On The Nightstand – The Poppy War – 6/2/2018

“A Man (Woman) Has To Know His (Her) Limitations”

Dirty Harry

I’m not particularly well suited to the role of reviewer – due largely to the fact that I try hard to find things I like in all the books I read.  I generally temper any criticisms I might have.  I truly respect those with the discipline and ability to construct a narrative in their head, translate that narrative into a written story and then overcome what I know must be a whole series of maddening obstacles associated with having your story published – all the work that goes into birthing a book.  It’s certainly not anything I’ve ever proven myself capable of and – as a result – I hesitate to criticize anyone who has – barring a few rare yet notable exceptions on this site.

That’s particularly true with first time authors.  I’m always prepared to make allowances for someone’s breakthrough achievement – accept what might be less than completely polished work in exchange for fresh ideas and raw talent.  It’s a hopeful exercise for me and I’ve been incredibly lucky several times this past year – Ann Leckie with “Ancillary Justice”, Yoon Ha Lee With “Raven Strategem”.   While they didn’t quite work to the same degree as these two, Leo Carew and Daniel O’Malley both had great debut novels in “The Wolf” and “The Rook” respectively.  Debut novels give me the chance to find a new favorite author or a new favorite character or a new favorite world – I’m always an optimist and I’m all too willing to overlook minor flaws.

That’s the mindset I brought with me to this book.  I was really, really hoping for something special – new author with an interesting story, interesting concept, clear historical precedent (second Sino-Japanese War) – but for me it all just went so horribly wrong sometime around the transition from Part 1 to Part 2.  What started out as an unremarkable but still enjoyable story about a peasant girl gaining entrance –  in defiance of all expectations – to an elitist military academy somehow morphed into an undisciplined book that tried to do far too many things – serve far too many themes, juggle far too many characters, visit far too many places.  In my opinion, what could have been a tight, interesting story wound up morphing into a cold, sticky, tangled mass of leftover spaghetti.

Kuang introduces and develops so many characters – Jiang, Nezha, Kitay, the instructors at Sinegard are several of many examples – only to discard them in relatively meaningless ways.  She drags us from place to place – Sinegard, Khurdalain, Golyn Niis, The Chuluu Korikh, a secret Federation medical clinic where atrocities and war crimes are being committed, the island of Speer – in a wild, disjointed and disorienting way.  She builds the shamanistic discipline that serves as an anchor for the story in a way that never seems to resonate or make much sense – it assumes a dependency between use of shamanistic magic and the use of psychoactive substances and then turns that assumption on its head, it incorporates spirit walks, it introduces Hexagrams without really explaining their significance or role, it establishes the principle of attaining incredible power by accessing / connecting with the Gods but also has those very same divinely possessed humans ultimately submitting to confinement in a magical prison when the become too powerful and unstable.  I was hard-pressed to find one truly sympathetic or marginally likable character in the book.  The book is overly long – covering too much ground and trying to do too many things.  There were far too many red-herrings, dead ends and disconnected plot devices.

By the time I was halfway through Part 2, I couldn’t escape the conclusion that the story was in desperate need of a firm, disciplined editorial hand.  It felt to me like the author’s ambition had far outpaced her ability and no one had intervened to impose order on her chaos.

I did finish the book but I have to admit that I was tempted on more than one occasion to simply give up and move on to more promising titles.  The whole thing left me disappointed and a bit sad thinking about what could have been.  I’m not likely to return to this world when the second entry in the series becomes available.