“I have no doubt this will end up being the best fantasy debut of the year […] I have absolutely no doubt that [Kuang’s] name will be up there with the likes of Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin.” — Booknest
A Library Journal, Paste Magazine, Vulture, BookBub, and ENTROPY Best Books pick!
Washington Post “5 Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel” pick!
A Bustle “30 Best Fiction Books” pick!
A … Science Fiction and Fantasy Novel” pick!
A Bustle “30 Best Fiction Books” pick!
A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy.
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.
But surprises aren’t always good.
Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.
For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .
Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.
more
In The Poppy War, RF Kuang draws on history and myth to tell a relentlessly unforgiving story of war, vengeance, power and madness, with larger-than-life characters that evoke sympathy and rouse terror. Brace yourself.
A blistering, powerful epic of war and revenge that will captivate you to the bitter end.
A truly epic fantasy series kickoff, full of richly imagined characters, detailed mythology, and mind-blowing magic. Descriptions of enemy atrocities late in the book are truly stomach-turning, but this book is still highly recommended for those who like their fantasy smart, their heroines spirited, and their world-building complex.
I don’t as a rule, go for books with mystical Gods or magic. I think it’s because there tends to be a lack of tension; the protagonist can always summon a spell or a God to get them out of the situation. This is not the case in The Poppy War. The book starts out establishing the world slowly while delving deeply into the main point of view character. What works so well for me is that the world feels and looks like China before the industrial age. With some minor exceptions it almost reads like a great historical novel. So, when the mystical and magic finally gets introduced, I was too hooked to even care. Truly a brilliant job of writing. This author has an advanced craft level of writing. During the crisis of the book (The four C’s of structure, Conflict, Complication, Crisis, Conclusion), the Third Poppy War, the Shaman are not invisible and can die just like everyone else making the tension high. This was an excellent read and I highly recommend it to those who enjoy character driven fantasy. I will definitely be reading the next two in the series. The second one is already on my table.
David Putnam author of The Bruno Johnson Series
I’d heard a ton of good things about this one.
Even if I hadn’t, the premise alone would’ve had this near the top of my TBR pile.
So?
Yeah, the hype is real. Not only was this one of the most compelling books I read this year, but R.F. Kuang has made the short list of my top authors to follow.
The story follows Rin, an orphan in a fictionalized version China, one recovering from the Poppy Wars with the Federation. During the last war, the Empire was saved by interference from foreign powers. But knowing they can’t count on that again, the Empire has an elite school to train officers for the army. By pushing herself to her physical and mental limits, Rin tests into the school and suffers bullying and so forth.
Does this sound a little Harry Potter? A little YA?
It’s not. It’s dark and gritty and painfully real, pretty much from the get go, but as the story goes on, and war erupts, we face the horrors of it head-on.
Also, a cool take on shamanim (channeling gods, basically) which fits nicely into the world yet without overshadowing the martial arts.
The basic premise is influenced by 20th century Chinese history, though the setting feels older, without too much in the way of modern weapons.
I have only one complaint about the book, and that was a small number of anachronisms that kind of threw me. Now, I actually believe some people often mistake things for anachronisms that are not actually. Things that might be justified given a foreign language being translated. There are other reasons for using anachronisms, too, like accessibility or the emotion produced in modern readers. So it’s kind of a your-mileage-may-vary issue. To me, a few bits of dialogue seemed needlessly modern.
Despite any flaws, this books is amazing.
Seriously, don’t skip this one.
Battles. Bloodshed. Drugs. Amazing, amazing characters. Read it!
A thrilling, action-packed fantasy of gods and mythology… The ambitious heroine’s rise from poverty to ruthless military commander makes for a gripping read, and I eagerly await the next installment.
If you love fantasy that is enriched with a deep foundation of history and that asks the biggest questions about how human beings treat each other, then definitely read Rebecca Kuang’s The Poppy War. Kuang takes us “off world” into a fantasy realm of imaginative power and richness, but readers will also understand that the novel’s world is China, the Mugen Empire foe is Japan, and the genocide of an entire city echoes the historical 1937 Rape of Nanking. Kuang’s novel is simultaneously fantasy and history—but it’s the ideas and core messages of that history that are interwoven in the story, not the events in their historical minutiae. While there are referents to events and atrocities in World War II, they are portrayed through a new prism of magical fantasy. The warriors arm themselves with swords and quivers of arrows and powers given by gods, not guns, but as the novel progresses the twentieth century seeps in. This could be jarring, but Kuang’s handling of this brewing across centuries works seamlessly, partly because she writes about cultures that kept themselves cut off from the rest of the world so it feels “historical” and partly because she writes so well. The dread “anachronism” never crossed my mind. She held me inside her story, the pages turning without interruption.
The central character is Rin, a teenage girl, orphaned in the Second Poppy War. Through determination and a powerful brain, she passes the national exam to get into the military academy. She’s trying to escape an arranged marriage with a disgusting opium dealer. She thinks that getting into the school will be an excellent end goal. But, of course, it’s only the very beginning. Suffice to say that this book involves a complicated character arc for this young woman. You won’t be able to predict it. This is a world always preparing for war and the Empress is quite happy to weaponize her human assets. Even her divine assets. I wouldn’t have predicted that Chinese philosophy could be welded into exciting plot conflicts and rich characters challenging each other, but Kuang has achieved that, also. She makes her characters ask of themselves monstrously hard questions—how do we “make up for” things like genocide, for example. But these big themes only increase the tension and excitement of the novel. Kuang will take you out of this known world, but leave you understanding it better once you’ve turned the last page. And the entertainment is unflagging throughout.
This book is good, but the last third is incredibly dark, gory, and difficult to read. I wish I had known that going in, because part III is very different from the rest of the book and I’ve had a very hard time reading it.
So, this was a really difficult one for me to review.
It did not start well. For several hundred pages (close to half of the entire book) the story follows Rin through her formative years at Sinegard military academy. There were so many tropes here I was nearly crushed by their prodigious weight. Poor, innocent pariah? Check. Shunned by her fellow students save for a band of motley outcasts like herself? Check. Climatic showdown with one of her bullies? Check. Picked on by her teachers for her social status? Check. Except of course one of the quirky, older teachers who takes her under his wing. Oh, and there’s a brooding, sultry, older student who gives her the occasional smouldering look …
It’s not that it’s bad in any particular way, it’s just been done so, so many times before, in everything from The Name of the Wind, to Blood Song, to, well, Harry Potter.
Then, suddenly, it becomes a completely different book. What started off as a mellow coming-of-age story veers off that nice, complacent, well-trodden path and careens off down a twisting trail of violence and death. The writing becomes more insistent – more personal, even – and the pace rockets forwards, dragging you from revelation to revelation until it reaches its satisfying conclusion.
I found this second, darker part much more appealing as it plays directly into my love of military fantasy and darker themes. What Kuang manages to do differently here is focus on the terrible consequences of war, far more so than war itself. Towards the tail of the novel Rin is no longer at the forefront of the defensive line, but arrives after the battle is lost, and can only weep at the terrible carnage the enemy has left behind.
The prose here is brutal. Everything is described in great detail, whether we want to read about it or not. Dismemberments, rape, extremely violent child death, slavery etc… the list goes on and, of course, has no trouble producing the desired effect: we believe in Rin’s anger and hatred, and we want to see her take her revenge, no matter the cost.
Lastly, the world-building, inspired by Chinese Mythology and History (sometimes a little too heavily), is excellent, as is the magic system and the consequences of entering into pacts with uncaring deities we do not fully understand.
So how can I rate such a book? In the end, I feel like I cannot ignore the faults of the first half, which I’d give a 2-2.5/5, and the second half, which is a clear 4-4.5/5.
Looking forward to book 2!
This book has Qi, training with a master like Jiraya in Naruto, where Rin is the mudblood, Hermione Granger, at Sineguard bullied by a Malfoy. So, why the F *** I wouldn’t like it? Imagine a war is giving Hermione Granger and Draco Malfoy a little chemistry that doesn’t end in colorful romance. The violence that teaches teens adult things. Many are saying it’s YA. But the age of the MCs hardly defines the age group in books.
The spirituality parts with Jiang–I was gripped in those pages for personal reasons, the first 250 pages were lovely for me. Ever since Cike came, I was lost again in that many character buildings. Cike part felt like a new story starting with too many new characters forced at me, where I basically wanted to travel with the previous emotionally established characters.
But in the end, it’s a military fantasy ending with a rise of a phoenix, exactly like it should be.
The Poppy War
(The Poppy War #1)
by R.F. Kuang
This is a wonderful, violent, emotional, tragic, excellent book! This is about Ren who starts out as an orphan and is forced upon a family and is treated horribly. She is to be married off to an old ugly guy but has money. Her only hope is to study to get into the academy to be a warrior. She gets a friendly gentleman to teach her. She studies hard and makes it. She is smart but not trained in battle skills.
Things are very rough for her there until she finds out she has a gift that is worth more that battle. She has a skill to learn to be a shaman.
This is full of heartbreak nearly all the way through but I just kept reading it anyway. I couldn’t stop. There is also so much unbelievable violence. Rape is mentioned numerous times. Graphic violence. I wanted to stop reading but I had to know what was going to happen.
It has some fantasy, adventure, almost non-stop action, all types of emotions, and lots of rage. I felt exhausted by the end of the book.
I liked the book but I don’t think I can follow the series. It was a good book but I don’t want to put myself through this again and again.
Whew! What a ride. This is going to be a fun series. I am always hesitant to begin another series because I have so many I need to finish, but this was worth picking up.
You cannot rush through this behemoth of a book, but instead must digest piece by piece and savor the words. It is very slow to start as you learn about the history, the characters and the world they live in. This didn’t make it hard to read or pick back up…at least not for me. I enjoyed all aspects of the writing and the flow. Sometimes there are those books that you just have to slow down for.
With how this one ended I am anxiously awaiting the continuance in book 2. Thank goodness for buddy reads or this might still be collecting dust
Absolutely brutal, but very, very good. I don’t read a lot of grimdark fantasy anymore (the world is dark enough IRL), but this book is so well done, I can’t regret it. CW for absolutely everything horrifying in war: rape, torture, murder, brutal medical experimentation, genocide. Based on events from one of the Sino-Japanese wars, I read somewhere that every single horrific detail in the latter part of the book (when it gets really bad) is based on real events, which just goes to show you how inhuman we can be to each other. Kuang eases you in to this story of how much of your soul/humanity you will trade in the name of protecting your people or revenge (starting with one and moving onto the other), with an appealing “orphan wins a chance to study at the best university” plotline. By the time war breaks out, you already know things are going to get rough, but the descent into dehumanization and madness accelerates in the second half. Relentlessly well-paced and full of agonizingly terrible decisions. Definitely recommended, but CW FOR EVERYTHING, SERIOUSLY.
Enrolling in Sineguard academy is only the beginning of Rin’s new life. She will learn that being a peasant amid high born military children is a new challenge she must overcome. She will have to prove herself among her peers, and overcome the derogatory comments whispered behind her back. As she battles her way through the slander and harsh treatment, Rin will discover a dark power locked within herself. A power that could easily burn all those around her if it isn’t kept in check. But power is something Rin has always wanted because it means she can destroy those she hates.
Rin as a character surprised me. Her blunt attitude and dialogue threw me what I first started reading. I expected a girl who had to build herself into a strong willed independent woman as most young protagonists are. Instead, Rin started off capable and willing to do what she had to. No matter who tried to bring her down, she was prepared to swing back and defend herself.
The Poppy War focuses on the atrocities that are committed during war. The plot progresses rather quickly, sometimes months at a time to push Rin and her companions into situations formed from long days waiting for enemies to attack. While there is a purpose to the shifting time, it also takes away the ability to see the characters progressively develop. There were times when Rin announced how she felt about different characters and it was more telling than showing how she felt. However, where the relationships between characters may not have been believable the bitter realities R.F. Kuang created in multiple scenes made all the difference.
The Poppy War is a book for those who enjoy history as much as they enjoy reading fantasy. Politics play a key role in the progression of the war. However, make sure you are prepared for the grisly details. The cruelties witnessed by Rin and her fellow soldiers turned my stomach but also were a wake up call to what could happen during times of war. It’s not honorable battles where the heroes always win. I am interested in seeing what will happen in the next book, and how Rin will overcome her new challenges.
I am super surprised by how I enjoyed this story considering I wasn’t expecting too enjoy it at all.
Full of war, vengeance, power and madness!! it is truly the madness within this story that drew me in more then anything and worth every page turn almost like a symphony it had me turning the pages wondering what next and who because surely with so much power there will always be a certain amount of crazy!
The only downside for me was it lacked romance, I really wanted a developed romance although the innuendo was there which is probably why I wanted it in the first place, it just didn’t jump off the pages, what can I say im a sucker for a love story, take out the hints I wouldn’t have wanted it! Alas I am grateful for what I got and can only hope for more in the future books right!!!
At first, R. F. Kuang’s The Poppy War seems like an edgier version of Harry Potter: an outcast-at-the-academy story with a slightly older protagonist, drugs, and a few incidents of self-harm. Then the book veers into Hell.
The setting has a lot to do with it. The Poppy War takes place in a fantasy version of 20th-century China; the eventual focus is a magic-infused retelling of the Second Sino-Japanese War, which began two years before World War II and included a slaughter sometimes referred to as the “Forgotten Holocaust.” The novel isn’t escapist so much as it is a brutal reminder of mankind’s capacity for evil.
But again, The Poppy War doesn’t start that way. Rin, the main character and an orphan, takes a civil-service exam in an attempt to escape a dismal future in an arranged marriage. (In Imperial China, only males could enter the bureaucracy; in Nikan—Kuang’s name for her reimagined China—females have a chance too.) She scores so highly she’s accepted into the country’s premier military academy. Few are impressed by this feat, however: most of the other students are scions of rich, powerful families. They scorn Rin even as she rises to the top of her class in subjects like strategy, martial arts, and—eventually—magic.
This is the book’s first shapeshift. Magic is rumored to exist, and referenced occasionally in the early chapters. Yet we see no evidence of it until almost halfway through the story; at the academy, the study of magical “lore” is generally derided. In truth, it should be feared. Magic has a terrible price in this world. Power hurts, and channeling it often leads to madness.
Rin pursues this knowledge anyway, until her schooling is interrupted by the story’s second jolt: the outbreak of war with the Federation of Mugen (Japan). This is when things get horrific.
A gentler narrative would have waited until Rin graduated, perhaps taking the entirety of Book 1 to see her through school and then setting up Book 2 as the “battle book.” But Kuang isn’t interested in sugarcoating savagery. War doesn’t just derail hopes and dreams—it destroys them. Some of Rin’s teachers die. Many of her friends do too. Nothing will ever be the same.
This is especially true after the destruction of one of the cities Rin and her new military cohort are supposed to protect. The carnage is unimaginable: wanton mutilation, pyramids of corpses, extreme sexual violence. It feels over the top. But as Kuang notes in her afterword, she based almost every scene in these chapters on real accounts of the Forgotten Holocaust, also known as the Nanjing Massacre and the Rape of Nanjing. “Very little was made up — most of what you see truly happened.”
Rin struggles to process how the Mugenese could carry out such heinous acts. “They were monsters!” she shrieks to a fellow soldier. “They were not human!” Her friend pushes back. “Have you ever considered,” he says slowly, “that that was exactly what they thought of us?” Rin grapples with this concept—the ways we justify atrocities—for the latter part of the book. She also wonders how you can avenge a genocide without committing one.
So, yeah: not a bedtime story to enjoy with your kids once you’ve finished Harry Potter. I also wouldn’t start The Poppy War if you’re not in a good headspace. But you shouldn’t ignore the history here either (altered as it is). Abominations like the Rape of Nanjing are the last things we want to repeat. And Kuang makes that point with heart and skill. This is a read that lingers.
As it should.
(For more reviews like this one, see http://www.nickwisseman.com)
The Poppy War is such a gripping debut for RF Kuang. It sucks you right in to the world she’s built with Nikan, the Federation, and Speer. The world, it’s politics, and its religions are totally unique and so well portrayed that they truly seem real. The story begins with Fang Runin (Rin) and follows her through her journey from orphan peasant in Tikany to scholar at the renowned military school Singuard. She meets a diverse cast of characters, funny and brutal and everything in between. However, when the Federation attacks the tone of the novel switches to the brutality felt by a country being ravaged by war. Kuang holds no bars in describing the havoc wreaked upon teh land and it’s people as the Federation tear through Nikan. She pulls from tragedies experienced by China at the hands of Japan, describing real scenes from the Nanjing Massacre that make your skin crawl and your heart seize up. It seems too terrible to be real, and it leaves you feeling both appalled and horrified. Kuang’s motive here was to inspire people to become more educated about atrocities often forgotten or glossed over by the Western world, and with me she succeeded. I wasn’t aware of these tragedies, and upon reading The Poppy War I was moved to educate myself.
Looking back, THE POPPY WAR sometimes feels like two or three books rather than one. This isn’t a bad thing. It’s not that the events, tone, or story itself are disparate, it’s just that so much of a journey is made from the first page to the ending. Rin isn’t always a likeable character, but then, who is. She is however a perfect character to experience the story with. From stubborn resolve, to incinerating vitriol, this story belongs to her. We meet lots of other interesting characters too, many whom are very easy to love and want to learn more about. Every action in THE POPPY WAR feels like it has consequence, and though the tension may be slow to build, once it does it is unstoppable and relentless. I read this through audiobook, and the narration was excellent. Well paced and excellently voiced, it definitely made me eager to experience the sequels the same way.
An engaging fantasy tale with a Medieval feel to it set in the Nikara Empire which is a thinly disguised China. The Dragon Emperor is gone, the Gatekeeper disappeared and only the Vipress remains of the original Trifecta that defeated the Federation of Mugen decades ago. Fang Runin enters the Empire’s coveted military academy to train and serve the Vipress as a warrior, a goal she achieves after hard work and a long and difficult journey. But the academy is only the start of the trials that beset her as she comes to realise that she’s not like the other students and she has to forge her own path which brings her directly into conflict with her own moral compass and so many around her. But its the Gods that have the greatest pull on her and the gods that pose the greatest danger and forces her into choices and consequences that she won’t be able to escape.
I found the undertones to Chinese history fascinating and the characters really engaging. The plot is very twisting but not totally unexpected and on a rare occasion a little while to get there. For the most part it’s a highly enjoyable read and I’m looking forward to reading the next one.