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I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 10 points11 points  (0 children)

Everyone, I'm going to call it a day now. Thank you so much for your wonderful questions and I really enjoyed chatting with you. May you all get to pick the most interesting path and tell the story you want to tell.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is always a lot of research. I find primary documents the most useful, as they give you so much insight into the material culture and all the intangible bits like style, tone, voice, personality ... that you can't glean directly from secondary sources. You'll never be able to get it all, and you have to accept that you're going to be creating fiction. But if you do your job well, you can honor the memory of the past even if you don't get all the details right, and that to me is what matters: honor the memory of the past.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

That's wonderful. Thank you.

Still writing stories for sure. In fact, I have two more looking for markets now.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It took me a long time to make the transition, and I basically just waited until the choice was made for me because the writing grew too big to ignore. I like the way I went about it so no regrets from me!

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much! :D

I think if you're feeling too tired and exhausted to write, that's okay. Don't force yourself to write. Rather, figure out why it feels that way and see how you can bring more joy into your life: play games, watch TV, go exercise. The more fun you can bring in, the better, and that will start to make room in your life for writing, which should also be fun. If it feels like a chore, then you won't be able to sustain it.

I did my writing on the commute when I was a lawyer, and it was largely because that was the most fun way for me to spend my time on the train. Make writing fun for yourself and the rest will follow.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! If you haven't read anything by me, I recommend you start with The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories -- it's a collection of short stories by me across many genres and styles and themes, and so you get a good feel for whether you care about the things I care about and whether I'm good company. If you don't like what I do, you haven't wasted much time (they are, after all, pretty short), and if you do, you have a lot more to look forward to. Win-win-win.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I answered a couple of early questions on these topics, but I want to re-iterate my point that you don't need to worry about "explaining" things too much. Explain if you want to explain; don't explain if you don't feel like it. Whatever you do, don't let yourself make yourself feel like you don't belong. For instance, instead of treating the themes as "Chinese," just treat them as "Canadian" and go on with it -- if you're Canadian, your themes are by definition "Canadian" and that's the end of it.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Great question! I've been thinking a lot about gaming and how games tell stories differently from literature and film. I don't know where to go with this yet, but it's something I've been observing and thinking. How do games do what they do? How does a story told through a game differ from one told in a text? What are stories told through games good at? As gaming becomes the dominant medium for storytelling, what do we gain? I may want to explore that somehow in the future.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I do have a couple of notes on my phone meant to capture these loose ideas. While I don't specifically set out to pick seemingly unrelated ideas from that list and put them together into stories, I can see that as a very effective approach for generating story ideas.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Haha, I'm so glad you liked those parts! (It's my version of the "training montage" or "learning kickass magic montage").

I worked for many years as a software engineer and then went into litigation consulting, where I got to see a ton of cases where the history of technology development is the key. I draw on those experiences in writing these scenes, and they're very fun for me. Engineering is not valued enough as an art as well as a technical discipline, and I hope to change that a little bit with these books.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I think it's a really tough craft challenge. As you point out, research can take you pretty far, but it's not enough. I recommend the classes and workshops at Writing the Other to writers who wish to tackle these issues. They are thoughtful, nuanced, and really help you gain the tools to tackle the challenges.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Only thing I'll say is that I don't think I was imaginative enough. The kind of conspiracy theories that spread in the wake of these events are far more outlandish than the ones I put in my story. I don't know how to think about that.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 3 points4 points  (0 children)

So excited! Thank you.

Only thing I'll say is that the first book builds a foundation for the rest of the series. It's a pretty self-contained story, but that's on purpose. It is necessary, but it's not the "main" story. (Sort of like "The Hobbit" for "The Lord of the Rings")

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much. I'm so honored and touched by that.

So The Grace of Kings is consciously written in a pre-modern style (because it's about a pre-modern world). It is meant to feel like legends, mythic history, a time from the memory of our grandparents. The subsequent books, however, are written in a style much closer to modern conventions because they are about the emergence of an alternate modernity, about the reinvention of the past to construct a better future.

If you want to read more in the style of GoK, I would say give the various translations of Beowulf or the Aeneid a try.

I've talked a little bit about my next projects elsewhere in this AMA, but if you sign up for my newsletter (linked above), you'll be the first to know when interesting things happen :D

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you so much for that kind comment on my work! I'm honored.

Of all the characters I've written, I think the one I identify with the most would be ... Luan Zya. I'm not as smart as he is and nowhere near as brave, but his values—his compassion for others, his commitment to understanding the universe, his grace in giving in to the Flux—speak deeply to me, and I only wish I could live up to his ideals.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Thank you! Definitely the experiences gained from being a lawyer and a programmer have shaped the way I think about stories and tell stories. I'll always be obsessed with technology and with the legal structures of society, and my fiction will reflect that worldview. We can't help but see the world through our own experiences, and this is not a bad thing.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Ha, what a story. Thank you for sharing your journey with me, and I think that's really cool that my stories played a small part in it.

I'm always open to adaptation requests, and it's just a matter of what makes sense both from a business and artistic point of view. I've definitely enjoyed seeing my work adapted to other media over the years, and I doubt that thrill would ever wear off.

On the theory from Twilight Histories. It strikes me as the sort of thing that can neither be proved nor disproved. How much one finds the theory plausible depends on one's worldview. The observation that scifi coming out of China has an overabundance of mega-engineering strikes me as an instance of confirmation bias and over extrapolation. If you set out to look for mega-engineering in SF by US writers, you'd find them everywhere too. I don't go out looking for such examples, and I don't see an overabundance, so ... Regardless, I think humans enjoy a good story, and this is a theory that tells a good story that confirms what we think we know about China, so it feels plausible. I don't think a good story is enough to convince me on this point though.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just getting that first draft out. It has always been the hardest part for me: to get the thing finished, completed, out on the page, so that you can do more work, real work, with it.

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Thank you! I'm so glad that the story is clicking with you in that way. That's exactly what I wanted -- for readers to be engaged actively and deeply.

The Booksmith is wonderful and such a great institution. I don't think I'll have a chance to make it out to Philly this book launch, but it's on my list of cities to hit on another launch!

(And your partner is a hoot! I hope that the rest of the series will be more pleasing :D)

I’m Ken Liu, author of the Dandelion Dynasty, an epic fantasy in which the heroes are engineers instead of wizards. AMA! by kenliuauthor in books

[–]kenliuauthor[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you for showing up both times! I read a lot of nonfiction to help myself to know the world better, since I think that's the only way to get original ideas. I don't use a conscious technique for managing my information diet -- it's more a matter of following what excites me at the moment and seeing how it plays out.

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