I finished it last week. I just wanted to sit on it for a while to let my thoughts coalesce into something rational instead of a heap of bizarre unintelligible sounds because as my man Kendrick once said :
This series consistently kept getting better. Had someone asked me about the trajectory of the storyline a month ago when I read the first chapter of Poppy War, never in million years would I have guessed it right.
It starts off with the Southern Warlord reneging on everything he promised at the end of The Dragon Republic. The best defense is a good offense and I guess nobody got the memo which is a bit ironic given how often people in this world quoted Sun Tzu. Tucked away in the mountains they hoped Vaisra would just forget about them which is mere 1 in the line of many times smart people acted purely out of self interest and folly and it just infuriated me how easily they believed their own lies but I guess, that’s how the world goes. Because how else will one venture to explain the c•••••••••• around in real life?
And the only person with cojones to act was bogged down with mindless politics until she decided not to. Rin’s character development in Burning God is a thing of beauty and you cannot convince me otherwise. From a wide eyed ingénue to a drug addict with crippling depression that seeps out in outburst of unadulterated rage, to a cognizant god fully in control of her demons while still being somewhat fallible is not an easy character to write.
Fang Runin was destroyed. She was destined to marry a lecher until she crawled her way out of that godforsaken town. She was bullied, ridiculed. They left no stone unturned when it came to make her flunk out of the university. They banished her to the Cike. They used her, betrayed her, experimented on her. They sold her off, double-crossed her, used her again and manipulated her. They left her to die, gaslighted her, backstabbed her, chained her, sold her off again. They oppressed her, undermined her, patronized her, sold her off one last time and she came back stronger every damn time. FANG RUNIN IS THAT BITCH!!
After reading chapter 16 :
After reading chapter 17 :
There’s a reason why those chapters felt extremely gratifying. Because these 2 marked the beginning of a character who’d had enough. A character who was so past the breaking point that it wasn’t even visible. What followed was supreme badassery which at last culminated in chapter 30. The only problem was that there were 4 more chapters and an epilogue to go.
And then it began. The entropy.
I am not saying it was perfect. Far from it. I am just saying that the last time I was this invested into a fantasy story, I was in the Sanderlanche of Hero of Ages (a book which is a Sanderlanche of the series). Plenty was left untouched or without closure. Question bubbled up inside this past week. I often revisited scenes to make sure I remembered the events correctly. While (they) as a traitor makes the most sense, I continue to refuse to believe it lest I sully the purity of the budding friendship between them and our main character Rin. Kuang could have made it into a 5 book series to accommodate all the lore and information- allowing it to breathe through the pages- which was mostly delivered through dialogue and I would have gobbled it up regardless and with gratitude. One of the best things I have read so far. Can’t see it ending any other way. To be honest, I can but that would have involved perpetual bloodshed. Because :