This is a shelf-bending fantasy masterwork: as good as it gets.
The penultimate installment of Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty quartet—after The Wall of Storms (2016)—continues the grand-scale narrative set in the vast fantasy archipelago of Dara as two factions battle for control of the islands.
With the Lyucu invasion and occupation of Dara accomplished—and parties on both sides attempting to maneuver a peaceful path forward—the inhabitants of the islands find life increasingly difficult as Lyucu hard-liners, knowing that massive reinforcements are on the way, push for a world where the warriorlike Lyucu rule supreme and all others are essentially slaves. As the tensions rise, Princess Théra of Dara—daughter of Empress Jia—forsakes the throne to embark on a quest to the Lyucu stronghold of Ukyu-Gondé, trying to find a way to save her country and her subjugated people. But as years pass and Théra falls in love, weds native leader Takval, and has children, the question of what her country is and who her people are becomes complicated. Juggling dozens of main characters and multiple plotlines, Liu manages to keep the momentum brisk and the tension consistently high in this 1,000-plus-page novel. But the real genius here is the fusion of extraordinarily deep worldbuilding with profound (and timely) themes, which include cultural assimilation, identity, intolerance, and more. An extended sequence describing a contest between two popular restaurants battling for bragging rights, for example, is a master class in not only sensory description, but also allegory, as the sequence brilliantly illustrates larger themes explored in the saga—one owner has all the resources while the other must take advantage of ingenuity and innovative thinking to succeed. But ultimately, it’s Liu’s poetic style that makes this book so memorable: “We are embedded in strands of love and hatred, a web that glows in the sunlight of history, bedecked in pearls of blood and fragments of bone.”
This is a shelf-bending fantasy masterwork: as good as it gets.Pub Date: Nov. 2, 2021
ISBN: 978-1-4814-2433-2
Page Count: 1008
Publisher: Saga/Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Aug. 31, 2021
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 15, 2021
Beautifully inevitable and surprising at the same time; dark, sharp, clever, lovely.
What if the characters in a fairy tale wanted out?
The titular Isle is a magical version of England, a patchwork of times and places ruled by the Eternal Queen and stitched together by a network of tales. If these tales are not strictly reenacted by incarnates—people born to play their roles in a specific tale—the land associated with it and all the creatures living on that land disappear, so the people of the Isle have a vested interest in ensuring that incarnates perform as expected. Sir Lavinia and Simran are the latest versions of the Knight and the Witch, the two main characters in a sad tale of evil enchantment and star-crossed love that concludes with a murder-suicide. But these two incarnates are not quite like their predecessors: Vina’s mother and Simran both come from Elsewhere, a fantasy equivalent of India. That culture has essentially been written over by the power of their tale, but their continued treatment as outsiders, their overwhelming love for each other, and Simran’s mysterious affinity with limni ink (used both to write tales and perform powerful, reality-altering spells), give them the strength to seek out a destiny beyond their foretold unhappy ending. The key to their quest may lie with a dangerous immortal who is killing incarnates and has kidnapped Simran’s dearest friend. Previous Suri works (e.g., Empire of Sand, 2018) have featured unique, fascinating magical systems, and this book continues in that vein. It’s one of the more innovative and thoughtful uses of fantasy to explore colonialism and the potential poison of assimilation, popular genre themes in recent years. The novel takes two fundamental British myths—King Arthur and the concept of the British Empire as a realm on which the sun never sets—and uses them to show the thin line between preservation and stagnation. A desperate need to adhere too perfectly to an ideal and/or the status quo makes it more likely that it will come crashing down.
Beautifully inevitable and surprising at the same time; dark, sharp, clever, lovely.Pub Date: Oct. 21, 2025
ISBN: 9780316595087
Page Count: 512
Publisher: Orbit
Review Posted Online: July 17, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A fast and fun outing in an immersive alternate world.
Following The Left-Handed Booksellers of London (2020), a rescue mission lands Susan on an entity’s radar.
Susan (art student, demi-mortal) and her boyfriend, Merlin, (gender shifting and nonconforming fashionista and left-handed bookseller) are still together but taking it slowly, especially because Susan’s not comfortable with the proximity to the supernatural Old World that Merlin represents (especially because her own Ancient Sovereign father is going to be waking at the New Year). But when contact with an ensorcelled map pulls Merlin into a pocket dimension out of time, Susan doesn’t hesitate to use her heritage and artistic ability to make a translocation map to get him back safely. Their dangerous jaunt reveals the existence of a supernatural serial killer—and draws its attention to Susan. While the booksellers unravel a pattern of murders going back decades, Susan tries to avoid being the next sacrifice while grappling with fears of losing herself to the Old World and being changed into something else. And the dreams she’s having of her father’s demesne, dreams that might be more than dreams, leave her convinced that a big change is coming. All plotlines are time-sensitive enough to put the dead in deadline, keeping tension high as they face a variety of threats. While Susan’s internal conflict gets repetitive, it pays off in the climax. The leads are White; the secondary cast’s racially diverse.
A fast and fun outing in an immersive alternate world. (Fantasy. 12-adult)Pub Date: March 21, 2023
ISBN: 978-0-06-323633-2
Page Count: 368
Publisher: Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins
Review Posted Online: Dec. 23, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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