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Reviews

The Veiled Throne by Ken Liu

cfrerman's review against another edition

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adventurous dark medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

ok7a's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

epizootics's review

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4.0

I received an ARC through NetGalley.

jkmartin38's review

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4.0

Eagerly awaiting book 4

condwanaland's review against another edition

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3.75

Really enjoyed the beginning and end. It began as my favourite book of the Dandelion Dynasty. I really didn't enjoy the extended section around the two warring restaraunts. 

anonymous_paper's review

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4.0

This author deadass had me tearing up about a
Spoilercooking competition of all things
. If that doesn’t take skill, I don’t know what does.

chrisalex1210's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

kthawk27's review

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slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.0

navinvembar's review

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adventurous medium-paced

3.5

colesuds's review

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5.0

an excellent addition to this epic series.

lots of random thoughts - apologies if I have any misspellings, I listened to the audio.

another excellent installment in this series. I was a bit lost at first since it's been a while since I read the first two, but there were lots of reminders of the previous stories included, and it actually helped me get into Kinri's mind a bit more to be less informed about Dara history. I love the characters, the language, the thoughts about learning and rank and status and wealth and society, honor and disgrace, loyalty and treason... so important to think about in modern political reality as well as theoretical. I also LOVE all the geeky mechanical inventions and technology and the way the different cultures interact with history, progress, memory, social structures. What is valued and rewarded, devalued and punished, varies in a believable way and the characters act according to their "nature" which has just as much to do with their upbringing as their inherent personalities. so good.

peace at what cost? war for what purpose?
love with what secrets? competition with what injustice?

there are so many awesome themes in this book that really apply to our world today - power, tradition, language, education, the idea of who we are can be so very shaped by what is important to our people - and just who are we anyway?
I love the way the "gods" are handled in this series.

I really like the "common people can have great ideas" theme throughout - and the blatant corruption and forgetfulness that happens to those common folk when they rise to power (usually)

I also liked the way the author treated a disabled character and highlighted some great consent/power/personhood/accessibility issues without being too heavy-handed.

Quite a few characters have intense mental struggles and it's interesting to see their various coping mechanisms with varied degrees of "success"

Inherent bias is on full display, as many people's ability (including your favorite heroes) to receive, consider, or value other people's ideas -or even existence- is predicated on their ethnicity, social standing, education, cultural honorifics, etc. The colonial mindset - or maybe simply cultural arrogance- is so strong, it's gross to think how real that is, even now, and on "all sides".