Reviews

I love the concept and enjoyed it overall but I'm a bit disappointed by how this trilogy ended. This book felt very rushed. Not just in the story that had a lot of loose ends flapping by the end but also in the editing / publishing process. There were multiple consistency errors, sometimes within a single page. The MCs motivational flipping flopping became even more pronounced than it was in book 1 and 2 and it culminates in an ending that is muddled and unsatisfactory.

alexnorvell2016's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

nouhcake's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

‘The Burning God’ is such an epic and action packed conclusion to a perfect trilogy. It is extremely hard to put into words the ways in which this series made me feel. R. F. Kuang was subverting my expectations at every turn. Right when I thought I knew what might happen next, the last thing I would have expected happens. The character arcs are top tier. There was not a single character that I didn’t feel totally investing in learning more about.

yarfaqikhdir's review against another edition

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4.0

This series is not meant for readers that easily get triggered and do not have the patience to read graphic details of true horrors of war and (inhuman) human destruction!

R. F Kuang is a genius. The way she has woven the storyline into something short, telling the horrific real life events by poetic and symbolic fantasy plot will always be superior, there is definitely so much this book forces you to think about, many ideologies to ponder on, and many things that are easier set on paper than executed by action, such as moral during war is not something black and white, but gray, there is no victors but survivors, there is no "I will be better than my oppressor" but "I will burn down the world because I have suffered, and I am strong enough".

I love how she has written the female characters to be on par with the male ones but the unwomanly face of war does not spare anyone when it comes to the brutal nature of humans in chaos. Even when the main character possesses godly powers, and can destroy the world she still has a weakness, and she will always be an animal to test on, a weapon of war, until she decides to be the weapon of her own leadership yet even then, she's not inconvincible.

The ending of this book is not a happy one, so if you expect to put up with graphic details of war, for three books each of 500+ pages only to get a happy ending you will not have it with the Poppy War.

Finally this last book becomes more fantasy oriented but only because the previous two are so detailed about warfare and psychology of war that this sounds childish for the first half in comparison. We will see a lot of homage to Chinese mythology, but it's only a bit compared to all the PTSD of war. However, as someone who rarely reads dark stuff, this book was wonderful, because there was a point and meaning to the darkness and it's based on reality that has happened all over the world, and it still happens.

crypticmuffin's review

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4.0

Lot of walking.

And lots of crying, a perfect ending,

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