Reviews

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang

Only show reviews with written explanations

jolietjane's review against another edition

5.0

Instead of reviewing this i'm going to list my opinions on things randomly.

The Dragon Republic feels like the book version of a 24 episode TV show, switching gears constantly, not having a single primary theme or arc- but like a long form TV show, it draws you into it's chaos and traps you there. Unlike the first book, which had a solid through line and enemy, TDR is a mess of several different scenes that weave together a beautiful, dark colonial nightmare.

Some observations and opinions I had.

Its satisfying watching a character like Rin "go dark", to be able to understand why she would do it, but also not agree with her. I am probably in the minority of people who doesn't particularly like Rin, and empathizes a lot more with Daji and Viscera's skewed, selfish, and stable versions of the future. Knowing Rin's Maoist inspirations absolutely plays into that, and she can be extremely difficult to like while being extremely compelling.

Like the last book, TDR absolutely has a habit of not really giving value to the Muganese or Hesperia people other than being Sauron evil, though the story being from Rin's eyes, it's understandable. I am more partial to books that range the full spectrum of war, even if it's giving us a flawed POV of "the other side". The Heroes comes to mind with this- often producing other points of view from the side of the war we see as villains, not changing the fact that they are villains, but opening up the window we see them through. TPW as a series not being multi POV will always make me a little bummed for that.

The house of Yin really shines to be as the best characters, even at their worst, most shameful and most cowardly moments. There isn't truly more nuance in characters in this series that can really beat them- they have every element of family squabbling, self hate, personal secrets, prejudice, power, love- and I root for them despite myself over and over again. Nezha, Viscera, and their family just HIT DIFFERENT.

The GLORIOUS RETURN OF KITAY AND VENKA. Nothing to say here, just happy for it.

Nezha and Rin ended up being an extremely satisfying character relationship. I will avoid spoilers but I found it much more interesting than the discourse surrounding it on twitter.