#the dandellion dynasty

[lilareviewsbooks]

I'm upset about "The Grace of Kings"

1 star

640 pages

Contains: I’m not even going to tell you because I don’t recommend you read this

This is a negative review! I'd very much not recommend reading it if you're emotionally invested in this series or if it has brought you any kind of joy. I'll be complaining about this book a lot. I'm sorry, but I really didn't like it!

I went into The Grace of Kings thinking I was going to become obsessed with this series. I’d heard very, very good things from reviewers I trust, all saying this is a series of epic proportions that engulfs you and draws you in. People even called it “unique”. Plus, I’d listened, last year, to Mr. LeVar Burton reading Mr. Liu’s famous The Paper Menagerie, and was moved to tears by that short story. I was ready to be dazzled.

I’m guessing that by my star rating you can infer that I was not dazzled.

The Grace of Kings has one of the most pitiful excuses for writing I have ever read. Especially after finishing a lyrical series, like Mr. Seth Dickinson’s brilliant The Masquerade Series, it’s almost impossible to enjoy Mr. Liu’s painfully dry writing style. It’s predictable and boring, leaving no room for nuance. This bleeds into the characterization, as we’re repeatedly told things about these characters we have – painful, dreadful – 600 pages to spend time with.

For instance, the author will show the audience that a character is picking up a bowl of rice. The next sentence is almost always, “he had picked up the rice bowl because he was very hungry, and hated being hungry”, explaining to us the character’s actions. This is, of course, perfectly fine if done in moderation, but dreadful when done frequently. And this is what Mr. Liu does: every decision gets explained, every thought is told to the audience. Absolutely nothing is left to the imagination. This makes the book boring and almost child-like, as it grabs you by the shoulders and painfully reminds you of why certain characters do certain things, as if it didn’t trust you to remember anything about these people you’ve spent so much time reading about.

But the writing misdemeanors don’t stop there. I can’t believe I’m saying this about a published piece of fiction that had multiple reviewers before being put out to the public, but the punctuation is just awful. It's not expressive at all, which causes most of the dialogue to read like it's being spoken in a monotone voice. Actually, no, maybe that's the fault of the dialogue itself, which is as dry as a desert and elicited absolutely no reactions from me even in its throes to be endearing, romantic or funny. 

In addition, there are just funky little beginner mistakes. There are words repeated inside sentences, and I once ran into a sentence that had two clauses beginning in "because", one following the other. Plus, chapters end in odd places. Not in a way meant to enact suspense, or a cliff-hanger – though if Mr. Liu was trying to do so, he failed spectacularly – but just… ending. Out of nowhere. Leaving me to turn my pages in alarm, wondering if Amazon forgot to ship me an end to my chapter.

The characters are… fine, I guess, but like most of this book they feel half-baked. The plot is convoluted, to be kind, and a mess, to be frank. With the excuse of The Grace of Kings being "epic", Mr. Liu introduces a series of characters only to find a fate for them off-screen or kill them off in the next couple of chapters. There is no regard for the politics or fine details of administering a) a rebellion; b) a kingdom: c) anything at all, which is fine, I guess, but becomes quite ridiculous by the eleventh time someone unprepared has assumed the control of a province and is doing just fine at managing it. Until the halfway mark it's impossible to predict what's going to happen next – which is also fine, I guess – not because of any genius on Mr. Liu's part, but because the plot is just a bunch of strings all jumbled up together. After that it all becomes very predictable and the pacing is a hot mess, everything moving by super quickly as you watch in desperation – and it was about at that point that I stopped reading.

I also have a very specific bone to pick: why are characters moving from one part of the world to another in literal seconds? They do have flying airships but it's established you need a large crew and that they're only for military use. The lack of any thought to the movement of characters through the space is just an indication of how little care was put into the building of this world.

It's hard to explain just how terrible I found The Grace of Kings, and just how confused I am by everyone's high opinions of this book. I think the best way to put it into words is that it feels like I'm reading a rough – and let's say extra rough, for good measure – draft of what will one day become a great book, if it gets a good editor to take a look at it. The thought of continuing this series – or this book, I did DNF it – fills me with absolute dread. Suffice it to say, I won't be picking up the next book.

Unless someone offers me a thousand dollars. Then I'll reconsider. But I'll bargain, first.