A review by aquietglow
The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
4.0
Dang.
So this one took a long time because of a false start: it's not really a start and stop book, for me, it's a plunge and hold your breath book. It's about war! It's awful and terrible and hard! Some of the psychological warfare fucked me up. The events are horrible and keep being terrible and get worse until you're just as exhausted as the characters. (That's a warning but not a criticism.)
These characters are so cool but it's also frustrating when they don't have the same foresight you do. The real historical context makes this really interesting and challenging.
I think this is a good read, but it's difficult. It's hard to explain how I feel: I love and want good things for some of the characters, even though I don't like some of them and I doubt good things will happen. This isn't a book where I related to the characters, like I don't get the Altan thing at all, it's hard for me to understand Rin's feelings, and some of her choices are obviously foolish to me, but I still root for her. I'm weary after this but really want to read the conclusion.
So this one took a long time because of a false start: it's not really a start and stop book, for me, it's a plunge and hold your breath book. It's about war! It's awful and terrible and hard! Some of the psychological warfare fucked me up. The events are horrible and keep being terrible and get worse until you're just as exhausted as the characters. (That's a warning but not a criticism.)
These characters are so cool but it's also frustrating when they don't have the same foresight you do. The real historical context makes this really interesting and challenging.
I think this is a good read, but it's difficult. It's hard to explain how I feel: I love and want good things for some of the characters, even though I don't like some of them and I doubt good things will happen. This isn't a book where I related to the characters, like I don't get the Altan thing at all, it's hard for me to understand Rin's feelings, and some of her choices are obviously foolish to me, but I still root for her. I'm weary after this but really want to read the conclusion.