It's not often that you finish a book and are immediately considering whether it is the best thing you have ever read. I was fortunate enough to have that happen to me a few days ago when I finished Speaking Bones by Ken Liu.

I have been slowly making my way through The Dandelion Dynasty since early 2021 and after thousands of pages and many phases of my life gone by, I finally finished the series while I was on break from work this week. If you are unfamiliar with the series, The Dandelion Dynasty is Ken Liu's epic silkpunk fantasy series, originating in 2015 with The Grace of Kings and finishing up in 2022 with Speaking Bones. He coined the term "silkpunk" to describe how the series deals with a lot of technological innovation in a fantasy world (similar to steampunk), but with design techniques and aesthetics inspired by ancient eastern Asian tradition instead (silk, bamboo, paper, etc).

Ken is mainly known for his short fiction, including the collections The Paper Menagerie and The Hidden Girl. This departure into long form fantasy is a far cry from the short science fiction that I was used to with him, but the seeds of what he does with his short fiction are still there in these door stoppers. Ken has an incredible economy of words. Not a single word feels wasted in his stories. He also has a remarkable ability to pull at your heart strings without feeling saccharine or manipulative. The combination of that with the insanely intricate world building that he does in this series makes for an experience that I can't really compare to anything else I've read.

But Shawn, why is this your favorite book of all time? Thank you for asking! I will tell you.

Reading The Dandelion Dynasty has been one of the most challenging literary experiences of my life, and upon finishing the series, not only did it feel like a satisfying end to the many threads that he had set up, it also felt like I had vanquished some great beast that I had been doing battle with for the past five years. When I say that these books are a challenge, I mean it in the sense that this world that he has created is incredibly detailed, and there are more characters to keep track of than pretty much anything I've ever read. This makes The Stormlight Archive feel a little grade school in comparison.

At the beginning of each book, there is a glossary of characters to help you keep track of who's who. By the time you get to the fourth and final book in the series, that glossary of characters is over 60 people long. These characters aren't names John Smith and Jane Doe, either. Our man characters in the first book, Kuni Garu and Mata Zyndu are great examples of the names on display in this series.

Beyond the characters, there is a deep mythological, philosophical, and religious history embedded into these stories which guides the actions of our characters throughout the series. The amount of time spent on the various parables and lessons derived from ancient religious and thought leaders in this series might scare some people away, but those moments are what make this world feel so lived in and real. By the time I got to the end of this series, I found myself in tears as the various lives that I had spent so many pages with were being wrapped up. Truly one of the most satisfying endings to a series I have ever had the privilege of reading.

If none of that intrigues you, this series is also filled to the brim with some of the most epic battle scenes I've ever read. Not only is there carnage and violence, but there is also the technological and strategic warfare that goes on behind the scenes that propels our various characters to victory. One of the things I love most about this series is the time spent on the various technological innovations that propel the story forward over the many years that this series takes place in. The tide of battle is turned many times by the ingenuity of the characters in these stories. There is something so satisfying about seeing these marvels of technology not only affect the outcome of these conflicts, but guide the future of humanity within the walls of these stories.

It's hard to put everything I love about this series into words, but I absolutely implore you to read these books. Not only because I think you will enjoy it, but also because I need someone to talk to about it! I have been yapping to my friends about this series for forever and no one has taken the plunge with me yet. I yearn to discuss Dara with my peers!