The Burning God: Book Review

I just finished reading The Burning God, by R.F. Kuang. This is the final book in the Poppy War trilogy, a grimdark fantasy series based on Chinese history. This book picks up right where the previous one left off. Yin Vaisra has made a deal with the Hesperians, and he is now the ruler of the Nikara Republic. Rin and Kitay are now in the South, taking part in the Southern rebellion against the Republic. This book details the next bloody chapter in Nikara history as Rin and her followers fight against an insurmountable enemy.

Overall, I am not sure what to feel about this book. I did not hate the book by any stretch. At the same time, I continually come back to specific parts of the book that I thought could have been handled better.

Overall (No Spoilers)

My favorite part of this book was the beginning sequence of events. I thought it did a good job laying the groundwork for everything that was to come, especially the depiction of the fighting: namely, their brutality, how the killings manifested, and how it tied into everything that came before. Basically, the wars of the past are feeding into the wars of today.

I also enjoyed the ending of the novel. In this respect, I am talking about who ultimately came out on the other side and the final pages of the story. I might also have complex feelings about these aspects of the story, but the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that I was just surprised at how it ended and slightly disappointed by the deviation, rather than by the nature of the ending, itself; I like the ending the more I think about it. It was not a brutal as I was expecting, but Kuang ended it in a slightly more bittersweet way (which is relative. My expectations were brutal).

I also did not enjoy the ending. In this case, I am not talking about the closing pages, but about the final conflict between the two central characters at the end of the story. The problem: there really was no climax. I was left feeling very underwhelmed and was even expecting there to be more to the story. But then, the story continued on as if the climax had happened. The final fight was nothing on the level of the fight at the end of The Dragon Republic, nor was it on the level of the fight midway through that same book. I honestly could not believe that what we got was all there was.

As before, the complexity of the character relationships is what really drives this story forward. Rin's relationship with both Kitay and Nehza are horrid and complex, and the conclusion that they received in the end was very fitting. I kept expecting Kuang to swing one way in their relationship, I kept waiting for the breaking point, but the complexity remained until the very end. I thought this was suiting.

Now, probably the thing that I liked the least was the handling of the Trifecta. As with the ending, I thought what happened was thoroughly underwhelming. Just like with the "climatic" fighting of the story, I was left wondering whether things were over and was further left to wonder why they were even present in this book in the first place. The impression I got was that Kuang had to tie up loose ends and simply trimmed them away without considering the overall story.

Something related is Vaisra. I thought much more could have been done with him. What I said about the Trifecta can be said about him.

Another thing that is not as significant is the Hinterlanders. They seemed to be stuck in the realm between being relevant and unnecessary. I can't really take a hard stance in either direction, but I am still unsatisfied.

On the other hand, I liked how Kuang handled the Hesperians. There were some eyebrow-raising conversations between Kitay and Rin about them, and their portrayal overall deserves real praise.

Another positive is the treatment of betrayal, particularly how it was done from Rin's perspective. I still don't really know what happened because Rin's mind was so distorted by the end.

Finally, I liked some of the historical parallels, namely the Long March and how it was incorporated into Rin's own struggle, making the story that much more tragic.

Overall, the story has me divided. I will give it a 5/10.

Strides (Spoilers)

I mentioned the beginning of the novel. Of course, the sequence of events I am referring to are the cascade of rebellions throughout the South as the Mugenese are dealt with. First and foremost, I liked how the Mugenese did not just drop off the map in these books. While the Empire is gone, and the Mugenese were less relevant in the second book, Kuang did not forget them. She portrayed their continued presence in Nikara very well, tinging their vicious bigotry with faint hints of humanity, like when Rin sees memorabilia in the quarters of one of the head Mugenese.

The cruel nature of the rebellion, where the Mugenese and their appeasers were utterly brutalized was a powerful sequence with brutality similar to Golyn Niis. And the ambiguity thrown in when talking about the punishment of the Nikara folk who appeased the Mugenese only made the scenes that much more hard hitting. The complexity of the decisions people have to make is consistently lost to those in a mind of vengeance.

The end of the novel, the closing pages, were also a positive for me. I went into this novel thinking I had been spoiled, at least vaguely, about what would happen. I had the impression that Rin would finally wipe out all her enemies, and she would end up annihilating not only her enemies, but much of her supporters too. I had an image of her dominating Kitay in a manner that Riga had done to the two others, and him being forced to live alongside this monster. The book even hints at this in the final confrontation with Kitay.

But none of that really happened. She does hurt a lot of people, and she does have it in her to destroy everyone, but instead of winning, it is actually Nehza who survives, and it is the Hesperians who win the war. Rin is conflicted near the end. She wants to destroy Kitay because he stands in her way, but she finds that she can't. And then she chooses to kill herself to avoid the Hesperians. Rin and Kitay—who, for all their differences, are inseparable—die together in a kind of mutual suicide, and Nehza—always distant, yet so close to her heart—is forced to live on without either of them.

Another amazing part that happens near the end is the speech she gives to the people of Tikany, telling them that the war is continuing and that they will have to endure even longer. The riot, and the later burning of the poppy fields, hit very hard, especially in the aftermath of everything. And it really highlights the insane psychology of Rin at that point.

The Hesperians winning the war is a tragic turn of events that was also basically inevitable. They, by all metrics, are ahead of the Nikara, and their ability to continually dominate those around them is all the justification that is needed. They aren't going anywhere. And Nehza's refusal to completely submit, opting to play the long game, was a nice touch.

Another point about the Hesperians was how Kuang was unrelenting in her portrayal of their supremacy. At certain points in the story, it seems that they may even be right about their superiority. The conversation between Kitay and Rin stood out to me, because it was very characteristic of Kitay to ask a question like that. And Rin's own refusal to believe it, couched in her refusal to be dominated, was also very characteristic. This is juxtaposed with the truth of the Nikara religion, as opposed to the Hesperian one. There might be some ambiguity in the sense that the Hesperians managed to suppress shamanism, suggesting that maybe they are keyed in on something, but there is far more reason to believe in the Nikara religion than the Hesperian religion. The approach, as a whole, struck me as very bold, and probably something Kuang would not have been able to get away with if she wasn't a Chinese American.

Finally, I liked Venka's betrayal reveal at the end. This is because I don't really know if she actually did betray Rin. Maybe. But maybe not.

Stumbles (Spoilers)

The part of the book that I liked the least was the treatment of the Trifecta. Not only were they dealt with far too easily, but I just don't understand why they took such a major stage in this book. I did not go into this book expecting to see much about them. I figured Jiang was gone for good. I didn't understand why Daji hadn't died at the end of the last book, but I didn't spend much time thinking about how she would fit into this story. (And in retrospect, I guess she can't have died because of the link with the other two, so that complicates things). The one exception to that was Riga. I expected him to come back, and I had also predicted that his reappearance was going to be related to Nehza and his powers. I wasn't wholly sure what to expect, but it would have been a rather neat way to bring him into the central conflict, especially if Nehza manages to overcome him in time for the final conflict with Rin.

But what ended up happening failed to tie Riga in with Nehza in any way at all. All through the middle section of the book, especially when Daji and Jiang were taking the center stage, we're getting flashbacks and terrible revelations about the Trifecta. This made the Trifecta seem far too important for the story being told, and it distracted from Nehza, whom the focus should have been on. Overall, I just got the impression that Kuang realized too late that she had all these important characters that needed to be built up and quickly cleared away so she could make way for the real story. If she wanted to close out the Trifecta, she should have made their final confrontations with the Hesperians more significant and less abrupt in their ending.

Vaisra is a similar story. He is simply cleared off the board part way through the book to make way for Nehza, and it was in a way that seemed too convenient. Vaisra showed up in a place that no one was expecting him to, and the only reason was so he could be killed off.

The main issue was balancing all the characters based on their relevance. Clearing the way for Nehza made sense; but then, I can't really say he had all that much room to breathe in the story, anyway. He should have been heavily involved in the deaths of both Vaisra and the Trifecta, demonstrating that he is quite literally replacing them.

Then there is the climax of the story. You would imagine my shock when I realized that this fake-out final fight was the actual final fight of the story. Everything was building to an epic conflict between Rin and Nehza. I wanted to see an explosive, extended climax. I had read The Dragon Republic. I knew what Kuang is capable of. But the core of the fight ended up being pushed aside, instead of the being an omnipresent backdrop to the events happening to Rin. I expected us to see the conflict in Arlong in more detail. I expected the Republican soldiers and the Hesperians to put up a better fight. Not that the Hesperians could not abandon the Republic in the last moments; there are ways to pull that off. The issue is that we really didn't see the storming of the city. Instead, we get this weird conflict with a dragon that felt out of place, and which somehow brought the fighting to a neat, bow-wrapped close in Rin's favor.

I mentioned that I thought there was going to be one final show down after Rin claimed Arlong, because this climax seemed so fleeting. I felt this about the Trifecta, as well. Part of me wonders if Kuang rushed things, or if she had to cut parts in editing. I don't know. I just wanted more.

The Hinterlanders are only a slight complaint. I implied that I was not even sure how to fix this issue. Making the Hinterlanders more relevant to the story would congest a conflict that already seemed too congested. But I also feel like they should have been more relevant. If Kuang had been able to draw out a climax with the Trifecta, and included the Hinterlanders in this extended sequence, they would have been less of an afterthought that I feel them to be.

Conclusion

Overall, the book had me divided. I will give it a 5/10.