The Poppy War: A Novel

One of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time. “I have no doubt this will end up being the best fantasy debut of the year...I have absolutely no doubt that [Kuang’s] name will be up there with the likes of Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin.” — Booknest. From #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, R.F. Kuang delivers a brilliantly imaginative debut: an epic historical military fantasy inspired by China’s twentieth-century turmoil, filled with treachery, war, and shamanic magic. Rin, a war orphan from Rooster Province, shocks the Empire by acing the Keju exam and earning a place at Sinegard, its most elite military academy. But life there is brutal for a dark-skinned peasant girl, until Rin discovers she possesses a deadly, divine power—the nearly mythical art of shamanism. As she learns to wield the vengeful Phoenix god’s flames, tensions rise and the threat of a Third Poppy War looms. Rin may be the Empire’s only hope, but victory could cost her humanity—and it may already be too late.