The Poppy War

Now I nearly didn’t give this book the chance it deserved. I’ve been spoiled recently by finding a series that was so good that I blasted through ten books in the space of 6 weeks. So fast, in fact, that I never actually had time to write a single review for any of them. So, when I stood atop the mighty pedestal that I had placed that series upon (Spellmonger, by Terry Mancour) and stared down upon my next target, my judgement was always going to be a little harsh. That said, even with my opinion bar forcibly lowered to a more reasonable level, The Poppy war still got off to a bit of a slow start for me. It certainly wasn’t a bad start and it was very well written, but I nearly stopped after the first twenty minutes like I have with the two previous audiobooks that I had started that week. However, I carried on, and I’m glad that I did, because once you give it a little time, The Poppy war becomes a very good listen/read. 

A single female perspective fantasy novel set in an analogue of medieval china. Already this book is a bit different to anything else I’ve listened to lately. The shift of perspective to an Asian culture and away from the usual European backdrop that most fantasy novels follows was genuinely refreshing. It was novel, something that I struggle to find in books these days after tearing through so many in the genre. Although I didn’t bond with the main character at first, before too long I was subconsciously rooting for her far more than I thought I would, which to me shows a brilliantly written character. I can’t say that there were many other characters for which I developed the same level of attachment, but they were all presented well and most certainly had enough depth to them to remain entertaining.

The world within which the book is set is well thought out with a great backstory that is entirely believable. I didn’t just see the land as a stage upon which the character act but more a canvas upon which the story itself was painted. It can sometimes get a little too specific about certain aspects and at other times gloss over areas that I would love to hear more about, but overall, the universe the book creates is sound. The magic system as well is fairly original, with the very few magic users in the world, and those that can use magic being primarily dependant on psychedelic drugs to induce their powers. I like this a lot. It’s both unique and rooted in real-world shamanism, though it doesn’t really explain a whole lot about the specific powers people have. They simply have abilities without going into how they work. They just work by magic, leading me to the first of my issues. There are certain aspects of the magic system that make the shamans completely OP, to the point where I’m thinking that they likely would have done some serious damage the people, ecosystems, and even underlying geology of their entire continent before the events of the books. Its not like their ultra-powers haven’t existed before the events of the books, and yet only in this book are they used with such catastrophic consequences in situations that surely would have arisen before to some degree. It soils the otherwise very grounded nature of the novel and left me constantly asking why this hadn’t become an issue in the thousand years that the main nation had existed prior to the book.

My second issue is that at times (one time in particular) there is illogically senseless levels of violence carried out. Now, one of the greatest aspects of this book is that it takes a much more rounded view of the consequences of war by concentrating quite heavily on the plight of the civilians that get caught up in the wake of a major and brutal conflict. This is a brilliant angle to play and something that I believe needs to be done more both as a literary technique and to make readers and listeners actually think a bit more about the true consequences of war, not just the sword flashing and heroics of our protagonists. That said, there is one point in particular where the ‘bad guys’ do something so heinous that it just doesn’t make sense. These guys are portrayed as Uber-Nazi’s in their belief that they are a superior race (though to be more accurate it may be more Imperial Japan-like considering the context), but they commit such barbaric acts at times that I simply can’t take the book seriously. It’s like R.F Kuang was trying so hard to show us that these guys are truly evil that she pushed their atrocities beyond the realistic, beyond even the obscene, and the effect is to have them ending up straight in the realms of ridiculous. What was worse was that it didn’t make listening to their descriptions any easier. I’m the first to say that I’m a bit of a gore fiend and it takes a damned lot to make me say ‘wow there, calm down,’ but this just went a little to far. I can quite happily accept that such horrible things get carried out when they serve a purpose: slaughtering people to save food in a siege, executing civilians in horrific manners as part of a concerted terror campaign to demoralise the enemy, murdering thousands in the most brutal fashion because their fear and pain is used to fuel some macabre device. Those are three very believable reasons for such horrors that I thought of just off the top of my head. However, in this case I simply cannot see the reason why such a well-trained military force would take so much time from their hectic invasion schedule to partake in such blood-chilling atrocities when simply killing those same people quickly and efficiently would have made far more strategic sense. If there was an actual reason for those horrible acts that is made apparent in later books, it could really do with being shown earlier.

Beyond those little nit-picky faults that I just had to vent, I enjoyed the book. I’m not rushing to listen to the second, but I certainly will do at some point in the near future.

As for the narration, a good performance. Emily Woo Zeller’s portrayals of the wide range of characters was brilliant, and in particular her conveying of the deep emotional strife that runs through the latter half of the book for many of the characters was wonderful.

Personal score: 3.75 stars    

Professional score: 4.0 stars