The Dragon Republic
Ratings305
Average rating4.2
“Fire and water looked so lovely together. It was a pity they destroyed each other by nature.”
Okay, I'm sorry Miss Rebecca that I ever doubted you! The fact that you have made me hate, tolerate, like, love and then absolutely despise a a primary character in this series shows how incredibly well written these books are. Unfortunately, from pages 200-400 I felt a real lull in the pacing and not a whole lot of things were happening; however, now finishing the book I understand why these scenes were important for the conclusion of this book. I have taken off a star though because I do feel like the middle of the book could have been more condensed to reduce the overall length of the book or even if more storyline peaks were included to juxtapose the troughs of important information. Overall, that ending had me gagged and I'm jumping straight into the third and final book.
4.75
I wish Kuang would tone down on the violence. One of the very few instances where I liked the second book in the trilogy a lot more than the first
WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGG THAT WAS SO MUCH I AM SO DISTRAUGHT!!!!!!!!!!!!
Too good. The first book was good, this was better and when the buzz is true, the next one will be fantastic! I can't wait to jump to it!
holy moly this series is nuts. the worst part of it is knowing that it's inspired by real life events.
rin is such a badass character, but at the same time should we like her?! she committed genocide. but only after it was committed on her people first!? you know what they say about an eye for an eye; the whole world goes blind!
pretty bummed about the rest of the cike, and nezha. things haven't been pretty, and definitely won't be in the conclusion of this trilogy.
had no idea i could enjoy a grim, central military story this much... had equally no idea i'd enjoy the character relationships and the world-building this much...
Esse livro foi sensacional, uma ótima sequência para a Guerra da Papoula, mais político e mais denso, nos apresenta o mundo que Kuang criou se solidificando e se complexando. Estou adorando essa versão fantasiosa das guerras do ópio e mal posso esperar para ler a grande finalização da trilogia.
I greatly enjoyed The Poppy War and I legitimately thought this series had the potential to go down as one of my all time favourites. It still may, but after reading the second entry I'm not quite so convinced anymore.
I did not greatly enjoy approximately the first two thirds of this book. It feels like the character's, Rin in particular, regressed in development. While this can make sense given her experiences and the circumstances her character goes through there's a balance to walk there between how long a character wallows and how much time it takes before them to start developing again. I don't think that line is walked particularly well here and part of this is imo because of the significantly slower pacing.
That being said the last third or so of the book is absolutely wonderful with a very satisfying concluding couple of chapters that completely changed my overall opinion of the novel. Given I'd lean towards 2 out of 5 for the first and second third and 5 out of 5 for the last third, 3 stars overall feels right.
The good, almost: this book is slightly better written on a sentence level than the first. It's not prose to write home about, but it's not as jarring. The telling-instead-of-showing is less constant, though still prominent, with a heavy reliance on “Rin thought X” and “Rin felt Y”. “Lackadaisical” and “ensconced” only clock in at two or three uses each this time, though there are eleven instances of lips curling, so maybe it's not that much better written. (Yes, I counted, and yes, I'm picky.)
The bad and the ugly: Rin sucks. A dislikeable main character still needs to be interesting and show development that makes it worth spending 650+ pages in their company. In the first book, whether likeable or not, Rin had a clear arc with momentum, driven by her own wit and tenacity. The Dragon Republic sees her wallow around being a gullible, myopic, charisma-free bonehead with no drive, initiative or tactical strengths other than being a magical Chosen One. James Thayer gave good advice when he said a main character should not be a fool, because a reader won't want to follow a character they don't respect. A few mistakes are fine, often important setup for plot and growth, but the protagonist shouldn't persistently be a fool. Rin is a fool and always the last person to know it. She's also a repellent combination of hateful and wishy-washy that is no fun whatsoever to read.
Even a warlike villain should have a moral compass and guiding logic in their own mind. Instead, Rin flip-flops between gleeful cruelty and moping about the tragedy of war; between being a hot-headed renegade and a passive sadsack with no agency. She snarks at everyone in sight but crumbles as soon as a male authority figure gives her a stern look. She's hostile and suspicious yet still a credulous moron. She has no philosophy, politics, or principles; her whole personality constantly turns on a dime. While some of her erratic behaviour could be attributed to grief, PTSD or addiction, none of those subjects are explored with any weight. The other characters don't inspire confidence that all Rin's flaws are by design, because almost nobody behaves or speaks like a fleshed-out, distinct human being.
Kuang pulled a couple of audacious moves in the first book, but this sequel lacks the emotional depth needed to address the aftermath in a meaningful way. The fate of not-Nanjing seems to have made less impression on Rin than the fate of Altan, who was at worst a cardboard cutout and at best an asshole she hardly knew, which is... something. It just begs why such horrors were invoked at all, because their impact is nothing compared to this guy's! Nobody can convince me that Altan had enough substance to loom so large over this story, and the author's pushing of that retcon left me baffled and annoyed.
Worst of all, this book is boring. I hardly liked The Poppy War at all, but it had more going for it than this. Any progression in Kuang's craft is set back by tepid pacing and one of the worst-written main characters I've read. No plot or character events feel truly significant until around the two-thirds mark, and the climax doesn't feel worth the wait. I might pick up the last book to see where this flaming wreck goes, but it would be a fully fledged hate-read and I'm trying to avoid that.
That ending though! Let's go baybee I am pumped! That's the shit I'm takin bout. I realize part of my issue is that I'm too impatient to get through things as fast as possible even if they're very very long and dense and I really need a break, gotta power through. I do myself a real disservice with that. I was thinking throughout much of this that I'd need to take a break after this book, listen to some other stuff but now im antsy as ever.
I feel heavily destroyed rn, the ending has killed me.
4.5 stars! .5 for the ending I didn't expect, it brought me a lot of joy as it did pain.
The only reason I am not giving 5 stars is because from 20 to 60% of the book it was sooooo slow, too much details about sword fights, military strategies, extensive descriptions, which must be great for those that understand it and are into it, but for me it was boring, it was like the story was stuck. The whole thing happened in less than a year for the characters but for me it was like an eternity. In spite of that, the whole book is amazing. At two different moments I had to hold my tears, I have ene highlighted the passages. They were:
62%: “Rin... what am I going to do?”
88%: I heard what you did to that Hesperian soldier.
Stayed up way past my bedtime to finish this one and it was so worth it!!!!
This is book 2 in a series chock-full of phenomenal characters, creative mythology, incredible worldbuilding, and innovative plotting. I feel like I can't say anything without risking a spoiler of some kind, so I will just say that I cannot wait where RF Kuang takes this series for its conclusion.
