War, vengeance, power and magic: R.F. Kuang’s “The Poppy War” dives deeply into how ruthless humans can be.
It follows Rin, a war orphan from the rural south of Nikan, who is about to be pawned into a marriage to further her foster parents’ opium trade. In an act of defiance, she studies to take an exam to enter the most elite military school in the country, sacrificing much along her search to power. However, passing the exam was only the beginning — as war looms on the war college’s doorstep, Rin learns firsthand that opium isn’t the only addictive power at play.
For the first part of the book, Rin struggles to fit in among the elite at the college. The examination process was designed to keep peasants out of their classrooms, and defying that puts a target on her back. She finds that many of her classmates, and even some professors, are revolted by her admission, and put up more barriers to keep her from attaining success.
Rin’s motives to find power are initially understandable. She faces racism, sexism and classism both on and off campus, but her initial desire for the strength to make it through her classes quickly evolves into something much deeper. When she discovers she is a conduit for a widely unknown, lethal power, the lines which separate what is right and what gives her control quickly blur, along with what she’s willing to sacrifice to attain it.
While at times hard to read, I thought Rin’s thirst for power was very well written, and played a larger thematic role in the plot as well. I did find her a frustrating character, especially as her motives became more and more questionable, but that doesn’t mean she was poorly written.
While unsuspecting at first, “The Poppy War” is one of the heavier fantasy/gridmark books I’ve read. Most of the conflict in the novel was based on the Second Sino-Japanese War — the country of Nikan relating to China during that time. Especially in later chapters, the book vividly demonstrates the horrors of war, often based on real atrocities. I won’t go into detail to avoid spoiling anything, but I would not recommend this book to anyone uncomfortable reading violent depictions of brutality and sexual violence.
I would also not recommend staying up late to read this book past midnight either, and especially not googling the real war crimes that inspired scenes from the book right before bed. This is a good fantasy book, but it is definitely not a good bedtime story.
On the subject of disclaimers, opium usage comes up a lot in the book, and I would not recommend this to anyone who might struggle reading about excessive drug usage.
All that being said, the violence and addiction wasn’t there just for gore, it served a larger purpose in the story. The allusions between power and drugs, and more importantly who provides that high, were brilliantly written, and shed a lot of light on the darker side of human behavior. The violence was a nod to history, but also illustrated how easily our biases against one another can be manipulated and how dangerous that can quickly become in a highly nationalistic environment.
Overall, I would recommend this book, disclaimers noted, to anyone looking for a fantasy book based on military history. On a scale of five stars, I would give this book 4 stars. I’m taking half a star away because at times the worldbuilding felt underdeveloped, to the point where it felt like an alternate-history more than a fantasy. That’s not to say this book wasn’t good, just that it wasn’t the greatest creatively. Another half star is lost because I feel like Rin frequently gets away with things without consequence, and it progressively gets drastically worse as the book goes on.
