Dynasty Killers

This was easily my favorite of the Three Kingdoms Chronicles books so far. Dynasty Killers picks up where Heroes of Chaos left off, and it's adapting some of my favorite parts of this history. Wu does a fantastic job mapping the various political factions and situations when China was perhaps at its most split; things started to coalesce at this point. And that could provide a big hurdle, because there is a lot of important material to get through, and I think it was handled pretty well.

We continue to follow Liao Hua (called Chun still) and by now, Hua is an adult in both timelines. Which means he is fully capable and willing to be in the thick of things, but it also means his flaws are full on display. There are times when our protagonist is deeply unlikeable, there are times when I think he pushes his luck with his lord Cao Cao to an unbelievable degree (real Uhtred/ King Alfred energy), and there are times where Liao does the right thing and you're rooting for him. I think that makes him a pretty complex character.

The prose is better in this book, particularly I thought the dialogue was noticeably better, and there were a few scenes with minor, non-historical characters that were really affecting.

The proceedings in Dynasty Killers has Cao Cao dealing with foes in all directions - Yuan Shao, Yuan Shu, Lu Bu, Zhang Xiu, Liu Bei, Sun Ce. This period of years is where Cao Cao really EARNS his reputation and becomes the “hero of chaos” and I love it so much. Cao Cao and Liao Hua's changing relationship in this one was very good, as Liao realizes that power continuously corrupts. If I'm nitpicking, I think the political situation leading up to the battle of Wan was not given enough time in relation to how monumental the results had on the rest of TK history. The battle itself was really good though. DK also featured a lot more concerning Lu Bu, and while I realize it would be tough, I just wish there were more chances to give Bu some page time. Lu Bu traumatized me as a kid and nothing can truly get across just how scary he was in Dynasty Warriors 3, haha.

The reason this book is not a full five stars is because there is a very jarring, dark scene involving rape, necrophilia, and pedophilia that comes out of nowhere about halfway through the book. The girl is not given a name or any character, she exists just to scandalize the main character, and the scene just felt very out of place to the relatively tame “action-adventure” style we had gotten for the last 2.5 books. For additional context, I had just read Dark Age by Pierce Brown shortly before this, and that book has pages and pages of some the darkest, most heinous shit I've ever read, and I didn't dock that book for it, because it felt tonally appropriate and was handled with care. I just can't get behind the ratio of “dark” to “necessary” in this case. It also continues to make Xiahou Dun a monster, which...hey, I like Xiahou Dun, stop it