Rin has saved the Empire form destruction. But at what cost?

Distraught, feeling guilty and lost, and addicted to opium, Rin is still mourning Altan's death. But she still has to lead the Cike, and, if she wants to assassinate the Empress, she needs to survive. Soon, she decides to join the Dragon Warlord and his forces against the Empress.

But this time, it's not a war that protects the Empire from an outside force. This is a civil war. A destructive power that's a means to an end. And not everyone can be trusted.

The much-anticipated sequel to The Poppy War is finally here, and R. F. Kuang hasn't disappointed. Picking up exactly where we left, we find our main hero in her hardest state possible. But Kuang has managed to portray this with such honesty and realism, that you can't help but love even the darkest parts of Rin's story.

The reader comes back to an Empire that might have won the war, but is on the verge of crumbling. Rin, disillusioned, has now taken a turn for the worse, assassinating the Empress being the only thing in her mind. But when she comes across old friends and a new commander, hope will rise once again. Maybe RIn has found a way to master the god that lives inside her. She might have even found a noble cause to follow. But not everyone is honest, not everyone is a friend, and goals always come hand in hand with great sacrifice. And Rin already knows that all too well.

R. F. Kuang has already proven that she is very good at researching and creating an Empire from scratch. It should come as no surprise that she portrays the environment around Rin so well. And yet, she doesn't cease to amaze the reader. Indeed, she's leveled up her narration game. On The Poppy War, she strategically arranged her pawns. On The Dragon Republic, it's time to get them moving. And move them she does - not in the ways that one would expect. That is one of the greatest assets of Kuang: she keeps a fantasy world realistic enough to be liked, magical enough to engage us, and unpredictable enough to keep us on our toes. The result is a world of magic, warfare, pain, suffering, love, bravery, freedom and enslavement, horrors and miracles.

Granted, The Poppy War involved much more humor in its world building. Yes, the Dragon Republic is much darker. But it is darker times we're facing, in this novel. And it makes a perfect fit.

All in all, The Dragon Republic is a great second book in the series, portraying perfectly an empire at chaos, as well as the destruction, despair, and also the hope that follow. Definitely a recommended read.

~ I was given an advance reader copy of this title in exchange for an honest review, I'm not associated with the author or publisher in any way and the views expressed are completely unbiased and entirely my own. ~

'The Dragon Republic' by Chinese-American fantasy writer R.F. Kuang is the highly anticipated sequel to 2018's award-winning 'The Poppy War' which was an amazingly accomplished debut. It's a sequel that for me unfortunately lacks any of the personality or excitement of it's predecessor.

Where 'The Poppy War' was near-perfect in it's execution, being both a slow burner while maintaining a great pace and momentum, fiercely political as well as distinct in it's characterisation - 'The Dragon Republic' feels mostly confusing in terms of the order of events and the different characters. And while the first book in the series was at times hysterically funny and entertaining, before taking a devastatingly dark turn - this second installment feels angsty and info-dumpy for the most part. For me it doesn't really stand up on its own, but rather feels like a filler between the first and third books in what I understand is intended to be a trilogy.

I'm still hopeful for the third book and think the series as a whole would benefit from being read all at once in it's entirety, so I think I'll come back to it when it's complete.

~ Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this title ~

Oh my gosh, I loved this book. I'm not really sure where to start.
 
While I did enjoy the first book, The Poppy War, which I read just last month, I think the sequel is better. It definitely doesn't suffer from second book syndrome.

I loved the start of The Poppy War, -- where Rin studies to get in to, and then survive, Sinegard -- and I thought the end was heart-wrenching, but I felt there is a kind of midpoint lag that just prevented the book from being a full five-stars for me.

Luckily, The Dragon Republic has no such issue. The entire book is compelling from front to back. There's no moment that I thought was less interesting than the rest and no part that I would have skimmed. Whereas The Poppy War falls into two distinct parts, The Dragon Republic feels more like a full, complete story from start to finish.

The Dragon Republic is a tour de force of action, political manoeuvring, religious conflict and personal upheaval.

Many characters from the first book return and I felt that at that everyone was built upon in this story -- secondary characters become more intriguing and favourites break your heart. I continue to adore Rin as a character. I adore her unflinching pragmatism, even in the moments when I find myself wincing at the actions she takes or suggests. I'm not entirely sure if I can say anything more about The Dragon Republic without giving away huge plot points, but I'm sure it's going to surprise and emotionally devastate readers.

There's one more book in this trilogy -- and I desperately want to get my hands on it right this second -- so I have no idea how I'm going to wait until it's released! I've also no idea how Kuang is going to top The Dragon Republic in the series finale, but I'm sure she's going to manage somehow. The Poppy War trilogy is setting itself up as one of the most impressively sprawling and complex world's I've had the pleasure to read about and I'm already stoked for the conclusion.

If you’ve been keeping up with the world of fantasy books for the last year or so, you will likely have heard of R.F. Kuang’s excellent (and brutal) Poppy War. A debut that sucks you in with the promises of a magic school and drug-fueled hi-jinks, and then stomps all over your face with the horrendous reality of the Nanjing Massacre.

So yeah, however dark and brutal Poppy War might have been, it was a pretty great book. But given how it ended (if you know, you know), readers might have been forgiven for wondering what the hell Kuang was going to do next.

Well, for me, the answer was “blow the first book out of the water”.

I know that a criticism some readers had of The Poppy War was that the first and second halves of the book felt entirely different from each other, with drastically different tones. While I happen to think that this was a fitting parallel for Rin’s confrontation of the harsh realities of war, those readers will be happy to know that there is no such difference this time around. The Dragon Republic shares far more similarities with the second half of The Poppy War than it does the first, and that tone is consistent throughout.

But that’s not to say that Rin isn’t as snarky and rage-fueled as ever, because she absolutely is. And Kuang does an amazing job of making someone so powerful seem so emotionally vulnerable. Aspects of PTSD, loss, and drug addiction are explored in an honest, uncompromising way, and much of Rin’s character arc in this book ties in to how she deals with these.

Of course, this is Rin we’re talking about, and so she tends to deal with things by setting them on fire.

Whereas Poppy War was pretty much a straight-forward and straight-up war between two nations, Dragon Republic complicates things a bit. Politics come into play, both on the human level and the pantheon level. The politics and the fantastical are woven together so seamlessly that they seem to be one and the same (which I loved), and the possibility of a “soft” invasion by a gun-carrying white-supremacist European-like nation lends a extra layer of suspense to some scenes.

And, of course, it’s dark. So dark. There’s nothing so out-of-left-field shocking as the Nanjing parallels, but there are a lot of corpses (so many corpses) and one (interrupted) on-screen rape. These aren’t books you want to read if you aren’t a fan of dark stories, but in my opinion, neither do they glorify that darkness. The atrocities are described in a matter-of-fact way, and it’s the character’s reactions (or lack thereof) that take up the focus.

The pacing is pretty fast throughout, with a slight lull in the middle to allow the reader some time to digest some things. I find that Kuang has a very moreish style of writing that demands you never put the book down, and she is incredible at keeping the suspense high throughout the course of a book without it becoming overbearing.

So yeah. If you were a fan of the Poppy War (particularly the second part), and you can stomach a really dark story, then you’ll love this. There’s fire. There are battles. And there is so much rage.

So much rage.

This is the second installment in the Popy War series following our main character, Rin, a shaman and a worrier who's currently on the run: haunted by the atrocity she committed to end the war, addicted to opium, and hiding from the murderous commands of her vengeful god, the fiery Phoenix. Her only reason for living is to get revenge on the traitorous Empress who sold out Nikan to their enemies.
Rin joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who plans to create a new Republic. But his motivations are not as democratic as they seem.
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This book was filled with so much action right from the very first page, complimented by lots of political intrigues and military strategies that kept me so incredibly engaged in the story that I read this huge tome in no time at all. I didn't see some of the plot twists coming and while this book was very long I never felt bored by it.
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I loved this book a lot more than the first one and I really appreciate the authors writing style. While being light and in places even funny it portrayed the story line in a beautifully interesting and complex way.
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Trigger warnings for rape, physical violence, warfare ect.
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🌟🌟🌟🌟/5 stars! It was incredible!

An excellent continuation from the poppy war, the characters arc develops well Anand the story carries the reader along on its twist, turns and poly devices, I personally would have liked more of the Phoenix but that may happen in the next book

ARC provided by the publisher—Harper Voyager—in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5 stars

The newest rising queen of fantasy is back with her newest book, The Dragon Republic, and it managed to live up to my super high expectations.

Can we first appreciate just how damn gorgeous the cover of this book is? JungShan has created another spectacular cover-selling ink illustration and I’m confident that many readers will pick up the book/series even if they don’t know anything about it. The same situation as its predecessor, the quality of the content of the book did justice to the beautiful cover art and vice versa. I’m pretty sure practically everyone who knows me on bookish social media knows how much I loved The Poppy War. I even created a Twitter account just to wish the author a congratulatory message on her debut’s publication day. If you don’t know/remember, here’s a short snippet of what I said about the first book:

“I have no doubt this will end up being the best fantasy debut of the year… a book that will go down as one of the best grimdark/military fantasy debuts of all time. [...] I have absolutely no doubt that [Kuang’s] name will be up there with the likes of Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin.”

Yeah… suffice to say that I highly loved the first book. Since then, The Poppy War has also garnered well-deserved praises, nominations, and awards; my high expectations towards its sequel were inevitable and I’m glad to say that after reading this book, my worry was unfounded and Kuang entranced me once again with her newest installment.

No story summary from me; if you want to know the plot, read the official synopsis of the book at your own risk. Following the catastrophic conclusion of the first book, The Dragon Republic plunges Rin and her companions into a brand new war. In the first installment, Kuang divided her storytelling clearly into two sections; a coming-of-age battle school fantasy for the first half and a grim military fantasy for the second half. Unlike other series like The Kingkiller Chronicle or Harry Potter, where the characters continue training in schools, The Dragon Republic threw away the battle school concept completely, turning the book completely into a cleverly crafted military fantasy. Full of darkness, tactics, shifting allegiances, war and death, Kuang continues her trademark of delivering a superb story that vividly explores the horrors of war. I loved Kuang’s prose in the first book, which is why I found it to be incredibly satisfying to read her stunning improvement in prose within this novel. This is a significantly bigger book than The Poppy War, it’s almost 700 pages long and yet there wasn’t any moment that felt boring or dull. The engaging narrative and prose captivated me thoroughly from cover to cover; the second half in particular—especially the last 20%, more on this later—was simply amazing and pulse-pounding. War changes everyone indiscriminately; no one came out of it unscathed mentally or physically. The escalating and harrowing effects or aftermath of war were shown expertly through the well-developed characterizations.

“You will die thinking I have abandoned you all. But I do not hesitate to say that I value the lives of my people far more than I have ever valued you.”


As with its predecessor, the narrative was told exclusively through Rin’s perspective. The events of the first book have left Rin riddled with guilt, regret, and anger. To say that Rin is angry is seriously putting it mildly. She’s angry at the world, at herself, at her friends, at everything. War has changed her and her companions, and yet they still can’t catch a break; peace remains firmly lodged out of grasp and unforgettable loss continues to happen. This is a grim book, written with more mature and refined prose; the character’s darkness and personality elicited emotional responses of all kinds from me. I mentioned in my review of the first book that that Rin is one of my favorite heroines in fantasy because I found her to be very well-written and her personality traits were really clear. That being said, something you have to know is that Rin is inspired by Mao Zedong, Rin does make questionable decisions. She has no impulse control, and she does a lot of stupid things because of her anger and what happened to her. In her path toward overcoming legacy, opium addiction, and accepting her power, Kuang deconstructs Rin’s character completely down to her core, presenting her at her worst for almost the entirety of the first half. I’ll admit that in the first half, there were moments where I wanted to slap her several times, and in my honest opinion, this period of time could’ve been shortened a bit. However, seeing her at her worst did make her the fruition of her character development in the second half stronger. This situation reminded me of Blood of Assassins by R.J. Barker, another book I really loved which involved the main character being driven heavily by darkness and rage, but came out all the better once the character was able to overcome it. I highly praise Kuang for her characterization for Rin and the side characters. Most of the side characters helped immensely in bringing moments of heartwarming and light to balance Rin’s life; their interactions were charming, compelling, and I loved reading about them.

The world-building has also moved further beyond Nikara and the Mugenese federation. The new race, Hesperian, came into play here. Hesperian is a race of Westerners, most likely an allusion Germany during World War II, and their arrival brought technologies, arquebuses, airships, and more expansion to the world-building. Not only was the world-building expanded, but Kuang also provided revelations and more in-depth lore to the history of her world.

One last thing before I close this review: I would like to applaud Kuang’s imaginative and destructive depiction of the magical battle scenes. The action sequences were simply magnificent and the last 20% of the book demonstrates Kuang’s best battle scenes and closing sequences so far. It was insanely breathtaking, by showing the power of a vermillion myth and the gods, the clash of the blazing rage and overwhelming cyclone were extremely well-executed. The actions and character’s decisions constantly delivered immense implications for future events of the series. Kuang truly ignited her skill in writing great military fantasy within the last 20% and I honestly can’t wait for more. The gripping naval warfare, brilliant aerial-combat, tension-packed elemental battle, and the unflinching infernal torrent of powers were vividly realized and felt cinematic to read.

“This was what the balance of power looked like now. People like her waved a hand and millions were crushed within the confines of some elemental disaster, flung off the chessboard of the world like irrelevant pieces.”


I don’t think I have anything else to say without spoiling any events from the series. If you loved The Poppy War, I honestly think that you have nothing to worry about. The Dragon Republic is an unputdownable sequel that deflects the infamous middle book syndrome with brutal precision. With The Dragon Republic, Kuang has proven that her debut wasn't a one-hit wonder, further establishing herself as the new rising queen of fantasy. The architect behind Jade City said: “Brace yourself.” Let me just add that you’ll have to find an adamantium building to hold on to. The might and rage of the Phoenix knows no limit, and Rin's newest journey will mercilessly incinerate your heart up to the last page. Rebecca Kuang and this series is truly a treasure for Asian-inspired military fantasy and I simply can't wait to read the conclusion of this trilogy.

Sidenote:
The dark atmosphere in this book was truly palpable, bad things happen, a LOT. Make sure you’re in the right mood and headspace before you read this book. Also, #FireDick happened, literally.

Official release date: August 8th, 2019 (UK) and August 6th, 2019 (US)

You can pre-order the book from: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository (Free shipping)

The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions

I utterly destroyed by this sequel to The Poppy War. It was darker than its predecessor and the twists come out of nowhere and smack you right in your face. I was in shock when I read the ending and couldn't believe if I was really reading what I was reading or I was plain sleep deprived.

Thanks to Netgalley, Harper Voyager and R.F. Kuang for providing me with an eARC of this marvelous book!

I was so excited to be diving back into the darkness and horror of this world, and Kuang did not disappoint. The Dragon Republic tells the continuing story of Rin as she attempts to process the events of The Poppy War, with varying results. Once again, our protagonist goes on a real journey of discovery in this narrative, but for me, her motivation and actions seemed somehow even more authentic. Her self-doubt is palpable and understandable, but she always takes what she believes is the best path for any situation. The cast of secondary characters is fantastic and the interplay between them all was incredibly well done. I also felt like the plot was tighter and more cohesive in this second instalment, which led to this being a much quicker read despite being equally as long as The Poppy War. The magical elements are wonderfully interwoven among the military aspects of the narrative and the world building continues to be impressively detailed. Overall, I loved this second instalment in the trilogy even more than the first and I now will be pacing the floor until book 3!
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.