By R. F. Kuang
“War doesn't determine who's right. War determine who wins. War determines who remains.”
October 31st, 2024
Edited on November 15th, 2024
Rebecca F. Kuang debut fantasy trilogy begins with ‘The Poppy War’ published in 2018. This grimdark novel tells the story of Fang Runin, or Rin, an orphaned girl who blazes through an unlikely path to greatness—through suffering, destruction, and power. The story draws inspiration from the Second Sino-Japanese War and many other elements of Chinese history, its education and military systems, all spiced up with a bit of magic and divine intervention.
This book was recommended to me as one of those stories that I should absolutely check out no matter what. Once I accept such a recommendation, I tend to take a leap of faith. I decided to dive right in without any prior knowledge or expectations—no reading summaries, reviews or loglines, not even the blurbs! You might be wondering why I do that to myself. Well, there are many reasons, but one of them is to expose myself to the excitement of the unknown. It's such a thrill to dive into a story without any idea what it's going to be like.
Do you also love a bit of surprise in your reading? Or do you want to at least know a little bit of a story to be sure it is worthy of your time and attention? Let me know, and I'll definitely share more about this another time!
So, I had every intention to read ‘The Poppy War’ and find out what I was getting myself into in medias res. That was not entirely possible, though. Rebecca Kuang’s fame burst my carefully cultivated ignorance bubble, and I got to know more of her work before I could start reading her first novel. (Well, shame on me. That had been entirely my fault, since I took six years to pick up this book.)
When I started ‘The Poppy War’, I was already aware of Kuang’s profile as a writer. This year scandals around the Hugo Awards involving the committee’s shady decision-making and their shunning of some Asian American authors from the awards. The controversy made me aware of Kuang’s personality and style, as I unwittingly exposed myself to some of the authors opinions about the publishing sphere, fantasy novels, and Chinese politics.
But that was not all. As I was late to the party, I also experienced second-hand frustration towards Kuang’s writing style before I even gave it a chance myself. A friend read 'The Poppy War' a couple of years ago and, although she tried to be respectful about my (kind of radical) boundaries about spoilers, she couldn't help but share her thoughts on the novel. Then someone close to me read 'Yellowface' and I noticed in them that same kind of frustration. This time I just couldn't resist and asked them to share every bit of the story. By the end, I was already reading along.
So, I was not surprised at all when I started to feel the exact same kind of frustration as my friends as I read ‘The Poppy War,’ although my reasons for it may vary from theirs. I will share some of my ideas in this post, so please, stick around a little longer. And don’t be shy! Share your own ideas and impressions on ‘The Poppy War’ in the comments.
Would I recommend this book?
Hmmm I’d say it depends.
I don’t regret reading it myself, and I didn’t mind entering the story still knowing very little of it. If anything, I would have preferred to have read the novel knowing absolutely nothing about it or the author and her writing style. I do feel, however, that 'The Poppy War' may not be an entirely accessible or engaging novel for everyone.
Kuang tends to subvert expectations in her story, which I don’t think is a bad thing to strive for. We always need fresh perspectives on the old fantasy tropes, and 'The Poppy War' is one of those fresh perspectives that every serious fantasy reader should know. But Kuang's early style may be jarring for some experienced readers. More than once there's a change of tone and genre in the middle of the story. The pacing has its problems, sometimes jumping ahead in the plot without paying much attention to previously established conflicts. Rin, the main character, tends to have bursts of growth and sudden regressions in her development as a character and a warrior. And the story can contain a few triggers for gory and intimate violence that one might not have expected in what appears to be a Young Adult novel.
If you haven't read 'The Poppy War' yet (and you're not the same kind of reader as me), it might be helpful to have a few things in mind beforehand. This might help you deal with any frustrations that might arise. And if you come to this blog having already read the novel, I'd love to hear your thoughts and compare notes!
A summary to 'The Poppy War'
Here are some of my thoughts on 'The Poppy War' along with a summary of the story. But don't worry, I'll let you know when there are spoilers ahead, so you can proceed at your own discretion.
'The Poppy War' is divided into three parts. And the first part serves as a prologue to the entire series, as it contains the origin story of Fang Runin before the War.
Raised by unloving foster parents in a remote village from the southern province, Rin seizes the only opportunity she has to escape an arranged marriage designed to expand her foster family’s dominion over the local illegal opium trade. Her escape route came in the way of the Keju test, a national test devised to select the brightest young minds across all twelve provinces of the Nikan Empire. Fang Runin was a bright student of a local teacher and enjoyed to read and learn in her spare time from working in the Fang family shop. But only one school did not require a penniless orphan girl to apply for without paying for tuition: the most prestigious school in all the Nikan Empire, the Sinegard Academy.
To everyone’s surprise, not only Rin passed the Keju test but was also the top scorer of her whole province. However, passing the Keju was the easiest challenge she would have to face.
At a glance and for the first few chapters, ‘The Poppy War’ seems like a regular YA novel. It presents itself as a story about a teenager girl determined to prove her worth through sheer willpower, intelligence, and endurance. One might think Rin is the typical underdog, bound for greatness despite her humble origins. A young woman bound to become a hero who will, through her miraculous achievements, show her peers that those of low birth can make a difference and change the world for the better.
But that’s not what this story is really about.
“I have become something wonderful, she thought. I have become something terrible. Was she now a goddess or a monster? Perhaps neither. Perhaps both.”
Then, you may ask me, what ‘The Poppy War’ is really about?
After I read the novel, I discussed ‘The Poppy War’ with other readers, read some feedback, and saw several rather disgruntled reactions to the dark turns in the novel. I took a couple of weeks to read it, dividing my time with other pressing matters between work and school, as usual. And I must confess that the main reason why I didn’t drop the book midway through was because I had promised I would read it to the end and write about it.
Someone asked me if we were supposed to root for Rin. I had asked myself the same question several moments through the story. Rin’s thirst for power is entirely understandable in her circumstances, but completely unrelatable to me. She is supposed to be a character torn between her understanding of her master’s teachings and her struggle to achieve a power she always wanted to hold since the first time it came to her. Towards end of the book, you might wonder (as I did) whether you’re reading about a heroic rise to war—or witnessing the making of a villain shaped by desperation, suffering, and a deep feeling of revenge.
To discuss about Rin’s master and her relationship with power, let me tell you a little more about the story. Mild spoilers ahead.
At Sinegard Academy, Rin’s darker skin, southern accent, low birth, and lack of family connections place her at a disadvantage. Through a mixture of trial, error, and frequent trouble stirred by prejudice and her own fiery temper, she ends up apprenticed to Jiang Ziya, the Lore master. In her first-year finals, Rin battles Nezha, the best student in her class and a high-born elite among the aristocrat students. During the fight, Rin wakes a fire inside herself and taps into powers she can’t control or understand. She defeats Nezha but loses her mind in the process, nearly killing him and lashing out at the Academy masters. Her only hope of salvation was the fortunate intervention of the Lore master.
Fang Runin becomes master Jiang’s only apprentice in years, and he takes her into a realm of knowledge and powers beyond imagination. Lore, Rin discovers, is about understanding the gods and their powers. Eager to learn and even more eager to please, Rin dives in to commune with them (not in the intimate way some readers would have preferred, though). Yet Jiang keeps his teachings strictly pacifist and tries to steer her away from using divine powers directly, offering a path to wisdom rather than destruction.
Rin’s master was a powerful shaman who had learned through harsh experience how dangerous the divine powers could be. Jiang dedicates his whole teachings to instil in Rin a healthy fear for the gods, and to give her the abilities to avoid their grasp. But the fiery Phoenix had already set its eyes on Rin and would not let her go so easily.
At this point, what could have been the narrative's natural progression is suddenly altered. This is what many readers, myself included, have perceived as a leap into a different genre and narrative style. Almost all plots are dropped, as a war breaks out and changes everything. There will be heavy spoilers ahead.
A war breaks out in the third year of school and Rin's studies are cut short. This is the third war between the Nikan Empire and the Mugen Federation, rekindling the horrific conflict that made Rin a war orphan, almost destroyed the Nikan Empire, and decimated the Speerly race of warriors.
Before Rin and the students in the Academy could fully understand what was at stake, the Mugen forces breached Sinegard’s city walls, laying waste to soldiers and students alike. Amid the chaos of battle, Rin loses many school mates and her own master. In a final desperate act, Rin unleashes the fearsome powers of the Phoenix to save herself, another student and what as left of the city, with all its remaining defenders and inhabitants. In doing so, she awakens to her true heritage as a descendant of the Speerlies—a people the previous war all but erased.
Now feared by most of her masters and all the warlords, Rin is conscripted by the Empress herself into the Cike, the thirteenth division of the empire’s twelve kingdoms. She finds herself under the command of Altan Trengsin, a former classmate and the only other Speerly decendant known in the whole Empire.
In this new turn of events, Rin discovers the camaraderie among the equally feared shamans of the Empire. Although she is now better positioned to understand her powers and learn more about herself, her world is still driven by the clash of armies. Even her closest ties in the Cike are forged in the crucible of war and every step forward thrusts her company of misfits deeper into destruction, fear, and a growing sense of helplessness. Together, Altan and Rin descend an increasingly violent path, seeking power at any cost to crush their enemies.
This is the core of The Poppy War novel:
the inevitable corruption of power.
“Nothing is written," said the Phoenix. "You humans always think you're destinied for greatness. Destiny is a myth. Destiny is the only myth. The gods choose nothing. You chose. You chose to take the exam. You chose to come to Sinegard. You chose to pledge Lore, you chose to study the paths of the gods, and you chose to follow your commander's demands over your master's warnings. At every critical juncture you were given an option; you were given a way out. Yet you picked precisely the roads that led you here. You are at this temple, kneeling before me, only because you wanted to be.”
Rin’s journey begins with the drive of a young girl looking to escape poverty and earn the respect of her peers. But war tears away any promising future for Rin and everyone else around her. Her life is shattered by the sheer scale of loss and destruction of war. In this path of undoing, we watch Rin transform, constantly facing a choice between surrendering to the enemies who annihilate her friends and family, or walking an ever-darkening path in the pursuit of greater power.
'The Poppy War' refers to past conflicts in which the Nikaran people were subjugated by opium, used to control the population under Mugen rule and, later, to subdue the Speerlies. Victory in the last Poppy War left Nikan ruled by greedy warlords and an Empress who consolidates her power with ruthless abandon. Through Rin’s experiences, we see how power plays out on every level, from petty village authorities to the highest realms of empires.
The poppy seeds, alongside other hallucinogenic drugs, had also been the secret behind the abilities of shamans, the man and woman capable of calling upon the gods and wielding their powers for death and destruction. It had been an essential tool for all the Cike, the Empress squad of assassins, to do her bidding. A task they did with utmost loyalty, until their minds were completely broken and their bodies taken by the undying madness of the gods. The destiny of every shaman under the Cike's command was to be killed or imprisoned.
The Phoenix influence grows in the back of Rin’s mind while her world crumbles around her. Until Rin calls for the fiery god’s aid in her ever-maddening quest for revenge. Only to dive into powers she cannot hope to fully control.
“I command the Cike.” Chaghan looked sideways at her. His expression was grim. “You are going to paint the world in Altan’s blood, aren’t you?” “I’m going to find and kill everyone responsible,” said Rin. “You cannot stop me.” Chaghan laughed a dry, cutting laugh. “Oh, I’m not going to stop you.” He held out his hand. She grasped it, and the drowned land and the ash-choked sky bore witness to the pact between Seer and Speerly.”
The most destructive of them all were the inhuman powers bestowed by the gods. Powers that were proven to be unbeatable, yet uncontrollable and capable of the greatest acts of destructions in the hands of even the most well-meaning of humans.
Towards the end of the novel, Rin acquires great power and even greater victory aided by the Phoenix's intervention. Her deepest desire is granted, along with the genocide of an entire island and the full command of the Cike.
'The Poppy War' is a tale of a heroine who in her quest to save the world, ends by destroying it.
Some last thoughts
Rebecca Kuang might have drawn some inspiration from Mulan’s story, as a great heroine turned war hero in Chinese literature and a well-known character in the West, thanks to a couple of Disney movies. Whether or not it was the case, this comparison is useful to remark Kuang’s opinion on the fantasy genre in general, and on the war heroine stories in particular.
Kuang does not pull back in her eagerness to show how devastating and destructive a war can be, especially for the week, the vulnerable and the powerless people. Wanton cruelty, religious manipulation, petty politics and humans’ thirst for power in every layer of society are all exposed in a terrible light. War generals behave in the same childish ways as school bullies. Both sides of the war become unable to see each other as humans, and Kuang doesn’t shy away from writing into her story some of the darkest traits of humanity—not even in her own main character.
Some aspects of ‘The Poppy War’ made me deeply uncomfortable. And for that, I don’t feel entirely too compelled to recommend it to most readers. It reads as a first novel and an experimental story of a writer starting her career. The shifts in genre and style, the flat side characters and dropped plotlines give the impression that the novel would have benefited from a wider range of beta-readers and a thorough editing process.
All things considered, I do think it was worth reading 'The Poppy War.' I think Rebecca Kuang has something to say that is worth listening to. I intend to check out her future works.
Until next time!
TL:DR
'The Poppy War' is a grimdark fantasy novel disguised as a YA, that suddenly breaks into a war even more gruesome than some scenes in Game of Thrones.
Would you like to read more about Rebecca Kuang's fantasy trilogy?
Have you read 'The Poppy War'? What are your thoughts on it?
Do you think there are better ways to commune with the gods other than Kuang's portrayal of shamans?
Which do you think would be your personal god, if you had been one of master Jiang's students?
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