The Poppy War
A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy. When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising. But surprises aren’t always good. Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her g
Themes & atmosphere
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What you might want to know about The Poppy War
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Rin is a war-orphan girl in a poppy-growing southern province of the Nikan Empire when she tests into the elite military academy of Sinegard. As tensions with the neighboring Federation of Mugen rise toward open war, Rin is taken on by a strange teacher who believes she can call the gods.
R.F. Kuang's Poppy War trilogy has three books: The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, and The Burning God. The trilogy is complete.
Both novels are by R.F. Kuang and engage deeply with imperial violence. The Poppy War is military fantasy in a Chinese-history-inspired setting; Babel is dark academia in 1830s Oxford. Both share Kuang's serious thematic concerns.
The Poppy War was written by R.F. Kuang, published in 2018 by Mondadori.
The Poppy War is 522 pages in standard print editions, though page counts vary slightly between hardcover, paperback, and large-print formats.
At an average reading pace of about 250 words per minute, The Poppy War takes most readers 8 to 11 hours to finish.
The Poppy War is a standalone novel by R.F. Kuang, not part of a series.
The Poppy War is available in hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats from Amazon, Bookshop.org, ThriftBooks, and most major bookstores.