The Poppy War

 

The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I don't know a lot about the history of China, and so maybe I don't appreciate the parallelisms that exist. and miss a layer of this novel. On the surface it is about an orphaned student who excels at school in order to avoid being sold into marriage and motherhood. She discovers the power of the gods accessed through drugs (poppy) and the god of fire calls to her. Their generation experiences war including a siege, betrayal, and the witnessing of (pretty graphic) atrocities of war. Experiencing all this and losing someone close to her has her breaking all the rules her mentor cautioned her with as she seeks revenge in an explosive way. But what are the consequences and can she live with it? Will she continue to demand justice from those who abandoned her people? What sacrifice is acceptable for the greater good? Who decides what the greater good is? This is all set up I'm sure for the following installments, which I will get to eventually but between some of the graphic violence and not completely compelling characters I think I will take a break.

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This misery she reveled in because she had chosen it for herself.

Now, with the introduction of psychedelic plants, Jiang drew these threads into one unified theory, a theory of spiritual connection through psychedelics to the dream world where the gods might reside.

"Do you know what the word entheogen means?" She shook her head.  "It means the generation of the god within," he said.  He reached out and tapped her forehead in the same place.  "The merging of god and person."