I loved it. Loved the historical setting and its exploration of racism, imperialism, capitalist exploitation at that time and place with the perspectives of diverse characters.

I already enjoy linguistics and learning languages, so I may be biased towards already liking the premise of the novel. (And dark academia is totally up my alley.) The way the author explores the nature of language and how certain parts of ideas always get lost in translation was pretty cool; and using that as a form of magic (that could then be exploited only from native speakers of the language no less) was so cleverly done.

Add in the character conflicts between the four friends, a campus strike, and working class solidarity (with a dash of "be gay do crime")... I was hooked.

I read it, and I really enjoyed it. I will give a few reasons.

There are tons of spoilers here, by the way, you were warned.

So in short, it was one of my favourite books in the last few years. It also illuminates the opium wars in a way that hasn't often been done before.

I've been listening to the audiobook and have enjoyed it so far. About half way through.

I loathed it. With passion.

did you loath it while you were reading it?

I read and enjoyed it but it was definitely very "hit you over the head" on imperialism/colonialism, and the ending was kind of predictable.

The Poppy War trilogy, however, I am nearly finished with and I have absolutely loved. It is raw, honest, unpredictable, and very well written. Also long af.

I thought the linguistics part was great. Super fascinating and in depth and well explored.

The magic, historical fantasy and basically the rest of the book was awful.

I didn’t loathe it, but I didn’t much care for it. It’s basically a polemic about the history and effects (racism, poverty, income inequity, classism) of colonialism and capitalism. Not that that would make a bad novel per se, but I was expecting something more fantastical. The promise of linguistic magic was a big draw for me, but I felt this book could have been written, and maybe should have been written, as straight-up historical fiction, instead of promising fantasy that it pretty much failed to deliver.

Not much to talk about if you don't explain what you loathed about it.

I started reading it yesterday, so I'll let you know.

Why did you dislike it?

So many people ranted and raved about it.

I finished it, but I hate read it from about the ⅓ point until the end.

I don't understand why anyone would like ita and I too loath it, with a passion.

There are no redeeming qualities, it was time I'll never get back. The only positive thing is, combined with hate reading the 3 Body Problem trilogy around the same time, I came to the conclusion that just because I bought/was gifted a book, doesn't mean it can't be a DNF.

I didn't hate it. I liked it. I didn't love it tbh and was disappointed because it had been overhyped in my opinion.

I think R.F. Kuang is a glorious writer if 1/ you like worldbuilding and extensive exposition and 2/ you don't mind messy and underwhelming endings.

I thought the Poppy War was pretty bad. Killed my motivation to read anything else from her.

Kind of a weird post, it's a pretty long book why did you keep going? It's a fun bit of wish fulfillment, a story about engaging in serious and violent revolution against a colonizing empire. It's a bit on the nose, yes, but if you hated the book instead of just thinking it was a bit cartoonish in certain respects, then you might want to ask yourself some deeper questions.