Series
The Dandelion Dynasty
Ken Liu · 4 novels · 1 short story · 2015–2022
The Dandelion Dynasty reimagines the rise of a dynasty as epic fantasy Ken Liu calls 'silkpunk,' blending East Asian antiquity's material culture and philosophy with airships, submersibles, and other invented technology. The Grace of Kings opens with two rebels of very different temperaments overthrowing a tyrannical empire, only for the following volumes to examine what their friendship and their new nation cost each other. It's structured more like a national epic than a conventional hero's-journey fantasy.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
- Genre
- Place
- Time
- Audience
Reading order
The order the books came out.
Best read in the order they were published.
Map
The Dandelion Dynasty at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 2010s3
- 2020s2
Shape
Mood
Bright and intense: 50% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 44%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book4 of 5 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- The Wall of Stormsdarkest · most intense
- The Grace of Kingsbrightest
- Speaking Bonescalmest