Buy Book "The Poppy War. Book 1" in Ukrainian

The Poppy War. Book 1 by Rebecca Quang. I should emphasize right away that, most likely, if the full-scale invasion had not taken place on February 24, my review would have been in a slightly different tone. But we have what we have. Imagine that you take the occupation of China by the Communists, the Sino-Japanese War, the British Opium Wars, China’s assistance to the United States in World War II, the Uighur genocide, and throw it all into a cauldron. Add some shamanism, legends, quotes from Sun Tzu. You stir it up, but not too much, so that huge chunks of history are just extremely recognizable. You just drive everything into the maximum possible dark fantasy canon and write the Poppy War. I wanted a fantasy in a completely imaginary world. What I got was a free retelling of a bunch of Chinese military conflicts, and at the end a lecture about how bad it is to kill all enemies and become like they said about us. Because we have to be merciful. Well, well…

Zhin is an orphan of war and lives with foster parents. They don’t care about her and are eager to marry her off to an official, thus strengthening their connections in the opium smuggling business. The girl does not want to marry an old and ugly man, so she gathers her strength and enters the most prestigious military academy. Where tuition and maintenance are free, and her classmates are snooty assholes. There, she tries to stay afloat so that she doesn’t get kicked out of the school on the one hand and killed by her own classmates on the other. And while everyone is busy with local squabbles, a great war comes to the world again. And whether the students will be able to swim out of this shit is unknown to anyone, perhaps except Phoenix, and that is not a fact.

Fantasy with a bittersweet aftertaste. I feel that I will have a book hangover after this book and its sequel. I recommend reading it!

The fantasy genre here is just a packaging. This book is about war, great friendship, and rage against the invaders. The main character of the book is a student of the military academy and her friends. “Thanks to the belligerent empire next door, these teenagers do not know what peaceful life is.

The book is conditionally divided into two parts: preparations for a possible war and direct military actions. In the first half of the book, it was interesting to read how the characters studied martial arts at the academy, discussed Sun Tzu’s instructions… This is very motivating for physical training, by the way.

The most talked about book on the Internet. And after reading it, you understand why. At a time when there is a war in our country, you involuntarily compare the characters of the book with our country, I even imagined that the events described in the book are happening on our territory, because it is!!!

I was hooked by the book from the first pages. It’s very easy to read, I want to know the fate of the main character Zhin as soon as possible. I really liked that she is not described here as some special person, very beautiful, or from some ancient high family. Zhin appears as a simple girl with a hard life, and to be in control of her destiny, she needs to work very hard. Even when it seems that the whole world is against you and there is no way out, Zhin did not give up, but made fists and blisters to become better, equal. And to prove to everyone that she is the best and deserves to be where she is.

I’m not going to write any spoilers, as you can read about the book in the annotation. I just want to point out the pages that made my blood run cold, because you realize that the events described in the book are currently happening in Ukraine. These are pages 387 to 401. Just terrible, bloody events. The picture comes to mind, you can imagine it all. It is very scary. And you immediately feel hatred, you know who.

I definitely recommend the book. I am looking forward to the sequel.

A fascinating fantasy with historical motifs that I have been putting off reading for a long time.

The writer tells in her novel a fantastic fiction, cruel gods who are embodied in the living, mysterious armies of shamans and a majestic Empire. But the basis of this fantasy is the brutal events of the Sino-Japanese War, which gives a completely new perspective on the history of East Asia.

We meet a war orphan girl who finds herself in the family of opium dealers. Throughout the book, Zhin does impossible things, such as entering a military academy without proper training and participating in a bloody war, but what role will she play for Nikani?

It’s gripping, unvarnished, and full of the ugliness of war. Rebecca Kwan skillfully describes the enemy and its atrocities – after that, they lose everything human. Unfortunately, the author acts in the tradition of real war and does not leave all the characters so sympathetic to the reader alive.

The book begins with a typical Young Adult opening, but very soon it becomes clear that the young heroine of the series will soon grow up in a very violent way.

The author does a great job of writing allusions to the Sino-Japanese War, but to be honest, some of the descriptions of war atrocities brutally flashbacked me to the horrors of our war today. Therefore, I would not recommend reading this book to those who take such things to heart (or to read the first part, which is jingoistic).

The style and good translation into Ukrainian make the story lively. Rebecca Quang has almost no lengthy descriptive scenes, a lot of dynamics. The events happen very quickly, so the details of locations and characters’ appearances remain in the readers’ attention.

The author skillfully uses screenwriting techniques and, in the end, her main character goes her own way as a hero who is a mixture of pain and love.

And yes, in this book, secondary characters die almost at the rate of George Martin’s characters, so be prepared for that.

The book is easy to read, so it can be devoured in a few evenings)

I’m really looking forward to getting the second and third books.

My rating is 5 points.