Our Shared Shelf discussion

Dear OSS,

The Moderator team is excited to announce that R.F. Kuang has agreed to answer YOUR questions about her book "The Poppy War."

Feel free to list your questions below between now and Friday, March 20, 5PM EST.

Here are a couple of interviews to get you started:
https://bookpage.com/interviews/22654...
https://bookriot.com/2018/08/08/r-f-k...


Thank you,
The OSS Mods

Excellent news! Thanks you for your work.

I haven't finished the book yet but I do have a question. Right now I'm at the mountain prison.
Along the book characters are warned about power especially Rin. Indeed, Jiang and the woman in the Pantheon (I suspect to be the Speer Queen), advised Rin to be careful with the god powers. It seems that the gods love destruction (at least most of them). So I'm wondering two things:
1) why the gods like destruction in the book, I mean why did you give them that will to destroy?
2) why power consume? I guess I mean crude and brutal power because Jiang seems to mean that power is not about being able to dominate by force.

Also, I do have a third question.
3) When I read the book I cannot help to think about China and Japan. In interviews you confirmed that Nikara and the Federation were refering to those two countries.
But... What about Speer? Geographically it looks like Taiwan and I feel there were huge tensions between Speer and Nikara. I cannot help to ask (sorry if it's not politically correct), is Speer refers to Taiwan? If yes, why? Are there underlying meanings?

Ps: I might have some answers by the end of the book.

I would like to ask Rebecca if she plans to wright a dystopian book after her Trilogy, or if the story does actually turn into a dystopia in the dragon republic and the last book of the trilogy.

I’m curious about how she created the gods, and if she pulled from any mythologies to develop their powers or even the conversations they had with characters.

I guess I'm too late but I'm interested in hearing about the Tiananmen Square project she wanted to work on after this trilogy. I realise the third installment isn't out yet but still :)

Not too late. Ask away!

I'll take my chances with another question regarding a quote from the linked interview by Book Riot where Rebecca with the trilogy wants to examine the following:

"how does somebody go from being an irrelevant, backwater, peasant nobody to being a megalomaniac dictator capable of killing millions of people?"

This made me wonder if Rebecca sees Rin as some version of the "unreliable narrator". Almost like what slowly happened with Walter White in Breaking Bad.
To clarify, I don't mean that Rin isn't portrayed as a normal human being. Like every individual she is complex. Also, in the interview for Book Riot, Rebecca says: "You can portray female characters being told not to be angry but being angry anyway." I love that.