I have been looking forward to starting this series for so long. It was probably my most anticipated series just ahead of Sun Eater. And I'm extremely glad I thoroughly enjoyed this first installment.

Now, after reading Ken Liu's short story collection The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, I was entirely convinced I would love this series. Liu's gorgeous prose and intelligent writing in the form of epic fantasy, inspired by Asian history. It seemed perfect. However, if I knew more about this series beforehand rather than avoiding as many details as possible, I would've thought otherwise because this book is not something I'd normally reach for. This is entirely due to the play-like drama storytelling format with third person omniscient narration. The characterization is seemingly quite distant, and as a mostly character-driven reader that's not something that appeals to me. Nonetheless, Ken Liu's brilliant writing makes (not quite as poetic in prose as the aforementioned short story collection but still lovely) it all work beautifully. I come to care about the characters and what they represent. Their journeys and relationships explore meaningful themes and questions of power and morality. I absolutely loved the dynamic between Kuni and Mata. I found this story incredibly impactful and thought-provoking despite my unexpected bout of hesitancy in the beginning.

The worldbuilding in this is quite exceptional too. The fantastical elements feel innovative with these gas-powered airships, the meddling and argumentative gods of Dara, and of course the cruben which are essentially giant narwhals who are even ridden by the natives of the island Tan Adü. How can you not be swept away by a world like this!? The Asian-inspired elements are certainly there too, and provide a great atmosphere for the whole narrative landscape.

Going back to the play-like drama writing style, it makes the pacing almost snappy quick a lot of the time, at least in my opinion, which I found nice even considering how absolutely massive the scope and timeline is for this story. It's a very ambitious novel. And I can understand one of the main criticisms of of this book being that it can feel disjointed because of that. It often jumps from place to place, character to character, especially early on. It also jumps ahead months in time in mere sentence with a summarization of events that have occured. The way character background stories are inserted can also add to that potential disjointment. I think all of this comes from Ken Liu being only a short story writer before this book. It is his debut. But for me, I did not feel like this book was too disconnected besides a bit in the very beginning. But nothing more than the normal adjustment period when diving into a new large sff series. 

All in all, I thought The Grace of Kings was a wonderful book. Especially for a debut. It's unique, captivating, philosophical, tragic, and thrilling. Plus I just loved reading out of the broken binding midnight edition set I've purchased. Can't wait to start The Wall of Storms because I hear it only improves in all aspects going forward!