After winning a dozen or so international nominations and awards, the literary debut of Rebeka F. Kuang proudly hits the shelves of Polish bookstores by the Fabryka Słów publishing house. Is the story of a resolute girl who set herself the goal of destroying the existing world order really worth the hype she caused?
The world is alive
The twenty-three-year-old writer’s book focuses on the character of Rin, an orphan raised by unfriendly relatives whose only dream is to get out of one of the poorest provinces of the Nikan Empire and pave the way for a better life. To do this, the girl will have to fight social injustice and prejudices, and then discover the truth about herself. And all this on the eve of the upcoming war for independence in the land in which she lived.
The above description may suggest a fairly standard fantasy tale in the climates of youth literature – and if you look at the core of the Poppy War plot , there is indeed a lot to do with it, with a threadbare theme from zero to heroat the forefront. However, this in no way reflects the complexity of the world created by Rebecca F. Kuang. While the very beginning does not indicate it yet, with time we will begin to realize that the writer’s vision is full of details. The timetable will include not only detailed geopolitical interdependencies of the fictional (though heavily inspired by ancient China) land, but also its history and myths. The latter are crowned with magic that determines whether the novel belongs to the genre, but not quite as typical as we might think.
To go into battle, but for whom?
The characters seem to be similarly complicated, with the aforementioned Rin at the fore, who cannot be easily classified as “girls with character”. Both she and the rest of the characters we meet over the course of over six hundred pages of reading are constantly evolving, and the dynamics of their relationships are viewed with undisguised pleasure. With all this ever-boiling crucible of motivation and interdependence, Kuang never loses control of the material, confidently headed for another landmark event. And these, it must be admitted, are quite a lot – whatever the schematic starting point for many threads, the writer encloses with precisely measured twists, placed at precisely such moments, to force the reader to rethink what he has already taken for granted.
A stylish war
The Maków War is therefore an extremely extensive work. Fortunately, apart from the complex structure of the fictional novel, the author is just as good at using words – the style is transparent, dynamic and vivid enough to never lose the viewer’s interest once awakened. Maintaining a sufficiently high pace with this volume of text is an extremely difficult thing and for more experienced colleagues, so in this matter also Kuang’s debut work should only be praised.
Ultimately, therefore, the first volume of the Rin trilogy looks impressive. This book is full of details, perfect planning, but also energy and the spirit of adventure, which cannot be put away before going to bed without the “one more page” syndrome. All that’s left is to wait for the sequel and… hopefully also the film version.
