• The Dragon Republic

  • The Poppy War, Book 2
  • By: R. F. Kuang
  • Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
  • Length: 23 hrs and 46 mins
  • 4.4 out of 5 stars (58 ratings)

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The Dragon Republic  By  cover art

The Dragon Republic

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
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Publisher's Summary

The searing follow-up to 2018’s most celebrated fantasy debut – THE POPPY WAR.

Rin is on the run…

Haunted by the atrocity she committed to save her people, addicted to opium, and driven by the murderous commands of Phoenix, the vengeful god who has blessed Rin with her fearsome power.

Rin’s only reason for living is to get revenge on the traitorous Empress who sold her homeland, Nikan, to her enemies.

With no other options, Rin joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who has a plan to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new Republic. She throws herself into his war.

After all, making war is all she knows how to do…

©2019 R. F. Kuang (P)2019 HarperCollins Publishers Limited

Critic Reviews

"A wholly unique experience." (The Washington Post)

"A blistering, powerful epic of war and revenge that will captivate you to the bitter end." (Kameron Hurley, author of The Stars Are Legion

"An outstanding debut." (Daily Mail)

What listeners say about The Dragon Republic

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Better than The Poppy War

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
Whilst i enjoyed the poppy war i found it to be a little disjointed and unfocused. The Dragon Republic rectified these issues for me as the story flowed better and was thematically tighter.
I particularly enjoyed the way Rin's character developed in this book and the greater depth given to some of the other characters.
The plot is great with some very interesting political machinations and character relationships.
This is the best book of any genre that i"ve read in a long time and so much better than what the vast majority other fantasy authors have to offer.
Very highly recommended.

2 people found this helpful

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When is the next one coming out?!?

Again hardly slept to listen to it in (almost) one sitting! Great plot twists and turns, and the end left me gutted!!

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excellent second book.

Now I am eager for the third book. if it's half as good as the book 2, then this Saga will be memorable.

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  • Anonymous User
  • 07-25-21

interesting but obnoxious

TLDR
I struggled to finish this book due to Rin's personality and obnoxity. But I still love it.

Detailed

I loved many parts of this book, and wish I could rate it higher. The worldbuilding is really good, and the premise of the civil war and many of the plotpoints are amazing!
HOWEVER... This might just be my own opinion, but I found the main character close to unbearable. I understand and empathises why Rin makes the decisions she does, and I know the reason why she is descending. But I found her soooooo obnoxious, selfrighteous and naive, with no real understanding of the word "Empathy". I struggled empathising with her for long parts of the book, almost feeling satisfaction when things did not go her way.
In a way, I kind of like having a flawed protagonist, and I see what the author was going for. Sadly I think that the narrator played a big part in my reason for disliking Rin as much as I did.
BUT
I... I still kind of like Rin. She is interesting, a layered character with flaws and capable. and I understand her. I can see the logical and emotional threads that guides her every decision. the author did a really good job. She reminded me a lot of Azula from Avatar the last Airbender, and also a bit of season 1 Zuko. Comparing her to them, is for the few people who have not yet see AtlA, a very high standard in my own opinion.

2 people found this helpful

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  • Mr. Jeremy J. Linnell
  • 03-08-20

Less shock value, more complex

An excellent sequel that fully realises the potential of The Poppy War. Can't for the final book!

2 people found this helpful

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  • Daniel Lee
  • 02-12-23

Struggling

After an incredible first book, I’m struggling so badly with this one. The main character, Rin, is one of the worst leads ever.
She is utterly useless, whiney, arrogant, and selfish to no end. I find myself shouting with incredulity at her stupid decisions and whiney tones. I will say the rest of the book is great, I love all the other characters and the world building, and the narrator is fantastic. I’m not sure if I will finish this one though.

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  • Maria Teresa
  • 02-02-23

heartbreaking and great

I think I've loved the most the fact that romance is barely there . Great story build. love the characters

Emily Woo Zeller is one of my favourite narrators

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  • khalid elamin
  • 12-20-22

If you want a main character you can root for don’t bother with this

Rin is the least enjoyable part of this story she spends the majority of the second book either being powerless, stupid or both. She refuses to face the consequences of her actions she functions on a plain of more hypocrisy that makes her holy unsympathetic personally after she commited genocied and justified it with out regret I lost all interest in her characters survival I wouldn't be surprised if she died by the end of the series nor would I care at this point I'm reading for Kitay and venca. The story itself is pretty decent otherwise I enjoy the story moves fast but it's paced well and manages to keep the story engaging my main problems are with rin who's constant whining about a situation she was warned about but put herself in anyway. Her complete disregard for human life and continuous need to start wars because ‘ she's good at it ‘makes you understand the reason why the country ended up the way it did because people like her where in control. But in fairness the fact that I hate the character so viciously is a testament to R.F. Kuang’s ability to create and flesh out a character that has a believably bias and self-serving rationale.

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  • Kathryn E. Goldin
  • 11-15-22

So much war! Gripping and relentless storytelling

Gods, men, pirates and empires with lots of twists and turns and so much blood

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Debz
  • 10-20-22

fantastic fantastic fantastic!!!!!

Loved the first book and 2nd has lived up to the quality story and intensity of the first. The author is a remarkable story teller

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  • Kathryn
  • 08-31-22

I love this series

I just love this series, it’s so different from the fantasy I usually read and whilst I found it a bit slow in the middle, it is beautifully written so I carried on and didn’t regret it

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    4 out of 5 stars
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  • Alan
  • 04-16-22

Fantastical Asian Lore.

Damn this series just gets better with so many twists and turns, but I kept wanting to slap the main protagonist Rin for being so stupid, for being whiny and wallowing in her self pity and for letting herself be manipulated so easily all the bloody time. The second in the series of The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic has so much more of War, pain, betrayal, love, knowledge, power and growth. R.F Kuangs world and story is rich in tragedy, brutal realism, geo politics modelled on real world history, drug addiction issues and physical and sexual violence. I couldn't believe after reading the first book, it was based on actual real life atrocities. The worldbuilding and setting is absolutely fantastic. In the story so far Rin has unleashed the beast within her and can’t put it back, for the Phoenix god is an uncontrollable force of nature that can never be subdued by force of will alone and because of this, Rin becomes an opium addict, haunted by the terrible atrocities committed in her god’s name. Rin now commander of the Sike, a group of shamans with their own god's and problems are looking to bring down the Empire and get revenge against the empress. As I've said before this series is definitely not for the faint of heart. The narration by Emily Woo Zeller is awesome. Check it out if love asian lore, highly recommended...😁🔥💥

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  • Sophie Louisa Skinner
  • 08-31-21

Brilliant

I really loved the first two books cannot wait to finish the third. A brilliant series

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  • Amazon Customer
  • 03-31-23

ONLY HALF WAY..

I'm trying to push through to the end because the story is interesting, but I can't stand the lead character. so many bad decisions. selfish decisions.
update : The book is finished, but I won't be finishing the series.

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  • Surveillance Party
  • 03-08-23

Rambling mess

After book one was so good I was excited, but this thing is a confused mess of half thought out plot threads and monotonal arguments. Should be half as long. I hope they listened to their editor for the third one, I'm not sticking around to found out.

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  • Mr B.
  • 03-04-23

2nd worst fantasy series I've read

There is nothing redeemable about this series.

I was quite excited to read this series, with a number of sites showing a reasonably high average score.

After the first few chapters of book 1 that held some promise, I set in for a grim but hopeful read, but ultimately, in almost all ways the author let me down.

In short :
At no point, was a character portrayed in a way that made me, as the reader, form any kind of attachment to them. They were bland, petty, boring and one dimensional.
The lead character failed in every venture, learning nothing, blaming others and having a good whinge the whole time.
The dialog and prose were weak, artless and at times felt penned by an F-bomb loving teen.
The story never moved away from a never ending string of poor choices, performed by an unlovable, uninteresting lead character.
Avoid. If you're looking for Hobb or Sanderson or Jemisin you won't find them echoed in this hollow cavern of whinge.

Narrator was reasonably good though!

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  • Anonymous User
  • 11-21-22

I love this series.

I just love this series so much. like how can each book just get better and better

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Kindle Customer
  • 08-04-22

great!

this series is great and this narrator is perfect. thank you, complex characters, gore, fun lots of good stuff

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Brett
  • 07-04-22

A great struggle.

The story concepts are great, the voice actor is excellent.. this story just drags and drags, flip flops between sides.
I finished it but it did feel like a chore.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Shams Rahman
  • 07-11-21

even better than the start

this book took everything good about the poppy war and increased it. I had no idea where this was going but was sure every payoff would be delightful, and it shattered even my highest expectations.

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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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  • Joanne Hutton
  • 12-10-20

Worthy Sequel

A brilliant sequel; though it aids the listener in cooling down after the climactic events of the previous book, it has its own interesting story. New and fascinating parts of the world are introduced, as well as history, and emerging character conflicts. Though the pacing is slower, TDR does not suffer at all from 'middle book syndrome', but instead shows the listener the psychological and physical effects of war on a character level, and the geopolitical changes that come from unexpected victories. A new setting (mostly) brings old characters together in scenarios that are at the same time nostalgic, and tragic. This is a given, but the god-to-human relationships are (still) both terrifying, and impressive.

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    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars
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  • Laura
  • 09-16-19

A slightly disappointing sequel!

I did enjoy this book but I did have a lot of issues with the main character. She was ... frustrating, I think is the best word. Spends about 450 pages out of this 600 page book complaining, which is 100 pages too long in my opinion. The plot was much slower than in The Poppy War, which wasn't necessarily bad, but coupled with Rin as the main character made this book drag on forever. That being said, the ending was marvellous. I think I'll continue with the rest of the series.