TDLR: 2/5 Ken Liu is talented but he writes like TGOK is a history book, not a fantasy book. There's so much distance between the characters and us. It, frankly, made the book incredibly boring.

There were cool elements: Crubens, silkpunk weaponry and machines, gods who meddle with the people and take their own sides, but it could not save how little life there was. Oddly enough, there wasn't that much world building: you kind of just imagine an ancient China based environment.

Before I read this book, I had seen multiple reviews talking about how this book is basically a fanfic of the Chu Han Contention. Now, me not being Chinese, I really was rather apathetic. I debated whether or not this was cool, but as some said: history doesn't have a copyright on it. But after reading the wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chu%E2%80%93Han_Contention I honestly was shocked. Because THIS ENTIRE BOOK IS BASICALLY THAT WIKIPEDIA PAGE LOL. Make your coin Ken Liu!

My biggest issue is the lack of interesting characters. Kuni gets the "good king that makes unorthodox moves" - he's kind of like the anime protagonist that is good while everyone else is evil/power hungry/treacherous. I liked Jia, she had dimension at least. Mata I thought he was just dumb and stuck in the past but I guess if I had feelings towards him, Ken Liu did some characterization.

Some reviewers are pretty peeved that there are barely any women in this book. I, as a woman and as someone who usually reads women-centric books, came into this honestly expecting the worst. But really, I cannot believe I am saying this, I think Liu tried harder with the female characters (even if they were sparse - maybe except Risana.) He definitely did not make them all the same archetype.

But the male side characters? Holy fuck, they're all the same! They are like copy paste: rich corrupt power hungry man, poor corrupt power hungry man, old man, poor man, man on kite, two men who band together for a common cause but end up on different sides... There's very little characterization what so ever. Let me try to name some male side characters: Ortho, Cogo, Luan, Emperor Mapidare- that's literally all I remember. The women I remember: Jia, Risana, Gin, Soto. (No joke, is that all the women lol?)

Everyone else just is paper cardboard cutouts. Cogo, all I know about him is that he's by Kuni's side. Nothing else. The names fly over me and I read a lot of fantasy okay, usually, I end up remembering most by the end of the book. But this? No one was funny, no one was memorable, I literally cannot even describe any of their physical appearances except for Mata.

Honestly the only character I felt he did dirty was Kikomi but whatever, I get the point he was trying to make.

Here's the point: Ken Liu writes like a historian about this Chu Han Contention and makes it very difficult to care about the characters. I don't think I will continue with this series.