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Speaking Bones
- The Dandelion Dynasty, Book 4
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 41 hrs and 5 mins
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Publisher's summary
The battle continues in this silkpunk fantasy as science and destiny collide against the will of the gods in this final installment in the epic Dandelion Dynasty series from the “genius” (Elizabeth Bear, Hugo Award–winning author of the Eternal Sky series) Hugo, Nebula, and World Fantasy Award–winning author Ken Liu.
The concluding book of The Dandelion Dynasty begins immediately after the events of The Veiled Throne, in the middle of two wars on two lands among three people separated by an ocean yet held together by the invisible strands of love.
Harried by Lyucu pursuers, Princess Théra and Pékyu Takval try to reestablish an ancestral dream even as their hearts grow in doubt. The people of Dara continue to struggle against the genocidal Lyucu as both nations vacillate between starkly contrasting visions for their futures. Even the gods cannot see through the Wall of Storms, for only mortal hearts can decide mortal fates.
Award-winning author Ken Liu fulfills the covenants first laid out a decade ago in a series delving deep into the connection between national myths and national constitutions in this “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR).
Featured Article: Best of the Year—The 12 Best Fantasy Listens of 2022
Between film, television, literature, and audio—2022 could easily be proclaimed the Year of the Fantasy, much to the delight of fans among us. But when it came to picking the best of the best, the glut of fantastic content also significantly increased the CR (challenge rating). This year’s winner edged ahead of the rest thanks to its atmospheric, suck-you-in (pun intended) audio experience, but every performance on this list transported us.
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Story
For centuries the Túatha Dé Danann lived in peace on an island where time flowed more slowly and the seasons were gentle - until that peace was shattered by the arrival of invaders. The Gaels, the Children of Milesios, came looking for easy riches and conquest, following the story of an island to the west where their every desire could be granted. They had not anticipated that it would already be home to others, and against the advice of their druids, they began to exterminate the Túatha Dé Danann.
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Preferred audio to print
- By Heather Cooper on 02-09-17
By: Morgan Llywelyn
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Nights of the Witch
- War God, Book 1
- By: Graham Hancock
- Narrated by: Barnaby Edwards
- Length: 22 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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A young girl called Tozi stands at the bottom of a pyramid, waiting to be led to the top where her heart will be cut out.... Pepillo, a Spanish orphan who serves a sadistic Dominican friar, is aboard the Spanish fleet as it sails towards Mexico.... This is the epic story of the clash of two empires, two armies and two gods of war. Five hundred desperate adventurers are about to pit themselves against the most brutal armies of the ancient Americas, armies hundreds of thousands strong.
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engaging story.
- By Dennis Lewis on 12-14-16
By: Graham Hancock
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Fatemarked
- The Fatemarked Epic, Book 1
- By: David Estes
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 19 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
They are the fatemarked. Misunderstood. Worshipped. Hated. Murdered at birth. Their time to step into the light has come. An ancient prophecy foretold their coming, the chosen few who will bring peace to a land embroiled in a century of mistrust and war. When kings start dying, that hope and belief swiftly turns to fear. Roan Loren is one of the fatemarked, but has hidden his mark of power his entire life, fearing the damage it might cause to those around him. A great evil is coming. He can't hide anymore.
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Written to fit an ideology, not the story it tells
- By znidarsic.blaz on 04-30-18
By: David Estes
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The Swordbearer
- By: Glen Cook
- Narrated by: Jeremy Arthur
- Length: 9 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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A young boy's dreams of glory and war turn into a bitter nightmare as his father's kingdom is overrun by an invading army. Lost and alone in the woods, he finds an ancient sword that promises him the ability to claim his vengeance. As he begins to take that vengeance, he comes to realize the price that the sword will demand of him. Enemies soon become allies and strange bedfellows abound as the prophesies of an age swirl into chaos.
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Glen Cook novel pays homage to early Elric stories
- By Meower on 08-06-18
By: Glen Cook
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Gardens of the Moon
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1
- By: Steven Erikson
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 26 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.
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An engrossing yet demanding high epic
- By Adnan on 11-20-12
By: Steven Erikson
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Battle of Kings
- By: M. K. Hume
- Narrated by: Steven Crossley
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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In the town of Segontium a wild storm washes a fugitive ashore. He brutally rapes the granddaughter of the ruler of the Deceangli tribe, leaving her to bear his son, Myrddion Merlinus (Merlin). Spurned as a demon seed, the child is raised by his grandmother and, as soon as he turns nine, he is apprenticed to a skilled alchemist who hones the boy’s remarkable gift of prophecy. Meanwhile, the High King of the Britons, Vortigern, is rebuilding the ancient fortress at Dinas Emrys.
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Underrated book author and narrator!
- By Zachary on 04-15-22
By: M. K. Hume
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Transformation
- Rai-Kirah, Book 1
- By: Carol Berg
- Narrated by: Kevin Stillwell
- Length: 16 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
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Seyonne is a man waiting to die. He has been a slave for 16 years, almost half his life, and has lost everything of meaning to him: his dignity, the people and homeland he loves, and the Warden's power he used to defend an unsuspecting world from the ravages of demons. Seyonne has made peace with his fate. With strict self-discipline he forces himself to exist only in the present moment and to avoid the pain of hope or caring about anyone.
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Seriously Excellent
- By Sharon on 09-25-13
By: Carol Berg
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Seven Forges
- Seven Forges, Book 1
- By: James A. Moore
- Narrated by: David de Vries
- Length: 10 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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The Seven Forges are a range of impassable mountains, far to the north of the settled lands of Fellein. From time to time explorers venture up beyond the Blasted Lands in search of a way over them and the promise of legendary riches, but without success. Now Captain Merros Dulver has found a path, and encountered, at last, the half-forgotten people who dwell there. And it would appear they were expecting him.
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THE GODS HAD DIFFERENT IDEAS
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 06-03-16
By: James A. Moore
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Noah Primeval
- Chronicles of the Nephilim (Volume 1)
- By: Brian Godawa
- Narrated by: Brian Godawa
- Length: 12 hrs and 2 mins
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Noah Primeval is a speculative retelling of the beloved story of Noah for a new generation. In an ancient world submerged in darkness, fallen angels rule as gods, and breed giants and monsters. Mankind is enslaved to evil. Noah, a tribal leader, has been prophesied to bring an end to the rule of these "gods" and save humanity from coming destruction. But Noah's wife and son are captives of these dark forces.
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Does Noah really get on the ark?
- By BDubs on 01-13-18
By: Brian Godawa
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Songs on Bronze
- The Greek Myths Made Real
- By: Nigel Spivey
- Narrated by: Yuri Rasovsky
- Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
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Songs on Bronze is the first major retelling of Greek mythology in half a century; a set of lively, racy, dramatic versions of the great myths, which, in a multicultural society, are recognized more than ever as stories without equal.
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Wonderful
- By Ceectee on 07-13-07
By: Nigel Spivey
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Magdalen Rising
- The Beginning
- By: Elizabeth Cunningham
- Narrated by: Heather O'Neill
- Length: 16 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
Young Magdalen and Jesus, brimming with youthful charm and arrogance, find each other and fall in love, forging a bond that is stronger than death. Their pleasure is overshadowed by a brilliant but unbalanced druid who knows a perilous secret about Maeve's past. The prequel to The Passion of Mary Magdalen.
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The Story as Maeve meant you to hear it!
- By Elizabeth Cunningham on 07-27-15
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The Well of Eternity: Blizzard Legends
- World of Warcraft: War of the Ancients, Book One
- By: Richard A. Knaak
- Narrated by: Ramon De Ocampo
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In the first chapter of this epic trilogy, the outcome of the historic War of the Ancients is forever altered by the arrival of three time-lost heroes: Krasus, the dragon mage whose great power and memories of the ancient conflict have inexplicably diminished; the human wizard Rhonin, whose thoughts are divided between his family and the seductive source of his now-growing power; and Broxigar, a weathered orc veteran who seeks a glorious death in combat.
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Be aware!
- By Anonymous User on 10-29-20
By: Richard A. Knaak
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Hero of Rome
- By: Douglas Jackson
- Narrated by: Cornelius Garrett
- Length: 11 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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The Roman grip on Britain is weakening. Emperor Nero has turned his face away from this far-flung outpost. The Druids are on the rise, spreading seeds of rebellion among the British tribes. Roman cruelty and exploitation has angered their British subjects. The warrior queen Boudicca will lead the tribes to war. Standing against the rising tide of Boudicca's rebellion is Roman Tribune, Gaius Valerius Verrens, Commander of the veteran legions at Colonia.
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Good story, well told and well read
- By Mike Varley on 10-01-14
By: Douglas Jackson
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Wolf of the North: It has been generations since the Northlands have seen a hero worthy of the title. Many have made the claim, but few have lived to defend it. Timid, weak, and bullied, Wulfric is as unlikely a candidate as there could be. Jorundyr's Path: Jorundyr's Path is walked only by the brave. As Wulfric pursues Adalhaid's Blood Debt, he soon learns that the path to revenge is never easy. The Blood Debt: A blade fit for a hero. An army for a tyrant. A reckoning long awaited, and a tale reaching its end.
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Could have been so much more, a classic even
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What listeners say about Speaking Bones
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- snorts
- 07-05-22
Epic series
Combining all of the genre's and real old world history was awesomely awsome. Thank you for such a glimpse into the Dandelion Dynasty.
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- Misty Magda
- 05-09-24
4.5/5 One of the best series I've read, but complicated to recommend.
I'll try to summarize. if you love a slow pace, excellent prose, well developed world, with not one, but a world full of excellent charecters and charecter development and some of the finest example of long form writing done recently, and an interest in a story rooted in a different culture, or fantasy/steam punk that touches on relevant topics and issues thar can be applied to todays world, check this series out and do it now.
If you don't like any of the above, or are a very adherent reader to a quicker pace with a lot of action, mindless steamy sex interwoven in, or don't have the patience for large reading times, sadly you would be best served to avoid this series.
But I know for me personally, this series going to stick with me long after I've distanced myself from it, it was an experience that shouldn't be missed.
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- Tkinsey3
- 03-15-23
My Favorite Series In Decades
Although I finished Speaking Bones nearly two weeks ago, I have found it very difficult to come up with the right words to construct a review here. Both because I don't want to spoil those who have not listened to this audiobook (or series), but also because I genuinely have no idea how to categorize or describe the experience I've had with the Dandelion Dynasty over the last six months.
So I will keep it short and sweet. I loved this audiobook, and I loved this series.
Although there was heartache and loss (far more than I expected, to be honest), the ending was cathartic and exactly what the series required.
Perhaps the highest compliment I can pay the story is to repeat what I wrote in my review of the previous audiobook in the series: I never wanted to stop listening.
Despite how dark things sometimes got, I never wanted to leave. Not just because I needed to know how things would be resolved, but because I love this world and these characters, and became so entranced by Ken Liu's addictive writing style.
Dandelion Dynasty is a masterpiece - thematically, stylistically, and substantively. It has impacted me in a way that only a few other works - probably only Lord of the Rings, ASOIAF, and Wheel of Time - have before.
I would recommend it to anyone and everyone, and I plan to listen to again it for many years to come.
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- Sarah Meiselman
- 08-04-22
It was a pleasure to bring this story to life
You have already come this far. Do the most interesting thing, and give this tale a listen.
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- Kendra
- 12-18-23
Rich Fantasy
It's unusual for me to read a multi-POV fantasy that makes me love (nearly) all the characters. Liu does an incredible job bringing you in to the heart of his characters so that even if you dislike (or loathe) what they're doing, even if you dislike them, you love them. I can tell this is a series I will return to in future because I will be continuing to revisit these characters and places in my mind for years.
I would recommend this to any lover of expansive, well populated fantasy novels. Although a novice to the genre might find it overwhelming, fans (like myself) will find a great story to sink our teeth into that will leave us wanting a bit more in the best, sweetest way.
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- Brad G
- 08-17-22
great ending to the series
Ken really stuck the landing on this series. I knew it was going to be a classic when the head orphan ninja lady made me cry.
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- Megan Gardner
- 05-16-23
really good after book 3
this book really picked up after book 3. I was pretty hooked the whole time and fell in love with the series again. The ending chefs kiss
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- Jefferson
- 08-08-24
An Epic Fantasy SF Novel of Ideas
Whew! The fourth and final volume in Ken Liu’s epic fantasy sf (“silkpunk”) series, Speaking Bones (2022), is massive—41 hours as an audiobook (well-read by Michael Kramer). It houses a large and varied cast of compelling point of view characters with conflicting motivations, contrasting situations, and interesting development arcs, from teachers, heroes, rulers, and gods to children, soldiers, traitors, and priests. They include several strong and intelligent women, and they come from multiple different settings on different continents and islands with different environments and geographical features and cultures and histories and gods and languages and so on. It is a fully realized secondary world.
Into that world, Liu writes several extended, suspenseful, big scale, high stakes battle scenes featuring new technologies/weapons, dragon-analogues, deception, and momentum changes. Into that world he incorporates many ideas about nature, religion, language, translation, calligraphy, logograms, tradition, classics, cooking, engineering, martial arts, music, poetry, philosophy (with moralist, fluxist, incentivist, mendist schools, and the like); violence and the use of force vs. pacifism and assimilation; the best and worst ways to wield political power (the grace of kings); the interlocking nature of all life; xenophobia and cross cultural communication; the degrees to which enemies become like each other; the destructiveness of revenge; religious and supernatural versus scientific and natural worldviews; and much more.
It often reads like an SF book of ideas at least as much as an epic fantasy. And adhering to the idea that “the universe is knowable,” Liu gives many detailed physical accounts of HOW things work (airships, ornithopters, wind-up mechanisms, logograms, fire-breathing “dragons,” giant bone constructs, “writing mirrors,” and more). There is more technology and science than magic and fantasy here.
The first of the four novels begins with a setting and situation inspired by Chinese history and wuxia and then the second one opens everything up to other cultures and situations from the other side of the world. This fourth book in the series begins with the abdicated Daran Empress Thera and her Agon Prince husband Takval and their small band of multicultural exiles on the run from the tyrannical Lyucu (more than nomadic barbarians) in the Lyucu and Agon’s continent of origin Ukyu-Gonde. As she is adapting herself to life in her adopted home, Thera desperately wants to unite the Agon to find a way to stop a second Lyucu fleet from being launched to complete the invasion of Dara, but she and her followers seem too few. Unknown to Thera and Takval, their young sons are far away, struggling to survive in the verboten City of Ghosts with a bunch of kids and a scholar and a shaman.
Meanwhile, in Dara on the other side of the almost always impassable Wall of Storms, Thera’s brother Phyro is preparing to lead a war to free two of their several home islands from the oppression of the Lyucu invaders while his aunt-mother and regent, Empress Jia, is working on her own secret, ruthless scheme involving smugglers and drugs and propaganda, while the Lyucu occupation leader Tanvanaki struggles to maintain control of the occupied islands, as her Lyucu officers have fractured into hardliners who want to eradicate the culture of the enslaved the local Darans and accommodationists who want to assimilate with the locals. The old wheelchair-bound Daran inventor Rati is developing programmable wind-up machines to help Phyro’s cause, while Savo, a half-Lyucu, half-Daran young man is trying to find a way to live in the world without taking sides against either of his parent’s people. That summary only scratches the surface.
Liu’s writing through all of the above is clean and clear. He writes plenty of culturally and situationally apt similes, like when an old man’s hair looks “like a dandelion’s puffball blowing in the wind.” And when Liu gets excited by something like food preparation (he is really into food as it reveals culture and satisfies the body and soul), he rises to the occasion:
“The kitchen was preparing something he hadn't tasted before, and his mouth watered at the delicious aromas. There was a fruity scent—maybe a rose-pip-and-monkeyberry coulis—as well as something richer—perhaps roasted pine nuts sprinkled with sea salt and Faca lantern peppers stuffed with stone ear mushrooms and cacanut flakes. His stomach growled in anticipation. The summer breeze carried other scents that painted vivid pictures in his mind: flat bread pockets filled with taro paste, lotus roots, and dried berry chunks; lightly toasted seasonal wild vegetables; hearty soup made from eight types of gourds and four herbs…”
I like Liu’s major themes:
—Where doubt ends evil begins.
—We have a duty to reduce suffering for all life forms.
—Cultural interaction and hybridization are preferrable to war.
—To make life interesting and to adapt to new conditions is more rewarding and constructive than following tradition and rejecting change.
—Like the string of a kite, history should tether us to the ground while helping us fly.
—The divine may be experienced through the mundane.
—There’s nothing more mysterious and complicated than the human heart.
He also thoughtfully explores real world problems like the difficulty of former victims and oppressors coexisting without continuing cycles of reprisal and revenge.
I think the four-novel series could be a bit shorter (each book is longer than the previous one, and I felt a sense of relief when I finally finished), but I am glad to have read the whole thing. My favorite sequence in the four novels is the wonderful multi-chapter epic cooking competition between rival restaurants in the third book, but this fourth one also has many remarkable and or moving and or devastating moments.
The ending of the novel is satisfying. I keep hating and pitying Empress Jia: is she a villainous heroine or a heroic villain? The (same sex) relationship between separated Thera and Zomi is sweet and potent. The sequence where Thera has to make Takval’s spirit portrait is fascinating and heart breaking. The speaking bones of the title are a wonderful conception.
Fans of intelligent, vividly imagined epic fantasy that is maybe really science fiction would probably like these books.
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- Tyler
- 04-24-24
the focus on engineered solutions and how creative the characters were.
I really enjoyed how plausible the poor decisions made by characters were. How you can be like no that's so stupid but still understand how someone would make that same decision.
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- Sean
- 07-31-22
Masterpiece
I can't really assess just this book and the impact it had outside the whole epic series, but this finale itself was an unrestrained sea storm of delicious Grand Narrative. I was constantly taken by the charisma of the characters, for whom I felt alternately tender admiration, physiological disgust, distant and reluctant sympathy, childlike delight, and nostalgic familiar love. I hated the plot bitterly around halfway into the book, but then the oldest of threads started to weave together, and I was sobbing tears of joy by the end. What a wonderful storyteller Ken Liu is.
I think the third book in this four-part series was the weakest, but it was still decent and I'm very happy I trudged through the difficult parts of that for the immense reward of this final book. Speaking Bones is a grand romantic epic, ever curious, satisfying, unexpected, and deftly told.
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