The Burning God: An Epic Fantasy of War, Magic, and Mythology in a High-Conflict World from Bestselling Author R. F. Kuang (The Poppy War, 3)
The exciting end to The Poppy War trilogy, R. F. Kuang’s acclaimed, award-winning epic fantasy that combines the history of twentieth-century China with a gripping world of gods and monsters, to devastating, enthralling effect.
After saving her nation of Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress Su Daji in a brutal civil war, Fang Runin was betrayed by allies and left for dead.
Despite her losses, Rin hasn’t given up on those for whom she has sacrificed so much—the people of the southern provinces and especially Tikany, the village that is her home. Returning to her roots, Rin meets difficult challenges—and unexpected opportunities. While her new allies in the Southern Coalition leadership are sly and untrustworthy, Rin quickly realizes that the real power in this military fantasy world lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess of salvation.
Backed by the masses and her Southern Army, Rin will use every weapon to defeat the Dragon Republic, the colonizing Hesperians, and all who threaten the shamanic arts and their practitioners in a grimdark historical fantasy epic. As her power and influence grows, though, will she be strong enough to resist the Phoenix’s intoxicating voice urging her to burn the world and everything in it?
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Community Reviews
I was 20 pages in, and I couldn't wait to somehow get to the 620th page. I think what I really liked about this series is how Kuang rarely champions war or power. Every time I got ahead of myself and thought that the use of power had resulted in a win, I was also made to confront the losses and devastation left behind, far-reaching and far more lasting. There’s not a single celebratory win. The immediate aftermath was ready to bring me down just as quickly as the story had lifted me up. That is, IMO, the biggest strength of this series. It relentlessly drives home the point that there are no real winners in war.
At the same time, I felt the narrative was very Rin-focused, and I wanted to see more perspectives. What was everyday life like for the northern people under Hesperian occupation? What were conversations between Vaisra and Nezha like, or between them and the Hesperians? How did the Republicans strategize? How did the Gray Company and the Hesperians justify their actions to themselves and their people?
This is definitely one of the better grimdark fantasies out there, with one of the more realistic endings in the genre.
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