The Veiled Throne is the third Dandelion Dynasty novel by Ken Liu. Released 7th Dec 2021 by Simon & Schuster on their Gallery/Saga imprint, it's an impressive 1008 pages and is available in hardcover, paperback, audio, and ebook formats. It's worth noting that the ebook format has a handy interactive table of contents as well as interactive links and references throughout. I've really become enamored of ebooks with interactive formats lately. Especially with books of this size and scope, it's helpful to be able to find names and info with a simple search.
This is a vast sweeping campaign fantasy with world politics, engineering, and really nuanced storytelling. The series contains some of the best world building I've encountered in *any* series *ever*. This is a massive series (obviously), with over 3500 pages extant, including the fourth / final book. The descriptions are powerful and the author's command of plotting and characterization are much more than competent. It is a juggernaut of a book and it took me a couple hundred pages to get re-immersed in the story, since there was a couple year delay between my reading of the second book and this, third, volume.
Readers who are previously unfamiliar with the background would be well advised to read, or at least find a precis, of the earlier books in the series. Despite the inclusion of a comprehensive dramatis personae in this volume, it's easy to get lost.
I won't write a precis of the plotline, they're posted all over. The
writing is much much better than good. The plotting and pacing are good
if a trifle slow in the beginning. It took quite a long time to review this book because it
made such a deep impression.
Four and a half stars. Highly recommended to fans of sweeping space campaign epics.
Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.
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