The Poppy War

The Poppy War is a 2018 novel by R. F. Kuang, published by Harper Voyager. The Poppy War, a grimdark fantasy, draws its plot and politics from mid-20th-century China, with the conflict in the novel based on the Second Sino-Japanese War, and an atmosphere inspired by the Song dynasty. A sequel, The Dragon Republic, was released in August 2019, and a third book, The Burning God was released November 2020.

Harper Voyager's editorial director David Pomerico acquired the novel after a heated auction on Kuang's 20th birthday.

Plot
Rin is a poor war orphan who lives with opium seller foster parents. To avoid an arranged marriage, she secretly studies for a national test, the Keju, as an escape. Much to her surprise and the villagers' Rin places first and is sent off to Sinegard, the capital city of the Nikan Empire and base for the imperial military academy in the north. Although the students mock the color of her skin and her southern accent, Rin excels in her studies. She becomes friends with Kitay, the son of a minister, enemies with Nezha, the son of one of the warlords that rule Nikan, and looks up to Altan, the school's star student. At the end of her first year she discovers her talent for shamanism and spends the next year studying with Master Jiang, who teaches her how to access the magic of the gods via the use of meditation and psychedelic drugs.

When the country is attacked by the Mugen Federation, Rin and Nezha fight together to defend the gates of Sinegard, where Master Jiang reveals the depth of his shamanic powers and goes missing afterwards. With Sinegard under the Federation's control, Rin is then south to the port city of Kurdalain under siege. There she finds she's been attached to the Cike, imperial assassins, who are a company of so-called misfits – all of whom have shamanistic abilities – commanded by Altan. He is from the island of Speer, an island nation conquered by Nikan in the past and its warriors enslaved to the imperial family for their skills and shamanic power only to be massacred by the Mugenese in their previous war with Nikan, and is able access and control fire through the Speerlie god, the Phoenix. She also reunites with Nezha who apologises to her for his treatment of her in Sinegard, though he is later lost in a Mugenese attack using chemical weapons. When they realize the battles in the area are a feint, they travel to the city of Golyn Niis to find the city destroyed and its inhabitants massacred. Sifting through the wreckage they discover Kitay, who has survived hidden behind a wall, and Venka, Rin's former dorm-mate who was raped by the Mugenese soldiers. Rin wants revenge against the Mugenese and works to access the Phoenix, having learned that she is a Speerlie and goes with Altan, who has concluded that the only way to win the war is to unleash the former members of the Cike, to a mountain prison where they are entombed alive. There, they find Jiang who had imprisoned himself after losing control of his power. He refuses to help them and accuses Altan of only wanting revenge for his people. Outside the prison, the Mugenese are waiting and capture Rin and Altan. They are then subjected to science experiments by the Mugenese scientist Dr Shiro and Rin is made into a heroin addict (Altan already being an addict), learning that the empress had sold out Nikan for her own life. When they escape, Altan gives his life in a suicidal attack as a diversion for Rin to escape the mainland to go to Speer. There she finds the Phoenix's temple, channels the god's unlimited fire, and destroys the primary island of the Mugenese homeland. In the aftermath, she awakens on a ship among the Cike and Kitay, who is horrified by what she has done. Rin also learns that she has been elected as the Cike's new commander and vows to take revenge on the empress for her treachery, while also requesting a supply of poppy seeds from the Cike's apothecary to manage her addiction.

Inspiration
Kuang wrote The Poppy War while teaching debate in China and graduated with a degree in Chinese History from Georgetown University a few days after its release. Her studies in Chinese military strategy and collective trauma inspired her to write the novel. She said, "I chose to write a fantasy reinterpretation of China's twentieth century, because that was the kind of story I wasn't finding on bookshelves". Kuang said Rin's life is meant to parallel the trajectory of Mao Zedong. Grounded in the real-world history of Chinese wars and adding a fantasy drug element inspired by the Opium Wars, The war between Rin's country of Nikan and Mugen mirrors the Second Sino-Japanese War with its horrors at the Nanjing Massacre.

Kuang has cited Avatar: The Last Airbender as a major influence on her work; particularly the character of Azula, and the relationship between Zuko and Katara. Ender's Game, Naruto, Bleach, Dragon Age, Mass Effect, The Grace of Kings, and Game of Thrones were other influences.

Reception
The Poppy War was a 2018 Nebula Award nominee, and was named one of the best books of the year by several publications and organizations, including The Washington Post, Time, The Guardian, Paste, Vulture, Bustle, and The Verge. It has received endorsements from authors Fonda Lee, Julie C. Dao, and Kameron Hurley. It was also nominated for the World Fantasy Award for Best Novel.

Publishers Weekly called the book "a strong and dramatic launch to Kuang's career," while Michael Nam, writing in New York Daily News, referred to The Poppy War as an ambitious start to a trilogy. He further described the book as a dark and fatalistic tale of warfare.

Lila Garrott in Locus gave the novel a more critical review: "It's well executed for what it does, but it's a shame that Kuang chose to downplay the more original elements in favor of material that has been seen before. All of the novel's ambition seems to have gone into the worldbuilding and magic system and then not been allowed to affect the actual plot." In his Wired commentary on fantasy tropes, Jason Kehe agreed that the material did not represent a "revolution" in the genre, but said that "Kuang manages to pierce through."

Translations
, The Poppy War has been translated into 14 languages: Bulgarian, Czech, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Turkish, and Ukrainian.