The Poppy War

Executive Summary: I liked the first part of this book better than the later parts, but still enjoyed it overall. I'd seen a lot of warnings about some of the brutality later in this book, and while it's there is wasn't as bad as I was expecting.

Full Review
I'm a sucker for the fantasy school trope. No many how many different books I've read that have it, I seem to enjoy just about them all. This was no different. Part 1 focuses on a military academy and it was the part I enjoyed the most.

I found Rin a hard character to like, but she was most likable to me while she was at school. There were also teachers and other students that I liked far more the characters later on in the book.

The book get progressively darker as it goes on, and there has been criticism/warning about the level of brutality in the book and if it was warranted. However given the time period and real life events this book seems to be inspired from I'd say it makes sense.

I had gone back and forth on if I wanted to read this book due to all the warnings, and had settled on skipping it despite already owning it. Sword & Laser made it their August selection so I changed my mind yet again and decided to give it a try.

I used to read a lot of dark fantasy, and I've grown a bit tired of it. I don't need everything to be sunshine and rainbows, but I don't want to spend my free time dwelling in it either. I read to escape, not to feel depressed. Thankfully I felt like it wasn't as dark as I was expecting it to be.

I didn't find that she dwelled on the violence or gloried in it. Instead she simply presented it in a way that is both shocking but not overly detailed. I can understand why some people don't want to read that, but I feel like other fantasy series have been a lot more graphic. It won't be for everyone, but if you've enjoy Song of Ice and Fire, Malazan book of the Fallen or First Law, I don't think you'll be too put off by this.

I do feel like things are kind of left without any sense of reflection of consequence. However it's the first book of a series, so we'll see how she deals with the events of this book in the next one.

There are parts of this book that ran on a bit too long. It could probably have used some more editing. That said when you think that this is both her first novel and about the age at which she wrote it, it's quite an impressive debut.

Overall I enjoyed this book, and am looking forward to picking up the second one at some point, although I won't be rushing out to pick it up right away.