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Book Review: The Burning God (The Poppy War Trilogy, #3) by R.F. Kuang

Book Review: The Burning God (The Poppy War Trilogy, #3) by R.F. Kuang

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ARC provided by the publisher—Harper Voyager—in exchange for an honest review.

Cover Illustration by: JungShan

The Burning God by R.F. Kuang

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Series: The Poppy War Trilogy (Book #3 of 3)

Genre: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Grimdark Fantasy, Military Fantasy

Pages: 640 pages

Published: 26th November 2020 by Harper Voyager (UK) and 17th November 2020 by Harper Voyager (US)

Bursting with violence, devastation, death, and profound emotions. The Burning God is by far the best book R.F. Kuang has written in her career so far. …

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Book Review: The Poppy War

Book Review: The Poppy War

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The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Series:  The Poppy War (Book 1)

Genre: Fantasy, military fantasy

First published: 1st May 2018 by Harper Voyager (US) & 3rd May 2018 by Harper Voyager (UK)

I wanted to love The Poppy War quite desperately given its inspiration (and gorgeous cover).

The Poppy War is firstly a welcome change to the standard western Europe medieval setting and secondly, it is an allegory to the history of China. The narrative casts a harsh light on the brutal history of early 20th century China, specifically the genocide of the Nanjing Massacre. The mythology and culture present in the story are also so closely depicted that the novel almost reads like historical fiction, albeit in a secondary world.
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Petrik’s Top 10 Books of the Year So Far (January 1st, 2019-June 30th, 2019)

Petrik’s Top 10 Books of the Year So Far (January 1st, 2019-June 30th, 2019)

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The featured image above was specifically designed by Felix Ortiz for Novel Notions’ Top 10 List. (More info on this at the end of the post.)

Between January 1st, 2019 and June 30th, 2019, I’ve read and reviewed 61 books (33.6k pages). So far, it’s been an incredible reading year. There will be three rules I set in this list in order for me to give appreciation to more authors rather than having only a few authors hoarding this list. The rules are:

  • Rereads don’t count.
  • One book per author.
  • The book listed here are not exclusively published this year.

Do note that although this time there’s a rank to this list, I highly recommend every book listed below because I loved all of them immensely and they received a rating of 4.5 (rounded up on Goodreads) or 5 out of 5 stars from me. Without further ado, here we go! (All full reviews of the books listed can be found on Novel Notions and my Goodreads page.)

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The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)

The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War, #2)

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ARC provided by the publisher—Harper Voyager—in exchange for an honest review.

The Dragon Republic by R.F. Kuang
My rating: 4.5 of 5 stars

The newest rising queen of fantasy is back with her newest book, The Dragon Republic, and it managed to live up to my super high expectations.

Can we first appreciate just how damn gorgeous the cover of this book is? JungShan has created another spectacular cover-selling ink illustration and I’m confident that many readers will pick up the book/series even if they don’t know anything about it. The same situation as its predecessor, the quality of the content of the book did justice to the beautiful cover art and vice versa. I’m pretty sure practically everyone who knows me on bookish social media knows how much I loved The Poppy War. I even created a Twitter account just to wish the author a congratulatory message on her debut’s publication day. If you don’t know/remember, here’s a short snippet of what I said about the first book:

“I have no doubt this will end up being the best fantasy debut of the year… a book that will go down as one of the best grimdark/military fantasy debuts of all time. […] I have absolutely no doubt that [Kuang’s] name will be up there with the likes of Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin.”

Yeah… suffice to say that I highly loved the first book. Since then, The Poppy War has also garnered well-deserved praises, nominations, and awards; my high expectations towards its sequel were inevitable and I’m glad to say that after reading this book, my worry was unfounded and Kuang entranced me once again with her newest installment. …

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Petrik’s Top 20 Books of the Year (2018)

Petrik’s Top 20 Books of the Year (2018)

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Time really flies huh? Another year is coming to an end soon! This year I’ve read and reviewed 129 books. It’s been another fantastic reading year. Considering the high amount of 4.5 and 5 stars books I’ve rated this year, I’ll even say that this year miraculously ended up being my best reading year so far. There will be four rules I set in this list in order for me to give appreciation to more authors rather than having only a few authors hoarding this list.

  • Rereads don’t count
  • One book per author
  • The book listed here are not exclusively published this year.
  • Outside of the two top spots (for good reasons), none of these are in particular order. All have merit, and most have different strengths that make them stand out from each other; putting a rank on them feels odd to me, especially when every book in this list now resides on my ‘favorite books’ shelf.

All the books listed below received a rating of 4.5 or 5 out of 5 stars from me. Without further ado, here are the top 20 books I’ve read in 2018! (All full reviews of these books can be found on my Goodreads page; some are already available on this blog.)

Petrik’s Top 10 Books of the Year So Far (January 1st, 2018-July 31st, 2018)

Petrik’s Top 10 Books of the Year So Far (January 1st, 2018-July 31st, 2018)

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Between January 1st, 2018 and July 31st, 2018, I’ve read and reviewed 82 books, and so far it’s been another fantastic reading year. Considering the number of books I’ve read and reviewed this year, there will be four rules I set in this list in order for me to give appreciation to more authors rather than having only a few authors hoarding this list. The rules are:

  •  Rereads don’t count.
  •  One book per author.
  • The book listed here are not exclusively published this year.
  • Number one spot aside, none of these are in particular order. Why? Because I spent two hours of staring at my computer screen and I still can’t firmly decide on the ranking!

All the books listed below received a rating of 4.5 or 5 out of 5 stars from me. Without further ado, here we go! (All full reviews of these books can be found on my Goodreads page; some are available on this blog.) …

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