Daily Stuntz — The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
A couple of years ago I was reading a Georgetown alumni note and one of the sections was about a student who had written a very well received fantasy book, The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang. I enjoy fantasy novels quite a bit so I did a little more research and was fascinated by a book mixing recent Chinese history (which I know very little about) and fantasy derived from Chinese and other Asian traditions. The Poppy War turned out to be one of my favorite books I read in 2018 and the Dragon Republic is the second part of the trilogy. For me with many trilogies, the second is the hardest as the first introduces new characters, worlds, and concepts and the third wraps up the stories and may bring closure or at least some sense of ending, but the second has to connect the two.
In this trilogy, the Dragon Republic does a very good job following up on the Poppy War and I couldnt put it down through the second half or maybe even last two thirds. To be fair, it took me a little while to get back into it as the events at the end of the Poppy War clearly changed Rin, the main character, and she was not as interesting, but that changed pretty quickly. Also there are some nits I have about the pacing where things seem to move very slowly and then Rin is unconscious for some reason and things jump forward.
But outside of those small negatives (and of course I can always have more of the Cike talking shit to each other) it was a book with great twists and turns that seemed full without cliffhangers leading us to the final book, but also making me incredibly excited for it. I also enjoyed a lot of the strategy and military tactics involved. It is not as heavy on the fantasy elements but for me this drew me into the world more as I could try to understand who was involved, their personalities and drives, and possible outcomes, without worrying about a lot of fantasy or magic that would change everything. Finally, many of the characters in the book just seem right. Complex but understandable, real people versus cartoon characters, and the interactions with Rin make the book incredibly strong.
Congratulation to R.F Kuang (now 24) who has written two, and possibly three, great fantasy books (both were on Time’s list of top 100 fantasy books ever) and I am starting on book 3 as soon as I can.