R.F. Kuang Books In Order | The Poppy War Series | Updated 2022-23

R.F. Kuang Books In Order

R.F. Kuang Books In OrderRebecca F. Kuang is a Chinese American writer who writes in the fantasy genre. She is famous for his writings that have been covered below under R.F. Kuang’s Books section. At the very young age of four, her family immigrated to the United States from Guangzhou, China.

She grew up in Dallas, Texas, and studied at Greenhill School, from which she graduated in 2013. 

R.F. Kuang has majored in History at Georgetown University, has an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford University, and an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Magdalene College, the University of Cambridge as a recipient of the 2018 Marshall Scholarship.

R.F. Kuang On Her Family And China History

Kuang was brought to the United States at the age of four by her parents. They were immigrants from Guangzhou, China, who were pursuing their higher studies in the US. Her maternal grandfather had fought for the Chinese Nationalist Politician Chiang Kai-shek, and her paternal family had experienced the Japanese conquest of Hunan.

In a podcast of ‘The Reading Women, ‘ Kuang shares the traumatic experiences of her parents and grandparents with Kendra. She says the people from China who moved from their country to other countries to pursue higher studies or career progression saw this as a way of fleeing from calamity and pain. 

The older people of China saw a lot of cultural revolution’s war taking place, such as the Tiananmen Square massacre, The Chinese Civil War, the Second Sino-Japanese War, etc. She adds that her father came to the States because he was a former Beijing University student who had protested at Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Over there, he had seen his friends die, which left a huge impression on him and haunted him still. He doesn’t hold a long conversation about his past experiences with the protest.

R.F. Kuang Times Spent in China

Kuang, on her visit to Beijing, had a conversation with her grandparents about the war and was astonished to hear about their traumatic experiences. They showed us their old home where the bullet holes were still there in the mud brick walls by Japanese soldiers when they occupied their village. She was startled on seeing this as all of it was new to her.

She wasn’t well aware of Chinese history because she had spent her childhood in the US, and there is hardly any mention of it in the US textbooks until you are an East Asian specialist.

The experiences of her grandparents amalgamated with her fantasy gave rise to The Poppy War and other R. Kuang Books in Order. 

R.F. Kuang Books In Order

Let’s have a look at the R.F. Kuang books and novels in order.

The Poppy War Books in Publication Order

Book TitlePublication YearBuy at Amazon
The Poppy War(2018)Buy Now
The Dragon Republic(2019)Buy Now
The Burning God(2020)Buy Now

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Book TitlePublication YearBuy at Amazon
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence(2022)Buy Now

Publication Order of Anthologies

Book TitlePublication YearBuy at Amazon
The Way Spring Arrives and Other Stories of Chinese Science Fiction and Fantasy(2022)Buy Now

1] Poppy Wars Trilogy

The Poppy War is the first novel in the series Poppy Wars Trilogy which came out in the year 2018. The series drew its inspiration from mid-20th century China when the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out. It depicts the conflicts and the bloodshed that happened in the war. Kuang, while teaching debate in China, clicked with the idea to write about the Chinese military strategy for the world to read about the struggles of the Chinese amidst the war in their homeland.

The Poppy War

The Poppy War, as already mentioned, is the first novel in the series Poppy Wars Trilogy and was published by Harper Voyager. This popular novel from the collection of the best R. Kuang Books In Order has been translated into 12 languages as of 2022. A poor orphan, Rin is called to the front lines to fight when a conflict occurs between the Nikara Empire and the Federation of Mugen. Rin gets into Sinegard, for which she has been training in secret. Sinegard gets invaded, which forces her to release her shamanic powers and make a deal with the Gods.

The Dragon Republic

The Dragon Republic is the sequel to The Poppy War, which was released in the year 2019. Rin, who is addicted to opium, runs from the constant hauntings of the atrocities to end the war in the first part. 

She hides from Phoenix, the murderous, vengeful God, and joins forces with the powerful Dragon Warlord, who has the intention to conquer Nikan to establish a new republic. The more she realizes the destructing powers of Dragon Warlord, the more her love for Nikan grows deeper and her only intent to live is to take revenge on the empress who sold out Nikan to their enemies.

The Burning God

The novel, The Burning God, was released in the year 2020 as the conclusion of the series Poppy Wars Trilogy. Rin meets unexpected and difficult challenges on her path to destroying Dragon Warlord. She has the support of Southern Provinces, especially Tikany, which is her home. Rin realizes that they may fall short in weapons but what makes Nikan strong is the common people’s thirst for vengeance.

2] Babel

Another of R.F. Kuang’s Books in Order is Babel which is yet to be released. Its estimated date of release is August 2022. The story is about Robin Swift, whose parents were the victim of cholera and left little Robin to be an orphan. He was adopted by Professor Lovell, a mysterious man. 

As he grows older, his interest in languages grows while training extensively in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese. He dreams of getting into Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel. 

Babel’s research in foreign languages quenches the thirst of the Empire’s quest to colonize every part of the world. Robin Swift, a Chinese working for the UK empire’s Babel, the knowledge house, faces conflict in his mind, that he is betraying his motherland when Britain breaks an unjust war with China over silver and opium.

3] Yellowface

The next R.F. Kuang books in Order is Yellowface. Kuang announced in 2021 to release her book Yellowface in 2023, which will be her fifth novel. The novel Yellowface can be compared to White Ivy and The Other Black Girl as it is on the theme of diversity and racism in publishing and the removal of Asian American voices and history. 

Athena Liu is a popular Asian American writer, and June Hayward, a White, is not among the popular faces in the field of writing. Soon, Liu loses her life in an accident, and Hayward is left with her unfinished manuscript. She steals the dead writer’s manuscript and publishes it as her own. The incidents that unfold after this are to watch out for!

Wrapping Up – R.F. Kuang

R. Kuang, besides writing, is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Literature from Yale University. Her Poppy War series was well received by the readers and was successful in quenching the thirst for delving into Chinese history. R.F. Kuang‘s Books in Order are a testament to the fact that she is an amazing writer.

Top faq on R.F. Kuang

  1. Which are the new books by R.F. Kuang?

  2. What is the date of birth of R.F. Kuang?

    R.F. Kuong was born on 29 May 1996 (age 26 years).

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