The Complete Poppy War Trilogy

The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, The Burning God

From R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Babel, this collection features the novels in her historical military fantasy trilogy—The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, and The Burning God—a complete epic inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.

The Poppy War

A war orphan, Rin earned her place in Nikan’s most elite military school. There, she discovers her lethal, unearthly power of shamanism—and learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive. When an inevitable conflict arises between longtime enemies the Nikara Empire and the Federation of Mugen, Rin realizes her 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. . .

The Dragon Republic

After committing an atrocity in battle, shamanic warrior Rin is consumed with guilt, an opium addiction, and the murderous commands of the fiery Phoenix god. Channeling her anger against the Empress who betrayed Rin’s homeland, she chooses to join forces with the Empress’s enemy, the Dragon Warlord. But as Rin discovers the true natures of the Empress and the Dragon Warlord, the temptation to unleash the Phoenix’s fearsome power grows—and so does her vengeance. . .

The Burning God

After saving Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress in a brutal civil war, Rin realizes that her homeland’s real power lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess of salvation. Vowing to defeat all who threaten the shamanic arts, Rin’s power and influence grows—but so does the Phoenix’s intoxicating voice urging her to burn the world and everything in it. . .

“Mixing historical parallels of Chinese history, the themes of war, politics, and colonialism are balanced with terrific, flawed characters and amazing worldbuilding.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Performance was fine, story was mediocre

I finished it, but felt 'meh' about it. Many fantasy and war tropes mixed into a parallel/alt-history thing. Such angsty melodrama. And I could've done without the chapter about the sacking of "Golyn Niis" (aka Nanking) by the "Federation" (Japanese) with its pages-long description of every war crime atrocity from the Wikipedia page... just no.
I was also mildly offended and off-put by the worst trope ever... where the main character overcomes her opioid addiction alone, through willpower, in a short time. And then never has a problem with opioids again. That was the most unbelievable part of the whole book. And there was magic.

Think hard before getting this.

If you're looking for entertainment, these are not the books for you.

A 3 star rating is both too low of a rating and too high. At the end of every other chapter I would have given a different score. With the writing at time being some of the roughest and most inconsistent of any other story I have listened to. At times I had to force myself to keep listening, but other times I could not put it down. As someone who has a really hard time with sadness, the ending was perfect, and it brought me to tears. But getting through the 2nd and most of the 3rd book was horrible.

If you can get to the finnish line, it's worth it, but you need to be a certain kind of listener to enjoy its full value and look past the flaws of someone's first work. I'm not sure I am. Good luck

eh.

Overall I enjoyed the story and the history behind it. It is very hard, however, to overlook a main character with zero development. Don't go into this serious expecting the MC to have any character development. She is going to be the same pretty much the entire story. You can't go through all of that and not be changed at least a little by it. She never learns. Well maybe she does in the last paragraph, but by then it's far to late. And no, I'm not expecting her to become some hero. That wouldn't fit her. But even learning the wrong lessons would have been better than learning nothing. So ignore that part. Just enjoy the over all story and thing about all of the real history behind it.

Dark, Compelling, and Brilliant

This is a grim dark fantasy, and anyone complaining that the series is too dark, the main character is whiny, etc etc has kind of missed the point. If you’re looking for a feel-good fantasy with a perfect hero/heroin, this this is definitely not the series for you.

Speechless

I was not expecting that ending. My god what an incredible series. I have no words. Just tears.