The Complete Poppy War Trilogy

The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, The Burning God

By: R. F. Kuang

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

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)

Painfully Good, But Not For Everyone

This is an absolutely fantastic series which I would basically never recommend to anyone.

This series has an intriguing magic system and world-building, moments of genuine friendship and love, and borderline excessive amounts of violence - but the primary focus of this story is in exploring themes of vengeance, fear, and trust while grinding the reader’s face into the gritty, banal cruelty of a preindustrial civil war.

If you want an emotionally grueling Shakespearean tragedy about the transformation of an ambitious young protagonist into a ruthless, egomaniacal leader as a result of the constant hardships and betrayals she endures, all against the backdrop of the senseless cruelty and human suffering ripped straight from the pages of real-world history, then this series is for you.

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The narrator, despite straining slightly on the rare side-characters with exceptionally high or deep voices, does a damn solid job with great consistency and decent pacing. Overall, based on what I’ve heard here, I would happily listen to one their performances again in the future.

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As an additional cautionary note, I personally struggled to finish this series - I love extremely long books, but the protagonist’s character arc in the final third was genuinely difficult to stomach, if only because, after a certain point, it seems impossible to imagine her earning any sort of satisfying narrative redemption after what all the things she has personally done and put her friends through.

If you are like me, the final ten hours will be the most difficult, but the final thirty minutes serve as the essential capstone which holds the series up as a work of storytelling art.

I will look forward to seeing what this author comes up with next…

Wasted Potential

“War is bad very bad, did you know, let me repeat that for 30 chapters in 2 full novels” - the author
This book is garbage, so much potential wasted! an amazing start in the first half of book 1 and then the author abandons every thing that makes a story good.
You’ve heard of character development? This book does the reverse somehow for every single character.
The author, talks like she writes too i watched some of her speeches. it’s pure disdain for people that consume fantasy which makes you wonder why she wrote this.
Like we know war is bad, stop beating us over the head with this.
it’s not the violence that is the issue im a dark fantasy person but there is no reason for the stuff she writes. it’s apparently historically accurate but that is bs because i can actually stand reading asian history books but this was garbage.

I hated this series so much

The main character was such a self indulged egomaniac it made the story insufferable. She lacked common sense but yet thought she was the smartest person in the room. Ugh it was 66 hours I’ll never get back. I wish I could have stopped listening but I can’t leave things unfinished.

the worst main character, but that's the point

hard to review without spoilers, but I really like this series. I'm not sure if I ever want to read them again but I'm glad I did

Excellent Narration

The ONLY thing that saved this book was the narration. She managed to make the characters sound more interesting. The main character had zero growth, zero self awareness and zero moral compass. I was recommended this book with the premise it was as good as TOG but wow...
After the first betrayal and her following the "savior" around like a kicked puppy, I should have ended it there. Same book, same idea over and over again. Did not need 5 books.