The Burning God is the final book of The Poppy War trilogy. Although I liked this book better than The Dragon Republic, my favourite is the first book, before the story devolved into one long civil war. If you are a fan of the fantasy genre, and do not find war to be a tedious subject, then I think you will enjoy this trilogy.

Spoilers ahead for both The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic, just in case you plan on reading them.

At the beginning of The Burning God, Rin has joined forces with the Southern Coalition and is finding out that they are just as devious as her former allies, the Dragon Warlord and the Hesperians, pretty much because they do not respect women, even a woman who is able to channel the fire of the Phoenix god. Rin commits murder just so the Coalition will give her an army to command. She and her army march toward on her hometown of Tikany to liberate it from the Mugenese and are successful. She is promptly betrayed by the twats leading the Coalition when Nezha and his army show up and capture her. Luckily for Rin, right before Nezha showed up she was reunited with Daji, and Daji uses her wily powers to rescue Rin and have a couple of Nezha’s soldiers fly her and Rin to the Chuluu Korikh to release the Gatekeeper, aka Rin’s eccentric teacher, Master Jiang.

From then on out, Rin’s great plan is to travel across Nikan to Mount Tianshan to awaken the Dragon Emperor, and to use the Trifecta to defeat the Republic and the Hesperians like they defeated the Hesperians in the past. Everyone but Rin knows this is a terrible idea. Actually, Rin also knows it is a terrible idea, but she’s so puffed up on the Phoenix’s powers that she thinks she can negotiate with the Dragon Emperor.

I am glad Kuang redirected the story back to shamanism and the Trifecta, because this book would have been a real slog if she hadn’t. I find the idea of being able to channel the power of a god, and the effects of channeling the god’s power on the human body, to be interesting. In The Dragon Republic, Rin was unsure if she could be a leader, but in The Burning God Rin is imbued with confidence as the Phoenix’s grip on her pulls her into madness. Rin believes she is fated to overthrow the Republic and become the new empress of Nikan. People have become mere tools for her to use in her fight against Nezha. The Burning God makes Rin into a compelling character once again, but she is not a good person; she is not any more righteous than the Dragon Emperor, the Dragon Warlord or the Hesperians. And if you have been paying attention to the stories of the other Speerly warriors that were supposed to serve as a warning to Rin, or the concept of time being cyclical that has been mentioned more than once throughout The Poppy War trilogy, then Rin’s ending will not come as a surprise to you at all. It is not a happy ending, but it is the only ending that makes sense for this story.