The Poppy War

Inspired by the terrible history of 20th-century China, this epic historical military fantasy is rife with magic and betrayal.

Everyone was shocked when Rin passed the Keju, the Empire-wide exam designed to identify the most gifted young people to attend the Academies. The test administrators couldn't believe a war orphan from Rooster Province could pass without lying; Rin's guardians thought they would finally be able to marry her off and expand their illegal business; and Rin herself realised she was finally free of the servitude and hopelessness that had characterised her everyday life. Even more astonishing was the fact that she was accepted into Nikan's most prestigious military academy, Sinegard.

However, not all shocks are positive.

For it is not an easy thing to be a dark-skinned southern peasant girl in Sinegard. Targeted from the beginning by competing students due to her gender, colour, and poverty, Rin finds that she has an affinity for the almost legendary skill of shamanism, which gives her a deadly, otherworldly power. Rin discovers that gods long believed to be dead are really very much alive and that developing control over those abilities might mean more than just making it through school as she explores the depths of her gift with the aid of a teacher who seems to be mad and psychoactive drugs.

For even in the times of peace inside the Nikara Empire, the Federation of Mugen remains a threat across a small sea. After the First Poppy War, the militarily powerful Federation ruled Nikan for many years, and in the Second Poppy War, it narrowly lost the continent. A Third Poppy War is only a spark away, yet the majority of people are content to live their lives as they normally do.

Rin's people may not be saved unless she uses her shamanic abilities. She believes that winning the conflict would cost her humanity, and that it might already be too late, as she learns more about the furious Phoenix, the deity who has chosen her.