The Poppy War

R. F. Kuang's high fantasy novel The Poppy War came out from Harper Voyager in 2018. It is a grimdark fantasy whose plot draws on the politics of mid-twentieth-century China, with its conflict drawn from the Second Sino-Japanese War and its atmosphere from the Song dynasty. It is the first of three books, followed by The Dragon Republic and The Burning God, and the trilogy is complete.

Fang Runin, known as Rin, is an orphan of the Nikara Empire's wars, and the foster parents who took her in use her in their opium smuggling. An arranged marriage is waiting for her, and her way out is the Keju, the empire-wide examination that selects the most talented candidates for the imperial academies. Her province ranks her top of the list, and the reward is a place at Sinegard, the imperial capital that houses the military academy.

There she finds that the elite academy trains shamans alongside soldiers, that the gods who answer are not safe to bargain with, and that the people around her are there for reasons of their own. What begins as a school story becomes a war between the Empire and the island federation of Mugen, fought with the weapons the school taught her to use.

The trilogy continues with The Dragon Republic and The Burning God, and the first book establishes Rin, Sinegard and the war. It is the author's debut novel, and it is written as the opening of a series rather than a standalone story.