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A review by miyaosamu
The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“Fire and water looked so lovely together. It was a pity they destroyed each other by nature.”
8/26/21 reread — forever in an eternal state of misery after chapter 35. seeing rin, kitay, nezha, and venka again at the peak of their friendship together hurt my heart so much with nostalgia. the parts of this story showing how things were simpler between them when they were all fighting the same side in comparison to the pain of the final installment. rin, my no morals icon, only nineteen in this second installment and been through a lot especially with the blood on her hands. her development though fluctuating that's how she is with conceding to being used as a weapon with her feelings on power when useful in contrast to the cike commander position altan left her. but her realizations by the end on where those feelings got her and how she can be more than a weapon for someone to use was the best part. kitay, my everything who deserves the world, his brain of course still at its peak but heart ached seeing how golyn niis and loss has hardened his light soul around the edges. glad to see he reconciled with rin after what she did and we saw the sarcastic kitay we know with his intellectual bickering around friends. the anchor bond scene between rin and kitay will always render me so emotional with their platonic soulmatery and how much they're alike in their inner feelings just with different ways it manifests on the outside. nezha, my best boy but little shit, the love-hate relationship i have with him as readers see his trauma backstory, insight into his internal pain, and where it stems from. his character arc in this second book can be a shock but when one looks at his character overall it's really not that surprising with how he was raised and family expectations. yet that particular definitely hits like a knife twist in the heart because of all the little moments rin and nezha had. but in terms of the storyline as a whole, admire how kuang sticks to the truth of the world and keeping it realistic to the core. there was always going to be another country wanting to colonize and take advantage of nikara's fractures so the hesperians should not be a surprise since they represent the worst of the worst colonizers. the ones who look down on other races as inferior and thinking them savages. the political intrigue and war strategy in this one excellently done up a notch from the strategy for academic purposes we saw in the first book. as a reread, it was fun but also in agonizing awe seeing how kuang utilized foreshadowing all throughout this one not just for the end of the dragon republic but for the burning god and its end as well.
9/12/20 1st read — This second installment most definitely did not fall victim to second book syndrome and just blew my expectations out of the water (reference fully intended), rendered me absolutely speechless. Never would I have thought a book would surpass my love for The Poppy War and how truly amazing it was. But the Dragon Republic is definitely the book that topped it, being a sequel that outdid the first. Didn't have my expectations too high as I went into this book not knowing a great deal, and I'm glad, with the twists and turns at every point that jolted my system. I genuinely loved the overall war focused plot, political intrigue and wartime strategy, and pacing in this one so much more. My emotions are a whole mess, ranging from utter shock to sobbing in either happiness or pain. Along with the meaningful character arcs and seeing how profoundly each character has developed (and how the war has affected them individually) ever since we saw them in their school days in the first book. I'm immensely dreading to read The Burning God and seeing what the end has in store for Rin, Kitay, Nezha, Venka, Chaghan and all these characters that I've grown much attached to.
“Or maybe, she thought, with stars this bright, if you believed that above you lay the cosmos, then you had to construct a yurt to provide some temporary feeling of materiality. Otherwise, under the weight of swirling divinity, you might feel you had no significance at all.”
8/26/21 reread — forever in an eternal state of misery after chapter 35. seeing rin, kitay, nezha, and venka again at the peak of their friendship together hurt my heart so much with nostalgia. the parts of this story showing how things were simpler between them when they were all fighting the same side in comparison to the pain of the final installment. rin, my no morals icon, only nineteen in this second installment and been through a lot especially with the blood on her hands. her development though fluctuating that's how she is with conceding to being used as a weapon with her feelings on power when useful in contrast to the cike commander position altan left her. but her realizations by the end on where those feelings got her and how she can be more than a weapon for someone to use was the best part. kitay, my everything who deserves the world, his brain of course still at its peak but heart ached seeing how golyn niis and loss has hardened his light soul around the edges. glad to see he reconciled with rin after what she did and we saw the sarcastic kitay we know with his intellectual bickering around friends. the anchor bond scene between rin and kitay will always render me so emotional with their platonic soulmatery and how much they're alike in their inner feelings just with different ways it manifests on the outside. nezha, my best boy but little shit, the love-hate relationship i have with him as readers see his trauma backstory, insight into his internal pain, and where it stems from. his character arc in this second book can be a shock but when one looks at his character overall it's really not that surprising with how he was raised and family expectations. yet that particular definitely hits like a knife twist in the heart because of all the little moments rin and nezha had. but in terms of the storyline as a whole, admire how kuang sticks to the truth of the world and keeping it realistic to the core. there was always going to be another country wanting to colonize and take advantage of nikara's fractures so the hesperians should not be a surprise since they represent the worst of the worst colonizers. the ones who look down on other races as inferior and thinking them savages. the political intrigue and war strategy in this one excellently done up a notch from the strategy for academic purposes we saw in the first book. as a reread, it was fun but also in agonizing awe seeing how kuang utilized foreshadowing all throughout this one not just for the end of the dragon republic but for the burning god and its end as well.
9/12/20 1st read — This second installment most definitely did not fall victim to second book syndrome and just blew my expectations out of the water (reference fully intended), rendered me absolutely speechless. Never would I have thought a book would surpass my love for The Poppy War and how truly amazing it was. But the Dragon Republic is definitely the book that topped it, being a sequel that outdid the first. Didn't have my expectations too high as I went into this book not knowing a great deal, and I'm glad, with the twists and turns at every point that jolted my system. I genuinely loved the overall war focused plot, political intrigue and wartime strategy, and pacing in this one so much more. My emotions are a whole mess, ranging from utter shock to sobbing in either happiness or pain. Along with the meaningful character arcs and seeing how profoundly each character has developed (and how the war has affected them individually) ever since we saw them in their school days in the first book. I'm immensely dreading to read The Burning God and seeing what the end has in store for Rin, Kitay, Nezha, Venka, Chaghan and all these characters that I've grown much attached to.
“Or maybe, she thought, with stars this bright, if you believed that above you lay the cosmos, then you had to construct a yurt to provide some temporary feeling of materiality. Otherwise, under the weight of swirling divinity, you might feel you had no significance at all.”