Ken Liu Books In Order
Book links take you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.Publication Order of The Dandelion Dynasty Books
The Grace of Kings | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Wall of Storms | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Veiled Throne | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Speaking Bones | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Faraway Books
The Prince and the Troll | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Hazel and Gray | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Wickeds | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Cleaners | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Princess Game | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Journey To Star Wars: The Last Jedi Books
Phasma | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Star Wars Annual 2018 | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Stormtroopers: Beyond the Armor | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Legends of Luke Skywalker | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Rebel Files: Collected Intelligence of the Alliance | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Captain Phasma | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Canto Bight | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Oz Reimagined Books
Dorothy Dreams | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Emeralds to Emeralds, Dust to Dust | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Boy Detective of Oz | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Meeting in Oz | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Off to See the Emperor | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Cobbler of Oz | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lost Girls of Oz | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Blown Away | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
A Tornado of Dorothys | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Veiled Shanghai | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dead Blue | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Great Zeppelin Heist of Oz | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Beyond the Naked Eye | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
City So Bright | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
One Flew Over the Rainbow | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
The Caretaker | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Simulacrum | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Staying Behind | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Good Hunting | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mono no Aware | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Knotting Grass, Holding Ring | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Presence | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
An Advanced Reader's Picture Book of Comparative Cognition | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Paper Menagerie | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Passing of the Dragon | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Publication Order of Anthologies
The Dragon and the Stars | (2010) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Daily Science Fiction Stories of November 2011 | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 61, October 2011 | (2011) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Future is Japanese: Science Fiction Futures and Brand New Fantasies from and about Japan | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Memory Eater | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2012 | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Best of Electric Velocipede | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Diverse Energies | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year's Top Short SF Novels 2 | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lightspeed Magazine, December 2012 | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Unidentified Funny Objects | (2012) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Fish | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year's Best Science Fiction & Fantasy, 2014 | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Other Half of the Sky | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Oz Reimagined | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Aliens: Recent Encounters | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Year's Best Young Adult Speculative Fiction 2013 | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Unidentified Funny Objects 2 | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book of Apex: Volume 4 | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Coffee | (2013) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Long Hidden | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Lightspeed Magazine, February 2014 | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The End is Nigh | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Clarkesworld: Year Six | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, 2014 Edition | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Best Science Fiction and Fantasy of the Year, Volume Nine | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Futuredaze 2: Reprise | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Solaris Rising 3 | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The End is Now | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 96 | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Upgraded | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Mammoth Book of Steampunk Adventures | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Time Travel: Recent Trips | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Best of Galaxy's Edge Magazine 2013-2014 | (2014) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Clarkesworld Magazine, Issue 100, January 2015 | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Some of the Best from Tor.com, 2014 edition | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The End Has Come | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Press Start to Play | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Funny Science Fiction | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Loosed Upon the World | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Dragons, Droids & Doom | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Long List Anthology | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Warrior Women | (2015) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
After The Fall | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Clarkesworld: Year Eight | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume One | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Genius Loci: Tales of the Spirit of Place | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Museum of All Things Awesome and that Go Boom | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mithila Review Issue 5+6 | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Humanity 2.0 | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Bridging Infinity | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Invisible Planets | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Asian Monsters | (2016) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Book of Swords: Part 1 | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
GlitterShip Year One | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Digital Science Fiction Series One Anthology Bundle | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Best Science Fiction of the Year: Volume Two | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year's Best Science Fiction: Thirty-Fourth Annual Collection | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ex Libris: Stories of Librarians, Libraries, and Lore | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Steampunk Universe | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Everyone: Worlds Without Walls | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories, Volume 1 | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Oceans | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Reincarnated Giant | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Unidentified Funny Objects 6 | (2017) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Best of Uncanny | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Robots vs. Fairies | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Clarkesworld Year Nine: Volume One | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Twelve Tomorrows | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Timeshift: Tales of Time | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Worlds Seen in Passing: Ten Years of Tor.com Short Fiction | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sins and Other Worlds | (2018) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Broken Stars | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Mythic Journeys: Retold Myths and Legends | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year's Top Robot and AI Stories | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Year's Top Hard Science Fiction Stories 3 | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Other Animals | (2019) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Future Science Fiction Digest Issue 6 | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Arterial Bloom | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Escape Pod | (2020) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Relics, Wrecks and Ruins | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Sword Stone Table: Old Legends, New Voices | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Make Shift | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Love, Death and Robots: The Official Anthology: Volume One | (2021) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Isolation | (2022) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
This Side of the Divide | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Multiverses: An anthology of alternate realities | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
The Digital Aesthete: Human Musings on the Intersection of Art and AI | (2023) | Hardcover Paperback Kindle |
Ken Liu is a bestselling speculative fiction author who has won a range of prestigious awards including a World Fantasy, Hugo and Nebula award as well as several other awards in France, Spain, and Japan. Liu’s debut novel was “The Grace of Kings,” which is the first of “The Dandelion Dynasty” series that he loves to refer to as the silkpunk epic fantasy series. Before he became a bestselling author, he was writing short fiction and made his name with “The Paper Menageries and Other Stories” which was so huge that it was published in more than twelve languages. He is also the author of “The Hidden Girl and Other Stories” and “The Legends of Luke Skywalker” of the “Star Wars” series. With his works so popular, Ken has been approached to adapt his novels into different media. He has been involved in adapting his works into series such as “Loe, Death + Robots” that was an adult animated series on Netflix. He also adapted several of his short stories into “Pantheon,” a TV series that is executive produced by Craig Silverstein and airs on AMC. “The Grace of Kings” and “Hidden Girl” have also been optioned and are set to be adapted into TV series.
Before he became a professional author, Liu was a litigation consultant, corporation lawyer and software engineer. He still speaks in universities and conferences on a range of topics including the mathematics of origami, futurism, bookmaking, cryptocurrency, and the history of technology among other topics he has an expertise in. He is also a translator and famously translated “The Three-Body Problem” by Liu Cixin, “Folding Beijing” and “Vagabonds” by Hao Jingfang and “Waste Tide” by Chen Qiufan. He also edited an anthology of contemporary Chinese science fiction titled “Invisible Planets and Broken Stars.” He currently lives with his family on the outskirts of Boston Massachusetts.
Ken Liu first got interested in science fiction and fantasy when he read the Chinese version of Philip K. Dick’s “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?” He though it a fascinating tale and soon after he started thinking of becoming an author. He was in college when he began writing manuscripts and submitting to science fiction magazines such as “Analog,” “F&SF,” and “Asimov’s.” Liu never had much success until he submitted his work into a Phobos fiction contest, where he was among the first to win their inaugural contest and get his debut story published. He asserts that he never set out to write some magical story about his ancestral home in China. He believes that it is impossible to write a story about China that will sell given that there are a lot of stereotypes about China in the West, which makes publishing anything fresh difficult. In his “Dandelion Dynasty” series, he writes stories inspired by East Asia in general and about China in particular though there is no direct analogy. His stories are set in the fantasy world of Dara, which is a place of technology and magic floating on an archipelago. Trying to write something analogous to Steampunk, he calls his new series Silkpunk. Just like steampunk extends Victorian-era aesthetics and technology, silkpunk is inspired by the technology and aesthetics of classical China. As such, it includes technologies such as powerful mechanical vehicles, military kites for signaling alongside the magical such as books that can read minds, giant sea beasts and the use of smoke to read what is in people’s hearts. There is also the use of technologies such as giant airships propelled by air oars, underwater boats and battle kites.
“The Grace of Kings,” the first novel of “The Dandelion Dynasty” series by Ken Liu introduces the silkpunk genre. The story is an epic fantasy tale that follows several characters though the leads are Mata Zyndu and Kuni Garu. The two characters lead a rebellion against the dictatorial Emperor Mapiere who had proclaimed himself Emperor and ruled with an iron fist from the start of the story. At the beginning of the story, Kuni and Mata are young boys living in a harsh landscape that has been ravaged by war. The emperor just got into power and he has yet to consolidate his power though he has shown a ruthless streak by severely crushing any signs of rebellion. Kuni is a young man that is the hope of his family though he insists on joking, playing around and drinking instead of making something of himself. The orphan Mata had a less fortunate upbringing as he was born to a family that once ruled a large domain but had been dispossessed in the new dispensation. The new emperor had killed all of his family and taken their lands and he had been forced to live with his only remaining uncle who did not have the money to provide him with an elite education let alone the lavish lifestyle. Over the course of the novel, Mata and Kuni grow into young men and overcome a range of challenges to prove their strength of character and will, which makes them leaders of men. While they have had vastly different experiences, they soon become fast friends and are united in their quest to bring down the tyrannical emperor.
Ken Liu’s “The Wall of Storms” is a novel that tells a story of adaptation and transformation. The kingdom of Dara still faces conflicts and challenges that come in a range of guises. The fight has expanded to include conflicts not only of flesh and blood foes but also between concepts and philosophies. The war is still on and while Kuni Garu and his friend had managed to overthrow the emperor and rule in his stead, things are not so rosy. The first part of the novel is an analysis of how the conflicts persist even though more focus is now on the scholarly methodologies rather than on the arts of war. At the start of the novel, Fara, Timu, Thera and Phyro who are Emperor Kuni’s children have snuck out of the palace to go to the local tavern where they can enjoy life as ordinary people. The storyteller at the tavern tells stories about the tumultuous relationship between Mara Zyndu a respected and deceased warlord that had always been at loggerheads with Kuni Garu. But then things go awry when one man in the crowd accuses the narrator of sedition for glorifying the emperor’s one-time bitter rival Zyndu. Thankfully, a new character who will play a significant role in the novel steps forward to defend the storyteller and prevent a dangerous escalation.
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