Best Ken Liu Books

The best books by Ken Liu — 12 titles spanning Sci-Fi, Fantasy, averaging 3.94 BLT stars.

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Ken Liu is best known in Western markets as the translator who brought Liu Cixin's Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy to English — but his own fiction deserves equal attention. The Grace of Kings and its sequels in The Dandelion Dynasty reveal a writer obsessed with myth, empire, and the way history erases the people who actually made it. His prose blends ancient Chinese narrative traditions with a silkpunk aesthetic that feels genuinely unlike anything else in epic fantasy. As a short story writer, Liu is peerless — The Hidden Girl and Other Stories showcases his ability to compress enormous emotional and philosophical weight into tight, devastating form. Readers who want fantasy and science fiction that treats ideas seriously, that mourns what civilization costs, and that finds beauty in impermanence will find Liu essential.

Ken Liu's highest-rated book in our collection is Death's End (4.53 BLT stars). Browse the full list below.

Where to Start with Ken Liu

  1. 1
    Death's End cover

    Death's End

    Remembrance of Earth's Past • Book 3

    by Liu Cixin, Ken Liu

    ★ 4.53 BLT Score (176.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.4 Goodreads (176.1K)
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  2. 2
    The Three-Body Problem cover

    The Three-Body Problem

    Remembrance of Earth's Past • Book 1

    by Liu Cixin, Ken Liu

    ★ 4.26 BLT Score (505.3K ratings)
    ★ 4.08 Goodreads (505.3K)
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  3. 3
    Speaking Bones cover

    Speaking Bones

    The Dandelion Dynasty • Book 4

    by Ken Liu

    ★ 4.25 BLT Score (4.2K ratings)
    ★ 4.53 Goodreads (4.2K)
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  4. 4
    The Wall of Storms cover

    The Wall of Storms

    The Dandelion Dynasty • Book 2

    by Ken Liu

    ★ 4.22 BLT Score (10.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.35 Goodreads (10.1K)
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  5. 5
    Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View cover

    Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View

    Star Wars: From a Certain Point of View • Book 1

    by Elizabeth Schaefer, Ben Acker, Jonathan Davis, Tom Angleberger, Janina Gavankar, Ben Blacker, Jon Hamm, Jeffrey Brown, Jason Fry, Neil Patrick Harris, Christie Golden, January LaVoy, Saskia Maarleveld, Pierce Brown, Ashley Eckstein, Carol Monda, Mur Lafferty, Marc Thompson, Ken Liu, Griffin McElroy, John Jackson Miller, Kelly Sue DeConnick, Nnedi Okorafor, Daniel José Older, Ian Doescher, Daniel M. Lavery, Madeleine Roux, Gary D. Schmidt, Matt Fraction, Cavan Scott, Sabaa Tahir, Kieron Gillen, Glen Weldon, Chuck Wendig, Gary Whitta, Meg Cabot, Pablo Hidalgo, Adam Christopher, Rae Carson, Zoraida Córdova, Delilah S. Dawson, Paul Dini, Alexander Freed, Claudia Gray, Paul S. Kemp, Elizabeth Wein, Beth Revis, Greg Rucka, Charles Soule, Wil Wheaton, Renée Ahdieh

    ★ 4.07 BLT Score (15.5K ratings)
    ★ 3.94 Goodreads (15.5K)
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  6. 6
    The Veiled Throne cover

    The Veiled Throne

    The Dandelion Dynasty • Book 3

    by Ken Liu

    ★ 4.03 BLT Score (5.1K ratings)
    ★ 4.13 Goodreads (5.1K)
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  7. 7
    The Hidden Girl and Other Stories cover

    The Hidden Girl and Other Stories

    by Ken Liu

    ★ 3.86 BLT Score (8.2K ratings)
    ★ 3.94 Goodreads (8.2K)
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  8. 8
    The Grace of Kings cover

    The Grace of Kings

    The Dandelion Dynasty • Book 1

    by Ken Liu

    ★ 3.73 BLT Score (29.8K ratings)
    ★ 3.8 Goodreads (29.8K)
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  9. 9
    Deep Magic: Volume 2: A Speculative Fiction Collection: Deep Magic cover

    Deep Magic: Volume 2: A Speculative Fiction Collection: Deep Magic

    Deep Magic • Book 2

    by Jeff Wheeler, Kate Rudd, Amir Abdullah, Elizabeth Wiley, Samara Naeymi, Hannah Curtis, Adam Verner, Anthony Ryan, Ken Liu, Charlie N. Holmberg, Jeanna Mason Stay, Wulf Moon

    ★ 3.67 BLT Score (0 ratings)
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  10. 10
    The Book of Swords cover

    The Book of Swords

    Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz #7 - A Long, Cold Trail

    by Gardner Dozois, K.J. Parker, Robin Hobb, Ken Liu, Matthew Hughes, Kate Elliott, Walter Jon Williams, Daniel Abraham, C.J. Cherryh, Garth Nix, Ellen Kushner, Scott Lynch, Rich Larson, Elizabeth Bear, Lavie Tidhar, Cecelia Holland, George R.R. Martin

    ★ 3.66 BLT Score (2.2K ratings)
    ★ 3.67 Goodreads (2.2K)
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  11. 11
    The Book of Witches cover

    The Book of Witches

    by Jonathan Strahan, Linda D. Addison, P. Djèlí Clark, Kathleen Jennings, Tade Thompson, Ken Liu, Darcie Little Badger, Andrea Hairston, Alaya Dawn Johnson, Cassandra Khaw, Tobi Ogundiran, Kelly Robson, C.L. Clark, Millie Ho, Indrapramit Das, Saad Z. Hossain, Garth Nix, Premee Mohamed, Maureen F. McHugh, Andrea Stewart, Tochi Onyebuchi, Sheree Renée Thomas, Angela Slatter, Fonda Lee, Usman T. Malik, E. Lily Yu, Miyuki Jane Pinckard, Emily Y. Teng, Amal El-Mohtar, Alyssa Winans

    ★ 3.63 BLT Score (690 ratings)
    ★ 3.46 Goodreads (690)
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  12. 12
    The Legends of Luke Skywalker (Star Wars: Journey to Star Wars: the Last Jedi) cover

    The Legends of Luke Skywalker (Star Wars: Journey to Star Wars: the Last Jedi)

    Journey to Star Wars: The Last Jedi

    by Ken Liu

    ★ 3.35 BLT Score (3.4K ratings)
    ★ 3.43 Goodreads (3.4K)
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How We Rank Audiobooks

Rankings are driven by listener ratings and review counts from Audible and Goodreads. Books with high ratings across a large number of listeners rank higher — a 4.5 with 50,000 ratings says more than a 4.8 with 200.

Unlike most book lists, we weight audiobook-specific factors: narrator performance, production quality, and how well a story translates to audio. A great book with a poor narration isn't a great audiobook.

We don't accept paid placements or prioritize new releases. These rankings reflect what listeners actually enjoy, not what's being promoted.

Rankings update periodically as new ratings come in and new titles are added to the collection.

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