
Speaking Bones
The Dandelion Dynasty, Book 4
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed

Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $29.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Michael Kramer
-
By:
-
Ken Liu
About this listen
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).
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Will of the Many
- Hierarchy, Book 1
- By: James Islington
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 28 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilized society in allowing my strength, my drive, and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.
-
-
I don’t know what the other reviews are on about
- By Chase on 06-24-23
By: James Islington
-
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
- By: Ken Liu
- Narrated by: Ramón de Ocampo, Cindy Kay, Michael Kramer, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From stories about time-traveling assassins, to Black Mirror-esque tales of cryptocurrency and internet trolling, to heartbreaking narratives of parent-child relationships, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is a far-reaching work that explores topical themes from the present and a visionary look at humanity’s future. This collection includes a selection of Ken Liu’s speculative-fiction stories over the past five years - 17 of his best - plus a new novelette.
-
-
Best portrayal of mind-uploading I've ever read
- By Dante K. on 06-14-20
By: Ken Liu
-
Jade Shards
- Stories
- By: Fonda Lee
- Narrated by: Andrew Kishino
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fonda Lee returns to the acclaimed Green Bone Saga with four prequel short stories that delve into the personal histories of the Kaul and Ayt families.
-
-
Listen to these prequels only after the series
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 07-13-24
By: Fonda Lee
-
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
- By: Ken Liu
- Narrated by: Corey Brill, Joy Osmanski
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken's award-winning and award-finalist stories.
-
-
Fantastic collection, great stories!
- By Renee Tang on 05-17-18
By: Ken Liu
-
The Forgetting Moon
- By: Brian Lee Durfee
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 30 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Five Isles, where war has come in the name of the invading army of Sor Sevier, a merciless host driven by the prophetic fervor of the Angel Prince, Aeros, toward the last unconquered kingdom of Gul Kana. Yet Gault, one of the elite Knights Archaic of Sor Sevier, is growing disillusioned by the crusade he is at the vanguard of just as it embarks on his Lord Aeros' greatest triumph. While the eldest son of the fallen king of Gul Kana now reigns in ever increasing paranoid isolationism, his two sisters seek their own paths.
-
-
alright-ish
- By Matthew on 05-10-19
By: Brian Lee Durfee
-
Of Blood and Fire
- The Bound and the Broken, Book 1
- By: Ryan Cahill
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the South squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North. In the remote villages of Southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving - a test of courage and skill that not all survive. But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war.
-
-
Didn’t expect a “grow up power fantasy”
- By Mike Thomas on 07-23-22
By: Ryan Cahill
-
The Will of the Many
- Hierarchy, Book 1
- By: James Islington
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 28 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Catenan Republic—the Hierarchy—may rule the world now, but they do not know everything. I tell them my name is Vis Telimus. I tell them I was orphaned after a tragic accident three years ago, and that good fortune alone has led to my acceptance into their most prestigious school. I tell them that once I graduate, I will gladly join the rest of civilized society in allowing my strength, my drive, and my focus—what they call Will—to be leeched away and added to the power of those above me, as millions already do. As all must eventually do.
-
-
I don’t know what the other reviews are on about
- By Chase on 06-24-23
By: James Islington
-
The Hidden Girl and Other Stories
- By: Ken Liu
- Narrated by: Ramón de Ocampo, Cindy Kay, Michael Kramer, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From stories about time-traveling assassins, to Black Mirror-esque tales of cryptocurrency and internet trolling, to heartbreaking narratives of parent-child relationships, The Hidden Girl and Other Stories is a far-reaching work that explores topical themes from the present and a visionary look at humanity’s future. This collection includes a selection of Ken Liu’s speculative-fiction stories over the past five years - 17 of his best - plus a new novelette.
-
-
Best portrayal of mind-uploading I've ever read
- By Dante K. on 06-14-20
By: Ken Liu
-
Jade Shards
- Stories
- By: Fonda Lee
- Narrated by: Andrew Kishino
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fonda Lee returns to the acclaimed Green Bone Saga with four prequel short stories that delve into the personal histories of the Kaul and Ayt families.
-
-
Listen to these prequels only after the series
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 07-13-24
By: Fonda Lee
-
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
- By: Ken Liu
- Narrated by: Corey Brill, Joy Osmanski
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken's award-winning and award-finalist stories.
-
-
Fantastic collection, great stories!
- By Renee Tang on 05-17-18
By: Ken Liu
-
The Forgetting Moon
- By: Brian Lee Durfee
- Narrated by: Tim Gerard Reynolds
- Length: 30 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to the Five Isles, where war has come in the name of the invading army of Sor Sevier, a merciless host driven by the prophetic fervor of the Angel Prince, Aeros, toward the last unconquered kingdom of Gul Kana. Yet Gault, one of the elite Knights Archaic of Sor Sevier, is growing disillusioned by the crusade he is at the vanguard of just as it embarks on his Lord Aeros' greatest triumph. While the eldest son of the fallen king of Gul Kana now reigns in ever increasing paranoid isolationism, his two sisters seek their own paths.
-
-
alright-ish
- By Matthew on 05-10-19
By: Brian Lee Durfee
-
Of Blood and Fire
- The Bound and the Broken, Book 1
- By: Ryan Cahill
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 16 hrs and 23 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Epheria is a land divided by war and mistrust. The High Lords of the South squabble and fight, only kept in check by the Dragonguard, traitors of a time long past, who serve the empire of the North. In the remote villages of Southern Epheria, still reeling from the tragic loss of his brother, Calen Bryer prepares for The Proving - a test of courage and skill that not all survive. But when three strangers arrive in the village of Milltown, with a secret they are willing to die for, Calen’s world is ripped from under him and he is thrust headfirst into a war.
-
-
Didn’t expect a “grow up power fantasy”
- By Mike Thomas on 07-23-22
By: Ryan Cahill
-
Babel
- Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
- By: R. F. Kuang
- Narrated by: Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Billie Fulford-Brown
- Length: 21 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
-
-
The novel language lovers have been waiting for
- By LisaLee on 09-06-22
By: R. F. Kuang
-
Red Rising (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation)
- Red Rising, Book 1
- By: Pierce Brown
- Narrated by: Alejandro Ruiz, Richard Rohan, John Kielty, and others
- Length: 8 hrs and 19 mins
- Original Recording
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Darrow is a Red, a member of the lowest caste in the color-coded society of the future. Like his fellow Reds, he works all day, believing that he and his people are making the surface of Mars livable for future generations. Yet he toils willingly, trusting that his blood and sweat will one day result in a better world for his children. But Darrow and his kind have been betrayed. Soon he discovers that humanity reached the surface generations ago. Vast cities and lush wilds spread across the planet. Darrow—and Reds like him—are nothing more than slaves to a decadent ruling class.
-
-
Woooooooow!!!!
- By Emily G. on 07-27-23
By: Pierce Brown
-
The Final Empire
- Mistborn Book 1
- By: Brandon Sanderson
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 24 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For a thousand years the ash fell and no flowers bloomed. For a thousand years the Skaa slaved in misery and lived in fear. For a thousand years the Lord Ruler, the "Sliver of Infinity," reigned with absolute power and ultimate terror, divinely invincible. Then, when hope was so long lost that not even its memory remained, a terribly scarred, heart-broken half-Skaa rediscovered it in the depths of the Lord Ruler's most hellish prison.
-
-
Prepare for sleepless nights
- By tercia on 10-21-18
-
Empire of Silence
- Sun Eater, Book 1
- By: Christopher Ruocchio
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 26 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The galaxy remembers Hadrian Marlowe as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives - even the emperor himself - against Imperial orders. But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier. Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world.
-
-
A Slow start at best....then the story tapers off
- By paul nordquist on 08-21-19
-
The Shadow of What Was Lost
- Licanius, Book 1
- By: James Islington
- Narrated by: Michael Kramer
- Length: 25 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It has been 20 years since the end of the war. The dictatorial Augurs, once thought of almost as gods, were overthrown and wiped out during the conflict, their much-feared powers mysteriously failing them. Those who had ruled under them, men and women with a lesser ability known as the Gift, avoided the Augurs' fate only by submitting themselves to the rebellion's Four Tenets.
-
-
Atrocious. Almost abusive.
- By Captain Spanky Of Nazareth on 06-10-20
By: James Islington
-
Kings of Paradise
- Ash and Sand, Book 1
- By: Richard Nell
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 25 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ruka, called a demon at birth, is a genius. Born malformed and ugly into the snow-covered wasteland of the Ascom, he was spared from death by his mother's love. Now he is an outcast, consumed with hate for those who've wronged him. But to take his vengeance, he must first survive. Across a vast sea in the white-sand island paradise of Sri Kon, Kale is fourth and youngest son of the Sorcerer King. As the first prince ever forced to serve with low-born marines, Kale must prove himself and become a man, or else lose all chance of a worthy future, and any hope to win the love of his life.
-
-
Grimdark at its finest
- By C.T. on 10-09-18
By: Richard Nell
-
Children of Time
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Mel Hudson
- Length: 16 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Adrian Tchaikovksy's critically acclaimed stand-alone novel Children of Time is the epic story of humanity's battle for survival on a terraformed planet. Who will inherit this new Earth? The last remnants of the human race left a dying Earth, desperate to find a new home among the stars. Following in the footsteps of their ancestors, they discover the greatest treasure of the past age - a world terraformed and prepared for human life. But all is not right in this new Eden.
-
-
A very pleasant surprise
- By Simon on 06-17-17
-
Circe
- By: Madeline Miller
- Narrated by: Perdita Weeks
- Length: 12 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child—not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power—the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
-
-
Refined writing with an intimate performance
- By Michael - Audible Editor on 04-11-18
By: Madeline Miller
-
The Silmarillion
- By: J. R. R. Tolkien, Christopher Tolkien
- Narrated by: Andy Serkis
- Length: 19 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The tales of The Silmarillion are set in an age when Morgoth, the first Dark Lord, dwelt in Middle-earth, and the High Elves made war upon him for the recovery of the Silmarils, the jewels containing the pure light of Valinor. Included on the recording are several shorter works. The Ainulindalë is a myth of the Creation and in the Valaquenta the nature and powers of each of the gods is described. The Akallabêth recounts the downfall of the great island kingdom of Númenor at the end of the Second Age, and Of the Rings of Power tells of the great events at the end of the Third Age.
-
-
TIPS when reading this book:
- By Anonymous User on 06-29-23
By: J. R. R. Tolkien, and others
-
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
- By: V. E. Schwab
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 17 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
France, 1714: in a moment of desperation, a young woman makes a Faustian bargain to live forever—and is cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. Thus begins the extraordinary life of Addie LaRue, and a dazzling adventure that will play out across centuries and continents, across history and art, as a young woman learns how far she will go to leave her mark on the world. But everything changes when, after nearly 300 years, Addie stumbles across a young man in a hidden bookstore and he remembers her name.
-
-
Prose style not to my liking
- By C.V. Cox on 10-18-20
By: V. E. Schwab
-
The Justice of Kings
- By: Richard Swan
- Narrated by: Lucy Paterson
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Empire of the Wolf simmers with unrest. Rebels, heretics, and powerful patricians all challenge the power of the Imperial throne. Only the Order of Justices stands in the way of chaos. Sir Konrad Vonvalt is the most feared Justice of all, upholding the law by way of his sharp mind, arcane powers, and skill as a swordsman. At his side stands Helena Sedanka, his talented protégé, orphaned by the wars that forged the Empire.
-
-
Give it a try. Doubtful you'll regret it.
- By Taylor Ascher on 03-13-22
By: Richard Swan
-
The Book That Wouldn't Burn
- By: Mark Lawrence
- Narrated by: Jessica Whittaker
- Length: 22 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The boy has lived his whole life trapped within a book-choked chamber older than empires and larger than cities. The girl has been plucked from the outskirts of civilization to be trained as a librarian, studying the mysteries of the great library at the heart of her kingdom. They were never supposed to meet. But in the library, they did. Their stories spiral around each other, across worlds and time. This is a tale of truth and lies and hearts, and the blurring of one into another.
-
-
Keeps the reader guessing
- By Gr on 08-17-23
By: Mark Lawrence

About the Creator
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.
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
All That We See or Seem
- A Julia Z Novel, Book 1
- By: Ken Liu
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at fourteen as the “orphan hacker,” is trying to live a life of digital obscurity in a Boston suburb. But when a lawyer named Piers—whose famous artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals—barges into her life, Julia decides to put the solitary life she has painstakingly created at risk as she can’t walk away from helping Piers and Elli, nor step away from the challenge of this digital puzzle.
By: Ken Liu
-
Los jardines de la Luna [Gardens of the Moon]
- Malaz: El Libro de los Caídos 1 [Malaz: The Book of the Fallen, Book 1]
- By: Steven Erikson, Miguel Antón Rodríguez
- Narrated by: Víctor Viedma
- Length: 27 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tras guerras interminables y amargas luchas internas, el descontento se ha apoderado del Imperio de Malaz. Incluso las tropas imperiales, siempre ansiosas por derramar sangre, necesitan un respiro. Sin embargo, las pretensiones expansionistas de la emperatriz Laseen no tienen límites, más aun cuando son reforzadas por sus temibles agentes de la Garra.
-
-
La narración
- By ivelisse on 05-19-25
By: Steven Erikson, and others
-
ILLBORN
- The Illborn Saga, Book One
- By: Daniel T. Jackson
- Narrated by: Nathaniel Priestley
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long ago, The Lord Aiduel emerged from the deserts of the Holy Land, possessed with divine powers. He used these to forcibly unite the peoples of Angall, before His ascension to heaven. Over eight hundred years later, in a medieval world which is threatened by war and religious persecution, four young men and women begin to develop supernatural abilities. These forbidden and secret powers will shatter the lives that they have known, and will force each of them to confront the mystery of the ethereal Gate which haunts their dreams.
-
-
Fantastic narration to go along with a great book.
- By Noah Hoeniges on 05-20-25
-
Jade Shards
- Stories
- By: Fonda Lee
- Narrated by: Andrew Kishino
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fonda Lee returns to the acclaimed Green Bone Saga with four prequel short stories that delve into the personal histories of the Kaul and Ayt families.
-
-
Listen to these prequels only after the series
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 07-13-24
By: Fonda Lee
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
An engrossing yet demanding high epic
- By Adnan on 11-20-12
By: Steven Erikson
-
Forge of Darkness
- Kharkanas Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Steven Erikson
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forge of Darkness takes listeners to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness, and tells of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in the fall of the Malazan Empire and surrounds one of the Malazan world’s most fascinating and powerful characters, Anomander Rake. It’s a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, where Mother Dark reigns above the Tiste people. But this ancient land was once home to many a power...and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners’ great hero, Vatha Urusander, longs for ascendency and Mother Dark’s hand in marriage, but she has taken another Consort, Lord Draconus.
-
-
A Precursor Epic Fantasy - A Rewarding Beginning!
- By Michael on 11-08-12
By: Steven Erikson
-
All That We See or Seem
- A Julia Z Novel, Book 1
- By: Ken Liu
- Length: 12 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Julia Z, a young woman who gained notoriety at fourteen as the “orphan hacker,” is trying to live a life of digital obscurity in a Boston suburb. But when a lawyer named Piers—whose famous artist wife, Elli, has been kidnapped by dangerous criminals—barges into her life, Julia decides to put the solitary life she has painstakingly created at risk as she can’t walk away from helping Piers and Elli, nor step away from the challenge of this digital puzzle.
By: Ken Liu
-
Los jardines de la Luna [Gardens of the Moon]
- Malaz: El Libro de los Caídos 1 [Malaz: The Book of the Fallen, Book 1]
- By: Steven Erikson, Miguel Antón Rodríguez
- Narrated by: Víctor Viedma
- Length: 27 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Tras guerras interminables y amargas luchas internas, el descontento se ha apoderado del Imperio de Malaz. Incluso las tropas imperiales, siempre ansiosas por derramar sangre, necesitan un respiro. Sin embargo, las pretensiones expansionistas de la emperatriz Laseen no tienen límites, más aun cuando son reforzadas por sus temibles agentes de la Garra.
-
-
La narración
- By ivelisse on 05-19-25
By: Steven Erikson, and others
-
ILLBORN
- The Illborn Saga, Book One
- By: Daniel T. Jackson
- Narrated by: Nathaniel Priestley
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Long ago, The Lord Aiduel emerged from the deserts of the Holy Land, possessed with divine powers. He used these to forcibly unite the peoples of Angall, before His ascension to heaven. Over eight hundred years later, in a medieval world which is threatened by war and religious persecution, four young men and women begin to develop supernatural abilities. These forbidden and secret powers will shatter the lives that they have known, and will force each of them to confront the mystery of the ethereal Gate which haunts their dreams.
-
-
Fantastic narration to go along with a great book.
- By Noah Hoeniges on 05-20-25
-
Jade Shards
- Stories
- By: Fonda Lee
- Narrated by: Andrew Kishino
- Length: 3 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fonda Lee returns to the acclaimed Green Bone Saga with four prequel short stories that delve into the personal histories of the Kaul and Ayt families.
-
-
Listen to these prequels only after the series
- By 🔥 Phx17 🔥 on 07-13-24
By: Fonda Lee
-
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
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
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.
-
-
An engrossing yet demanding high epic
- By Adnan on 11-20-12
By: Steven Erikson
-
Forge of Darkness
- Kharkanas Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Steven Erikson
- Narrated by: Daniel Philpott
- Length: 31 hrs and 55 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Forge of Darkness takes listeners to Kurald Galain, the warren of Darkness, and tells of a realm whose fate plays a crucial role in the fall of the Malazan Empire and surrounds one of the Malazan world’s most fascinating and powerful characters, Anomander Rake. It’s a conflicted time in Kurald Galain, where Mother Dark reigns above the Tiste people. But this ancient land was once home to many a power...and even death is not quite eternal. The commoners’ great hero, Vatha Urusander, longs for ascendency and Mother Dark’s hand in marriage, but she has taken another Consort, Lord Draconus.
-
-
A Precursor Epic Fantasy - A Rewarding Beginning!
- By Michael on 11-08-12
By: Steven Erikson
-
Empire of Silence
- Sun Eater, Book 1
- By: Christopher Ruocchio
- Narrated by: Samuel Roukin
- Length: 26 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The galaxy remembers Hadrian Marlowe as a hero: the man who burned every last alien Cielcin from the sky. They remember him as a monster: the devil who destroyed a sun, casually annihilating four billion human lives - even the emperor himself - against Imperial orders. But Hadrian was not a hero. He was not a monster. He was not even a soldier. Fleeing his father and a future as a torturer, Hadrian finds himself stranded on a strange, backwater world.
-
-
A Slow start at best....then the story tapers off
- By paul nordquist on 08-21-19
-
Of Empires and Dust
- The Bound and The Broken, Book 4
- By: Ryan Cahill
- Narrated by: Derek Perkins
- Length: 52 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The gods are waking. The world is burning. The Bound and The Broken continues this coming fall. Are you ready?
By: Ryan Cahill
-
The Ninth Rain
- The Winnowing Flame Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Jen Williams
- Narrated by: Jot Davies
- Length: 20 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jen Williams, acclaimed author of The Copper Cat trilogy, featuring The Copper Promise, The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide, returns with the first in a blistering new trilogy. The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces - talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine.
-
-
Couldn’t put it down!
- By Renae on 09-09-22
By: Jen Williams
-
1Q84
- By: Haruki Murakami, Jay Rubin - translator, Philip Gabriel - translator
- Narrated by: Allison Hiroto, Marc Vietor, Mark Boyett
- Length: 46 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 1984 and the city is Tokyo.
A young woman named Aomame follows a taxi driver's enigmatic suggestion and begins to notice puzzling discrepancies in the world around her. She has entered, she realizes, a parallel existence, which she calls 1Q84 - "Q" is for "question mark". A world that bears a question....
-
-
WOW, WOW, WOW.
- By Amanda on 11-06-11
By: Haruki Murakami, and others
-
The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories
- By: Ken Liu
- Narrated by: Corey Brill, Joy Osmanski
- Length: 15 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With his debut novel, The Grace of Kings, taking the literary world by storm, Ken Liu now shares his finest short fiction in The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories. This mesmerizing collection features all of Ken's award-winning and award-finalist stories.
-
-
Fantastic collection, great stories!
- By Renee Tang on 05-17-18
By: Ken Liu
-
Empire in Black and Gold
- Shadows of the Apt, Book 1
- By: Adrian Tchaikovsky
- Narrated by: Ben Allen
- Length: 23 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Lowlands’ city states have lived in peace for decades, hailed as bastions of civilization. Yet that peace is about to end. A distant empire has been conquering neighbours with highly trained soldiers and sophisticated combat techniques. And the city states are its desirable new prize. Only the ageing Stenwold Maker – spymaster, artificer and statesman – foresees the threat, as the empires’ armies march ever closer. So it falls upon his shoulders to open the eyes of the cities’ leaders.
-
-
A hidden gem in Epic Fantasy
- By Blaise Ancona on 12-14-20
-
Kings of the Wyld: Booktrack Edition
- By: Nicholas Eames
- Narrated by: Jeff Harding
- Length: 17 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A retired group of legendary mercenaries get the band back together for one last impossible mission in this award-winning debut epic fantasy. Kings of the Wyld: Booktrack Edition adds an immersive musical soundtrack to your audiobook listening experience!
-
-
Trying Way Too Hard
- By Acerock on 11-26-20
By: Nicholas Eames
-
A Language of Dragons
- By: S. F. Williamson
- Narrated by: Henrietta Meire
- Length: 12 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dragons soar through the skies and protests erupt on the streets, but Vivien Featherswallow isn’t worried. She’s going to follow the rules, get a summer internship studying dragon languages, be smart, be sweet, and make sure her little sister never, ever has to risk growing up Third Class. She just has to free one dragon. By midnight, Viv has started a civil war. With her parents and cousin arrested and her sister missing, Viv is brought to Bletchley Park as a codebreaker—if she succeeds, she and her family can all go home again. If she doesn’t, they’ll all die.
-
-
A promising start with room to soar
- By Jess on 01-13-25
By: S. F. Williamson
-
Musashi
- By: Eiji Yoshikawa, Charles S. Terry - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 53 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival.
-
-
Good Historical Novel
- By The Walking Dude on 08-11-19
By: Eiji Yoshikawa, and others
-
The Three-Body Problem
- By: Cixin Liu, Ken Liu - translator
- Narrated by: Rosalind Chao
- Length: 13 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against the backdrop of China's Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion. The result is a science fiction masterpiece of enormous scope and vision.
-
-
Why Rosalamd Chao?
- By Erin on 02-29-24
By: Cixin Liu, and others
-
Perdido Street Station
- By: China Mieville
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 24 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The metropolis of New Crobuzon sprawls at the center of the world. Humans and mutants and arcane races brood in the gloom beneath its chimneys, where the river is sluggish with unnatural effluent and foundries pound into the night. For a thousand years, the Parliament and its brutal militias have ruled over a vast economy of workers and artists, spies and soldiers, magicians, crooks, and junkies. Now a stranger has arrived, with a pocketful of gold and an impossible demand. And something unthinkable is released.
-
-
Brilliant, wonderful book -- horrible recording
- By James on 08-19-09
By: China Mieville
-
The Sword of Kaigen: A Theonite War Story
- By: M. L. Wang
- Narrated by: Andrew Tell
- Length: 24 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On a mountainside at the edge of the Kaigenese Empire live the most powerful warriors in the world, superhumans capable of raising the sea and wielding blades of ice. For hundreds of years, the fighters of the Kusanagi Peninsula have held the Empire's enemies at bay, earning their frozen spit of land the name "The Sword of Kaigen". Born into Kusanagi's legendary Matsuda family, f14-year-old Mamoru has always known his purpose: To master his family's fighting techniques and defend his homeland.
-
-
OH. MY. GODS! Holy emotional epicness!
- By Kevin Potter on 09-03-20
By: M. L. Wang
ties it all together fantastically
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It was a pleasure to bring this story to life
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
Rich Fantasy
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
great ending to the series
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
really good after book 3
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
An Epic Fantasy SF Novel of Ideas
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
the focus on engineered solutions and how creative the characters were.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Epic series
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
4.5/5 One of the best series I've read, but complicated to recommend.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
Masterpiece
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.