A review by ranchel
The Dragon Republic, by R.F. Kuang
3.0
The Poppy War was not only one of best books I read in 2018, it's also one of the best books I've ever read and I was really excited to get an ARC of The Dragon Republic from the publisher. Unfortunately, this book fell victim to the typical second-book-in-a-trilogy-slump I find myself complaining about with most trilogies.
The Dragon Republic follows Rin after her victory in the Third Poppy War. Although she's still a strong, yet flawed, character, she begins to make more errors and seems be suffering from the holy trinity of PTSD, opium addiction, and also the part where she has a psychotic god living inside her head. In a way, this combination makes her story incredibly frustrating; while I see her actions as a result of the aforementioned PTSD, addiction, and crazy god, her characterization does come off as a little too "women be overemotional and irrational". She flies off the handle in multiple instances and nearly gets people killed because of her inability to behave like a trained commander. One of the few things Rin gets right in this book is her reaction to the Hesperians but her opinions are repeatedly discounted or ignored because of her overall behavior.
The Hesperians are western colonizers who want to bring their religion and way of life to the "savages" of the Nikara Empire. The conflict between Rin, the various warlords, and the Hesperians is the most interesting part of The Dragon Republic. As in The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic pulls inspiration from real events and history, and bringing western meddling into the story adds a very interesting layer to the plot. This alone does not save the book entirely, but these plot points did get me through the parts of the story that really dragged.
And sadly, my main takeaway from The Dragon Republic is that the book was kind of slow. I do remember thinking that the first part of The Poppy War was a little slow and maybe even a little boring, but R.F. Kuang more than made up for that with the rest of the book. Here, Kuang is setting the stage for the finale and the book does suffer for it. Plot points are introduced and then seemingly forgotten, new characters pop up and then disappear, and there were odd jumps between events that made the story somewhat difficult to follow. That's not to say that I disliked the book. I still really enjoyed this, and I'm still incredibly excited for the third and final book in the series, but I was definitely let down and slightly bored at points. Regardless, I recommend reading this book because it is interesting, I think it's a unique concept, and I strongly suspect that the trilogy as whole will be well worth it.
The Dragon Republic follows Rin after her victory in the Third Poppy War. Although she's still a strong, yet flawed, character, she begins to make more errors and seems be suffering from the holy trinity of PTSD, opium addiction, and also the part where she has a psychotic god living inside her head. In a way, this combination makes her story incredibly frustrating; while I see her actions as a result of the aforementioned PTSD, addiction, and crazy god, her characterization does come off as a little too "women be overemotional and irrational". She flies off the handle in multiple instances and nearly gets people killed because of her inability to behave like a trained commander. One of the few things Rin gets right in this book is her reaction to the Hesperians but her opinions are repeatedly discounted or ignored because of her overall behavior.
The Hesperians are western colonizers who want to bring their religion and way of life to the "savages" of the Nikara Empire. The conflict between Rin, the various warlords, and the Hesperians is the most interesting part of The Dragon Republic. As in The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic pulls inspiration from real events and history, and bringing western meddling into the story adds a very interesting layer to the plot. This alone does not save the book entirely, but these plot points did get me through the parts of the story that really dragged.
And sadly, my main takeaway from The Dragon Republic is that the book was kind of slow. I do remember thinking that the first part of The Poppy War was a little slow and maybe even a little boring, but R.F. Kuang more than made up for that with the rest of the book. Here, Kuang is setting the stage for the finale and the book does suffer for it. Plot points are introduced and then seemingly forgotten, new characters pop up and then disappear, and there were odd jumps between events that made the story somewhat difficult to follow. That's not to say that I disliked the book. I still really enjoyed this, and I'm still incredibly excited for the third and final book in the series, but I was definitely let down and slightly bored at points. Regardless, I recommend reading this book because it is interesting, I think it's a unique concept, and I strongly suspect that the trilogy as whole will be well worth it.