The Complete Poppy War Trilogy

The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, The Burning God

By: R. F. Kuang

Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller

Length: 66 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

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)

©2023 R. F. Kuang (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

The bad reviews are why you should read the series

Indeed the protagonist its annoying and insufrible, but thats the point. I really like how she is not bound by a moral dilemmas about her actions and descending into madness with here its quit enjoyable.

Not sure why this is rated so low.

Really like the story although there were definitely a few moments where I didn’t agree with the main character’s decisions. I think she comes across whiny more so because of the narrator than the actual writing. For me that’s the only real drawback. Overall though a very solid read

Not for everyone

I felt as if I had to force my self through the last two books, first book was fine but that’s all it was, fine. It’s not a bad story, just not for me. If you’re into war and tactics then this is for you, but just a warning, it’s a slow burn.

Finished by sheer will

The main character has no arc. She stays stagnant the entire time through the books. She has the strongest plot armor I’ve seen in quite a long time. The narrator did a fantastic job reading this book and giving each character its own unique feel. I wouldn’t recommend this book and has me doubting anyone who recommends anything from this author.

deeply flawed, very gruesome some bad dialog.

Its very Jarring when from the end of the first book the character who committed a literal Genocide, gets squeamish about rape or friends dying I appreciate that in theory you could compartmentalize, but it just feels so weird a character that literally commits a mass unilateral genocide has any moral qualms it just creates a cognitive dissonance.

the writing can be weak in terms of dialog,

very gruesome and touches on terrible things like rape, aborting a rapists baby, callousness during famine a character thinks about murdering a cbaby that was found set in a barrel and sent down a river. racism etc.

point being it isn't high quality writing, and really treads on some horrific topics and often does so poorly and superficially.

that said if you can stomach that its an alright adventure novel not awful with 70ish odd hour of content for 1 credit.

Ignore the bad reviews

Lots of bad reviews made me hesitant to listen but I’m glad I did. This was a good change of pace, the character was hard to like but easy to respect (in most cases). This book was gritty and real with an interesting power system.

The Existential Struggle of Humanity

Kept my complete and fixed interest with the ups and downs inherent to human existence!

No one has a good time

Such a tragic and brutal depiction of war. It was hard to read at times which completely drove home the message. Highly recommend this, but trigger warning for gore, violence, abuse, rape, and drug use.

good but overrated

i think the series is so highly rated because of the thinly veiled criticism of american/british colonialism set in a fantasy-ish world. so i sort of roll my eyes at that. the story IS good, and the voice talent/reader is phenomenal. but how shall i put this? it’s no Dune on the philosophical/critique end. and it’s no Song of Ice and Fire on the visceral, “life is pain, princess. anyone who says otherwise is selling something” end. (both texts are meditations on power that strip man of their safe ideological trappings or self lies in their own ways). the main character sway with some serious bipolar attitudes that might actually be real but are less believable in the way that an actor’s best performance is not to do or say exactly what a person would really say or do but, rather, represent it through mimesis, which actually NOT really but speaks to the imagination of the audience in a way that is intellectually more stimulating or “real.” if that didn’t make sense, i’m just saying telling the most realistic character can come off less realistic than dramatizing deeds/words specifically for dramatic effect. and the third book kind of feels rushed and almost jumps the shark; my diatribe on being true versus dramatic truth is speculation about why it feels rushed and unbelievable.

Okay story if you like military novels, horrible narrator

I cannot believe people haven’t rated the narrator lower. I listen to audiobooks constantly and a bad narrator can ruin the whole thing. The character voices are CHOICES and not good ones. I get that she wanted to differentiate but some of them are so bad I just had to put it at 1.7x speed to get through it. Sheesh. I wanted to like this way more than I did.