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Published Dec 2021
1008 pages
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-Fi, Speculative, Alt. History
Publication Information
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 ten thousand 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 on the Three Kingdoms and builds a new tale unsurpassed in its scope and ambition.
"The penultimate installment of Liu's Dandelion Dynasty quartet...continues the grand-scale narrative set in the vast fantasy archipelago of Dara as two factions battle for control of the islands...[I]t's Liu's poetic style that makes this book so memorable...This is a shelf-bending fantasy masterwork: as good as it gets." - Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
"[M]asterful...Liu mixes the drama of heroic wuxia battles with twisty intrigues and the characters' ever-shifting priorities, balancing each element to create the epic feel of real history. With a third installment just as mesmerizing as the previous volumes, this series continues to be a wonderful and necessary breath of fresh air in epic fantasy." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)
This information about The Veiled Throne was first featured
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Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Ken Liu is an award-winning American author of speculative fiction. His collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. Liu's other works include The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, The Veiled Throne, and a second collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He has been involved in multiple media adaptations of his work including the short story "Good Hunting," adapted as an episode in Netflix's animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC's Pantheon, adapted from an interconnected series of short stories. "The Hidden Girl," "The Message," and "The Cleaners" have also been optioned for development. Liu previously worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on topics including futurism, cryptocurrency, the history of technology, and the value of storytelling. Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
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