Rin is a war orphan whose foster parents are planning to marry her off to an older man. To escape a fate that she considers to be worse than death, Rin works herself to the bone to study for the national test that will determine whether she can escape her rural province. Thanks to the help of her tutor and her own brutal work ethic, Rin excels and earns a place at Sinegard, the war academy of the Nikan Empire. Arriving at Sinegard, she realizes that the hard work has just begun. The other students and many of the teachers look down on Rin for being a poor southerner, and the combat professor fully bans her from his class. Despite this setback, Rin once again excels at her studies, and earns the attention of Master Jiang, the oddball professor of shamanism, who teaches her how to access the gods through drugs and meditation.
During her third year of studies, Sinegard is attacked by the Mugen Federation, a neighboring island nation whose burgeoning population demands expansion through conquest. During the attack, she and a rival student Nezha are the last two holding the gate against the Federation soldiers, when Master Jiang unleashes his powers and calls down monsters to defend the city. In the aftermath, the surviving Mugen general impales Nezha on his spear, and in her anger and horror Rin calls down the Phoenix god, who incinerates the general to ash. Rin is thus discovered to be a descendant of the Speerly, the Empire’s elite troops of fire shamans whose entire population was massacred during the previous Nikan-Mugen war. As a result she is selected to join the Cike, the group of shaman-assassins who work directly for the Empress, and is sent off to the frontlines of the war.
Going to stop the plot description there, because so much more happens that I do not want to spoil. R.F. Kuang has done an incredible job retelling the Second Sino-Japanese War as a dark epic fantasy. Nikan and Mugen are clear allegories for China and Japan, respectively, and the atrocities committed by the invading Mugen soldiers are a direct reference to the Rape of Nanjing. By the end of the book Rin has committed terrible acts herself, yet the character development and story have me fully like, “I support women’s rights, AND women’s wrongs.” The Poppy War is not for the faint of heart. Kuang goes into detail about acts of violence and torture, and the horrors of war are thoroughly depicted. But even so, it is an incredible story that leaves you wanting more.