audio cd, 1 pages
Published May 1, 2018 by Harpercollins, HarperCollins Publishers and Blackstone Audio.
A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy.
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.
But surprises aren’t always good.
Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the …
A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy.
When Rin aced the Keju—the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies—it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard—the most elite military school in Nikan—was even more surprising.
But surprises aren’t always good.
Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power—an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive—and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.
For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away . . .
Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity . . . and that it may already be too late.
A reimagining of China & Japan, with shamans & gods for interest, and war crimes & genocide for a horrifying reality check. Misleadingly begins with standard 'orphan goes to hero school' trope, but turns disturbingly dark without warning.
Reading time 6 days, 88 pages/day
Content warning Spoilery review. Dark, striking, fantasy.
R.F. Kuang's debut won quite a few awards and deservedly made her a name much discussed. This is the first of her works that I've looked at, and was really looking forward to it. It's great to have a new voice, one with a background, writing about a world, quite different to the default medieval Western one.
The settings has the general roughness you'd expect from a medieval-ish fantasy. The characters are generally well drawn and the world has a range of interesting aspects to it that are gradually unfolded over the course of the book. Underneath it all, slowly rising to the surface, is a history of prejudice, injustice, deceit and violence that becomes evermore grim and overwhelming.
By the end, I personally found it a bit much, and here the spoilers kick in. While we can somewhat understand the main character, Rin's, journey, it is ultimately one of almost continuous violence, defeat, and destruction, culminating in her engaging in acts almost as evil and depraved as those on whom she seeks revenge.
Having dug in and bent the world to her will in the first half of the book, during which she overcomes the various obstacles put in her way, in the second half she is borne along by events, with no agency, a constant victim, as the world tears itself apart around her. She repays it by tearing it apart much worse (as do the squad of others she ends up with).
Generally well told, it feels unnecessarily grim to me - that's probably just a taste thing. There are important tales to be told about how humanity gets crushed by the violence of injustice. I think Octavia Butler or N.K. Jemisin might have clearer voices on that, but for Kuang to be working her way toward that kind of thing, particularly as young as she was writing this, is damned impressive.
The writing style got me by times. This is a quasi-medieval setting, but terms like 'genetics', 'cognitive dissonance', and 'suspended animation' get bandied around as though perfectly natural. They use hypodermic needles, and heroin, but refer to volcanoes as 'fire mountains' (which nonetheless spew 'volcanic gas'). These should just be trifling frustrations, but were just a little to frequent and kept knocking me out of the story, which is a shame.
So, glad I read this one, but I'm not too interested in reading the follow up. These are not pleasant characters, and I don't really wish them well, however much I sympathise with what has happened to them.
Missed some tropes and fell in to others. It could have used more character development for some of the secondary characters.
Goodness gracious, what a read. Let me start by saying that overall, I enjoyed this book. I thought it was a really strong entry into the trilogy as well as a very good story in and of itself. However what stood out to me the most was its very unique structure. Many aspects of this book were solidly YA. The characters were written very YA, the relationships were extremely YA, and the story beats (girl has to prove herself to get into school against all odds, girl has to prove herself at school against all odds, girl has to prove herself in battle against all odds, etc.) This was most prominent in the first third of the book, to the extent that I was convinced that the book had been mislabeled as 'Adult fantasy'. And it was these aspects of the book that were my least favorite. I felt that …
Goodness gracious, what a read. Let me start by saying that overall, I enjoyed this book. I thought it was a really strong entry into the trilogy as well as a very good story in and of itself. However what stood out to me the most was its very unique structure. Many aspects of this book were solidly YA. The characters were written very YA, the relationships were extremely YA, and the story beats (girl has to prove herself to get into school against all odds, girl has to prove herself at school against all odds, girl has to prove herself in battle against all odds, etc.) This was most prominent in the first third of the book, to the extent that I was convinced that the book had been mislabeled as 'Adult fantasy'. And it was these aspects of the book that were my least favorite. I felt that the characters were fairly flat and the story beats were predictable.
But in the last 2/3rds of the book (mainly the last third) the story took a HEAVY dark turn. I mean a near genre shift to hard grimdark. I really commend the author for her incredibly gritty and realistic depiction of the horrors of war because this was extremely brutal. The lighthearted cast of kid characters we grew to know were put through horrific, cruel encounters and completely traumatized, if not graphically slaughtered outright. The main character's "chosen girl" qualities were quickly overshadowed by her poor childlike decisions. But this was not frustrating because she is literally a child making decisions one would expect a child to make. Again, the author expertly crafted a realistic narrative for how children would act in traumatic circumstances. While I never felt that the characters met the level of 'well-developed' the decisions that they made did feel authentic.
The pacing of the story was okay, often times rapidly moving through story points in a few pages, other times lingering on details for just as long. I'd love to see improvements in character development and pacing in the subsequent books, but I'm really excited to continue this story.
This started out as asian and suddenly turned very western. There are a lot of concepts in this book that give tons of room for analyzing.
I think it's the first asian cultured book that tackles real swelling conflicts that made it big in the western world. The negative reviews stem in my opinion from missing knowledge about asian story telling and history.
It starts with people being baffled by Asian writing methods, which originated from a different folklore and developing into the Wuxia genre (which was dominant in the first part), it continued through the blatantly missing knowledge of the sino Japanese war and the Nanjing massacre. And basically ended with ignorance of today's diplomatic relationship between china and Japan. While at the same time using western christian eyes to decipher a story that is written with a chinese philosophy (i.e. Sunzi, interpretation of Rin's character)
This book seems …
This started out as asian and suddenly turned very western. There are a lot of concepts in this book that give tons of room for analyzing.
I think it's the first asian cultured book that tackles real swelling conflicts that made it big in the western world. The negative reviews stem in my opinion from missing knowledge about asian story telling and history.
It starts with people being baffled by Asian writing methods, which originated from a different folklore and developing into the Wuxia genre (which was dominant in the first part), it continued through the blatantly missing knowledge of the sino Japanese war and the Nanjing massacre. And basically ended with ignorance of today's diplomatic relationship between china and Japan. While at the same time using western christian eyes to decipher a story that is written with a chinese philosophy (i.e. Sunzi, interpretation of Rin's character)
This book seems to me as an attempt of a girl of chinese descendant to approach the national trauma, her country has suffered from. She tried to give all those suffering a form. It starts with the cultural history told through Rin growing up in the Academy and branches out through the massacres and the wars which then led to the rise of horrible atrocities in the Republic china. I guess this will be covered in the second book.
Choosing a fantasy story to do this, is in my eyes very smart. Writing and fiction stories are a form of art. You can write in metaphors and symbols. Opinions can be expressed and reflectivly examined. It can also be interpreted. This book is not a book meant for enjoyment. It's grim dark. It is meant to be used as a mirror. No one enjoys death and horror, war and genocides. But through a book we get the chance to box those horrible things into a fictional context and look at it from outside. Trying to give an objective in a conflict in which your normally choose a side.
I think Kuang was very daring to publish this book on a western market. The last time the conflict escalated between Japan and China/Korea was in 2013. That was not so long ago. Neither China nor Japan reflect well on their respective histories and the suffering people had to get through. And Asians really don't like to talk about problems. They rather shut you up and brush it under the carpet.
The stark contrast between the beginning of the book and the end also seems to allow for a different interpretation. Nikan (the china equivalent) was still living by their old ways. They used swords, regular bombs, went by their rules and laws of the empire dynasty. Still communicated with the gods. There is not technical advance. The academy still taught what students got taught since the red emporer.
However Mugen (Japan) embraced the industrial advance. They changed their concepts. They brainwashed their people since they were kids (what you do in facist countries). And they adapted these methods from the west. Ultimately it can seem, that this western technology was the fault that Mugen turned corrupted. The Asian way of life, the proud history of centuries got lost and eaten up by modern warfare. Nikan wouldn't have been so powerless after all if they also would have embraced western warfare. However Kuang answers that in the end, by letting Chinese folklore win the war. In the end Nikan still stands, because they kept true to their history. I think this is a very interesting perspective to analyse the book.
I did not even go into detail, looking at the characters, build up, the fantasy elements and the symbolism. I wanted to explain why this is not just any fantasy book, but how much this book is a piece of art and that things were done with a lot of thought. And I think people reading this book should know this beforehand. This is a philosophical journey to embark on. Not a book to read because you are bored.
That's why I think it's pretty hard to rate this book based on the enjoyment and entertainment value of it. Because this book is a testament of a young intelligent chinese woman who tries to interpret the history of her country and culture and make it possible for western eyes to take a look. This deserves a lot of respect.
