Tuesday, June 12, 2018

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang


The Poppy War is the first in a new trilogy by R.F. Kuang, and it winds up being a very angry piece of fantasy.  A fantasy novel featuring a Chinese inspired world, it's a book that features both a compelling world and a compelling protagonist.  In a way it seems like two books in one - the first part featuring our heroine learning at a military school and learning the ways of magic, the second part featuring the same heroine forced into the horrors of war - but the two parts flow naturally into each other.

The Poppy War can very much be considered part of the grimdark genre of SF/F - this is not a light book in any sense (our heroine stays awake for studying at the start by dripping hot candle wax onto her arms, and it doesn't get lighter from there).  The world is not simply inspired by Chinese myths (although it is), but is very much a fantasy version of early 1900s China during the horrors of the Sino-Japanese wars, and is just as dark as those wars were in real life.  And yet while I have not been a fan of a few grimdark works in the past (Kameron Hurley's for example), The Poppy War works because its darkness is not gratuitous and its anger is very understandable.  This is a powerful book and I definitely both recommend it and look forward to its successors.

Trigger Warning:  Rape, War Atrocities, and Genocide.  As mentioned above, a large part of this book is based upon the Sino-Japanese Wars (particularly the second one), and as such analogous events occur in this book, even if the book only shows the after-effects mainly and not the actual events occurring on-page.


--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary----------------------------------------------------
Fang "Rin" Runin always felt unwanted.  When the Mugen Federation - an Island Nation - invaded the Empire the Second Poppy War and was barely driven off, she was left as a young child as a war orphan, who only found a home when the Empire decreed that such orphans must be taken in by families.  And no one seemed to care about her, least of all her adopted parents who couldn't wait to try and marry her off against her will.  But Rin has always been determined to do more - to escape this fate, she needs to take an incredibly hard Civic Exam and score in the top tier to merit admission into the Empire's greatest military academy.  Rin doesn't only finish in the top tier, she finishes in first.

But what Rin finds at the academy is that a poor non-noble girl like her is not expected to succeed, and instructors and classmates who only wish her to fail.  Yet when the strange Lore Master takes Rin under his wing, she learns that she possesses the ability for the lost art of Shamanism, to call forth the power of the Gods.  And confronted by a world where peasants and orphans like her are treated like dirt Rin finds she doesn't agree with her Master's teachings about balance....what she wants is Power.  And the God that promises that power is the dangerous Phoenix, the God of Fire.

And when the Mugen Federation invades the Empire in a third Poppy War, Rin is forced into the conflict against an enemy that seems unbeatable and is willing to commit even the most heinous of atrocities to get what it wants.  And as Rin sees more and more of the War's horrors it becomes harder and harder for her to resist the call of the Phoenix's incredible power....no matter the cost.
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The Poppy War is an absolutely brutal book at times.  The Book is based in large part not just on the Sino-Japanese Wars, but very specifically on the horrors inflicted in them.  It therefore will not be a book for everyone.  But for those who are able to get through reading about these horrors, they will find this to be an incredibly powerful book as a result of it.  (The author explains quite well why she goes into these topics on her blog here).

The book's power comes from its prime heroine, Rin, whose story we follow from beginning to end.  In another book, a determinator like Rin would find a way to fight back against oppression and atrocities and come out on top while not stooping to others' levels - but that's not who Rin is.  Rin isn't an unreal hero - in the face of horrors and oppression, Rin will not accept that she cannot find the power to confront it, or that such power might result in more horror.  When Rin is confronted by darkness, Rin finds her own darkness to counter it.  When she is taught by a wise master not to fall into that darkness, Rin refuses to accept that such power can be there for the taking to fight back and should be ignored for reasons of principles.  Rin is angry....and she has every right to be, and as events get worse and worse, Rin understandably takes stands based upon that anger.  And it makes her an incredibly powerful heroine and very much not the stereotypical heroine.

The world is also incredibly well built - again while this world is quite blatantly a China devastated by wars against Imperial Japan, it is still such a China in a fantasy world, and the fantasy elements are extremely well described.  And the plot twists in turns in ways that will throw you for a loop - the book seemingly introduces two potential love interests but doesn't go the way you'd expect with any of them - all the way to its incredible and stunning ending.

SPOILERS FOR THE ENDING IN ROT13 (Sorry I couldn't finish the review without discussing them): Va znal bgure obbxf, gur ureb jbhyq onpx bss ng gur ynfg zvahgr, crefhnqrq ol gur Thneqvna bs ure cbjre gung vg'f qrfgehpgvir angher vf abg jbegu gur pbfg.  Abg urer.  Eva raqf gur obbx ol pbzzvggvat trabpvqr, qrfgeblvat gur Zhtra Srqrengvba - rffragvnyyl Wncna - ol hfvat gur Cubravk'f cbjre gb perngr n znffvir Ibypnab haqrearngu gur Vfynaq gung abg bayl xvyyf bss gur Vfynaq'f cbchyngvba, ohg znxrf gur irel ynaq havaunovgnoyr sbe lrnef gb pbzr.  Naq, va ure "Jung unir V qbar" zbzrag gurernsgre, Eva pbzrf guebhtu vg nyy ol qbhoyvat qbja ba vg nf orvat gur evtug naq whfgvsvrq zbir.  Vg gnxrf na vaperqvoyr nhgube gb unir n urebvar qbhoyr qbja ba Trabpvqr nf orvat gur evtug fgrc naq bayl gur svefg fgrc va n pnzcnvta gb pbzr.  Jvyy Eva qrpvqr gb punatr pbhefr va shgher obbxf?  Pna guvf frevrf ernyyl raq va fhpu n jnl gung Eva znantrf gb znxr vg bhg nyvir nsgre jung fur unf qbar?  V gehyl qba'g xabj, naq vg'f na vafnar guvat gb raq gur SVEFG obbx bs n gevybtl hcba.

While powerful the book has some flaws still.  While the other characters aside from Rin show potential to be interesting, they very much fall into archetypes and don't really get that much development.  With the exception of Rin's two most prominent classmates, I frequently found myself not remembering who the other such classmates were when they'd come up later in the narrative.  And both of the two most prominent love interests - to the extent this book has love interests - are very generic (I kind of rolled my eyes at one of them when he reappeared later in the book with a changed perspective from their school days).  Perhaps the series will do more with them in the sequels, but I don't know.  The book also teases an antagonist incredibly early - at the beginning of the second part, about a third of the way in - and leaves dealing with her to the sequels which is a bit of a tease.

Still, The Poppy War is an incredible book, which goes places many other books would not, and for good purpose.  If you can handle the brutality of it all, it is well worth your time.
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