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Reviewers will occasionally talk about a writer being "confident," which always seemed like such an open-ended judgment that could be read in many different ways. After all, an idiot who knows nothing can sure be confident of their power. And yet, I really want to call Ken Liu's storytelling here "confident": Liu doesn't make it look easy, but he gracefully juggles dozens of characters and episodes in this Chinese-inspired fantasy. (Chinese inspired, but also a little touch of the Bhagavad Gita,
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Struggled to finish this. Jumped from situation to situation, and most of the characters were two-dimensional. Even the fights/battles were just hastily summarized. Wasn't much tension and ultimately a disappointment.
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I liked it a lot. The story is very imaginative and interesting. The writing was super straightforward, which was kind of strange to me. Like the characters just said what they were going to do and then did it. But it wasn't bad. And there were still plenty of surprises. I really enjoyed the characters and the world and I'll definitely pick up the next one, although I think the story ends in a pretty good place after the first one.
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This is hands down one the most accomplished fantasies I have read in a very long time. Sweeping while still maintaining the personal narrative. Above all I think it is the most affective book I have ever read that deals with the influence of the gods in a way that is subtle and not heavy handed. In that respect it reminds me a lot of NK Jemisin's work, but I found the writing more captivating. A stellar read
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I kinda gave up on this book; not because it was bad, but because it was a bit slow and just didn't set me on fire. Maybe I'll give it another try down the road; in the meanwhile it'll sit on my shelf.
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Jul 02, 2014
Joe Informatico
marked it as to-read

Mar 28, 2015
tobes
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Apr 15, 2015
Joy
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Jun 05, 2015
Adalis
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Jul 15, 2015
Pamela Smith
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Aug 06, 2015
Steph Schleicher
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Feb 21, 2016
Gianna
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Mar 08, 2016
Jenn/Yana
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Sep 30, 2016
Laura
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Oct 04, 2016
Adam
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Jun 15, 2017
Peter
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Nov 30, 2017
Morgan
marked it as to-read