Reviews with content warning for Cannibalism - The Dragon Republic

“People will seek to use you or destroy you. If you want to live, you must pick a side. So do not shirk from war, child. Do not flinch from suffering. When you hear screaming, run toward it.”

Please do ignore my rating. This was 100% on me.

The Dragon Republic is a book about war. War is atrocious: it destroys and hurts and just takes, takes and takes leaving nothing but pain and scars. This is what you should expect to find going into this book, and certainly not something I had the head and heart to read in this moment of my life. Again, this is how it felt for me, because by all standards The Dragon Republic is a terrific book about the horrors of war, with such an intricate world-building and it leaves you both in awe and in fear. It's a realistic, researched portrayal of the ugliest parts of human history.

I do admire it, and it definitely did not leave me unchanged -there was a mess of feelings in my chest that got worse every page I turned, and evoking that feeling alone requires so much talent. To talk about the monstrousness of war requires so much bravery, too, and R.F. Kuang certainly has both.

But. But. This was not for me, at least certainly not right now, and this admiration never made me enjoy the lecture. It was a long book and just, everything was bad. There was not a moment of peace, a trace of hope. It was a bad decision after a bad decision, treason everywhere you looked. This was a war, after all, and war has nothing pretty to offer. Since book one we could see this conclusion, but in The Poppy War, I easily fell in the dim rays of hope and happiness we got, while The Dragon Republic offered none of that.

This was also a plot focused book. I deeply loved the characters a mistake, and I was just expecting a little more out of them. From what we got, I really didn't enjoy it much. Just. I really wish we had gotten more character development and explored more of the relationships.

If you, like me, get easily attached to the characters:

please don't just assume everyone will die in the most horrific way

. And... really... I'm still processing...

some of the deaths. Like... especially all the ones from The Cike I just... mhj...

.

Anyhow. I'm really hurting right now, so the rating might change! But ah, even if I feel like this, how amazing is that a book can bring so many questions and feelings to the table...

Content Warnings

plumpaperbacks's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Starting an adult fantasy novel whilst in the middle of a reading slump might not have been my best idea. Despite that, I was immediately immersed in this book, as if there hadn’t been a several month gap between me reading The Poppy War and me reading The Dragon Republic. Kuang masterfully writes complex, morally grey characters, and weaves multiple subplots into a story that’s fascinating despite it’s occasionally slower pacing, also integrating discussions of heavier topics relevant both in Rin’s world and our own. So many mind-blowing things happened in this book, and I look forward to picking up The Burning God as soon as I’m in the mood for fantasy again.

I love Rin and Kitay’s friendship. I loved seeing Venka and Rin become allies and then friends. Rin and Nezha’s dynamic was also very interesting to me. I know this series is a military fantasy inspired by real Chinese fantasy and it isn’t at all focused on romance, but can I just say that there’s SOMETHING going on between those two? Is that just me? While I like the way his character was written, I don’t love Nezha the way I do Rin and Kitay. I’m in a love-hate relationship with him at the moment. I’m excited yet concerned to see what unfolds in the final novel, given that every single review of it I’ve seen just talks about how heart-wrenching it is. I’ll get there eventually.

Representation

protagonist of color
some side characters of color

Content Warnings

freoduweard's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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svarshi's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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nytephoenyx's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

The Dragon Republic delivers just as much as The Poppy War. This book is good, good, good.

Where The Poppy War introduced Rin’s story and her struggle with the Phoenix, The Dragon Republic spread its wings and let us connect to more characters. While the POV is still just Rin’s, we get more development for Kitay and Nezha, both of whom have very interesting stories to tell. We also get some answers about various members of the Sike. The character development in The Dragon Republic continues to be fantastic, including some twists for characters I didn’t expect!

But this book is not driven by its characters. Rin and the others give The Dragon Republic life, but this story is driven by the plot. The second half of The Poppy War leaves us with the entrails of the Third Poppy War. Alas, that’s not the end of war. Like real life wars, the end is rarely clean and the Third Poppy War is followed those who see fractures in the system and want to lean on that weakness and begin their own conquests. Once again, Kuang does an excellent job writing war. This time, we are at sea for most of the book pursuing naval battles, but there is also some one-on-one battles between Rin and the villains, but it’s not gilded with false hope. One thing I really like about Kuang’s writing is the honesty of it. Things are not so uncomplicated as “good” and “evil”. Sometimes the villains win. Sometimes the heroes get hurt. War is messy.

I will say – I think The Dragon Republic is less gory than The Poppy War. Personally, I think this is because Rin is simply getting used to it. She’s jaded – the blood and tragedy is locked away in the back of her head because that’s how she survives, and so the reader feels less of it as well. It’s still awful but it feels further away. Instead of violence in The Dragon War, we are starting to see the rotten core of some people’s souls and danger of religious prosecution. I look forward to see how this plays out in The Burning God because these theme is so common in history but doesn’t appear often in fantasy worlds… and it should.

I have nothing but good things to say about The Dragon Republic. It’s an incredibly well-written book with a constant ebb and flow and action and development. It does not fall victim to the second book curse. Kuang is not afraid to break her readers’ hearts, particularly at the end. I look forward to reading The Burning God and anything else R.F. Kuang writes!

Content Warnings

catsy2022's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Rating: B-

"If you think you can't beat it, then you should kill yourself."

The Dragon Republic is the 2nd book in the Poppy War series by R F Kuang. I actually didn't intend to continue on with the series, but I borrowed this book from the library after knowing my own behaviour towards keeping books. This was a rollercoaster with a lot of different tense moments, which made me think a lot about the world, the writing and characters.

In the first book, Rin was fighting against a system that kept her down due to her skin colour. After the 3rd Poppy War against the Mugenese, the Dragon warlord feels that the empress So Daji is unfit to rule and unite the Nikaran empire so he starts a rebellion intending to recruit allies in the south to take the north of Nikara. Rin and the Cike are recruited in addition with the purpose of being a secret weapon against the Daji and as a bargaining chip against the Hesperian, a powerful western race who are judging the Nikaran war to see if they are worthy of aid.

I had a few thoughts about this book that I thought I would break down into dot points so I could really get my thoughts out.

• Rin is not a bad bitch. In this book she is just a whiny protagonist who resorts to saying fuck you all too often and loses any of the depth she had in the first book. I wish the author had explored the potential repercussions of her opium addiction and the PTSD she had from the war. I felt like there was a lot of potential here that was lost.
• Rin and Kitay's friendship - After the wounds from the first book, I felt like Rin did not put enough effort into mending the friendship with Kitay. She did almost nothing, in fact, and later in the book the y express friendly affection towards each other. They were both horribly traumatised.
• Rin and Nezha - This felt so forced and unnatural. I didn't see any of the love or affection come through, more that it was just suddenly there and it never became anything before the end of the book. It was all so shoehorned in and I didn't feel like it was a genuine romance, it was just something to increase the drama of the 3rd book.
• Venka - Venka is stated to be an abuse survivor...and that's pretty much it. She isn't anything more than her trauma. There isn't more development or many bonding scenes. In fact after her first appearance arguing with Nezha, she only appears in the story another 5 or 6 times and she hardly does anything. Rin and Daji are the only female main characters in the book and everyone else is male or a minor character. Why is that?
• Hesperia - Look, we can see from a fucking mile away that they represent the British or, in general, the conquering westerners. You don't need to say "the white race" we get it. We got it when they had one god, advanced technology and light skin. It was all so on the nose and then actually blatantly stated that it was ridiculous and not subtle.

• Nezha's shamanism - literally on the previous page Kitay, Rin and Nezha are sitting around a campfire discussing how they could train Nezha to be a Shaman and then he literally is a Shaman who denies his powers due to the trauma that came from it. That's not good foreshadowing.

What I did like were... um...the scenes with Daji, the hopelessness and the scene with the dumplings.

I'm still going to go on with the third book. I have to now, but R F Kuang needs to stop pulling directly from history and grow as an author.

"You could be so much more. Do so much more. Listen to me. You could change history."
"Haven't I changed history enough?"

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