So here's part one of our mega-episode on RF Kuang's fantasy novel *The Poppy War*. When a young girl enters her nation's most prestigious academy, will she be able to escape her destitute past to make a name for herself? What if she learned MARTIAL ARTS and DID DRUGS?? This novel interpolates famous sequences from Chinese history into an fantasy setting, most notably... The Rape of Nanking. Yeah. We give some historical context about the atrocity, as well as the book as a whole, before diving into Part 1 of the novel. Despite how heavy it gets later, the beginning is mostly about calling people douchebaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaags and finding out about periods... a decade after everyone else did.
I was going to include the theme song from the Christian Bale Nanking film "The Flowers of War" as our intro, but in a rare moment of insight I realized that might be tacky. Instead, our opener and closer is "Rising Tensions" by Emily from "Rollforfantasy.com". She makes wonderful fantasy music for tabletop campaigns and other worlds. Her music channel is one of my favorites on Youtube, PLEASE check her out.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG46uU4jlxak8DvmcVqN2oQ
