rather than a translator, and I am hooked.

A story written like a song

The language of the story is poetic. Almost like a poem. It was a multi layer story and researched well on so many levels. I listened to it twice to catch all of the characters and places that have “Boston” names.
The performance was pleasant to listen to although I thought it could have used a little more drama.

Poetic and Thought-provoking Sci-Fi

This is a surprisingly poetic and intriguing post-apocalyptic tale -- full of thought-provoking images of a possible human future. I found it interesting, captivating and eminently easy to listen to. Liu and Cravalho have created a gem!

Loved the story, not the ending.

The story is creative. The writing is descriptive. I liked the characters. I thoroughly enjoyed the story until I got to the ending.

I had to overcome obstacles to listen to the story. The author introduced many new words without explaining their meanings. I had to change the speed to 0.75X to be able to follow along. I had to rewind many times to figure out what was being said. I kept having to pause to visualize the descriptions.

I liked the narrator’s voice, and I found her voice appropriate for the story. Her reading wasn't always clear though, and she seemed a little out-of-breath at times. It would have been better if she had read slower.

The ending was abrupt. I understand the reason the author chose to end the story the way he did. I just found the ending to be unsatisfactory.

The book is pricey for its length.

Hopefully, there’s a Book 2 to make up for the abrupt ending.

very vivid.

The author and performer did a wonderful job of bringing the story to the minds eye. It also brought to life the questions of selfishness, life and waste. Beautiful.

Phenomenal Imagery!!

Wow! love, love, love! Plot twists, clever, thought provoking! Looking back at our present day from a curious future perspective.

Too Wordy and Pretentious

It took multiple tries to get into this book. I finally just let it run past the few chapters until a storyline develops. Dystopia without a realistic ending.

technically beautiful, but...

So, from a technical perspective, this is really well written. Language choice is wonderful,illustrations of character were excellent, the mystery element of world building and discovery were well done.

I just did't care about any of the characters.

the art was excellent, the human element was lacking.