#the wall of storms

[coquelicoq]

it's interesting, a few people on my post yesterday about the dandelion dynasty told me they were taking it as a rec for the series, but i didn't actually recommend the series in that post. it's making me think about whether i would rec it to people, a question i hadn't fully considered yet (as it is a very different question from "do i like this book?"). so this is me figuring out the answer to that question. i'll keep it spoiler-free (though i make no promises on brevity).

i just finished book 3 (of 4) and each installment has left me more invested than i was before, but the series started out very slow, and i didn't really get into it until halfway through book 2. i wouldn't be surprised if a lot of people bounce off the first book; i didn't, but only because 1) i almost never give up on a book that i've started (it's a character flaw of mine 😕) and 2) my trust in ken liu is ridiculously high because the other stuff i've read by him is so beloved to me. so my reaction to feeling kind of meh about book 1 was "okay, let's see where he's going with this" rather than "i guess this just isn't my cup of tea."

i should say that the problem might just be my own ignorance/lack of familiarity with the form. i don't read a lot of epic fantasy - in fact, lord of the rings is the one series that i have given up on reading a couple of times because it just left me totally indifferent. so if you like epics, you are starting out way ahead of me and can maybe just ignore the rest of this post lol, but i think i had to adjust to what the form is asking of me and what it's best suited to accomplish before i could get fully on board.

the main thing i struggled with is the writing, like the actual sentence-level mechanics of voice and style. this surprised me, because i usually find his writing very beautiful, or, when not beautiful, i can get a sense of the effect he means to achieve by employing a certain style. but in this series, the writing came across as kind of awkward and one-note to me at first, and i couldn't see a reason for it to be that way.* the dialogue especially - different characters don't really have different ways of speaking, they all feel pretty much the same. this was one of the main things i had to adjust to, but i do get it now. i don't just mean that i got used to the style and it doesn't bother me anymore, though that is true; i mean that i now understand the effect he means to achieve by employing this style, which gives it purpose and inextricably ties it to the story he's telling (this becomes especially clear in book 3, as it's directly related to a major theme of that book). if the style were different, he would be telling a different story; that's the sign of a successful execution, i think.

i said in the tags on yesterday's post that one reason the series doesn't have much of a fandom on here might be that the characters aren't natural blorbos. of course every character is probably the blorbo of somebody somewhere, but i don't know that these characters were designed to be blorbos, if that makes sense. not that they're plot devices either! every single one of them is conflicted and complicated and compelling, and most of them are followed over a period of many years, so we see them develop as people over time. but there is no protagonist, for example. you could also say that every character is a protagonist. the "list of major characters" at the beginning of book 3 is six pages long, and there are stories to be told about each of these characters, and none of them are told in isolation. but in a way, the characters themselves are not the point, or if they are, it's in aggregate - it's in the ways they're all complex, the ways they all have motivations that make sense to them (and that make sense to us, once we get to know them). and it's about power and the roles that the characters play in their society, rather than the roles the characters play in the story. or maybe those are the same thing! because ultimately, the main character of this story is the society. and the plot is the history of this society, rather than the journey or life of a single person or handful of people.**

(sidenote, there will be a period during book 1 when you will think to yourself, "wow, all the women characters are super one-dimensional and the narrative doesn't seem to respect them." this is on purpose. just keep going.)

the plotting is intricate while also feeling very organic. he's got dozens of plates in the air at once, he's maintaining them over a long period (these books are MASSIVE), and he's somehow making it seem like a real history, not like an author pulling strings. i haven't finished it yet, but my guess is that he's going to pull off a very satisfying conclusion that's at the same time very open-ended. definitely looking forward to it.

and the worldbuilding. oh, the worldbuilding. this is some of the most detailed, complex, realistic*** worldbuilding i've ever encountered, and he covers SO much ground. you want linguistic worldbuilding? you got it. philosophy? it's here. psychology of empire? coming right up. the nitty-gritty of everyday governance? buddy, pull up a chair. mechanical engineering? how much time you got?? (it better be enough time to read 3504 physical pages, because that's how long this series is.) and he's drawing on chinese history and cultural narratives rather than slapping lipstick on a tolkien clone (see his comments here, but stop reading at "In this continuation of the series" if you want to avoid spoilers). he WILL go on for a hundred pages about a single invention, but it's SO interesting that he is allowed. this is a story about how technology (including language, and schools of thought, and agriculture, and...) shapes, and is a product of, its time and place and people, so again, this is all to purpose. but it's also just. really cool.

the last thing i'll say, and this is mainly for other ken liu fans, is that one of the things i most love about his short stories is how they tap into emotions i didn't even know i had, as though they're reaching inside of me and drawing to the surface ways of experiencing consciousness and love and mortal life that i had no idea were in there. this series is not causing emotional revelation for me in the way his other stories do, which isn't a bad thing - i don't mean to say the series is not engaging or that it inspires no emotions! i just mean, iykyk. if you've read the paper menagerie and are expecting that experience, you will have a better time here if you leave those expectations at the door. i am invested in this book because it's engaging my intellect, curiosity, sense of wanting to find out what else the characters will learn and what's going to happen next...less because it's turning my heart inside out inside my chest. and like thank goodness, because i don't think i could survive four entire 900-page books' worth of that! but anyway. word to the wise.

tl;dr: yes, i recommend it, especially if you like epic fantasy. if you're a fan of ken liu's other work, this is quite different, so just know that going in!

*this opinion is of course subjective and not universally shared. for instance, see this review of book 3 (full of spoilers, so don't actually read it lol) which says "There's Liu's voice to hold onto, though — beautifully deployed here and fully in command of the language of his imaginary universe." so ymmv. maybe it's an epic fantasy thing.

**this is making me realize that the story is commenting on this very thing through a tension between bureaucracy (founded on interchangeability) and monarchy (informed by a specific personality). dude. that's so meta!

***though sometimes i'm like, "really? you scaled up that invention to use untested on the battlefield in the span of like two weeks? sure, jan." so sometimes he falls down a little on translation of ideas into logistics, but it makes for such a great story that i'll allow it.

#i kind of want to call it epic science fiction rather than epic fantasy #i know the categories are very porous. but if you think of fantasy as having 'magic' and scifi as having 'technology' #this is scifi #there's no magic. unless you count the gods creating weather patterns etc. to help or hinder their favorite mortals #but i don't count that as magic #okay i guess maybe Gitré Üthu is magic...but again that's a god thing. so there's a gray area #the aesthetics are more fantasy than scifi. these terms are meaningless though so just ignore me lol #another thought. it occurs to me that some of the style choices he's making might be related to comments of his that i've read #on translation...and how when he translates a story he tries to retain a sense of it having been written in a different idiom #he likes people reading a chinese story in english to be able to tell that it was not originally written in english #this story was originally written in english irl. but in the world of the story itself they are speaking other languages #like for instance page 1 of book 1 features the lyrics of a song. they read kinda awkwardly. but don't translated lyrics almost always #look like that? because the rhymes and cadence and number of syllables etc. are so dependent on the language of origin? #the dandelion dynasty #ken liu #the grace of kings #the wall of storms #the veiled throne #my posts #links #wow this is NOT how i planned to spend my evening. and yet here we are. time to shower and then start thinking about bedtime #why does everything take me so long???? how are people so fast. ugh. it takes me hours just to have thoughts #and then writing them down? fuhgeddaboutit.

[luminouslumity]

Thoughts On: The Dandelion Dynasty

So I finished reading these recently and I just need to gush over what has become one of my favorite book series for a minute! It's so good! The plot, the complex characters, the political intrigue!

So much political intrigue!

In a nutshell, it's basically about two best friends who get involved in a rebellion to overthrow a tyrant... and then what happens afterwards! Seriously, the blurb for the first book doesn't even try to hide what the real story is:

Wily, charming Kuni Garu, a bandit, and stern, fearless Mata Zyndu, the son of a deposed duke, seem like polar opposites. Yet, in the uprising against the emperor, the two quickly become the best of friends after a series of adventures fighting against vast conscripted armies, silk-draped airships, and shapeshifting gods. Once the emperor has been overthrown, however, they each find themselves the leader of separate factions—two sides with very different ideas about how the world should be run and the meaning of justice.

Highly recommend it, especially if you're a fan of books like the ASoIaF series. Just a warning, though, there is a scene in the second book in which one of the characters gets drugged and sexually violated, but it's treated as the horrendous act that it is without romanticizing it. That said, the victim in question also ends up developing what can probably best be described as Stockholm Syndrome, but again, it's treated as such. All the intimate scenes are also fade-to-black.

My favorite character is definitely Jia—not necessarily because of her as a person, but because of her as a character. But really, they're all good in their own ways, or at least I thought so. Even if you end up hating a character for taking a certain action, you at least get to see how they came to develop this mindset (looking at you especially, Jia) and I love that!

Rating: 🌕🌕🌕🌕

#book #books #thoughts #ken liu #the dandelion dynasty #the grace of kings #the wall of storms #the veiled throne #speaking bones

[yahargul]

#the dandelion dynasty #the wall of storms #textp #I'M ACTUALLY LIVID

[goblinguistics]

weird typo / misprint / idk in Ken Liu’s The Wall of Storms (Dandelion Dynasty book 2), p. 341. Anyone else with the same misprint?

#ramblinguistics #ken liu #the dandelion dynasty #the wall of storms

[zytes]

sailor’s delight

#sailors delight refers to a rhyme about red skies signaling stormy conditions #atmospheric pressure changes caused by the receding storm-wall caused the setting sun to turn the sky flame-orange #the photos here are obviously not raw so the color isn’t being shown in-situ necessarily - artistic license or something #I’m not a fan of like. representational photography anyways. I want shit to be weird; minor cleanups and color balance are a part of that #my art #zytes #glitch art #aesthetic #art #artwork #webcore #glitchcore #internetcore #abstract #artists on tumblr #photography #abstract art #abstract photo art #abstract photography #weird art #art discovery #new media art #new aesthetic

[daenystheedreamer]

ive been thinking about "there must always be a stark in winterfell" as a threat... i love the theory that the starks had some hand in the others, i LOVE the theory that the starks MADE the others in order to become the kings of winter. i think the idea of winterfell as a prison is so fun the idea that the starks MUST stay there as divine punishment for their choices. "if you leave, you will die, you will stay here forever". it's so antithetical to everything the starks and winterfell mean to the characters and i think that's fun! winterfell is so warm and loving and the castle that feels most like a true home for its inhabitants, the one LEAST like a prison. but its got that ominous crypt of corpses beneath it...

#yinnie #valyrianscrolls #house stark #asoiaf #the eyrie so high and lonely casterly rock such a focal point for horrors to cerseijaimetyrion the red keep being the red keep #storm's end as the huge and lonely cave with three brothers who could never really love each other as they should #and winterfell - warmth in its walls. catelyn the southerner who never quite fit....

[alliekitaguchi]

i cannot believe fcg died and the very next episode, robbie daymond returned to the table as dorian storm, confirming that dorian has been upset since leaving the bells, that he's unsettled in the realization that he's missing something, something he ran from, something that he didn't have but that he wanted, and wondering why he's with the crown keepers at all.

and i cannot believe the bells hells disappeared on orym's message to dorian:

“We’re home. Can you hear me? Northeast of Bassuras... Can you get there? I’m struggling... sorry… can you get here? Fuck, I miss you.”

which means that (so long as dorian survives this trek), we'll get to see his response to that message, and hear his reply, but more importantly: orym will hear his voice for the first time since episode 49.

#i need them more than i need air #robbie daymond i am in your walls preparing to puppet you like a sock #i will make dorym canon or i will perish trying #dorym #dorian storm #orym of the air ashari #orym #critical role #bells hells

[volivolition]

she's so normal he swears.

#disco elysium #disco elysium skills #de composure #composure #de skills #voliart #composure he/she moments. to me. i treat the line as a kind of wall or curtain that composure ducks behind to let out emotions #absolutely neutral outside but there's a miasma of emotion behind her. when composure is low then she's constantly behind the wall #laughing or crying or swearing up a storm in a bright outlined shape. at higher levels the miasma all but disappears. #he rarely turns around anymore and the outside wall is all you see. this is one of my favorite character types btw. #ALSO YOU KNOW ME. YOU KNOW WHO I AM. YOU KNOW WHICH PHYSIQUE SKILL IS MAKING THAT JOKE.

[saltpepperbeard]

All love dies! I'm just hastening the process!

#OFMD #OFMD Season 2 #Our Flag Means Death #cw epilepsy #cw flashing #Edward Teach #Taika Waititi #Edit #ofmdgifs #ofmd gifs #ofmdedit #ofmdaily #ofmdblog #ofmdsource #Me earlier: oh haha what shenanigans will she get up to <3 #Me now: A N G S T SHDKJSDK #no because i've been wanting to gif the storm scene for a while because like #mr. waititi what on E A R T H #his acting has me climbing the WALLS!!! #LIKE HIS FACIAL EXPRESSIONS?????? #GIRL???????????????

[carnivalcarriondiscarded]

shoutout to Frank, he's gonna fall for / has fallen for the most suspicious puppet in the neighborhood

#godspeed you funky homosexual your love interest is utterly fucked #and by proxy so are you! probably #frank: im in love with eddie! surely this wont affect me in any negative way! #meanwhile eddie is in the corner with a clock-themed leitmotif playing in the background #man im RABID im going RABID #i feel like the 'honey. youve got a big storm coming *snap*' meme #i mean its directed at Everyone but oh man oh man. franklydear is gonna be so much more insane than i suspected huh #like yeah obviously it was gonna go hard #but mmmmm man man man. eddie eddie eddie. its getting real and i suspect none of us will survive #no we will! we'll come out of it haunted and bloodsplattered and so so happy about it #good luck with your romance frank you're gonna need it #absolutely unprompted #welcome home #franklydear #i love how two days ago i was on the fence about eddie being That Sus #i mean obviously he had something going on #but now? choo choo the Something Extremely Fucked Is Going On With The Mailman train has left the station! #and is barreling towards a wall at mach 12 #if i were the main detective in a crime movie #id be restringing my entire corkboard and putting eddie and sally at the center. mainly eddie tbh #move over wally there's a new Something Is Seriously Wrong With You guy in town #rn by comparison wally is so so Unsuspicious #thumbs up and grinning! and shaking slightly in fear! #frank bby i wish you luck in these trying - hopefully very fruity - times

[sukibenders]

I kind of hope that Bridgerton gives us some Kathony moments, just the two of them, before the introduction of their children (which will probably only be their first at this point). Like, while it wouldn't be a bad thing to see them so excited over Kate being pregnant and all that ensues, I'm still mad that they didn't have many couple moments between them in season two, you know, the season meant to showcase their love. My thing is, if Daphne and Simon (putting aside the many problems there) were able to have moments of each other's time before Daphne got pregnant, I want to see the same for Kate and Anthony.

#bridgerton #kate sharma #anthony bridgerton #kate sharma x anthony bridgerton #kathony #like give me more cute moments between them (heck maybe even use it o showcase anthony learning why exactly kate fears storms & comforting) #or u could even have them scheming with one another to find a suitable match for francesca and driving everyone up the wall in the process #bc while im sure that kate would be able to calm anthony's antics down when it comes to finding suitable suitors? she's a woman on a mission

[coquelicoq]

a long shot i know, but if anybody happens to have a copy of the wall of storms (book 2 in the dandelion dynasty by ken liu) and is willing to send me a pic of two of the pages in chapter 7, please let me know!! the copy i got out from the library has a torn page, and though i can pretty much guess what's missing, it would be cool to put a note in there for the next person <3

#it's the third-to-last and the second-to-last pages of chapter 7 in the copy i have. pages 101 and 102 #starting with 'What do talent and wisdom have to do with the daughter of a poor peasant?' #and ending right before 'Perhaps it is the will of the gods that we meet‚ and who am I to deny their wishes?' #also i know i have some librarian followers so if any of you have opinions about what to do in this situation feel free to advise meee #should i tell the library that the copy is damaged? how? one time in the past a book was in such bad shape i actually rubber-banded it #and put a note under the rubber band. otherwise it would have fallen apart #and then i put it in the book return. but i feel like that's probably not the way to go most of the time #if i put a note in there with the missing words will the library notice and if so will they leave it in? #seems a shame to lose a whole copy when it's just this one page that has a problem #the dandelion dynasty #ken liu #the wall of storms #my posts #this series is so fascinating and i'm getting really into it but i do understand why there doesn't seem to be much of a fandom for it #the characters are complex and interesting but they're not blorbos #obviously that's very subjective but #in a way the characters themselves are not the point of this series. not sure if i can describe it

[gobliiine]

ah yes, another day of existing in a world where Dorian Storm is still missing in action

#I MISS HIM. IM SCREAMING AND THROWING THINGS AND CLAWING AT THE WALLS #critical role #dorian storm #dorym

[crumb]

Clovis, New Mexico (2003)

#wall cloud #clouds #storm #southwest #southwestern gothic #new mexico #photography #rural america #rural #rural gothic

[tj-crochets]

I felt like doing some hand sewing today and still had a few of those “some assembly required” mini embroidered plushie kits, so here’s a little starry rainbow cat!

I did not do the embroidery, I’ll add the link to the etsy shop I got it from in a minute once I find it again

#sewing #handmade #plushie #sometimes you just want to spend you lunch break watching taskmaster and assembling a tiny cat #I got to lean out a window and tear a fake shutter off a wall today! #because the top of the shutter came loose from the wall #and with the storm it was kinda flopping around and could fall and hit someone #but it was too windy for ladders #I didn’t really tear it I used wire cutters on the weird plastic tie thing holding it #but it was very much enrichment for my enclosure #I got to use tools! and essentially throw a large object out a window to crash onto the concrete! (it did no damage to itself or the ground) #(we just couldn’t leave it dangling to potentially fall on someone later)

[bottombaron]

ima be real, if this is trolling, getting us all worked up and depressed ... the absolute funniest thing wwdits can do then is have Nandor and Guillermo fuck nasty in the season 6 premiere

#wwdits #what we do in the shadows #nandermo #that's his boss #i can actually see it tho #Nandor and Guillermo act thru the episode like normal and nothings changed - the s1/2 dynamics #and like 5 minutes before the episode ends #they come arcross each other in the hallway or something - perfectly natural like #theres absolutely no signs - no preamble - there's absolutely no evidence anything is going to happen #but suddenly the whole energy changes and they stare at each other for a beat #and then they're at each other like wild animals #furniture goes flying #a wall breaks at some point #and they haven't even got their clothes off yet #while they struggle to get undressed they notice the crew and Nandor growls #shoves them away so hard the camera breaks and the screen goes black #the next scene Nandor and Guillermo are sitting on the couch doing a face to face with the camera #and they are both absolutely wrecked with the most shell shocked faces #like a devastating storm hit them and they both don't know how to react #the moment seeps with awkwardness and silence #something falls of the damaged wall in the background #cut to credits #and that's episode 1 of season 6 #you're welcome paul simms you can have this for free