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The Grace of Kings

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The Grace of Kings

By: Ken Liu
Narrated by: Kevin Shen
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£5.99/mo after 3 months. Offer ends on 5 July 2026 at 11:59 BST. Cancel monthly.

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Bloomsbury presents The Grace of Kings by Ken Liu, read by Kevin Shen.

Nominated for Best Performance: Narrator at The Speakies (The British Audio Awards).

A TIME MAGAZINE BEST FANTASY BOOK OF ALL TIME
Emperor Mapidéré was the first to unite the island kingdoms of Dara under a single banner. But now the emperor is on his deathbed, his people are exhausted by his vast, conscriptive engineering projects and his counsellors conspire only for their own gain.

Even the gods themselves are restless.

A wily, charismatic bandit and the vengeance-sworn son of a deposed duke cross paths as they each lead their own rebellion against the emperor's brutal regime. Together, they will journey to the heart of the empire; witnessing the clash of armies, fleets of silk-draped airships, magical books and shapeshifting gods. Their unlikely friendship will drastically change the balance of power in Dara... but at what price?

The Grace of Kings is the first novel by Hugo-, Nebula- and World Fantasy Award-winner Ken Liu and the first in a monumental epic fantasy series.©2015 Ken Liu (P)2024 Bloomsbury Publishing PLC Action & Adventure Asian Creators Epic Fantasy Historical Royalty Feel-Good Fiction
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Critic reviews

Epic fantasy fans will enjoy this large-scale story of political strategy and skullduggery
An instant classic. This is a debut novel to be reckoned with. Poetry on every page (Hugh Howey)
By turns opulent, gritty, and inventive... gives epic fantasy a much-needed breath of fresh air' (Saladin Ahmed)
Beyond ambitious in scope, The Grace of Kings may be daunting at first, but soon you are swept into a world of political intrigue, hopeless sieges and compelling characters. Liu seamlessly blends philosophy and politics with tense battles and compelling action... Sad, funny, poignant and addictive, this book will leave a lasting impression on the genre'
Ken Liu creates some vivid and detailed characters that will be loved by fantasy fans... a fresh and original fantasy story... A triumph in storytelling'
A fascinating start to the silk punk Dandelion Dynasty series providing multi-layered fantasy with an additional take on transposed Ancient Chinese history
All stars
Most relevant
I read the reviews after I had purchased the audiobook. like everyone is saying, the narration is awful. don't buy this, read the physical book.

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Hoping the story will make more sense when read. The narration was so difficult to tune into I couldn’t keep track of what was going on. It’s like my brain was trying to actively repress the monotone delivery and annoying character voices.

Truly awful narration

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Seriously, the narrator is bad. The story is good but the bad narration makes it a struggle. The author seriously needs to consider getting their story newly narrated by a better narrator to do their work justice.

Awful narration

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the narrator is atrocious and bland. sounds like he learned how to read just last month. a shame cause I was looking forward to this book

DID NOT FINISH!

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Could not stand the narrator's character voices. Like the story so far tho so I plan to read the book.

Opting for the book

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