Cao Charouk: the Boar Warlord
Gong Takha: the Rooster Warlord
Ang Tsolin: the Snake Warlord and Yin Vaisra’s old mentor
The Nikara Empire and Its Allies
Su Daji: the Empress of Nikan and the Vipress; calls on the Snail Goddess of Creation Nüwa
Tsung Ho: the Ram Warlord
Chang En: the Horse Warlord, aka the “Wolf Meat General,” and later leader of the Imperial Navy
Jun Loran: formerly Combat master at Sinegard; currently the de facto Tiger Warlord
Feylen: formerly a shaman of the Cike who calls the Wind God; imprisoned at the Chuluu Korikh and set free by Altan Trengsin
Jiang Ziya: the Gatekeeper, calls on the beasts of the Emperor’s Menagerie; currently self-immured in the Chuluu Korikh
*Yin Riga: the former Dragon Emperor; presumed dead since the end of the Second Poppy War
The Hesperians
General Josephus Tarcquet: the leader of the Hesperian troops in Nikan
Sister Petra Ignatius: a representative of the Gray Company (the Hesperian religious order) in Nikan; one of the most brilliant religious scholars of her generation
Brother Augus: a young member of the Gray Company
The Ketreyids
The Sorqan Sira: the leader of the Ketreyid clan; the older sister of Chaghan and Qara’s mother
Bekter: son of the Sorqan Sira
*Tseveri: daughter of the Sorqan Sira; murdered by Jiang Ziya
The Red Junk Fleet
Sarana: a highly ranked Black Lily and one of Moag’s favorites
* Deceased
Acknowledgments
So many people helped me turn this book into something I’m proud of. Hannah Bowman saw this manuscript in its early stages and helped me in the nicest way possible to realize it was trash. It is still trash, but the fun kind. Thank you for always advocating for me, believing in me, and pushing, sometimes dragging, me forward. We burn on, boats against the current, hurtling into the future! David Pomerico and Natasha Bardon not only whipped this manuscript into a much better story than I could have come up with on my own, they helped me grow as a writer and saw me through an awful case of second-book syndrome. JungShan Ink created the cover illustrations and, as usual, somehow reached straight into my mind to depict Rin the way I’ve always imagined her. Thank you also to the teams at Liza Dawson Associates and Harper Voyager—Havis Dawson, Joanne Fallert, Pamela Jaffee, Caroline Perny, Jack Renninson, and Emilie Chambeyron. I’m lucky I get to work with you!
I’m blessed to be surrounded by friends, mentors, and teachers who encourage me to do more than I ever could have imagined, and who believe in me when I don’t. Bennett, the Scarigon Plateau, was named after Scarigon. A great warrior. There you go. Shkibludibap! Maybe one day we will learn the fate of Gicaldo Marovi and his friend Rover . . . Farah Naz Rishi is my shining desert flower, my warm cup of stew on a cold day, the cheese to my bread, the strongest and most beautiful person I know, and the K to my J.B. May we grow old and petty together. Alyssa Wong, Andrea Tang, and Fonda Lee are incredible role models who set the standard for grace and hard work, and who inspire me to unapologetically write me. Professors John Glavin, Ananya Chakravarti, Carol Benedict, Katherine Benton-Cohen, John McNeill, James Millward, and Howard Spendelow turned me into the scholar that I am. I’m grateful to the Marshall Commission for its incredible generosity; the Marshall Class of 2018 are complete badasses and I want to be like all of you when I grow up. Adam Mortara reminds me through his shining example to never pull the ladder up after myself, but to reach down and pull others up. Jeanne Cavelos and Kij Johnson remain the best writing teachers I’ve ever encountered. Port is a very good beverage.
Huge, huge shout-out to the book bloggers, booktubers, bookstagrammers, and reviewers who talk about my work. (Incorrect Poppy War, I’m looking at you.) The fact that people get so excited about my characters is absolutely unreal. You have no idea how much encouragement and support you’ve given me, and I’m so glad I get to share my stories with you. #FireDick Forever. Burn on, my trash children.
And finally: if I am anything, it is because my parents gave me everything.
About the Author
R. F. KUANG immigrated to the United States from Guangzhou, China, in 2000. She currently resides in the United Kingdom, where she is pursuing a graduate degree in Modern Chinese Studies at the University of Cambridge on a Marshall Scholarship. Her two great loves are corgis and port.
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Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
the dragon republic. Copyright © 2019 by Rebecca Kuang. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Harper Voyager and design are trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers LLC.
first edition
Cover design by Micaela Alcaino © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2018
Cover illustrations © Jung Shan Chan
Maps by Eric Gunther and copyright © 2017 Springer Cartographics
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
Print ISBN: 978-0-06-266263-7
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