We are thrilled to share the cover for the third book in Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty series, The Veiled Throne! The silkpunk epic fantasty that began with The Grace of Kings continues with this thrilling new entry on June 29, 2021 from Saga Press.
Liu coined the term “silkpunk” as a way to describe how the series works “with and against the tradition of epic fantasy—as began by Tolkien—by infusing it with an East-Asia-inspired aesthetic that embraces, extends, and challenges fantasy/historical tropes that are assumed to have medieval European or classical East Asian origins.”
“Epics are foundational narratives for cultures,” he says, “And I wanted to write a modern foundational narrative that draws as much on Chinese epic traditions like Romance of the Three Kingdoms as on Western traditions like Beowulf and the Aeneid.”
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The Veiled Throne
The Veiled Throne is the third book in Ken Liu’s silkpunk Dandelion Dynasty series, an epic fantasy that re-imagines the historical legends of the Han Dynasty. It’s set in a world of politics and intrigue, of love purified and corrupted, of rebelling against tyranny and seeing one’s ideals compromised. There are vain and jealous gods, bamboo airships and biomechanics-inspired submarines, battle kites that evoke the honor and glory of another age, fantastical creatures of the deep, and magical tomes that tell the future written in our hearts.
In this continuation of the series, the invasion of Dara complete, and the Wall of Storms has been breached. Its leadership bristles with rivalries as power and perspectives change between the remains of the Dandelion courts. As the conquerors and the conquered jockey for position in these new regimes, tradition gives way to new justifications for power.
Ken Liu is an award-winning American author of speculative fiction. His collection, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, has been published in more than a dozen languages. Liu’s other works include The Grace of Kings, The Wall of Storms, and Star Wars tie-in The Legends of Luke Skywalker, and a second collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories. He has been involved in multiple media adaptations of his work including the short story “Good Hunting,” adapted as an episode in Netflix’s animated series Love, Death + Robots; and AMC’s Pantheon, adapted from an interconnected series of short stories. “The Hidden Girl,” “The Message,” and The Grace of Kings have also been optioned for development. Liu previously worked as a software engineer, corporate lawyer, and litigation consultant. He frequently speaks at conferences and universities on topics including futurism, cryptocurrency, the mathematics of origami, and others. Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts.
