Book Series Review : The Poppy War (The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, The Burning God) + The Drowning Faith by R. F. Kuang

I have been debating a lot whether to read this book or to skip it because the hype is just crazy. I have known this series will be a serious read and there will be no romance included. Even though I know I am in dire need of Romantasy but oh well.. I did not have any Romantasy recs these days so I decided to try reading for this series!

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1. The Poppy War (The Poppy War #1) by R. F. Kuang

Genre : Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Adult, High Fantasy
Page : 545 pages
Published : 1st May 2018

— Blurb —

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

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— Mini Review —

“War doesn’t determine who’s right. War determines who remains.”

I love Rin already in the beginning. I am only in the beginning chapter but I have already sympathize with her, laugh for her random personality and cheer for her like my best friend.

A good character with harsh premises is one of my favorite things to read.

I think I could never grasp and explain in detail how well this book crafted a story based on our current society standing. It’s not a direct insult but I love how subtle and yet clear of how this book describe how our world works. Like a whole package is accurately written in the book.

The story is good. It has a good premises and it is developed quite well and it doesn’t keep staying on one track. It has many good combat scenes but I don’t know why I have difficulties in imagining the combat scenes.

This book is divided into several parts and the first part of this book is actually quite huge because readers still learning on how this book works and it truly takes time to feel comfortable with the settings and characters name. At times, I also feel bored because nothing actually happen yet.

But moving on to part two and onwards, everything just blow my mind away. This is the kind of book that is actually slow burn but it has never ending case after case that make this book unputdownable.

The story gets crazy, circumstances is getting crazier and crazier.

However, I think I am not that fond of the writing. I know this book has an amazing story and quite competent characters but I don’t think I am fond of the writing. Most of the time, the writing feels like just words because I need to have a full on concentration reading the book and sometimes the words bored me.

Also, I know I highly view characters in the book especially Rin but along the way, I’m starting to feel annoyed with her personality. But then again, moving onwards again, I find myself feel attached with Rin again. So it’s like I don’t know actually where to group our characters.

Not only Rin, I also found myself in a love hate relationship with Nezha – Rin’s academy rival and her mentor – Altan. But well, I still enjoy my time with the book.

This book is seriously heavy and it’s just full of never-ending war. For that, sometimes it feels like a history text book because of how full the history is. Still, I could see why many readers love this book.

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2. The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2) by R. F. Kuang

Genre : Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Adult, High Fantasy
Page : 658 pages
Published : 6st August 2016

— No Blurb This Time —

This is to prevent those who have not yet read the series to avoid spoilers ⁠♡

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— Mini Review —

“Fire and water looked so lovely together. It was a pity they destroyed each other by nature.”

I have mixed feelings regarding Nezha in the first book but I love to read his scenes. So imagine my excitement that this book will be focusing more on Nezha’s hometown, background and his culture.

I guess out of the three books, this will be my favorite because this book show readers many sides of a character and I absolutely love the group between Rin, Nezha and Kitay – Rin’s best friend.

It is still heavy on war and combats but in this, we have the leisure to take things slow because aside from war, this book also focused on new culture, new surroundings and new allies and it is a quite a fun read.

But truth to be told, I frequently do not understand the geographical details of the book and I frequently mistook this Warlord for that Warlord because there are a lot to take in for this book. There are a lot of new characters and new regions, so it truly feels like a whole new level.

For the plot, I think it is fairly good. I love how this book started, how the characters begin to trust and distrust, how the war is impacting basically everyone, the combat scenes (although it is still hard for me to digest) and the ending is mind blowing even though I could see it coming, I just don’t think it could happened this fast.

This book also make me hold my breath the entire time for feared of my favorite characters death or betrayal because you could never predict what will happen next.

Although this book focused more on The Dragon, be it culture or allies or characters, this book is still heavy on war and politics. This second book is truly a show of strategy, politics and war that cramped my mind because there are just too many to count how many battles the characters have partake.

I do not know much about Chinese history so I can’t relate much of what happen here to the original history. But many readers said this story is inspired from the past history.

The plot, the characters and everything that going on is pretty good. It’s just I am not that fond of the writing style because it takes too much concentration and sometimes I feel bored with the writing even though I know this is a good story and deep down I would love to keep reading. I just can’t find myself loving the words.

But what shocked me is there are hints of possible infatuation although it is a mild thing.

And moving on to this second book, If I combined the overall characters rating, I would say this book is pretty bad at character development. I know this is war we are talking about and I know switching sides is a common thing in war but I just can’t place a character hidden agenda. The kind of character that could switch personality instantly from the good the bad or the bad to the good.

But still, I guess it is a pretty good read.

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3. The Burning God (The Poppy War, #3) by R. F. Kuang

Genre : Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Adult, High Fantasy
Page : 622 pages
Published : 17th November 2020

— No Blurb This Time —

This is to prevent those who have not yet read the series to avoid spoilers ⁠♡

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— Mini Review —

“The point of revenge wasn’t to heal. The point was that the exhilaration, however temporary, drowned out the hurt.”

Well Okay.

I’ve come to the point of “Oh my god. Here we go again. Another 600 pages of war and distress.”

I truly tried reading this book but there’s this one point where I felt that the story has taken into a slow drawl and I am bored because nothing major happen. In the end, there are many parts I skip because this is too much war for me and too much words for me.

Usually I always love main character in a book and I rarely done the opposite. It’s not like I dislike Rin but it’s like I’m a bit annoyed with her personality. Combined with the pressure and my own needs to see Rin winning this war, I am in a rush reading this book to get to the end.

I feel like this book could be developed much more because there are so many interesting aspects that I have been waiting for ages but the implementation is quite underwhelming.

And although I know war is ugly and we could never guess what could happen and it is a massacre of the good and the bad, I am not okay with how this book ends. After finished reading the whole series, I just think it is a hopeless case and what is the point of Book 1 and Book 2 if Book 3 ended like this?

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My Thoughts About This Series

Even though I am not that fond of the series, I quite enjoy my time with the series and I love the overall plot and the implementation of our current social standing. This book discussed a lot of things and made me ponder about what’s right and what’s wrong.

I would give this book a solid five star for how this book speak up and relate things between fiction and reality. It is cleverly woven into the story and added much more depth to the plot.

And even though I do not know much about Chinese history, I think this series bloody war and massacre is inspired from the true history events.

In terms of how this story goes, I am amazed with how good this book is with momentum after momentum. Sure the writing takes a lot of concentration and might not be pacey but the momentum is always there and things always happen one thing right after another.

For the characters, I have mixed feelings regarding them. I guess my most favorite character in the book is Kitay – Rin’s best friend and Jiang – Rin’s mentor. The rest, I kind of develop love hate relationship with them and with this series, you might never know what is under the characters sleeves because their moves are unpredictable.

But I love the trio dynamic between Rin, Nezha and Kitay because combined, they’re bright and seems undefeatable.

There are no romance in the series because this is not a Romantasy. It has only a hint or two possible infatuation but that’s it. This series doesn’t even feel like Fantasy. I feel like reading a huge jumble text of historical events because of how serious, lengthy and massive this war is. The brutality is just endless.

Personally, I know this book is amazing but I just can’t find myself truly read this series from the beginning until the end with no skipping. I have high enthusiasm in The Poppy War (Book 1), started skip reading some parts in The Dragon Republic (Book 2) and skip reading almost everything in The Burning God (Book 3)

Why? Because there are too much war for me and I personally felt like there are no progress from the first book be it characters or the war. It is the same cycle for three books with just different circumstances.

Also, I don’t know why but I find it hard to remember the names and geographical details for this series.

And the ending just baffles me. I know there will be a blood bath and I see it coming but I don’t like the circumstances. It feels like we’re back to square one and learning this ending, I think there are no point of this series.

But I could see why readers love this series so much and why this is so hype back in the days because me too, there are small part of me that think highly of this series and there are times I am hooked into the story. I also ended up thinking of the characters a lot.

It truly is a good series although it is not perfect. My biggest problem with the series is perhaps the writing style and personally, it’s my fault for reading something that do not match my mood and this is not my cup of tea. Perhaps because of that I am not that fond of the series. But it is still enjoyable and I would recommend it to readers who love Chinese historical fiction.

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BONUS

A Drowning Faith

I find out this book accidentally when I have finished the series. I am still reeling from the ending of The Burning God (Book 3)

And this is a fifteen page bonus scenes that can be found on R. F. Kuang website.

It is a collection of scenes from Nezha’s point of view. I recommend reading this to understand what Nezha feels during all those battles. And I feel much more sadder after finished reading this. Things could be so much different under different circumstances.

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Well that’s it. My full thoughts on The Poppy War. I think the whole premises, the plot and the characters are genius. This series also shine because it is different from every other fantasy I’ve read. It is not my cup of tea but I still enjoy my time reading this series. Truly.

I also ended up thinking a lot of the characters which also make me think about reality of what happen to basically everyone if war breaks out. Everything and everyone will be impacted by the consequences. From the bad, the good, the powerless, the followers, basically everyone.

I also understand why this book must end this way but I can’t help but feel bitter about it. I could agree on how this book ends in different circumstances. Like at least, there are good changes. But personally I feel like we are back to square one and all those reading came out to be nothing important.

Not to mention how sad I feel after finished reading The Drowning Faith

So, what do you think about the series?

Author : Celine