The Poppy War is a popular fantasy novel and one of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. I am not a huge fan of the fantasy genre, especially fantasy stories about war, but I really enjoyed reading Kuang’s Babel, so I thought it was time to give The Poppy War, her first novel, a chance. I do not like The Poppy War as much as I like Babel, but I think it is an interesting story with a compelling protagonist.

The Poppy War is set in a fictional world but is based on events from mid-20th-century China and much of the story revolves around a war based on the Second Sino-Japanese War. The protagonist of the novel is Rin, a war orphan who lives in the Nikan Empire. Her foster parents intend to marry her off to an old man, but she ends up taking a national test and placing first in her province, which allows her to escape her arranged marriage to the military academy located in Sinegard, the imperial capital.

At Sinegard, Rin is mistreated by the other students, and even some of the teachers, because she is poor and has a darker complexion. But Rin turns out to be an excellent student and attracts the attention of the eccentric Master Jiang, who teaches her how to use her talent for shamanism. Through Jiang’s teachings, Rin is able to use the magic of gods, namely the magic of the vengeful fire god, the Phoenix, with the help of meditation and psychedelic drugs.

During Rin’s third year at Sinegard, the Mugen Federation invades Nikan, and Rin and her classmates are absorbed into the imperial army. Rin is eventually selected to join the Cike, a unit of shaman assassins. But even the Cike’s shamanism is not much help against the more disciplined and better-equipped Mugenese army. The fictional war between the Nikan Empire and the Mugen Federation reminds me how the human ability to inflict cruelty and suffering on others knows no bounds, especially in the description of the Mugenese massacre of Golyn Niis, which made me feel physically ill and disturbed to learn that it is based on the very real massacre of Nanjing by the Japanese Army in 1937. I had no idea that the Nanjing Massacre was a thing until I read The Poppy War, which I guess goes to show that fantasy stories can still teach us something about our own history, even though they do not make it more palatable.

The most outstanding part of The Poppy War for me, though, is Rin. In many stories about the “chosen one”, the protagonist has a very clear moral code and always acts for good and resists the lure of the dark side. But Rin is a conflicted character who occupies a morally grey area that skates close to evil. She is a patriot who wants revenge on the Mugenese for the suffering they have inflicted on her country. She is so vengeful, that she is enticed by the power that the Phoenix can give her, even though it will lead to her own destruction. She is horrified by the suffering that her own actions have wrought, but she also has no regrets. The reasons for her actions are understandable, so I cannot completely blame her for her own monstrous decisions. I am interested to read the next two novels in The Poppy War trilogy just to see where the story takes Rin, and if she can overcome her vengeful nature and her lust for the Phoenix’s magic.