The Dandelion Dynasty By Ken Liu | The Masterpiece Which is Hard to Recommend | Spoiler Free

This series was an absolute ride. Here, I will talk about what makes it amazing, but also how each book is quite different from each other, making it hard to be sure who will like it. For almost anyone I think of I can think of some things I could see them disliking, and many things I could see them loving. Ultimately though, it is one of the best series I have ever read.

I put the dramatic reading at the end because it was too long.

I will try and get back to making more videos, in a bit of a slump.

Also here are the 4 spoilery live shows

Also if you watch my top 10 list of 2022 you will notice Speaking Bones very far into that video because it is completely brilliant.

0:00 start
21:54 3 swords

Intro music: Music is by Budapest BluesBoy
the music is is Creative Commons licensed for commercial use

[BooksWithBenghisKahn]

Awesome non spoiler series review—this is indeed highest priority for me this year!!

[esmayrosalyne]

Fantastic review, this is the video I will be pointing people to whenever I feel the urge to shove Dandelion in their faces again, lol. If I hadn't already read the series, then I would've jumped straight in after hearing you talk about it here.
It's actually quite interesting that I loved this one as much as I did, because the cooking competition, engineering and distanced writing style (especially in GoK) really shouldn't work for me... but it just did! Ken Liu is such a masterful storyteller and I loved the way he wove everything together in the end, already eager to reread it!

[seanhalpin]

One of my favorite displays of gods playing an actual role in a series. Ever. Tazu is so interesting, and the one god that does that one thing the other ones don't do was shocking, I still need to finish speaking bones to see what they do in thr end.

[arlissbunny]

Everything. You. Said. Fantastic review. This is right behind LOTR as a favorite series for me. I’m an applied physicist and I run with engineering nerds so it’s a fairly easy book for me to rec to them but outside that group, you’re right, it’s tricky.

[brokenbandit]

The Grace of Kings might be my favorite book of all time. I love Ken Liu's short stories, and I think that his skillset with short stories lends itself well to his structure for the first book of this series. The Grace of Kings, being told in Omniscient Third Person, has the qualities of an oral story turned paper. The way that he nests stories within one another, even having his characters tell their own stories is one of my favorite aspects of his novels. They all do this. The first 100 pages of The Veiled Throne were some of my favorite parts of this epic tale. I feel like Ken is constantly using his characters to push the idea that stories can be incredibly personal and people-forming, but cannot be owned or trapped. Stories, much like the Gods they tell us about, are always changing and acting on their own inspirations.

[darmokandjalad]

I was going to read Wall of Storms, and then my semester started. It is still #1 on my TBR though.

[Elricsedric]

I'm watching a bit of reviews about this series, because people seem passionate about it. Which interests me.
Not a single soul gives a freaking synopsis about the books, Noone talks about what's in it.

[jaislibrary]

Comparing Dandelion worldbuilding w/ Middle Earth. Baba seething somewhere

[afantasybabble]

Great review Jake. Time well tell but Dandelion might the top series for me

[readbykyle]

Excellent review Jake. Best representation of the pros and cons of each book and who might like which I've seen. I really can't wait to do a reread

[bookmarkswithjason]

Grace of kings was on my top 10 reads of last year. Such a great book

[seanhalpin]

Who wouldn't like wall of storms? It's a perfect book, honestly the best second book in a series I've read, just behind words of radiance

I think grace of kings was incredible, I didn't think of it like a history book like I did with fire and blood which I couldn't do.

[bradysuter]

As someone who’s read all four books I agree that it’s hard for me to recommend this series to anyone that doesn’t have a lot of free time on their hands

[praetorxyn]

I picked up this series because I saw Alex gush about it shortly after seeing him gush about Robin Hobb, so I was like, "Well, this seems to be a man with good taste, fuck it, I'll buy it." I still haven't gotten to it though.

I'm doing a Red Rising first read readalong, and I jumped on the Realm of the Elderlings readalong for a re-read since everyone is talking about it in the spoiler chats, and I'm planning to read Lord of the Rings for the first time after I finish Royal Assassin, hopefully will finish it tomorrow. I'm also scheduled to read Sarantine Mosaic in a buddy read with Madison and Scot starting April 15 I think. So I've been sucked into the readalong trap this year.

[thatsci-firogue]

I look forward to continuing, I was hoping to alternate between Dandelion Dynasty and Memory Sorrow and Thorn but I'm just not feeling it right now so Dandelion Dynasty (and RotE) it is!

[kyle_j_c]

Nearly finished with Grace of Kings and its probably falling in my top 5 books of all time. hyped for this series

[seanhalpin]

The 250 page cooking competition, I was initially like man what is this, but by the end I was in tears, which was unreal to me haha

[thejohnsanger]

What a great series review! Hearing the Three Swords story again brought me great joy. I don't think I will ever read another series like this and the best way to describe the ending is fulfilling. It just made sense for the story. Thanks for hosting the readalong! I had a great experience going through this series and seeing your thoughts on it as you went through it too. Cheers Jake!

[parsnipmaster]

Definitely convinced to give this a shot seems insanely interesting