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“I have without doubt this find yourself being the best dream debut of the year […] I’ve absolutely no question that [Kuang’s] name will become up there with famous brands Robin Hobb and N.K. Jemisin.” — Booknest

A brilliantly imaginative talent makes about The Poppy Battle: A Novel her exciting debut with this epic historical military fantasy, inspired by the bloody background of China’s twentieth 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 get the most talented youth to learn on the Academies-it was a shock to everyone: towards the check officials, who couldn’t believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without cheating; to Rin’s guardians, who thought they’d finally have the ability to marry her off and additional their criminal organization; and to Rin herself, who noticed she was finally free from the servitude and despair that had comprised her daily existence. That she experienced Sinegard-the most top notch military college in Nikan-was even more surprising.

But surprises aren’t always good.

Because being a dark-skinned peasant gal from the south isn’t an easy matter 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 present by using a seemingly crazy teacher and psychoactive substances, Rin learns that gods longer thought dead have become very much alive-and that mastering control over those powers could mean a lot more than just surviving college.

For while the Nikara Empire reaches peace, the Federation of Mugen still lurks across a narrow ocean. The militarily advanced Federation occupied Nikan for many years after the First Poppy Battle, in support of barely lost the continent in the next. And while a lot of people are complacent to start their lives, a few are aware a Third Poppy Battle is just a spark away .

Rin’s shamanic powers may be the only path to save lots of her people. But simply because she finds out more on the subject of the god that has chosen her, the vengeful Phoenix, she doubts that winning the war might cost her humanity . . . and that it could already be too late.