Books Like The Poppy War
by R.F. Kuang
The Poppy War opens like a familiar story and then refuses to stay one. Rin, a war orphan from a poor province, crams her way through the Keju exam to escape an arranged marriage and lands at Sinegard, the empire's elite military academy, where she is despised for her skin and her accent. For a while it reads as a school story with sharp teachers and rivals. Then war arrives, and the novel becomes something much harder. R.F. Kuang draws directly on the Second Sino-Japanese War and its atrocities, and she treats Rin's shamanic power, reached through opium and a vengeful god, as a catastrophe rather than a gift.
Readers stay for different reasons. Some want a heroine this angry and this capable of doing wrong. Some loved the academy before the turn, or the fantasy that takes empire and history seriously. Others are after that sick feeling of a story that won't look away from what war does. The nine picks below follow those threads. Be aware that this book contains graphic violence, and several of these share that darkness.
Recommended for fans of The Poppy War
She Who Became the Sun
Shelley Parker-Chan
A peasant girl claims a dead brother's fate and rises through war in reimagined China.
Pick this if Rin's hunger to escape her fate and the use of real Chinese history were what grabbed you.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Seth Dickinson
A gifted colonial subject climbs the empire that destroyed her home, at terrible cost.
Pick this if you want a clever heroine compromised by a colonial system, with accounting and politics in the place of battlefield magic.
Jade City
Fonda Lee
Rival clans wage a family war over magical jade on an Asian-inspired island.
Pick this if you liked fantasy rooted in Asian-inspired culture and martial skill, and you'd enjoy something closer to a gangster epic.
Red Rising
Pierce Brown
An underclass recruit fights through a savage elite school and into open war.
Pick this if the low-born student humiliating the elite was your favourite part, and science fiction won't put you off.
The Rage of Dragons
Evan Winter
A low-caste man trains obsessively for revenge amid war, in an African-inspired world.
Pick this if you were drawn to relentless training and caste contempt, and you want a story driven almost purely by revenge.
Red Sister
Mark Lawrence
A dangerous girl trains at a convent of warrior nuns with deadly rivals.
Pick this if you'd have happily spent the whole book at Sinegard, since this one lingers at its school much longer.
The Fifth Season
N.K. Jemisin
Feared people with catastrophic power are used and abused by the state.
Pick this if the idea of a terrifying power that the state wants to use against its bearer was the part that stayed with you.
An Ember in the Ashes
Sabaa Tahir
A brutal military academy and an occupying empire, with a romance at its centre.
Pick this if you want the academy and empire elements in a more accessible young adult story with a central romance.
The Blade Itself
Joe Abercrombie
Unsentimental fantasy about violence, power and the people it ruins.
Pick this if you appreciated a fantasy that refuses to glamorise fighting, though it is a looser match, with no academy and a Western setting.
At a glance
These picks were chosen for history-rooted fantasy, military training, ambitious heroines and an honest look at what power and war cost.
| Book | First published | Pages | Closest match on | Match |
|---|---|---|---|---|
She Who Became the Sun Shelley Parker-Chan | 2021 | 416 | Ruthless rise, Chinese history | 93% |
The Traitor Baru Cormorant Seth Dickinson | 2015 | — | Empire and moral compromise | 91% |
Jade City Fonda Lee | 2017 | 512 | Clans, honour and violence | 88% |
Red Rising Pierce Brown | 2014 | 442 | Brutal elite academy | 87% |
The Rage of Dragons Evan Winter | 2017 | 438 | Caste, training and revenge | 86% |
Red Sister Mark Lawrence | 2017 | 500 | Stays at the school | 85% |
The Fifth Season N.K. Jemisin | 2015 | 512 | Power as catastrophe | 83% |
An Ember in the Ashes Sabaa Tahir | 2015 | 464 | Accessible brutal academy | 80% |
The Blade Itself Joe Abercrombie | 2006 | 531 | Unsentimental view of violence | 74% |
About The Poppy War
The Poppy War is R.F. Kuang's debut novel, published by Harper Voyager in 2018. It draws on twentieth-century Chinese history, including the Second Sino-Japanese War, and opens a trilogy completed by The Dragon Republic and The Burning God.
Frequently asked questions
How dark is The Poppy War?+
Very dark. It begins as an academy story, but its second half includes graphic depictions of massacre, sexual violence, drug use and self-harm, drawn from real wartime history. Readers who found that part difficult should treat The Blade Itself and Red Sister with some care too.
What books are like The Poppy War but set in a Chinese-inspired world?+
She Who Became the Sun reimagines the founding of the Ming dynasty, with an ambitious protagonist and real historical bones. Jade City is a fantasy of warring clans on an island whose culture draws on East Asian crime epics and family sagas.
Which books are like the Sinegard academy section?+
Red Rising, Red Sister and An Ember in the Ashes all feature brutal training institutions. Red Sister stays at its school the longest, so it is the best choice if that was your favourite part.
I want another fantasy about empire and what it does to people. What should I read?+
The Traitor Baru Cormorant is the sharpest option here. Its heroine works her way up inside the empire that destroyed her home, and it is unusually focused on how conquest actually operates through money, law and culture.
More books by R.F. Kuang
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