Monday, June 1, 2020

The Poppy War

The Poppy War
by R. F. Kuang
Harper Voyager, 2018. 530 pages. Fantasy.

Inspired by the bloody history of China's 20th century, R. F. Kuang brings an a unique tale of fantasy where gods inhabit the bodies of those who seek them out. For Rin, a war orphan whose been forced to work with her aunt's opium business, the gods are the furthest thing from her mind. All she wants to do is escape marrying a man triple her age. Do to that, she goes to the extreme and finds a way to test into the most prestigious war school in the country. What starts as simply a journey of running away, leads Rin to face the worse prejudices of her country, discovering magic through altered states of mind, learning of that magic's dangers, and choosing destruction over safety for her world.

For those that like Ken Liu's Grace of Kings and N. K. Jemisin's Inheritance trilogy, this book starts a strong fantasy trilogy that does not shy away from showing the horrors of war.

-SMM

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