The Dragon Republic by R F Kuang
The second novel in R F Kuang’s The Poppy War series, The Dragon Republic continues to follow Rin. The Dragon Republic is an Amazon Editors’ pick and is all over BookTok. Take a deep breath, because this novel deals with addiction, body horror, bullying, child death and regular old adult death, drug abuse, emotional abuse, gore, gun violence (we call them arquebuses here), rape, suicidal thoughts, torture, ciolence, blood, vomit, kidnapping, grief, religious bigotry, abortion, murder, fire, colonization, war, injury, and classism. There will be spoilers for The Poppy War in the next paragraph, so read with caution. To see our summaries for the books or check out our spoiler free study guides, take a look at our summary page.
After she brought about the end of the Third Poppy War and discovered that Empress Daji betrayed the Cike to the Federation, Rin has made it her personal goal to make sure that the Empress dies. Easier said than done. Turns out, no one really wants to get on the most powerful shaman in the world's bad side. Rin is on the run with the Cike and they are all out of allies - at least until the Dragon Warlord comes knocking. He doesn't think that the Nikan Empire is really working, and he'd like to get rid of the Empress and her current government structure completely to run the country as a republic instead. If Rin agrees to help him, the Dragon Warlord can make sure that Rin gets the chance to kill Daji. In fact, that would really help him out.
I was really excited to start this series, I had heard such good things about it. The first book I thought was a little slow to start, but it really picked up around the mid point and things got real dark, real fast. I went into The Dragon Republic with high hopes, although I already found Rin to be a bit naive and extremely temperamental. Unfortunately, things did not get better with Rin. She is an incredibly unlikeable character, with mood swings I couldn't always keep up with and almost zero decision making skills, absolutely no empathy for anyone other than herself, and no real character backbone. One second, she would be wracked with grief over what she had done to Mugen and unable to even think about it without being overwhelmed, while the next reveling in the power she had wielded and wanting more. Let me be clear, I understand that this book is about war and there's not going to be a lot of happy moments. I do not need or expect Rin to be a saint or a hero, it would just be nice if she had any redeeming qualities. I heard this book this was the slowest in the series. I disagree, I think it was much steadier than the first and it kept moving. I never really got bored. Apart from that, the book was quite good. I enjoyed the overall trajectory and am excited to see where the final book takes us.
I'm giving The Dragon Republic by R F Kuang 3.75 stars out of 5. It has zero spice, but it does have one actual back-stabbing. For a summary of the books in The Poppy War series, please see our summary page.
For more from R F Kuang, check out https://www.rfkuang.com/
Pairs well with red bean buns and using the weapon you're strongest with.
My favorite quotes:
"'I've always been smarter than Nezha. You know I'm brilliant. I'm a fucking genius.'"
"'I'm not saying I want him to drown in the Murui,' Ramsa said, 'but I want him to drown in the Murui,'"
"'But eventually, you'll have to ask yourself precisely what you're fighting for. And you'll have to find a reason to live past vengeance.'"
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