Book Club strikes again! This time we unanimously decided to read an adult historical fiction fantasy novel based partially on the recommendations of a coworker who was already reading it at the time. The Poppy War, Book 1 By R. F. Kuang is so far off of my radar in terms of genre; described as an “epic historical military fantasy” and a (loose) encapsulation of China’s twentieth century, this book I think is very popular nowadays but isn’t something I normally go for. I’m not a huge fantasy or romantasy reader, despite what appears to be growing popularity on TikTok and the A Court of Thorns and Roses Series, but the historical aspect of this book drew me in. Now, after having finished it, I can confidently say this is a series I can envision myself finishing.
The Poppy War, Book 1 By R. F. Kuang
What’s interesting about this first installment of The Poppy War trilogy is that the author, R. F. Kuang, incorporates a lot of her own research and education into the writing. She holds a Master of Philosophy degree in Chinese Studies and a Master of Science degree in Contemporary Chinese Studies, and is either pursuing or has completed her PhD East Asian Languages and Literatures. This I really appreciate because you can tell by her writing that all this cultural and historical knowledge really informs the story. What is the story?
“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.”
The Poppy War: A Nolva. R. F. Kuang. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35068705-the-poppy-war
All of this occurs on a backdrop of bloodthirsty war, and the curiosity honestly doesn’t let up from book’s start to its end. The whole story comes together to be a very entertaining read — the worldbuilding, the stakes, our leading lady Rin; I very quickly drew parallels between The Poppy War and Walt Disney’s Mulan (1998) in terms of the story set up, Rin’s determination, and the huge obstacles thrown in her way. There is a very lovely weaving of lore and history that makes this book very easy to get into right off the bat. The word I kept coming back to in my notes was “entertaining,” and it really rings true, it’s pretty easy to turn on (I listened to the audiobook) and just go along for the ride.
This book has a lot going for it — action, mystery, magic — and I love the character development of our leads. Rin starts off as a very highly dedicated and almost painfully motivated student who manages to get into the Academy, and over the course of the book transitions into someone who isn’t going to let her friends, her nation, and her kin die. And Altan may seem like your typical cliched brooding, tortured soul full of hate and rage, but we really get to dig into him and his motivations and you really feel for him. I love the enemies-to-lovers-esque nature of their relationship and how close they both become and how well they both grow to understand each other. I ship them and nobody can tell me differently; they held hands, okay?
The one thing that really got me going and got me fired up for my book club meeting was the pervasive perspective of the Lore Master, the woman in the Pantheon, and Kitay’s reaction to seeing Rin at the end of her Book 1 character arc. This is because the one thing that rings true with all of these characters is the idea of “Don’t call upon the Phoenix god, don’t do it, this is a really bad idea.” Which, sure, I can understand; I can understand the repercussions of allowing the gods and demigods to enter the mortal realm and possibly cause chaos.
But honey. Bud. Sweetie. What you have to keep in mind is context. Sure this talk of honor and not playing your ace is great, but — as the title suggests — the majority of this book takes place during war. A very bloodthirsty, harrowing, destructive war in which there are excruciating detailed accounts of the Federation of Mugen pillaging and wreaking havoc on Rin’s country. A lot of bad things happen to a lot of people, to the point where a city of either half a million or one million (I don’t quite remember) is reduced to the population of maybe a thousand. In fact, Kitay spends several paragraphs (or I envision it to be several paragraphs, as again I listened to the audiobook) recounting the pillaging he had survived.
So with that in mind, you can understand how frustrating it was to be reading this book and to experience the contrast of “Don’t summon the gods,” when the gods are literally the only option to stop the death and hostile takeover of an entire county. At one point, Kitay is seriously asking us (the reader) to feel bad for the Federation; he is not canonly a pacifist and honestly has no idea what he’s talking about. It’s all about choosing your bad or choosing your hard. It’s bad to not use all the tools at your disposal to prevent mass genocide, it’s bad to have your people die, and it’s bad to annihilate an entire country or attackers. But it’s either you or them, especially when “them” is a very large group of people who according to Rin and Kitay’s own accounts, are not human. Either gods kill everyone or the Federation kills everyone — pick one. Survival trumps honor.
Notably, none of my thoughts above are meant to be digs at Kuang as an author or storyteller; they’re simply my own responses to character(s) who I do like overall, but think are quite incorrect in this view. And while I imagine more information will be revealed in the latter half of this trilogy, I fail to see what makes summoning the Phoenix to stop thousands of deaths such a horrible thing.
My final thoughts are for those readers who are used to reading an entire book series or who may be fearful about starting a trilogy. Note that because of how The Poppy War is written and concludes, it is very easy to either pick up the sequel right away or to wait and take a break before diving into the next one; there’s no story pressure to immediately start the next one but I’m sure you will (just as I am). I don’t know when I’ll get around to it, but I am very interested in reading the next stage of this story and would absolutely consider finishing this trilogy. I think this is a wonderful debut for this author!
My Hot Takes (Spoiler Warning)
- We love to see women’s rights being respected! We hate to see the lack of women’s education but love to see women’s rights, women making their own choices, and women owning their futures.
- We also love to see the enemies to friends trope.
- Just a note to readers, late in the book there are quite vivid descriptions of pain, suffering, mutilation, sex crimes, and various war crimes that severely violate the Geneva Convention. If you are sensitive to that sort of thing and would prefer to skip through these very detailed and thorough descriptions, tread lightly and consider skipping the snippets where the Cike go to the wartime capital and see that Kitay and Venka have survived.
- The first part of this story can feel very rushed when compared to the last two-thirds; dont feel alarmed.
- It’s also important for readers to know ahead of time this is book one, which is good because this is indicated on Audible. Because it’s very much written like a part of a trilogy. The Poppy War works partially as its own standalone story, but it is very much set up as the first installment of a multi-part series. This is not a dig, just an observation.
My Rating: 4/5 Stars
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