The Wall of Storms

Abben reviewed The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (The Dandelion Dynasty, #2)

Better than Grace of Kings!

4 stars

Extremely strong entry that leans into its identity and develops the "silkpunk" genre. The amazing payoff of this book consists in its deeply thoughtful and realistic descriptions of technology, as it might have been found and discovered in the context of a medieval east-asian themed island-continent empire. I would recommend going in with as little spoilers as possible. I am disappointed at how whimsical a main characters' choice is toward the very very end to just go off on their merry way, and I don't like that previous main characters who used to be super clever are reduced to fools to the point that you get angry watching them be duped.

But generally the characterization is strong and the underlying ethos of the book, that the world is discoverable, is a beautiful theme that powers the technology, the "magic" and the major questions of civilizational progress.

Also structurally, …

Extremely strong entry that leans into its identity and develops the "silkpunk" genre. The amazing payoff of this book consists in its deeply thoughtful and realistic descriptions of technology, as it might have been found and discovered in the context of a medieval east-asian themed island-continent empire. I would recommend going in with as little spoilers as possible. I am disappointed at how whimsical a main characters' choice is toward the very very end to just go off on their merry way, and I don't like that previous main characters who used to be super clever are reduced to fools to the point that you get angry watching them be duped.

But generally the characterization is strong and the underlying ethos of the book, that the world is discoverable, is a beautiful theme that powers the technology, the "magic" and the major questions of civilizational progress.

Also structurally, if it seems slow at first, keep going because momentum will pick up dramatically. If I say any more it's a spoiler. But excellent book overall and I can't think of anything else like it in the fantasy space.

tonegroan reviewed The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (The Dandelion Dynasty, #2)

The Wall of Storms

5 stars

What can I say? 5 stars. This book just ups everything I already loved about The Grace of Kings, introducing even more interesting and well crafted characters into an even more epic and high-stakes conflict.

tk reviewed The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (The Dandelion Dynasty, #2)

it could have been great but devolve in a waste of time

2 stars

The writing is great. The world-building is intriguing.

The main problem is the lack of editing work. This book is close to 1000 pages long. This could have been stripped down to 400 pages and the whole book have been great. I mean the plot completely change at 50% of the book. I have read comments about the other books and it seems that they have the same problem. I think I will stop there with this series.

The depiction of women and LGTB is kinda of unnerving. The Lyuccu appear to be based on the Mongol invasion and are very one-sided.

Axl reviewed The Wall of Storms by Ken Liu (The Dandelion Dynasty, #2)

Review of 'The Wall of Storms' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Ignoring the fact that I took the entire month to read this, because it was still interesting and entertaining despite its lenght^^

Writing is fluid and poetic, intense/to the point or slow/meandering depending on the scenes, Ken Liu has a great handle on plot and characters, but it was big, I think it could have been divided into 2 books, I also wish I felt more of an attachment to the characters, still wanna know what happens next to this dynasty, over the years..