Ken Liu Popular Books

Ken Liu Biography & Facts

Ken Liu (born 1976) is an American author of science fiction and fantasy. Liu has won multiple Hugo and Nebula Awards for his novel translations and original short fiction, which has appeared in F&SF, Asimov's, Analog, Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, and multiple "Year's Best" anthologies. Liu has also written an epic fantasy novel series, The Dandelion Dynasty, which he describes as silkpunk. The series is published by Simon & Schuster. Childhood and career Liu was born in 1976 in Lanzhou, China. He spent his childhood with his grandparents. His mother, who received her Ph.D. in chemistry in the United States, is a pharmaceutical chemist, while his father is a computer engineer. The family immigrated to the United States when Liu was 11 years old. They lived in California and Stonington, Connecticut before settling in Waterford, Connecticut. Liu graduated from Waterford High School in 1994, where he ran cross-country and track. At Harvard College, he studied English Literature and Computer Science, receiving his A. B. in 1998. After graduation, Liu worked as a software engineer for Microsoft, and then joined a start-up in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He later received his J.D. from Harvard Law School in 2004 and after working as a corporate lawyer, eventually became a high-tech litigation consultant. Liu began publishing fiction in 2002. His first published work was "Carthaginian Rose", a short story on mind uploading, which was published alongside nine other authors in The Phobos Science Fiction Anthology Volume 1. Liu has said he wanted to become a writer so he could make stories that “turn values upside down and inside out to gain new perspectives”. After a long career writing and publishing short fiction, Liu turned to epic fantasy novels, starting with The Grace of Kings (2015). He has also written for the Star Wars universe, with The Legends of Luke Skywalker (2017). Along with his original work, Liu has translated the works of multiple Chinese authors into English, including Liu Cixin, Hao Jingfang, Chen Qiufan, and Xia Jia. His translation of The Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin helped the book become a best seller to English readers. He has also worked as an editor. While editing the anthology Invisible Planets, Ken Liu translated the stories contained within it from Chinese into English. Some of Liu's work have been adapted into visual media. His short story "Memories of My Mother" was the basis of Beautiful Dreamer (2016) by David Gaddie. His short story "Real Artists" was adapted into the short film Real Artists (2017) by Cameo Wood. His short story "Good Hunting" was adapted into an animated short as part of Netflix's Love, Death & Robots series (2019). Several of the stories in The Hidden Girl and Other Stories were adapted for the animated Pantheon. Liu's short story collection The Hidden Girl and Other Stories (2020) explores ideas such as tradition and progress, the fallibility of memory, and the essence of what it means to be human. Liu lives with his family near Boston, Massachusetts. Awards Liu's short story "The Paper Menagerie" is the first work of fiction, of any length, to win all of the Nebula, Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards. In addition, his short story, "Mono no aware" won the 2013 Hugo Award, and his novella "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" was also nominated for a Hugo. The first novel in his The Dandelion Dynasty series, The Grace of Kings, was a 2016 Nebula Award finalist. The novel was the 2016 Locus Award Best First Novel winner. Besides his original work, Liu's translation of Liu Cixin's Chinese language novel The Three-Body Problem (the first in the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy) won the 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, making it the first translated novel to have won the award. Liu also translated the third volume of the Remembrance of Earth's Past series, Death's End, in 2016, which was a 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel finalist. One of Liu's short stories, "Thoughts and Prayers", is a part of Jonathan Strahan's The Year's Best Science Fiction (2020), Vol 1. Winner 2017 Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, winner, "Death's End" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu 2017 Locus Award for Best Collection, winner, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories 2016 Locus Award for Best First Novel, winner, The Grace of Kings 2015 Hugo Award for Best Novel, winner, "The Three-Body Problem (三体)" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu 2015 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, winner, "The Long Haul: From the Annals of Transportation, The Pacific Monthly, May 2009" 2013 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, winner, "Mono no aware" 2013 FantLab's Book of the Year Award for best Translated Novella or Short Story, winner, "Mono no aware" 2013 FantLab's Book of the Year Award for best On-line publication in Small Form', winner, "The Paper Menagerie" 2012 Science Fiction & Fantasy Translation Awards, Short Form winner, translation from the Chinese of "The Fish of Lijiang" by Chen Qiufan 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Short Fiction, winner, "The Paper Menagerie" 2012 Hugo Award for Best Short Story, winner, "The Paper Menagerie" 2011 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, winner, "The Paper Menagerie" Nominated or finalist 2020 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "Thoughts and Prayers" 2017 Hugo Award for Best Novel, finalist, Death's End by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu 2017 World Fantasy Award, nominee, The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories, Best Collection 2015 Locus Award for Best Novella, finalist, "The Regular" 2015 Theodore Sturgeon Award, finalist, "The Regular" 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novel, nominee, "The Three-Body Problem (三体)" by Cixin Liu, translated by Ken Liu 2014 Nebula Award for Best Novella, nominee, "The Regular" 2014 Sidewise Award for Alternate History, nominee, "A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel" 2014 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "A Brief History of the Trans-Pacific Tunnel" 2013 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "Mono no aware" 2013 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, nominee, "The Litigation Master and the Monkey King 2013 Theodore Sturgeon Award, finalist, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" and "Mono no aware" 2012 Nebula Award for Best Short Story, nominee, "The Bookmaking Habits of Select Species" 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novelette, nominee, "The Waves" 2012 Nebula Award for Best Novella, nominee, "All the Flavors" 2012 Theodore Sturgeon Award, finalist, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" and "The Paper Menagerie" 2012 Locus Award for Best Short Story, finalist, "The Paper Menagerie" 2012 Hugo Award for Best Novella, nominee, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" 2011 Nebula Award for Best Novella, nominee, "The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary" Bibliography Novels The Legends of Luke Skywalker. Disney LucasFilm Press. 2017. ISBN 978-1-4847-8077-0. Archived from the original on 2020-02-15. Retrieved 2018-09-10. The Dandelion Dynast.... Discover the Ken Liu popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Ken Liu books.

Best Seller Ken Liu Books of 2024

  • Press Start to Play synopsis, comments

    Press Start to Play

    Daniel H. Wilson & John Joseph Adams

    IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE! TAKE THIS. You are standing in a room filled with books, faced with a difficult decision. Suddenly, one with a distinctive cover catches your ...

  • The Big Book of Cyberpunk synopsis, comments

    The Big Book of Cyberpunk

    Jared Shurin, Madeline Ashby, Maurice Broaddus, Pat Cadigan, Cory Doctorow, William Gibson, Ken Liu, Janelle Monáe, Neal Stephenson & Bruce Sterling

    A genredefiningand redefiningcollection of the boldest, most rebellious, and most prescient speculative fiction, featuring stories from all over the globe. “The sky above the port ...

  • Supernova Era synopsis, comments

    Supernova Era

    Cixin Liu & Joel Martinsen

    From science fiction legend Cixin Liu, the New York Times bestselling and awardwinning author of The ThreeBody Problem, comes a vision of the future that reads “like Ursula K Le Gu...

  • Estrellas rotas synopsis, comments

    Estrellas rotas

    Ken Liu & María Pilar San Román

    Xia Jia Liu Cixin Tang Fei Han Song Cheng Jingbo Baoshu Hao Jingfang Fei Dao Zhang Ran Anna Wu Ma Boyong Gu Shi Regina Kanyu Wang Chen Qiufan Después de "Planetas inv...

  • Black Wolves synopsis, comments

    Black Wolves

    Kate Elliott

    An exiled captain returns to help the son of the king who died under his protection in this rich and multilayered first book in an actionpacked new series. Twenty two years have pa...

  • The Wall of Storms synopsis, comments

    The Wall of Storms

    Ken Liu

    One of the Time 100 Best Fantasy Books Of All TimeIn the muchanticipated sequel to the “magnificent fantasy epic” (NPR) Grace of Kings, Emperor Kuni Garu is faced with the invasion...

  • El trono velado synopsis, comments

    El trono velado

    Ken Liu & Francisco Muñoz de Bustillo

    La princesa Théra deja el trono en manos de su hermano pequeño para luchar contra los lyucu en UkyuGondé. Ha cruzado el legendario Muro de las Tormentas con una flota de guerra y d...

  • Sidewinders synopsis, comments

    Sidewinders

    Robert V.S. Redick

    Two brothers flee an army of fanatics across a vast and magical desert in this whiteknuckle sequel to Master Assassins from Robert V.S. Redick, author of The Red Wol...

  • From the Neck Up and Other Stories synopsis, comments

    From the Neck Up and Other Stories

    Aliya Whiteley

    “Feels like a major collection” – The Washington PostA short fiction collection to stand with Ted Chiang's Exhalation and Kelly Link's Magic for Beginners.The new collection o...

  • The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water synopsis, comments

    The Order of the Pure Moon Reflected in Water

    Zen Cho

    A 2021 Locus Award Finalist!A Lambda Literary Award FinalistA Book Riot MustRead Fantasy of 2020Amazon's Best of 2020 So Far“Fantastic, defiant, utterly brilliant.” Ken LiuZen Cho ...

  • Robots vs. Fairies synopsis, comments

    Robots vs. Fairies

    Dominik Parisien & Navah Wolfe

    Featured in the Netflix series Love, Death & RobotsA unique anthology of allnew stories that challenges authors to throw down the gauntlet in an epic genre battle and demands a...

  • Master Assassins synopsis, comments

    Master Assassins

    Robert V.S. Redick

    2018 BookNest Fantasy Awards Finalist for Best Novel “This book has everything I love: Clean, crisp worldbuilding. Characters that live and breathe. A story that teases and surpris...

  • The Book of Swords synopsis, comments

    The Book of Swords

    Gardner Dozois, George R.R. Martin, Robin Hobb, Scott Lynch & Garth Nix

    New epic fantasy in the grand traditionincluding a neverbeforepublished Song of Ice and Fire story by George R. R. Martin! Fantasy fiction has produced some of the most unforgettab...