
The Poppy War
A Novel
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Narrated by:
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Emily Woo Zeller
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By:
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R. F. Kuang
About this listen
A brilliantly imaginative talent makes her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody history of China’s 20th century and filled with treachery and magic, in the tradition of Ken Liu’s Grace of Kings and N. K. Jemisin’s Inheritance Trilogy.
When Rin aced the Keju - the Empire-wide test to find the most talented youth to learn at the Academies - it was a shock to everyone: to the test officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who believed they’d finally be able to marry her off and further their criminal enterprise; and to Rin herself, who realized she was finally free of the servitude and despair that had made up her daily existence. That she got into Sinegard - the most elite military school in Nikan - was even more surprising.
But surprises aren’t always good.
Because being a dark-skinned peasant girl from the South is not an easy thing at Sinegard. Targeted from the outset by rival classmates for her color, poverty, and gender, Rin discovers she possesses a lethal, unearthly power - an aptitude for the nearly-mythical art of shamanism. Exploring the depths of her gift with the help of a seemingly insane teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods long thought dead are very much alive - and that mastering control over those powers could mean more than just surviving school.
For while the Nikara Empire is at peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow sea. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for decades after the First Poppy War, and only barely lost the continent in the Second. And while most of the people are complacent to go about their lives, a few are aware that a Third Poppy War is just a spark away....
Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only way to save her people. But as she finds out more about the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she fears that winning the war may cost her humanity...and that it may already be too late.
R.F. Kuang studies modern Chinese history. She has a BA from Georgetown University and is currently a graduate student in the United Kingdom on a Marshall Scholarship. The Poppy War is her debut novel.
©2018 Rebecca Kuang (P)2018 HarperCollins PublishersListeners also enjoyed...
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Story
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.
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The novel language lovers have been waiting for
- By LisaLee on 09-06-22
By: R. F. Kuang
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Ariadne
- A Novel
- By: Jennifer Saint
- Narrated by: Barrie Kreinik
- Length: 12 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur.
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We've been spoiled for choice
- By Stefan Filipovits on 05-04-21
By: Jennifer Saint
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Once upon a Broken Heart
- By: Stephanie Garber
- Narrated by: Rebecca Soler
- Length: 10 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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For as long as she can remember, Evangeline Fox has believed in true love and happy endings…until she learns that the love of her life will marry another. Desperate to stop the wedding and to heal her wounded heart, Evangeline strikes a deal with the charismatic, but wicked, Prince of Hearts. In exchange for his help, he asks for three kisses, to be given at the time and place of his choosing. But after Evangeline’s first promised kiss, she learns that bargaining with an immortal is a dangerous game—and that the Prince of Hearts wants far more from her than she’d pledged.
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Disappointing
- By ShawnieT on 11-02-21
By: Stephanie Garber
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I Found You
- A Novel
- By: Lisa Jewell
- Narrated by: Helen Duff
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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In a windswept British seaside town, single mum Alice Lake finds a man sitting on the beach outside her house. He has no name and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside. Meanwhile, in a suburb of London, 21-year-old Lily Monrose has been married for only three weeks. When her husband fails to come home from work one night, she is left alone in a place where she knows no one and with the police telling her that her husband never existed.
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Foul language
- By Carolyn D Mitchell on 03-04-20
By: Lisa Jewell
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The Kaiju Preservation Society
- By: John Scalzi
- Narrated by: Wil Wheaton
- Length: 8 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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When COVID-19 sweeps through New York City, Jamie Gray is stuck as a dead-end driver for food-delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls “an animal rights organization”. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on. What Tom doesn't tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at at least. In an alternate dimension, dinosaur-like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world.
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I'm listening with a permanent smile on my face
- By Lucy A. Pithecus on 03-15-22
By: John Scalzi
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Belladonna
- By: Adalyn Grace
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton
- Length: 13 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Nineteen-year-old Signa Farrow, orphaned as a baby, has been raised by a string of guardians, each more interested in her wealth than her well-being—and each has met an untimely end. Her last remaining relatives are the Hawthornes, an eccentric family living at the glittering and gloomy estate of Thorn Grove. Thorn Grove’s patriarch, Elijah, mourns his late wife, Lillian, through wild parties and drink, while eldest son Percy grapples for control of the family’s waning reputation and daughter Blythe suffers from the same mysterious illness that killed her mother.
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The narrator is amazing!
- By Nemofishy on 10-05-22
By: Adalyn Grace
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Malibu Rising
- A Novel
- By: Taylor Jenkins Reid
- Narrated by: Julia Whelan
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
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Malibu: August 1983. It’s the day of Nina Riva’s annual end-of-summer party, and anticipation is at a fever pitch. Everyone wants to be around the famous Rivas: Nina, the talented surfer and supermodel; brothers Jay and Hud, one a championship surfer, the other a renowned photographer; and their adored baby sister, Kit. Together the siblings are a source of fascination in Malibu and the world over—especially as the offspring of the legendary singer Mick Riva. The only person not looking forward to the party of the year is Nina herself.
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Malibu Sinking
- By SB on 06-01-21
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All the Dangerous Things
- A Novel
- By: Stacy Willingham
- Narrated by: Karissa Vacker
- Length: 10 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
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One year ago, Isabelle Drake's life changed forever: her toddler son, Mason, was taken out of his crib in the middle of the night while she and her husband were asleep in the next room. With little evidence and few leads for the police to chase, the case quickly went cold. However, Isabelle cannot rest until Mason is returned to her—literally. Except for the occasional catnap or small blackout where she loses track of time, she hasn’t slept in a year. Isabelle's entire existence now revolves around finding him, but she knows she can’t go on this way forever.
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Wow
- By Rachel on 01-10-23
By: Stacy Willingham
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Empire of the Vampire
- Book One
- By: Jay Kristoff
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 27 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
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It has been twenty-seven long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness.
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So good
- By donna on 09-16-21
By: Jay Kristoff
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If We Were Villains
- A Novel
- By: M. L. Rio
- Narrated by: Robert Petkoff
- Length: 12 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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Oliver Marks has just served 10 years in jail - for a murder he may or may not have committed. On the day he's released, he's greeted by the man who put him in prison. Detective Colborne is retiring, but before he does, he wants to know what really happened a decade ago.
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Fake deep with a side of bland
- By Amazon Customer on 06-14-18
By: M. L. Rio
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Musashi
- By: Eiji Yoshikawa, Charles S. Terry - translator
- Narrated by: Brian Nishii
- Length: 53 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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The classic samurai novel about the real exploits of the most famous swordsman. Miyamoto Musashi becomes a reluctant hero to a host of people whose lives he has touched and by whom he has been touched. Inevitably, he has to pit his skill against the naked blade of his greatest rival.
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Good Historical Novel
- By The Walking Dude on 08-11-19
By: Eiji Yoshikawa, and others
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American Prometheus
- The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer
- By: Kai Bird, Martin J. Sherwin
- Narrated by: Jeff Cummings
- Length: 26 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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J. Robert Oppenheimer was one of the iconic figures of the 20th century, a brilliant physicist who led the effort to build the atomic bomb but later confronted the moral consequences of scientific progress. When he proposed international controls over atomic materials, opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb, and criticized plans for a nuclear war, his ideas were anathema to powerful advocates of a massive nuclear buildup during the anti-Communist hysteria of the early 1950s.
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An American Tragedy
- By Edith on 12-13-07
By: Kai Bird, and others
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This Is How It Always Is
- A Novel
- By: Laurie Frankel
- Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it's another baby boy. At least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect. But Claude is not like his brothers. One day he puts on a dress and refuses to take it off. He wants to bring a purse to kindergarten. He wants hair long enough to sit on. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.
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Story mirrors our life -- to a point -- spoilers
- By 1mom3kids on 11-14-17
By: Laurie Frankel
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The Address
- A Novel
- By: Fiona Davis
- Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld, Brittany Pressley
- Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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When a chance encounter with Theodore Camden, one of the architects of the grand New York apartment house the Dakota, leads to a job offer for Sara Smythe, her world is suddenly awash in possibility - no mean feat for a servant in 1884. The opportunity to move to America. The opportunity to be the female manager of the Dakota. And the opportunity to see more of Theo, who understands Sara like no one else...and is living in the Dakota with his wife and three young children.
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Should be a movie!
- By Linda Slater on 10-19-17
By: Fiona Davis
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The Immortality Key
- The Secret History of the Religion with No Name
- By: Brian C. Muraresku, Graham Hancock - foreword
- Narrated by: Graham Hancock, Brian C. Muraresku
- Length: 15 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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A groundbreaking dive into the role psychedelics have played in the origins of Western civilization, and the real-life quest for the Holy Grail that could shake the Church to its foundations.
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A Fun ‘Trip’—But Not a Sober One
- By Joshua on 11-28-20
By: Brian C. Muraresku, and others
We begin our journey with Rin, a war orphan fostered by a pair of illegal opium traders. The first third of the book deals with her journey to the capital city where she attempts to gain entrance into a military academy and trains there. This part, while never light, feels a lot like Ender's Game or Red Rising. Rin struggles to make friends, learn strategy, and outwit the bullies who are upset that a peasant has risen so high. It's brutal, but fun.
The fun stops around act two.
It happened gradually enough that I didn't realize how dark the book was until we reached the end of it. Dark revelation after dark revelation unfolds, not just about the world around the characters, but about their internal lives and vices. It doesn't surprise me that this book was written by someone who studies "collective trauma". By the time I'd reached the last page, I felt if I understood the emotional cost of war in a way I hadn't before.
This is an author with something to say about war, power, and addiction, and she says it so beautifully. As much as I love books like Red Rising or even Ender's Game, I feel since they aren't as strongly rooted in one countries history they lack the intimacy and raw rage I found in the Poppy War. Despite being a book about a whole country, every sentence, every plot moment felt personal. It helps that the prose is excellent. I can't wait to read the next book.
Side note: I also really enjoyed the magic system, which is based around the use of drugs. I found the role Opium played in the world fascinating. Some of the most heart-breaking moments of the book dealt with addiction.
Performance notes:
I really loved the performer of the audiobook. She did a great job, with the exception a the fighting masters voice which really did sound like someone strangling Kermit the frog. Otherwise, though she killed it!
Opium, War Crimes & Magic!
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Good but parts are rushed
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There is a great epic story in this book but it is surrounded by alot of noise. Maybe a better editor would have been able to polish the story to a relative sheen.
Oh boy!
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Fantastic
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Promising.....and disappointing
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I think atleast the most graphic chapters set during the war should have triggerwarnings.
Great, but...
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Emily did a fabulous job narrating this. She truly is amazing with each charter. Even with her amazing skills it can’t make up for the authors story line. I won’t be continuing this series. When a book feels like a chore to get through it’s not worth reading.
Interesting.. yet unsatisfying
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Tough to get through the second half
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Good, not great
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I'd like to beat tf out of Rin
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