• The Complete Poppy War Trilogy

  • The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, The Burning God
  • By: R. F. Kuang
  • Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
  • Length: 66 hrs and 29 mins
  • 3.9 out of 5 stars (363 ratings)

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The Complete Poppy War Trilogy  By  cover art

The Complete Poppy War Trilogy

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
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Publisher's summary

From R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of Babel, this collection features the novels in her historical military fantasy trilogy—The Poppy War, The Dragon Republic, and The Burning God—a complete epic inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic.

The Poppy War

A war orphan, Rin earned her place in Nikan’s most elite military school. There, she discovers her lethal, unearthly power of shamanism—and learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive. When an inevitable conflict arises between longtime enemies the Nikara Empire and the Federation of Mugen, Rin realizes her 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. . .

The Dragon Republic

After committing an atrocity in battle, shamanic warrior Rin is consumed with guilt, an opium addiction, and the murderous commands of the fiery Phoenix god. Channeling her anger against the Empress who betrayed Rin’s homeland, she chooses to join forces with the Empress’s enemy, the Dragon Warlord. But as Rin discovers the true natures of the Empress and the Dragon Warlord, the temptation to unleash the Phoenix’s fearsome power grows—and so does her vengeance. . .

The Burning God

After saving Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress in a brutal civil war, Rin realizes that her homeland’s real power lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess of salvation. Vowing to defeat all who threaten the shamanic arts, Rin’s power and influence grows—but so does the Phoenix’s intoxicating voice urging her to burn the world and everything in it. . .

“Mixing historical parallels of Chinese history, the themes of war, politics, and colonialism are balanced with terrific, flawed characters and amazing worldbuilding.”—Library Journal (starred review)

©2023 R. F. Kuang (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

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What listeners say about The Complete Poppy War Trilogy

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  • 4 out of 5 stars
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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Strong all the way through

Really fantastic novel and without your cliche fantasy plots. Really appreciated the depth the author went into each of our main characters and hope to hear the next chapter of Nikan’s story

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

guerras

História cativante até certo ponto, no 3° livro já estava um pouco cansada da mesma coisa.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Okay story if you like military novels, horrible narrator

I cannot believe people haven’t rated the narrator lower. I listen to audiobooks constantly and a bad narrator can ruin the whole thing. The character voices are CHOICES and not good ones. I get that she wanted to differentiate but some of them are so bad I just had to put it at 1.7x speed to get through it. Sheesh. I wanted to like this way more than I did.

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Enjoyable Read

It isn’t Wheel of Time or Game of Thrones, but this is an enjoyable book. The narrator is extremely talented.

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

good but overrated

i think the series is so highly rated because of the thinly veiled criticism of american/british colonialism set in a fantasy-ish world. so i sort of roll my eyes at that. the story IS good, and the voice talent/reader is phenomenal. but how shall i put this? it’s no Dune on the philosophical/critique end. and it’s no Song of Ice and Fire on the visceral, “life is pain, princess. anyone who says otherwise is selling something” end. (both texts are meditations on power that strip man of their safe ideological trappings or self lies in their own ways). the main character sway with some serious bipolar attitudes that might actually be real but are less believable in the way that an actor’s best performance is not to do or say exactly what a person would really say or do but, rather, represent it through mimesis, which actually NOT really but speaks to the imagination of the audience in a way that is intellectually more stimulating or “real.” if that didn’t make sense, i’m just saying telling the most realistic character can come off less realistic than dramatizing deeds/words specifically for dramatic effect. and the third book kind of feels rushed and almost jumps the shark; my diatribe on being true versus dramatic truth is speculation about why it feels rushed and unbelievable.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Dark, Compelling, and Brilliant

This is a grim dark fantasy, and anyone complaining that the series is too dark, the main character is whiny, etc etc has kind of missed the point. If you’re looking for a feel-good fantasy with a perfect hero/heroin, this this is definitely not the series for you.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

Performance was fine, story was mediocre

I finished it, but felt 'meh' about it. Many fantasy and war tropes mixed into a parallel/alt-history thing. Such angsty melodrama. And I could've done without the chapter about the sacking of "Golyn Niis" (aka Nanking) by the "Federation" (Japanese) with its pages-long description of every war crime atrocity from the Wikipedia page... just no.
I was also mildly offended and off-put by the worst trope ever... where the main character overcomes her opioid addiction alone, through willpower, in a short time. And then never has a problem with opioids again. That was the most unbelievable part of the whole book. And there was magic.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Think hard before getting this.

If you're looking for entertainment, these are not the books for you.

A 3 star rating is both too low of a rating and too high. At the end of every other chapter I would have given a different score. With the writing at time being some of the roughest and most inconsistent of any other story I have listened to. At times I had to force myself to keep listening, but other times I could not put it down. As someone who has a really hard time with sadness, the ending was perfect, and it brought me to tears. But getting through the 2nd and most of the 3rd book was horrible.

If you can get to the finnish line, it's worth it, but you need to be a certain kind of listener to enjoy its full value and look past the flaws of someone's first work. I'm not sure I am. Good luck

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  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    3 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Good "Popcorn" Listen

This is a good deal to use one credit for the entire trilogy. That said, it starts to drag after a while. Like a good "popcorn" movie, it is pretty good for listening to over a long commute or something. It gets a little YA for my tastes though. It is definitely better than anything written by, say, N K Jemisen. However, I think Babel would be a better place to start for a new reader. It was a lot better (though still had a bit of that YA flavor).

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Devastating

I cant recommend this bool enough it is the best and worst book to ever happen to me.

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