This was a fantastic ending to a roller coaster of a series. Rin is a beautifully flawed person. Looking back at who she was at the start of this series, and seeing who she became. She started as this tiny angry child with a bit of a chip on her shoulder and grew into a powerful woman with years of battles, and hardships that make what she saw as a hardship as a child feel meaningless.
She still has a good measure of rage that fuels the Phoenix, but she also burns with a lust for power. As one of the last remaining Shamen, and the last Speerly. She feels that she deserves to be their ruler, she came from nothing and fought her way to the top, she knows what it's like to live in squaller and doesn't want anyone else to feel that again. And even with Kitay holding her grounded, she still struggles.
There are a lot of things in this book that was both unexpected and inevitable. The ending especially. I was anxious for the ending the moment I started this book. I hoped for some kind of happy ending, what we got... not sure what to call it.

This the third book of a series (The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic). I got the first as an e-book and the second as an audio-book from my local library. I recommend reading these in order (although you can just read the last one which is the better of the three).

This story is a fantastic re-imaging of Chinese history from around the time of the Sino-Japanese War (Book 1) onward. It was pretty fun trying to match up parts of the book with what little I know of the real history. That alone made this a good read ... and the unique system of magic made it even better.

Rin, the avatar of the Burning Phoenix god, is back in the south to take care of business if only the flaming warlords/bureaucrats would let her. With the Republic fighting to consolidate in the North with the help of the foreign Hesperians (Euros), now seems like the best time for the Southern Coalition to wrest control from the remnants of the failed Muganese invasion and secure their own position. The problem is ... the warlords are right. Rin is a stubborn, privileged (I am Sinegard trained you moron) idiot unwilling to actually use her own experts until they beat her about the head and shoulders with her mistakes (and she has made enough of them that she should realize some of the people in the room are actually smarter than she is). Yeah ... as much as I want to like the MC ... I don't. At least that is how I felt for the first half of the book and we get back to the action (bring back some old 'friends'). It seems like Rin is just not enough to carry the story; and when it primarily focuses on her I quickly lose interest. Frankly I am almost more sympathetic to the anti-hero 'Trifecta' (well 2 of the 3 at any rate) than Rin and her side kick.

There is a good story here, but it is almost exclusively in the second half of the book when things really start happening quickly. Rin is in control and actually seems competent now (fewer strategic mistakes). Her army, once on the brink of extinction, now stands on its own and starts to gain momentum. The end is so close you can feel it rushing toward you ... then you need to brace yourself; because the story drones on after that ... and the self-flagellation continues. From the very beginning, it was clear how this would end ...

#TheBurningGod #NetGalley

Thank you so much HarperCollins and NetGalley for this ARC.

R.F. Kuang is a great writer, so this book was still "great" on a technical level, but for me, the ending to a 2000 page trilogy fell a little flat and that warrants its 4 star rating. In addition, I felt that [SPOILER] Rin's acts of genocide were never truly reckoned with. [SPOILER] But this is Kuang's first series and I think things will be cleaner next time around. THE POPPY WAR #1 still remains one of my favorite books, however.

It was truly an intense journey through this series, and I can't wait to see what Kuang does next!

War didn't end, not so cleanly - it just kept building up in little hurts that piled on each other until they exploded afresh into raw new wounds.



The Burning God - this whole trilogy, really, but none more so than this particular installment - is about cycles of war and oppression. In the first two books, the scenes of violence and suffering were somewhat more contained, balanced out by more lighthearted moments, which may have led you to thinking that they were isolated incidents. Not so in The Burning God, which seems to want to brand the suffering of war into your brain. This is very much intentional, but it does make for a startlingly bleak read.

Rin is struggling to regain the south from occupation by scattered Mugenese soldiers while simultaneously trying to work with the southern warlords. From the onset, she is desperate, swimming upstream, and things only go from bad to worse. The country is in tatters, suffering cruel violence at the hands of the Mugenese (and each other), mass displacement and homelessness, and seemingly endless starvation. And still, war goes on, as Rin goes up against the House of Yin for control of Nikara.

There is a lot of focus not only on the suffering that results from war, but also on the logistics of fighting a rebellion and ruling a nation. Perhaps it is this close attention to detail that caused the pacing of this book to suffer, or perhaps it was an intentional choice, to demonstrate the tediousness of the things Rin is trying to accomplish. The overall plot felt very scattered, like it was bringing together multiple subplots rather than addressing one overarching plot. This is not to say that the book was ever boring, per se, but it lacked the compelling, propulsive quality that the first two books had. I would re-read The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic, but I would not re-read The Burning God. That may, in part, be due to just how unrelentingly bleak this novel is. While I read this relatively quickly, I still needed to take breaks in between, and part of me almost dreaded returning to it because everything was so utterly depressing.

The point of revenge wasn't to heal. The point was that the exhilaration, however temporary, drowned out the hurt.



As the narrative grows darker, so does Rin. It would be easy to read her as the villain of the story. There is a cruelty to her here that was not present in the first two books, a cruelty born of frustration and betrayal, and it is almost understandable, but it makes it difficult to be in her head. Kuang has said that Rin is loosely based off Mao Zedong, and that the books are attempting to interrogate why a person ostensibly committed to the betterment of their country would still continue to commit atrocities. We get to see Rin contemplating the balance of lives, whether ordinary morality even applies to her anymore now that she's become so powerful. We see her weighing one life against another, a few hundred lives against a few million. We see her doling out harsh justice. We see her grow into a leader, and it is somewhat gratifying to think that that young, clueless girl from Sinegard has attained such power, but it is sad too.

Personally, I think the book suffered from the lack of compelling character dynamics that made the first two books so wonderful. (view spoiler)

There are also certain subplots that seemed to serve only to match certain beats to Chinese history that I felt ultimately benefited very little to the plot. Similarly, there is a subplot involving the Trifecta that, while necessary, was executed in such a way that made it seem almost like a waste of time. (view spoiler)

The ending definitely elevates this book - and this trilogy - to god tier, and frankly I think that Joe Abercrombie ought to relinquish his title of Lord Grimdark and hand it over to Rebecca Kuang, because damn. (view spoiler)

Despite my issues with this final book of the trilogy, and some various minor issues with the first two installments, this series has quite easily become one of my favorites of all time. On so many levels, this trilogy is an astonishing accomplishment, one that manages to be an action-packed high fantasy while interrogating modern Chinese history. I can easily see this becoming a classic of the fantasy genre in the years to come.

Thank you to Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
What the fuck. What the fuck? What even just happened. This book made me cry too many times. The Poppy War was good. The Dragon Republic was better. This book took both of those and blew them out of the water. This is decidedly the best book that RF Kuang has ever written, and while I’m super optimistic to read her next work, I’m also nervous because I don’t know if anything can top this. It was a fantastic and fitting end to a series that I picked up on a whim and it gripped me from the beginning. This book absolutely refused to let me go. I get sad and scared when the final book in a series comes out because rarely do I feel like the ending is good enough, or deserved, or anything like that. But for what this series was, there was not a better ending to it. The characters, the plot, the dynamics are all crushing. If anything, this book gets a little strategy and war-heavy, but like, if you don’t enjoy that, why are you reading this series, dude? I sincerely doubt that I’ll ever get over this book. It’ll stay with me for a very long time, and I’ll be yelling about it for as long as I possibly can.

I absolutely loved this one and can’t wait to read more of her books. The writing was amazing and the story was heartbreaking

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The conclusion of The Poppy War trilogy is as gruesome, graphic, and merciless as the first two books in the series. Rin's previous rejection and even fear of her powers is gone, and she's fully embracing everything the Phoenix has to offer her. With each justification of genocide, with every rationale for the constant warfare brought on the people, Rin's actions and cause becomes harder to condone. I think every reader will come to a point in the book where they'll stop seeing Rin as a hero and start seeing her as an anti-hero.

The quote "war is hell" couldn't be more appropriate for this book. With the power of the Gods, as well as one side having weapons technology far superior to the other, it goes without saying that those on the battlefield suffer greatly. With all the death and destruction that war can cause, does it matter if it's Gods being channeled to cause genocide or if it's people who have decided to become Gods of their own and creating their own technology that can cause genocide?

Off the battle field, the constant paranoia, the constant fear, the constant feeling of dread of what is to come - there's no escaping these feelings. Both sides use psychological warfare to the greatest extant possible. And it's effective. Because the leaders of both sides know each other, they're constantly second guessing their own actions while trying to mind fuck the other side.

For those not involved in the battles themselves, what is left of the lives they knew before war came and tore through? And then the after effects of war - after the razing of the crops, after the salting of the fields, after people spend so much time running they have no time to tend to the fields, what happens then? For most of the people affected, there is no victory and there will never be victory.

Aside from all the thoughts about war that this book brings up, the book also brings up the topic of colonization. The Hesperians bring to Nikan technology that seems hundreds of years more advanced than anything in Nikan itself. They can seemingly eradicate famine with new farming technology, they have medicines that can cure diseases that were previously death sentences, they have vehicles that can move without the necessity of animals, they have airships that allow them to travel vast distances in short amounts of time. All the people have to do to have access to this technology is willingly become secondary citizens in their own country and give up their own culture and beliefs. How willing would, could, should - a population be? Is it a sacrifice worth making? How far is too far?

If the first book in the series mirrored Sino-Japanese history, and the second book dealt with the civil war between the Communist and Nationalist, then the third book deals with Mao and his battles between Westerners and their conspirators. Obviously things are not lock-step with history, after all, last time I checked there weren't super-humans with the power of the Gods at their disposal. To quote Gundam Wing, "History is much like an endless waltz. The three beats of war, peace and revolution continue on forever." That's kind of what this book and this entire series seems to be saying as well.

Though this review does make this book sound a little depressing, heavy, dark, grim...and it is, the book also has moments of levity that are unexpected. This book could also come off as extremely plot-heavy with characters just going along for the ride, but [author:R.F. Kuang|16820001] manages to make this book as character drive as it is plot driven. The characters and their relationships end up being as strong as the general plot itself. It's a delicate balance and Kuang pulls it off masterfully.

I really liked The Poppy War and liked The Dragon Republic. This one was ok. It at times seemed so bleak and hopeless. The journey of Rin is long and she faces such difficult times and decisions. I struggled to find that Altan still effects her so much. I had trouble relating to her in this book. Understanding her choices.

I received an ARC on Netgalley of The Burning God. I thoroughly enjoyed this book despite the chaos that ensued. The main character Rin brought me so much happiness throughout the trilogy because she's always fought for what she's believed in regardless of who's sides shes on. Watching Rin transform from a child into a fearless General was amazing. I saw Rin at her worst and her best depending on who you asked in the book. Rin's story captivated me from the moment I began reading The Burning God. The struggles she faced and the momentum of the army she led set the book up for success. Nothing could prepare me for the exciting end to the trilogy and I even shed tears once the book had ended. Characters like Nezha, Kitay, Venka made this book an emotional rollercoaster. I have always rooted for Rin to come out victorious and the ending solidified the reason why Rin is my favorite book character. This series is definitely the best adult fantasy I have read. R.F Kuang is an excellent author and I enjoy her writing tremendously. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Adult Fantasy and can handle the serious events of this story that have trigger warnings.

The Poppy War trilogy changed my life. I love every word, every character, every description. A raw and heartrending depiction of war and the fight for justice.

Wow wow wow! Wow!!

This was one of my most anticipated books for the whole year and wow!!! And it delivered. It was non stop incredible ride the whole way thru.

This author goes there. With everything. This book is raw and brutal and things are real. So real. It’s the horror of war. It’s the ruin left behind. It’s the people picking up pieces. It’s the people rising to fight back. It’s all the aftermath with no food and desperation. It’s just so so real.

And this book was also amazing and uplifting too because nothing stops Rin. She is amazing. And cruel and just a complicated and wonderfully human character.

I did not want this to end and I couldn’t put this down and it was amazing end to a series. It really did turn out to be the best part of a whole amazing series and I will always always be down to read anything and everything by this author. Definitely best of 2020!!!

Thank you NetGalley for the review copy.

An ending so obvious that it has been laid out for us since the start, and I have loved traveling along this path with Rin until the very end.

"Ruin me, ruin us, and I'll let you."

Thank you to both HarperVoyager and NetGalley for providing me with access to an advanced e-copy of this book. I had purposely waited to start THE POPPY WAR because I knew Kuang would absolutely destroy me from the start, so being able to read the entire series from beginning to end was a wonderful (and painful) experience.

I thought I was going to compose my thoughts and sleep on them before I wrote this review, but I think it's better if the wounds are fresh.

This series is unlike anything I've ever read. I have never been so simultaneously enthralled and terrified by a main character before than I was with Rin, who was truly a feat of her own; a goddess and a monster. After a horrible betrayal at the end of THE DRAGON REPUBLIC, Rin is reeling and ready to take back what should have been hers with a vengeance and a cruelty that we have never seen from her before.

THE BURNING GOD is the bloodiest installment of this trilogy, and I would not have had it any other way. So many loose ends were tied up among the gruesome battles, calculated assassinations, and the fury brought down by the gods themselves. And all the while, the political machinations were always lingering in the background leaving Rin, Kitay, Nezha, and most importantly, the reader, questioning every step, wondering if it would be their last.

This book had the same dry wit and strong character relationships that had been built in the first two books, and they only got stronger and more fluid with the turn of every page. But of course, as we have come to know and love from R.F. Kuang, those characters are only safe in our hearts.

There is so much more to say, but I feel like any reference to the text would give away spoilers on a massive scale... so I will leave you with this: this book burned me to the ground in every possible way, but it ended in the only way it could and should have - and I loved every second of it.



The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

This book shattered me. During the entire last chapter I was sobbing, yelling at my book, just absolutely losing it. Kuang ties up every loose end but also shocks and dismays (in a good way). This is absolutely, 100 percent, the best book of the trilogy. The Poppy War is incredible and lays the foundation so well, but this one you just reap all the benefits of being with these characters for so long. I thought the The Dragon Republic was really good but didn't have a pleasant reading experience, if I'm being honest. It was always hard to pick back up. The Burning God was just as unsettling and dark, but I kept flipping pages because I just had to know what happens. Every single step of Rin's journey is devastating and heartbreaking but Kuang is so gifted, technically precise in her craft that she never ever loses the heart of the story and knows exactly where to aim for the kill shot. This trilogy is an accomplishment. It's rich, it's complex, it's a character study, an examination of war, politics, religion and myth. Also I have to give a shout out to my baby Venka. I feel like she's underrated so I wanted to give her a little love.

I was given a copy of the ARC in exchange for a fair review.

The Burning God is the final installment of the Poppy War trilogy, the gritty epic of Runin 'Rin' Fang. Betrayed now by the two countries she's served and haunted by the metaphorical (and possibly literal) ghosts of the many tragedies in her life, Rin now tries to forge her way to the inevitable conflict between the country of Nikara's bloody past and the threats facing its future.

One of the things I've always loved about this series is that it does not treat Rin like a perfect character. There is something venal about her drives that make 'Ambition' and 'Hunger' too clean cut. This book sees her finally step away from being the tool of the various warlords and embrace the role of a leader...to varying degrees of success.

As the final installment of the trilogy, I always look to see how a series ties itself off and many fantasy series have a hard time in nailing the landing. I feel like the Burning God nails the landing, and does it in the way where a lot of the story is tied off while making you feel like it could continue in some form.

I have been recommending The Poppy War for customers since it first came out. I can now recommend the entire trilogy as a complete and satisfying epic.

4.5 stars... This is my favorite of the trilogy and an incredibly satisfying ending to the overall story. Knowing the source material, this story ends in one of the only 2 options I really saw open, but I really loved the journey to get there. This is the third book in a series, so... don't start here :). BUT, in terms of what I can say without getting into spoilers: a) watching this last leg of Rin's character growth broke me up inside- I cried so many times, especially when I thought about where we started with her; b) the pacing in this one was markedly better than the previous two books, which is exciting to see in terms of the author's overall trajectory for future stories, and c) thematically, I thought the underlying idea that violence begets violence was communicated so effectively throughout. The only things that I didn't enjoy as much was some of the military strategy bits, but that's just a "me" thing. Overall, this series is one where the sum is greater than its parts, and I would consider the series an all time favorite of high fantasy.

The final book went beyond my expectations. The author beautifully weaved in many Chinese History allusions while also maintaining a distinct storyline. Rin's similarities to Chairman Mao was fully realized by the third book, yet the author still maintained a unique form of rage and empathy within Rin. Although Rin has been known for her hatred and anger throughout the last two books, the author still managed to find space to develop Rin's emotions into something more complex. Through weaving complex internal conflicts and paralleling them to Rin's physical world, the author was able to fully unravel Rin's habitus.

I'm really excited to add this book to my book club's list! Hopefully, when the pandemic ends, I'll be able to dissect the this book in person with the book club.

I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review

My Rating: 5 Stars

It will never cease to amaze me that R.F. Kuang began this incredible trilogy when she was only 19 years old. At that age I had just discovered my freedom from my parents and was in no way shape or form in a position to write a book. Not only did she provide us with a grimdark trilogy that I had no idea I needed in my life, she managed to improve upon her craft with every novel written. The Poppy War and The Dragon Republic were both incredible, but The Burning God was, in my opinion, the shining star of the trilogy.

Rin as a chracter absolutely astounded me. Her resilience, her stubborn will to not only live, but to win, and her determination to get her revenge by any means necessary all blew me away. She grew over the course of the series into a woman who was somehow equally terrifying and an inspiring testament to the feats you can achieve with willpower alone.

While Rin wasn’t the character that I liked the most (that honor will always be reserved for Kitay), she was a character that I felt emotionally bonded to throughout the series. She made questionable decisions, and committed atrocities that I never could’ve imagined. However, the beauty of R.F. Kuang’s writing is that no matter what Rin did, I was always on her side. I was constantly rooting for her, even if it didn’t seem like the right choice to make at the time.

The battle and strategy sequences throughout the series were incredible, but honestly managed to blow my mind on a whole new level in this third installment. They were fast paced, and kept my heart pounding as I devoured page after page in a sheer panic. I felt the urgency of those scenes seeping through the pages.

Overall, this may be one of the best series endings I’ve read in a long time. The way that The Burning God ended just felt right to me. I closed my kindle and even though I was a snotty, sobbing mess, I felt completely satisfied with the way that things wrapped up. I genuinely can’t wait to see what R.F. Kuang has in store for us next.

In THE BURNING GOD, Kuang continues to hone her craft. I’m awed by the level of her storytelling, writing, and depth. The military fantasy elements are so well-done here in the way the battles, strategies, and day-to-day dealings are crafted.

But beyond war, the number one strength of the book, as it has been with the other books, is the characters. Rin is the heart of the story, of course, and I don't know if you could tell this particular story any other way. Rin is a character that is very hard to put into a box. I don't know if there's a simple way to describe her. I loved her journey in this book, her mistakes, frustrations, and terrible decisions included.

A fantastic, heart-wrenching, horrible, amazing, frustrating, debatable, marvelous ending.

OMG. The ending of this trilogy is AMAZING. The ending was absolutely gutting, but also sort of satisfying. I may not have liked everything about what ultimately happened, but it was done in a way that brings everything back to the beginning. Heavy on war and strategy, some of that stuff went over my head, but it was good to see glimpses of humanity in some of the worst characters. This series was amazing from beginning to end, and I can't wait to read anything else by this author.

The heart-wrenching finale of this trilogy does not disappoint. As with the others, prepare for heavy subject matter, unflinching descriptions of brutality, and a race to the finish as this tale of gods, mortals, and those who step in between finds its end.

THE BURNING GOD is a masterful piece of grimdark historical fantasy. Kuang and therefore, the reader, never loses sight of the characters, who they are, and how they handle each new trial. It is a story that delves deep into what humanity is capable of, and what choices each of us may make to survive.

Put it on your top shelf as a new and wholly impressive cornerstone of Adult Fantasy.