China a few thousand years ahead in the future? In a military academy-style fantasy? Sort of. Mythical emperors, superhuman warlords, shamanism? Yes, in the second half of The Poppy War. In the first half, you’re at school. The characters are teenagers, so it’s young adult fantasy, but fortunately, it SEEMS to be of the better kind.
Rivalries, a jerk of a teacher, and rotten classmates, all checked, but nothing’s overdone. The focus is on training: martial arts, tactics, strategy, and the like. Love and sex at ZERO level. It’s not that R. F. Kuang is prudish, but both are completely absent, as if nobody had ever heard of them. The strongest emotion between characters is lukewarm friendship. So, those of romantic disposition will struggle with a strong sense of lack.
Some very cautious criticism of the system can also be observed from R. F. Kuang regarding present-day China: if you strive for excessive uniformity in everything, you give up a lot of useful things. In the case of The Poppy War, this useful thing is shamanism.
In the second half of the book, the tiny Mugen Federation (exerting strong Japanese influence) attacks the mighty Nikan (China) for the third time within a few decades. And R. F. Kuang’s story collapses in on itself. Numerous mythical creatures emerge, a bunch of shamans, lots of hysteria and sensitivity break out, and Kuang, who previously constantly alluded to every strategist’s grandfather, Sun Tzu, is unable to describe a military maneuver without it being childishly simple.
You already laugh at the fact that the miniature opponent marches unimpeded with ten thousand soldiers to the capital, while the colossal Nikara Empire cannot muster an army against them because every provincial lord defends his own territory (against nothing). And the cunning and crafty Vipera Queen sitting on the throne lies low like a snake in the grass.
As the story of The Poppy War increasingly rises from the ground of reality towards the spirit world, the story becomes more and more inconsistent and confusing. Stupid military operations, incomprehensible massacres, meaningless betrayals follow one another, and slowly everything that happened before loses its significance because even the armies become insignificant against the power of the gods.
The question is, what’s the point of reading a book where everything slowly becomes insignificant? Not much. For the sake of simplicity and the unfortunate parallel, let’s bring over here an insightful observation from an earlier review (see City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty), as it’s exactly the same situation with that one. (Except that it becomes unbearable right after the first few chapters.)
“A young female author. A unique premise. An exotic world. No sex! And a deflated balloon.”
6.5/10.
The Poppy War (The Poppy War #1) by R.F. Kuang
527 pages, Hardcover
Published in 2018 by Harper Voyager