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The Poppy War

The Poppy War, Book 1

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About this listen

Winner of the Reddit Fantasy Award for Best Debut 2018

‘The best fantasy debut of 2018’ – WIRED

A brilliantly imaginative epic fantasy debut, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.

When Rin aced the Keju – the test to find the most talented students in the Empire – 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 had hoped to get rich by marrying her off; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free from a life of servitude. 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. Fighting the prejudice of rival classmates, Rin discovers that 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 psychoactive substances and a seemingly insane teacher, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive – and that mastering these 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 Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most people calmly go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away…

©2018 Rebecca Kuang (P)2018 HarperCollins Publishers Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Historical Military Fiction Scary War

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Critic reviews

‘An outstanding debut’

DAILY MAIL

'Literary super-stardom doesn't seem too far out of her reach now'

THE HERALD

‘A book that will go down as one of the best grimdark/military fantasy debuts of all time’

BOOKNEST

‘A masterpiece by grimdark’s newest and perhaps darkest daughter’

FANTASY BOOK REVIEW

‘A wholly unique experience’

THE WASHINGTON POST

‘This first book in The Poppy War trilogy won numerous debut awards when it was published in 2018, and upon reading it you quickly understand why’

WOMAN & HOME

‘R.F. Kuang’s fresh approach to magic and hard-hitting story is a punch to the gut fantasy has needed for a long time. I can’t wait for THE DRAGON REPUBLIC’

Peter V. Brett, bestselling author of The Demon Cycle

‘Enthralling from start to finish … I thought myself prepared. I was now. R.F. Kuang’s debut is a masterful must-read, and I’ve no doubt the best is yet to come’

Nicholas Eames, author of KINGS OF THE WYLD

‘A blistering, powerful epic of war and revenge that will captivate you to the bitter end’

Kameron Hurley, author of THE LIGHT BRIDAGE

‘Fresh, assured, character-driven fantasy that’s choc full of magic, war, and betrayal. I loved it from start to finish’

Peter Newman, author of THE VAGRANT

‘A powerful, emotional journey, compellingly written’

Adrian Tchaikovsky, award-winning author of THE CHILDREN OF TIME

‘An original and engrossing tale of the coming of age of a talented young soldier amid the horrors of invasion and genocide’

Anna Stephens, author of GODBLIND

‘I so enjoyed The Poppy War by R. F. Kuang … It is all about survival, and how a person’s will and determination can change the course of their life. I loved the central character, felt her pain and her far-too-brief moments of joy, and just loved how Kuang breathes fresh life into the warrior training school … Highly recommended’

John Gwynne, author of MALICE

It's both a little slow, but suddenly it speeds up and then you're completely sucked in

I love the shamanism and Mulan-feel!

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Books like this: Book of the Ancestor, Bloody Rose, Mistborn

TLDR: The story of a young woman forced to come to grips with her powers and the darkness of human nature in an original fantasy world set within an Asian analogue. A novel magic system and dark deeds make this a unique read that hits a lot of points that most fantasy novels seem to miss.

Now I nearly didn’t give this book the chance it deserved. I’ve been spoiled recently by finding a series that was so good that I blasted through ten books in the space of 6 weeks. So fast, in fact, that I never actually had time to write a single review for any of them. So, when I stood atop the mighty pedestal that I had placed that series upon (Spellmonger, by Terry Mancour) and stared down upon my next target, my judgement was always going to be a little harsh. That said, even with my opinion bar forcibly lowered to a more reasonable level, The Poppy war still got off to a bit of a slow start for me. It certainly wasn’t a bad start and it was very well written, but I nearly stopped after the first twenty minutes like I have with the two previous audiobooks that I had started that week. However, I carried on, and I’m glad that I did, because once you give it a little time, The Poppy war becomes a very good listen/read.
A single female perspective fantasy novel set in an analogue of medieval china. Already this book is a bit different to anything else I’ve listened to lately. The shift of perspective to an Asian culture and away from the usual European backdrop that most fantasy novels follows was genuinely refreshing. It was novel, something that I struggle to find in books these days after tearing through so many in the genre. Although I didn’t bond with the main character at first, before too long I was subconsciously rooting for her far more than I thought I would, which to me shows a brilliantly written character. I can’t say that there were many other characters for which I developed the same level of attachment, but they were all presented well and most certainly had enough depth to them to remain entertaining.
The world within which the book is set is well thought out with a great backstory that is entirely believable. I didn’t just see the land as a stage upon which the character act but more a canvas upon which the story itself was painted. It can sometimes get a little too specific about certain aspects and at other times gloss over areas that I would love to hear more about, but overall, the universe the book creates is sound. The magic system as well is fairly original, with the very few magic users in the world, and those that can use magic being primarily dependant on psychedelic drugs to induce their powers. I like this a lot. It’s both unique and rooted in real-world shamanism, though it doesn’t really explain a whole lot about the specific powers people have. They simply have abilities without going into how they work. They just work by magic, leading me to the first of my issues. There are certain aspects of the magic system that make the shamans completely OP, to the point where I’m thinking that they likely would have done some serious damage the people, ecosystems, and even underlying geology of their entire continent before the events of the books. Its not like their ultra-powers haven’t existed before the events of the books, and yet only in this book are they used with such catastrophic consequences in situations that surely would have arisen before to some degree. It soils the otherwise very grounded nature of the novel and left me constantly asking why this hadn’t become an issue in the thousand years that the main nation had existed prior to the book.
My second issue is that at times (one time in particular) there is illogically senseless levels of violence carried out. Now, one of the greatest aspects of this book is that it takes a much more rounded view of the consequences of war by concentrating quite heavily on the plight of the civilians that get caught up in the wake of a major and brutal conflict. This is a brilliant angle to play and something that I believe needs to be done more both as a literary technique and to make readers and listeners actually think a bit more about the true consequences of war, not just the sword flashing and heroics of our protagonists. That said, there is one point in particular where the ‘bad guys’ do something so heinous that it just doesn’t make sense. These guys are portrayed as Uber-Nazi’s in their belief that they are a superior race (though to be more accurate it may be more Imperial Japan-like considering the context), but they commit such barbaric acts at times that I simply can’t take the book seriously. It’s like R.F Kuang was trying so hard to show us that these guys are truly evil that she pushed their atrocities beyond the realistic, beyond even the obscene, and the effect is to have them ending up straight in the realms of ridiculous. What was worse was that it didn’t make listening to their descriptions any easier. I’m the first to say that I’m a bit of a gore fiend and it takes a damned lot to make me say ‘wow there, calm down,’ but this just went a little to far. I can quite happily accept that such horrible things get carried out when they serve a purpose: slaughtering people to save food in a siege, executing civilians in horrific manners as part of a concerted terror campaign to demoralise the enemy, murdering thousands in the most brutal fashion because their fear and pain is used to fuel some macabre device. Those are three very believable reasons for such horrors that I thought of just off the top of my head. However, in this case I simply cannot see the reason why such a well-trained military force would take so much time from their hectic invasion schedule to partake in such blood-chilling atrocities when simply killing those same people quickly and efficiently would have made far more strategic sense. If there was an actual reason for those horrible acts that is made apparent in later books, it could really do with being shown earlier.
Beyond those little nit-picky faults that I just had to vent, I enjoyed the book. I’m not rushing to listen to the second, but I certainly will do at some point in the near future.
As for the narration, a good performance. Emily Woo Zeller’s portrayals of the wide range of characters was brilliant, and in particular her conveying of the deep emotional strife that runs through the latter half of the book for many of the characters was wonderful.

Personal score: 3.5 stars
Professional score: 3.75 stars


School, genocide, and tripping balls. An odd combo

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I binged this. Fantastic but definitely NSFW. I rooted for Rin from the beginning even though she is flawed and at times infuriating I loved her. There is no HEA here but the story is rich, deep and compelling.

Dark and gripping

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Wonderful narration, fantastic world building, and captivating story. This book is very well written, I couldn't stop listening. Highly recommended!

Magnificent story telling

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I loved this and couldn't stop listening. Would recommend looking into trigger warnings before purchasing.

Loved it

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I loved this book and have already bought book 2 which I am going to start right now. Happy days

Excellent

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I wanted to like this. It's really good to see high fantasy trying to do something different that like middle earth but..." or "like 13th C England but...". Riffing on Chinese legends and history and or drawing from characters from Journey to the West is a nice change and I liked that. Unfortunately there's also a lot of standard fare; underdog orphan, magic school, mysterious mentor etc, which is done much better elsewhere (Name of the Wind for example). The dialogue is sometimes a bit off also, too much swearing and some vocabulary that's not very fantasy-ish (things like 'downtown' and 'intersection' when describing locations) it's not too bad, but comes across as a bit of an immature writing style. The performance is pretty solid, lots of different distinct voices which is nice, but sometimes swings towards the melodramatic. The big problem the book has though is a section in the second half that does a riff on the massacre at Nanjing. It's two or three times longer than it needs to be for plot utility and really shocking graphic and totally tonally inconsistent with the rest of the story. It's really horrible to listen to and gratuitous. On the one hand it's more or less a thing that happened, and there is definitely a place for fantasy to explore history and culture like this, but if so it needs to fit with the rest of the book. As it is, it just punches a whole in the back half of the book. What is the commentary it's making? How does it serve the narrative to be so graphic? Is it supposed to justify Rin's actions from then on? If so this is extremely problematic. I probably wouldn't recommend this, and probably won't be listing to the sequel.

Interesting effort, but quite a big miss

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The darkest of stories told with so much heart, the journey of a young girl with ambitions that take her from opium dens to encounters with incredible creatures and world defying consequences. The trauma of the past haunts this world and everyone in it as political machinations, awakenings and blood drips from every chapter. And yet no matter the horrors the characters and their journeys are totally compelling and the destinations of each so unpredictable. a thrilling read, voiced brilliantly.

Bloody, Fantastical, Mesmerising

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The performance was good so no complaints there and the story was by in large compelling and engaging I just found the long drawn out descriptions of trauma a bit much including one very graphic description of SA. It was good to listen to a fantasy story not based on a European setting though and I did enjoy the character development over all.

A bit too much trauma

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Is it possible to fall in love for real with someone from a fictional world that The Poppy War creates. For me it was possible. Rin goes through so much and so much character development and story development happens in this books it’s incredible. This story takes you on an adventure you never saw coming. Wow. This book has you guessing and excited the whole time and it really takes you on a journey you never thought you would be on. You will fall in love with Rin in this book and feel everything she does.
Very well written
This book will break you but it’s a book that must be read by all. It’s incredible I could write a lot more. Cannot wait to start the next in the series.

I’m in love with this and it broke me in half.

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