It felt a little like I was retreading old ground until the book found its footing. A bit like a new season of a TV show that had answered most of its big questions in the previous season’s finale. The first 15% or so felt oddly “separate” from the previous books. Of all the books in the trilogy, this one took the longest for me to find my immersion. All that anger, all that rage, all that self-hatred… it finds a target. She becomes the person we should have expected her to become, had we been paying attention. Rin’s story here builds on the foreshadowing in earlier books. In fact, she broke down some of those barriers on purpose. There is no barrier between her and the atrocities of the world.

Much like the Dragon Republic, the finale to the Poppy War trilogy focuses almost entirely on the realities of war. The ending to The Burning God? It’s… well, phew. For me, it’s the kind of thing that can make or break a story. I’m the kind of reader who will remember a series based on its ending.

As her power and influence grows, though, will she be strong enough to resist the Phoenix’s intoxicating voice urging her to burn the world and everything in it? While her new allies in the Southern Coalition leadership are sly and untrustworthy, Rin quickly realizes that the real power in Nikan lies with the millions of common people who thirst for vengeance and revere her as a goddess of salvation.īacked by the masses and her Southern Army, Rin will use every weapon to defeat the Dragon Republic, the colonizing Hesperians, and all who threaten the shamanic arts and their practitioners. Returning to her roots, Rin meets difficult challenges – and unexpected opportunities. After saving her nation of Nikan from foreign invaders and battling the evil Empress Su Daji in a brutal civil war, Fang Runin was betrayed by allies and left for dead.ĭespite her losses, Rin hasn’t given up on those for whom she has sacrificed so much – the people of the southern provinces and especially Tikany, the village that is her home.

The burning god kuang