Rin’s reaction, if you’ve met her, is predictably wild. And she has some brutal martial arts exams coming up that she needs to pass if she wants to stay at the academy, so she really doesn’t have time for this shit. She’s living in a secondary world that mirrors Song Dynasty China, so she doesn’t have access to anything so convenient as tampons or diva cups. Halfway through the first act of The Poppy War, there’s a scene where the protagonist–Rin–gets her period for the first time. Specifically, let’s talk about menstruation. 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. Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive-and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.įor while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea.

Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power-an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. That she got into Sinegard-the most elite military school in Nikan-was even more surprising.īecause being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the south is not an easy thing at Sinegard. When Rin aced the Keju-the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies-it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. Here is the publisher’s description:Ī brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s twentieth century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N.K.

Kuang is joining us today with her novel The Poppy War.

The poppy war series