30 upvotes, 2 direct replies (showing 2)
View submission: Best Debut Novel of 2018 - Voting Thread
The Poppy War, by R.F. Kuang.
A really impressive fantasy debut. Early on it seems like a traditional YA-type academy book, and that's fun and well done. Things quickly move beyond that setting and go in places I never expected. The protagonist character development is excellent, the darkness of it all was well written, and all of it was inspired by the histories of China and Japan (particularly one especially devastating scene to read was inspired by a specific historic event), which gives it a deeper layer when you realize these horrible things they do really happened. We rarely see fantasy from an Eastern perspective, and I've hardly ever read a fantasy book so willing to make you love the protagonist and then take her into the darkest of places. Amazing, devastating book that I devoured in a day and I think is absolutely worthy of Best Debut.
Comment by Demosthenes54 at 18/12/2018 at 18:00 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is my vote. It's funny, when I first got it I got like 100 pages in and put it down for awhile thinking its the same formulaic YA novel of lowly poor youth gets into the university/academy where she is ostracized and most overcome things to excel. And it was that for the beginning but then suddenly accelerates to a million miles an hour involving a huge scale nation war and god magics /alternate planes and a bunch of other crazy shit that I thought made it fantastic. Great debut by a young writer.
Comment by alfredbester at 02/01/2019 at 00:34 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I will check this one out.