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The Dragon Republic

 


The Dragon Republic is the second book in the Poppy War series by R F Kuang. This entire series is about war (I am making an assumption here as I have not read the third book yet, but I think it is a safe assumption). This is a fantasy series, but even in a world with magic, where gods interfere with events, the effect of war on the human condition is unchanged. Civilians are always the ones who suffer, both directly and indirectly. Meanwhile, political leaders play their games and move their pawns around the board.

Our protagonist is Rin, a girl from a poor provincial town, who often seems to have the deck stacked against her. We see her overcoming, or failing to overcome the obstacles in her path. She has acquired powers, but those powers are not always helpful. Her friend Kitay, has a problematic relationship with her. They were former schoolmates. Theirs is an on again, off again friendship. We root for that friendship to ultimately win out because Kitay seems like the one pure person in her life, the one who will tell her the truth, whether she wants to hear it or not. He is loyal and honorable when many around him are not. In a world where some people have magical powers, Kitay’s power is his intellect. He is a master strategist and is sought out by the powerful for that reason. His advice to warlords and generals, as good as it is, is sometimes ignored because it doesn’t suit their interests. But we feel that he knows what he is talking about. Those that don’t listen to him, do so at their peril.

On the eve of a major battle, Kitay muses about war:

“. . . That’s the frustrating part. You know the one thing that all the great strategists agree upon? It actually doesn’t matter what numbers you have. It doesn’t matter how good your models are, or how brilliant your strategies are. The world is chaotic and war is fundamentally unpredictable and at the end of the day you don’t know who will be the last man standing. You don’t know anything going into a battle. You only know the stakes.”

The stakes are how many people are going to die, as well as determining who is going to run the country and how it is going to be run. As stated above, the masses are going to lose a great deal no matter who wins. Suffering is part of the human condition, but never so great as when there is a war on. Our hero, Rin, is also suffering. She has to deal with multiple tragedies. She has troubles with her powers. She is not alone; she has friends, but even many of them are taken away through war, by situation, or by choice. Her own situation seems to get more dire with each day. Sometimes bad things happen to her because of her own bad choices. Sometimes the gods are messing with her, but mostly her ill fortune comes from the machinations of other people. Rin does not have a clear picture of how the world works and what is really motivating the key players. Some of those players are ambiguous. At the end of the second book, we, the readers, don’t even know which key players will ultimately be resolved as good, bad, or somewhere in between.

This series works because we feel for Rin. Even if she makes some bad choices, even if her pride and her mouth get her into trouble, we feel for her. We want her to succeed, and we want Kitay to succeed. Which government succeeds is less important to us. And I think that is the point. I am ready for the next book, The Burning God.

Star Liner

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