I think I waited too long after finishing The Poppy War to read book two of the trilogy, The Dragon Republic, because the story has lost momentum for me and Rin is becoming an exasperating protagonist.

If you plan on reading The Poppy War, obviously do not continue reading this review of The Dragon Republic as there are spoilers.

The Third Poppy War is over, and Rin has become an opium addict in order to squash her feelings of guilt over incinerating the Mugenese, and to try to control the vengeful Phoenix god whose fire courses through her veins. She is feeling lost without her commander Altan and wants to die, but not before getting revenge against the Empress Daji for allowing the Mugen Federation to invade Nikan Empire and for handing her and Altan over to the Mugenese for experimentation.

Rin ends up joining the army of the Dragon Warlord, aka the father of the boy she used to hate at school and now might be in love with, Nezha. The Dragon Warlord wants to overthrow the Empress and bring democracy to the Nikan Empire. Sure Jan. Their first strike against Daji is a failure (of course, otherwise The Dragon Republic would be a very short book) and Daji is able to seal Rin off from the Phoenix god so she can’t call fire anymore.

But Rin isn’t completely useless without fire; she is still a great soldier, and The Dragon Republic ends up being a really long war novel. That is not to say The Dragon Republic is a completely uninteresting book, it just becomes tedious as there is only so much war I want to read about. At least The Poppy War gave Rin a few years at school before war broke out.

In my review of The Poppy War I said that Rin is a compelling protagonist, but in The Dragon Republic she is a frustrating protagonist. First, she has become an incredibly bitchy character that just snarks at everyone. I was waiting for someone to get fed up and slap the snark out of her. Second, she criticizes other characters for being weak but does not recognize her own weakness. She thinks she is brave because she is willing to sacrifice her own sanity to access the Phoenix’s fire and use it against Daji and her army, but Rin has become this pathetic character that just wants to follow someone else’s orders. In The Poppy War she followed Altan’s orders, even his questionable orders, and in The Dragon Republic she throws her lot in with the Dragon Warlord, even though she has her misgivings about allying herself with him, just because she wants someone to tell her what to do.

The Dragon Warlord has allied himself with the Hesperians (I can’t tell if the Hesperians are supposed to be representative of the English or Americans, or a combination of both), although the Hesperians have not provided any guarantees that they will get involved in his war. The Hesperians want access to Nikan’s valuable resources, and they want to bring their religion to the Nikan race. I found the inclusion of the Hesperians to be interesting because we get to see the colonizers from the perspective of the colonized. The Hesperians believe shamans like Rin are heathens that need to have demons forced out of them, and so they want to experiment on Rin, and of course the Dragon Warlord convinces Rin to cooperate with their experiments.

It is disappointing to read about a strong female character who seemed smart in the first book learn to not trust her own instincts just because she thinks she is a failure or that she is not worthy. And I’m really surprised that her friend Kitay, who is supposed to be this uber-smart character, was not able to sus out what was going to happen to Rin if the Dragon Warlord wins his war against Daji and warn Rin not to get involved. In any event, despite my disappointment with book two, I am still determined to finish out the trilogy and will start The Burning God sooner rather than later.