The Dragon Republic
Fantasy, High Fantasy
R.F. Kuang
The Poppy War, Book # 2
Harper Voyager
August 6th 2019
Hardcover
658
English
January 14, 2022 January 22, 2022
Chunkster Reading, Finishing The Series, Mount TBR, The Backlist Reader
In the aftermath of the Third Poppy War, shaman and warrior Rin is 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.
With no other options, Rin joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who has a plan to conquer Nikan, unseat the Empress, and create a new Republic. Rin throws herself into his war. After all, making war is all she knows how to do.
But the Empress is a more powerful foe than she appears, and the Dragon Warlord’s motivations are not as democratic as they seem. The more Rin learns, the more she fears her love for Nikan will drive her away from every ally and lead her to rely more and more on the Phoenix’s deadly power. Because there is nothing she won’t sacrifice for her country and her vengeance.
What I think
I liked the beginning of this book, but the middle was quite slow, nevertheless I liked it, too. The final part. . . eh. . . not so much, or rather I found it quite mediocre since the ending was obvious. I mean everyone told Rin that “thing” and then it happened. . . Then, the final part is so fast! Comparing it with the middle I would have preferred a smaller middle and a more detailed finale.
I do think this book was so hyped that I had higher expectations, but don’t get me wrong, I still liked it and I will finish the serie (especially because the last book has purple stayed edges and I love purple, it will be nice in my room).
Bye the way, in my first review of the series I said that I didn’t know that the Japanese did experiments on foreigners during the period this book is based on, now I know, they did and I’m going to read more about this subject because I do want to know everything about Japan, the good and the ugly. Every population has its bad behaviour and in every war there are bad things happened so it is right to know the ugly, too. A long time ago, my teacher said that we study history so we won’t repeat our ancestors mistakes, but I see that’s not the case. We are repeating the same stuff over and over again.
