This series is just outstanding and I feel it gets better and better with every book! I love this authors writing style and I will be reading everything I can from this author.

I received a review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley for my honest review. The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.

The Poppy War left me wondering if the author would be able to follow up a solid first entry, or would it be another franchise with a promising start that rapidly fizzled out.

I am very happy to say that The Dragon Republic did not only match its predecessor but exceded the bar set. With TDR, Kuang has become an author I plan to watch for any and all releases from.

Wow wow wow! This book — this SERIES — is beautiful. I’m ashamed it took me so long to dive in! I can’t wait for more!

Unfortunately, this took a while to get to because of life. But there is a part of me that is glad. After rereading The Poppy War, I really fell in love with Rin. She’s a problematic, angsty, teenager in a young adult body. She made me angry and made me want to shake her and give her a big hug at the same time.

I did get a bit of political whiplash and as I was reading got a lot of Ukraine Russia conflict vibe. I love how the dragon warlord in his own way, albeit, toxic wanted to help her. But hated that she was always considered a weapon to further a cause.

Can’t wait to read The Burning God.

I. Am. Not. Okay.

I loved the Poppy War, but if possible I loved this even more. I absolutely couldn't put this down.
It was immersive, heartbreaking and brilliant.

Kuang showcases some fantastic world building, interweaving history (including the exploration of the evils of British Colonialism, fractured Chinese Imperialism and the Rape of Nanjing) and fantasy, while creating incredibly compelling characters.

Especially Rin's growth as a character was amazing to watch, seeing her grapple with addictionher own insecurities, responsibilities and realising her true potential with the help of those around her
"You're so strong," he said. "Whatever you're seeing, whatever you're feeling, it's not as strong as you are."

All the plot twists though, especially (view spoiler) absolutely had me reeling. Kuang's writing creates such an investment in the characters, that it's an absolute emotional rollercoaster.

Absolutely cannot wait for the last instalment of this series

I have to admit I had trouble connecting with this very popular series. I think the main reason why I had difficulty with it was I paid a little too much attention to comments from readers and bloggers. They opined over the tragedy and their love of the main character, but I had major issues with the main character. Not because she was badly written, no I am very impressed with the author’s ability, but more because she is an absolute psychopath and mass murderer and does not deserve the readers affection. Maybe I’m a little too black/white with how I feel about her but I couldn’t understand how this girl was coming off as lovable or admirable in any way.

It wasn’t until I heard an interview with the author (shout out to Reading Women Podcast btw) that I found that how I felt about Rin was exactly as the author intended. She is a complete monster and the author explores how those in power with those kinds of qualities affect a country and a people for ill no matter what they tell themselves their true intentions are. (sorry, I know that is a confusing sentence). I realized I was not intended to admire Rin and because of that, I was able to return to the books, re-read them and appreciate them better. Now I still don’t like Rin, but I have to admit she is fascinating. I will probably re-read the novels again in the future, now that I’ve gotten over my own hang-ups about the book. If you’re a fan of villains and how they shape the world around them, this is the series for you.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this free copy in exchange for an honest review!

The second book in the Poppy War trilogy, The Dragon Republic picks up a few months after the first book ends. As it is a sequel, I will not give much information on the plot. But I will say that it maintains the beautiful balance Kuang has created between action, character development, and world building. War and military strategy still play a large role, and the fantasy elements develop, as well. I loved meeting these characters again, and how they and their relationships develop throughout the book. They are complex and ambiguous which is always interesting, and keeps me guessing (and questioning their choices). All of this progression, and the pacing of the plot, make for a very exciting sequel. I cannot wait to read the third and final book of the series!

I still really enjoy this series, but I will say I didn't like this one as much as the Poppy War. Kuang's writing style still sucks me in, and she is able to craft such a realistic historical setting. Her action scenes are top notch, and I loved seeing where everything went.

The things I didn't love will likely be selling points for a lot of people. Starting with the fact that this book is a lot less fantasy and a lot more historical. I missed knowing and seeing more about the gods. Instead, we got a ton of war politics, strategy, and battles. In my opinion, this book was much more a historical fiction with fantasy than a fantasy with historical fiction.

The other thing I didn't love was Rin for a huge portion of this book. She has been through a lot no doubt, but she was extremely whiny and wishy washy in her attitude for most of this book. She was being written as a morally grey badass character with flaws. But instead, what I found was a bratty teenager playing tough. I just don't think the execution of her character development and struggles went over as anticipated.

Overall, though, I still really enjoyed the story. I can't wait to find out how it all ends.

The adventure continues!

The world gets richer, the stakes are higher, the losses hurt more.

There's no dip in quality or discontinuity going from the first book to the second. Everything flows as if it's one big book.

Story: 4 stars
Character Development: 5 stars
Writing: 4 stars
https://readingbetweenthestitches.wordpress.com/2021/02/15/the-dragon-republic-the-poppy-war-2-by-r-f-kuang/

This is the second installment in The Poppy War Series and it lives up to the first book. I love Rin's character, but I get frustrated with her. She seems too caught up in trying to be something or someone else and trying to get revenge for Altan. I loved the development of her relationships with Kitay and Venka. I can't wait for the last book to find out what happens.

This book is everything I wanted and more. Following The Poppy War, I had high expectations of The Dragon Republic, and watching Rin's journey as an antiheroine struggling with addiction and revolution is a delight. Her dynamic with Nezha is also a lot of fun. The social unrest that she gets caught up in is very reminiscent of Chinese history, and I appreciate that Kuang was able to harken back to real history while also making a very fresh and original-feeling tale. This book caused me great pain and great joy, which means that truly, this one is a knock-out.

I found The Dragon Republic (TDR) to be a drudgingly slow read. As someone who liked The Poppy War (TPW), I was massively disappointed by TDR. TPW was at least polished, but TDR reads like a first draft with, in large part, little substance. The readers who are already familiar with the historical events this book is inspired by, there's not much new and you will already be able to predict how the course of TDR will go. Rin as a main character had so much potential after TPW and it was squandered in TDR only for it to be resuscitated last minute just in time for The Burning God. She is little more than a mouthpiece for what the author wants to commentate on. In fact, most if not all elements of TDR can come across as that. TDR feels less like a novel and more like the author retelling certain events with her own characters plus magic.

I dislike how rape was incorporated into TDR for either shock value, as a plot device, or for tragedy. This isn't a matter of whether I think it should or shouldn't be included in a book. It's a matter of how it is written in the story and I don't think Kuang handles it well. In the same vein, I don't think Kuang handles most of her female characters well either. Rin is automatically placed above every other female character by design since she's the main character and yet still has to be subjected to pages upon PAGES of mansplaining (sometimes from characters that aren't even alive anymore!). There were so many possible ways to handle a character like Su Daji, but in the end she's little more than a caricature even with the flashback covering her backstory.

I also can't believe how hard Kuang is trying to push Rinzha and Rintan onto me as a reader when TPW never gave me any inclination of thinking the Rinzha or Rintan relationships were romantic in nature or headed that way at all.

Readers who enjoyed the post-academy parts of The Poppy War will like The Dragon Republic. Unfortunately, that doesn't include me. The only positives I can think of mentioning for TDR were that 1) Venka had a great mean girl redemption where she and Rin are actually friendly and have good interactions; and 2) the Kitay and Rin friendship.

This book was fantastic in developing the plots started in The Poppy War, and had a lot of focus on character growth. I really enjoyed seeing more of the worldbuilding and Rin growing as a person. It's hard to say much more without spoilers for the first book, but this is a great continuation of the story and I cannot wait to see how it all ends.

I genuinely hate waiting in between series. Especially when you love the first book so much, I was nervous reading this book -since I loved the first book so much and was scared it wouldn't live up to it. Holy moly, was I wrong.

This was unputdownable. I loved everything about this! The plotline, characters, world-building, and the magic system. The brutality and gore were there-and I loved it. I have been waiting for more grimdark fantasy that does it right. Twisty and turny the whole book, it seemed.

I can't wait for the third book which I have preordered.

I want to thank Kuang, Netgalley, and HarperCollins Publishers Harper Voyager for the opportunity to read and review this ARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

Wow did this story throw me for a loop. Wasn’t expecting what came next with this book. The book went from the first to the second one so smoothly that there were no breaks. The keeps you moving at pretty fast through out the storyline. Amazing ending, can’t wait for the next book.

There are some books that, while not perfect, just make you feel very strongly. I was on tenterhooks the whole time I was reading The Dragon Republic. I was so heavily invested in the characters and their relationships with one another that I really didn't care about anything else in the book, so I easily overlooked the minor issues with pacing that may have bogged down another novel.

In The Dragon Republic, Rin finds her self dealing with the fallout of her actions at the end of The Poppy War. What this means, practically speaking, is that she is dealing guilt, or rather guilt at her lack of guilt, opium addiction, PTSD, and a a nation overrun with bitter Mugenese soldiers who have no home to return to. Then Yin Vaisra, the Dragon Warlord and Nezha's father, strides into this mess and declares his intent to transform Nikan into a democracy, so he essentially begins to wage war against the Empress, Su Daji. Since Rin is intent on killing Su Daji, she allies herself with Vaisra.

The bulk of this book is essentially a protracted military campaign. In such a long book, I anticipated I'd struggle with the pacing, given that I don't particularly like military fantasy or military strategy, but Kuang's writing remains as compelling as ever; I couldn't put this book down, and when I did put it down all I could think about was wanting to pick it back up again. I read it in exactly two sittings. Even if you're not a fan of military strategy, it's impossible not to be impressed by the sheer scope of Kuang's knowledge, and her implementation of that knowledge into an exciting, propulsive narrative.

Though ostensibly the military campaign is the overarching focus of the plot, for me the beauty of this book lay in the characters and their dynamics with one another. Vaisra is an incredible addition, a wily and manipulative figure, yet one whom Rin can't help but grow attached to. Kitay undergoes some incredible character development; his trauma, rage, and disillusionment have transformed him into a hardened version of himself. Venka returns as well, and we get to see how she is dealing with her own trauma, which was a relief; in the first book Venka felt somewhat like a plot device, but here she emerges more fully into her own character with her own agency. I still think Rin is an incredible character to follow. She has (1) single brain cell, which means she is incredibly rash and very single-minded. She has so much passion but doesn't know where to direct it, and that means she willingly lets herself be used and manipulated, because she is desperate for a purpose. She is the epitome of that John Mulaney bit where he's like, "Oh, well, thank you for asking. Well, you know how I'm filled with rage?" Rin just. Has so much rage. All the time. At herself. At the world. At her friends. At her enemies. She's just bitter and angry and lost and desperate for love and maybe peace, but also all she knows is war, and she doesn't know that she's good for anything else.

There is such a staggering amount of angst and yearning in this book, in particular when it comes to Rin and Nezha. They have so many incredible moments together scattered throughout this book - banter, fights, yearning, friendship, love, lust, anger, resentment, fear - all smashed together into a complex and tangled mess that is impossible to look away from (basically...I ship them...SO MUCH). Same goes for Rin's memory of Altan: The Dragon Republic does not simply move on from Altan but digs even deeper into his character and tragedy. Rin is struggling to reconcile who Altan really was from who she wanted him to be. She loved him, she feared him, she wanted to be him. Kuang is so deft at portraying how messy and mangled their relationship truly was, and as Rin struggles to cope with survivor's guilt and PTSD, her memories of Altan alternate between being a boon and being a torture. It is such a delicate balance to craft, but Kuang does it astonishingly well.

The worldbuilding becomes more intricate as well. We learn more about both the Hinterlanders and the Hesperians. The former have intriguing ties to the Trifecta and shamanism that help to explicate the history of the Second Poppy War as well as the concept of shamanism itself. The Hesperians are a direct parallel to Western imperialists, and they are terrifying in their self-righteousness. They have brought with them technological prowess (dirigibles and muskets!), an absolutist interpretation of the world, fanatic missionaries with a penchant for scientific experimentation, Social Darwinism, and an entrenched belief in their own superiority over the Nikara. With this expansion of worldbuilding and the plot heavy on political and military scheming, Kuang is able to explore a smorgasbord of complex issues such as imperialism, class struggle, the viability of democracy, war ethics, nationalism, and so much more.

Finally, I am in awe of Kuang's ability to make her characters suffer. There are so many moments throughout this book where terrible things happen because, well, life just sucks sometimes and shit happens, and it's incredibly heartbreaking how bleak everything is sometimes. But that's grimdark fantasy for you. Kuang pulls no punches: this book is a grim, realistic look at the brutality of war. Nobody is safe. Nobody is morally or ideologically pure.

Anyway, the third and final book in this series going to break me and I'm okay with that.

I respect the hell out of what I read of this book (and really enjoyed its predecessor), but I wasn't in the right brain space to receive it the way I needed to, or give it the space and time to breathe it requires. This is a book I'll revisit, and is clearly beautifully constructed, but as of this moment my experience was not absolutely ideal.

"But we are the weaker party. We have no choice but to play their game. That's how power works."

This book was a solid follow-up to The Poppy War, Kuang's first book of this trilogy.

There were a lot of good things I liked about this book. I really like the characters; they are detailed and complex and nuanced, and rarely do they feel one-dimensional. I really like their interactions with each other as well as the diversity between the characters themselves. I am also a really big fan of the setting: 20th century China. It is so intricately done and woven together so beautifully, and it's nice to read about a setting and culture that is so different from what I usually read. The story itself was also interesting, with a mix of political intrigue, action, and magic.

However, the main issue I had with this book was pacing. The Dragon Republic was slow to start; there was a lot of buildup and a lot of waiting, but not much action. It wasn't until a little beyond halfway through that it started to pick up, and once it did, it seemed almost nonstop until the ending.

I can't wait to read the final installment of this trilogy. That cliffhanger at the end had me reeling. I can honestly say I have no idea what Kuang will do next, because every time I think I know where the story is going, it takes a complete turn and surprises me every time.

I liked this sequel less than the first book in the series. It's hard to articulate why, but a few things I can put a finger on:

- Character motivations are fuzzier. The alliances and beliefs of the characters shift so quickly and completely that it's a little hard to believe and definitely disorienting. Rin, in particular, believes one thing completely and defends it mercilessly for a while, ignoring all evidence to the contrary, and then, within the span of five minutes, believes something completely opposite. Rinse and repeat. I didn't care for it.

- The narrative is again both lengthy and rushed. There are some sections with careful detail and wonderful description, and some that are skipped entirely, like a chunk of the text is missing.

- I honestly didn't care for the plot in this book. It hopped from point to point in a way that seemed completely unrealistic, even for fantasy. It didn't feel organic? I'm not sure how to express this in a way anyone else could understand. It just strained my suspension of disbelief.

- Rin, once again, is supposed to be this genius, but doesn't see what's staring her in the face until someone else points it out for her. As a reader, I could see the plot twists coming a mile off, but there goes Rin, happily ignorant, without paying attention to all of the things she should be. Irked me a little bit.

- I now actively dislike all of the characters in these books, with the possible exception of Kitay. Like, there's no one to root for, really. Usually there's at least some background gremlin I can latch onto and be excited to read about, but....not really. (view spoiler)

- There was not enough magic in this book. Just my preference.

I really hope the final installment is an improvement over this one. I still enjoyed it, but the drawbacks were more jarring and I liked it a lot less than The Poppy War.

2.5 stars, rounded up.