Hello everyone. Welcome back to Bibliophilia Book Reviews. In this post, I will be doing a wrap up of all the books I read in March. I only read three books this month. However, I did finish two fantasy trilogies. These reviews have spoilers:
1. The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
The Federation of Mugen has been destroyed. Rin razed it and burned it to the ground. It is what they deserved, Rin thought, after having done the same to Golyn Niis. But Kitay is disgusted at Rin’s blatant murder of innocent men, women, and children. Nezha however recruits her to fight with him and his father, the Dragon Warlord, against Empress Su Daji, the surviving member of the Trifecta and for whom, Rin later learns, the Mugenese were working for. Thus begins Vaisra’s Rebellion…
Based on the Chinese Civil War, The Dragon Republic recounts the Dragon Warlord’s rebellion against the Empress and his intent on turning the Empire into a Republic. I admit I wasn’t entirely sure about reading this one. I still didn’t like Rin enough to actually want to continue on with the series, and sad to say my opinion of her didn’t improve in this book either. At the end of The Poppy War, Altan dies, and Rin destroys The Federation in retaliation. However, her self-esteem after is in shambles and she becomes an addict again. She blames herself for Altan’s death all throughout the book and keeps making stupid decisions. She is still annoyingly in love with him, and frankly it was maddening.
But the book is very well written, and the story is worth reading. Despite my dislike for the main character, I also understand that she is written like that for a reason. This book, like it’s predecessor and The Burning God, is a book about war. And the author doesn’t shy away from writing the crude reality of it throughout the length of the entire trilogy and does an excellent job at portraying how war changes people. Some for the better, some for the worst.
2. The Grave At Storm’s End by Devin Madson
This was the third and final book of The Vengeance Trilogy by Devin Madson, and after having loved the second installment of this trilogy, The Gods of Vice (read my review here), this book was a big disappointment for me. Simply put, I didn’t like where any of the characters ended up. However, I will not say that this series isn’t worth reading. It is, and I don’t want to deter others from reading it. The thing is the author had other ideas about where she wanted her characters to end up that differed from what I was rooting for, and that affected my personal journey with them. This however does not need to be the case for everyone, and I still recommend this trilogy to anyone who wants to read it.
3.The Burning God by R.F. Kuang
The Burning God is the third and final installment of The Poppy War trilogy. Set after Vaisra’s Rebellion, Rin is now trying to gather a new army and unite the southern provinces of Nikara against Vaisra and his Republic. This, however, is not a war between Rin and Vaisra, who betrayed her and sold her to the Hesperians after he had no more use for her, but a war between Rin and Nezha, Vaisra’s last living son and heir and who also happens to be a shaman. At this point, the original trifecta is no more and both Rin and Nezha, as well as Kitay, are the members of a new trifecta, which nonetheless is also destined to kill themselves off. This is a war between the Phoenix and the Dragon, and I liked how we are never entirely certain if Rin is going to win. In fact, I was pretty certain she was going to lose and that gave the story an interesting twist.
I will say that even in this book, I was not a big fan of Rin. Throughout the entire trilogy, I never grew to like her. However, I did like that in the end she redeemed herself by accepting her fate and embracing it when her country needed her the most. However, it took a long time for her to do that. In addition, I will also not deny that this trilogy is very popular for a reason. It is a very well written trilogy, and it is a must-read for (military) fantasy readers. Thus, I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to read it. However, it should be noted that this trilogy is not for the faint of heart and readers should be warned against self-harm, rape, genocide, drug use (the protagonist is an addict), violence and gore, torture, and death, to name a few.
