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"The Traitor Baru Cormorant" by Seth Dickinson
On Saturday afternoon, on the bus ride home, I finished The Traitor Baru Cormorant, because I couldn't wait until I got home to reach the end, despite a long history of reading-induced car sickness. It was totally worth it.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant is all fantasy politics. There's no magic or fairies or prophecies, just Seth Dickinson's invented world and the titanic machinations of Empire. And it is electric. Tentatively, I'd make a comparison to The Goblin Emperor, except that where TGE is about how Maia, completely unprepared for his role, is thrust into a viper's nest of politics, Baru Cormorant is about how Baru has painstakingly taught herself the ways of the empire and enters into the game fully prepared to rewrite the rules to her liking.
Dickinson creates a wonderfully believable world. The Empire of Masks—popularly known as the Masquerade—is sickeningly plausible, with their soft conquests of money and ideas backed by a highly-trained and well-equipped military. The Masquerade is not content to conquer land—it must conquer minds, people. It is relentless in its push to force its colonies and territories to adopt its ways of thinking, to the point of dictating who may and may not marry based on their bloodlines. With this comes a heaping dose of homophobia, frequently enforced on cultures who had formerly been relaxed or even accepting of queer identities and relationships. This presents a specific problem for Baru, who is the daughter of a mother and two fathers, and who is herself a deeply closeted lesbian.
The story makes use of incredibly mundane tools in its schemes, something that also rings realistic. It's not all backstabbing, murder, and blackmail—at one point, a serious political threat is nullified through currency inflation. Baru, who becomes an imperial accountant, is in a prime position to use these seemingly dull tools to marvelous effect. Many schemes are strangled in the cradle, such that only the plotter and the defeater are even aware that they existed. But the game goes on.
In that same vein, Dickinson pays ample attention to the practical realities of economics, war, and rebellion, in a way that grounds the story in realism without letting it drag. The pace felt even throughout, picking up at the climax without ever feeling rushed. At the same time, despite the frequently detailed and excruciating groundwork various characters are laying for their plans, the novel never felt slow. Dickinson's prose is descriptive without being overwrought or tiresome. He keeps the reader on the hook figuring out Baru's plans or realizations without making it so obscure that a dedicated or observant reader couldn't figure things out along with her. I never felt like Dickinson was keeping things vague because he lacked answers or plans himself.
Given the above two things, potential readers should know this book runs almost entirely on machinations. If you are not significantly interested in plotty plotters plotting things, you may find this book duller than I did.
Baru herself is the epitome of ruthlessness. Her goals are noble—her desire to free her home, to end the tyranny of the Masquerade—but she will do anything to achieve those goals. She is a truly fascinating character, calculating, controlled, brilliant—and constantly tormented by the need to weigh her choices and the potential futures ahead. I loved watching her schemes build, play out, and adapt along with the developing situations. She is a fantastical chess player—but not without flaws and blind spots. Her character asks the reader a fascinating question about just how long the ends can justify the means, and what an individual is willing to sacrifice for their notion of the greater good.
There were moments in the book when I felt Baru's motivations were a little foggy, a little hasty, but I was willing to forgive that because the rest of the book was so enjoyable. It wasn't until the very end when I realized I had missed something, and all the pieces fell into place, and her motivations were perfectly clear and logical.
Equally interesting are the ways the characters around Baru plot and respond to her. There was one moment near the end when I gasped out loud at a twist, and then realized later I'd made the same error as some other characters in assuming its causes. The thing with Dickinson's twists is that they all make sense in retrospect. There were some "I can't believe that just happened!" moments, but nothing that felt like it came out of the left field or that was not supported by the narrative up to that point. Dickinson also does a good job of making sure the characters around his core plotter still feel like real players in the game. He never falls prey to Baru being the only one with schemes and long games ongoing—the board pieces are constantly shifting as others make their own bids for power and Baru must adjust her plans accordingly.
And this book has things to say. Baru Cormorant is an unrelenting condemnation of imperialism, economic and militant, and it never shies away from the extent of personal and cultural damage done to the victims of the Masquerade. Everyone trying to survive in the Masquerade's world is having to compromise themselves somehow, to some extent, and no one survives contact with the empire unscathed, even those who eventually turn its power to their own ends. The economic control; the eugenics programs; the targeting of youth to indoctrinate them with the Masquerade's values; the wars of conquest; the coercion, manipulation, and bribery that keep the people adhering to the Masquerade's will—all of it is brought to light and examined and called for what it is: control, control, control, no matter how pretty a face is put on it.
I was hanging on every page by the end, and first thing Sunday morning I was off to the library to pick up the sequel, which I started the same day. I cannot wait to see how Baru's story progresses! Hats off for Baru Cormorant!
Crossposted from my main.
Dickinson creates a wonderfully believable world. The Empire of Masks—popularly known as the Masquerade—is sickeningly plausible, with their soft conquests of money and ideas backed by a highly-trained and well-equipped military. The Masquerade is not content to conquer land—it must conquer minds, people. It is relentless in its push to force its colonies and territories to adopt its ways of thinking, to the point of dictating who may and may not marry based on their bloodlines. With this comes a heaping dose of homophobia, frequently enforced on cultures who had formerly been relaxed or even accepting of queer identities and relationships. This presents a specific problem for Baru, who is the daughter of a mother and two fathers, and who is herself a deeply closeted lesbian.
The story makes use of incredibly mundane tools in its schemes, something that also rings realistic. It's not all backstabbing, murder, and blackmail—at one point, a serious political threat is nullified through currency inflation. Baru, who becomes an imperial accountant, is in a prime position to use these seemingly dull tools to marvelous effect. Many schemes are strangled in the cradle, such that only the plotter and the defeater are even aware that they existed. But the game goes on.
In that same vein, Dickinson pays ample attention to the practical realities of economics, war, and rebellion, in a way that grounds the story in realism without letting it drag. The pace felt even throughout, picking up at the climax without ever feeling rushed. At the same time, despite the frequently detailed and excruciating groundwork various characters are laying for their plans, the novel never felt slow. Dickinson's prose is descriptive without being overwrought or tiresome. He keeps the reader on the hook figuring out Baru's plans or realizations without making it so obscure that a dedicated or observant reader couldn't figure things out along with her. I never felt like Dickinson was keeping things vague because he lacked answers or plans himself.
Given the above two things, potential readers should know this book runs almost entirely on machinations. If you are not significantly interested in plotty plotters plotting things, you may find this book duller than I did.
Baru herself is the epitome of ruthlessness. Her goals are noble—her desire to free her home, to end the tyranny of the Masquerade—but she will do anything to achieve those goals. She is a truly fascinating character, calculating, controlled, brilliant—and constantly tormented by the need to weigh her choices and the potential futures ahead. I loved watching her schemes build, play out, and adapt along with the developing situations. She is a fantastical chess player—but not without flaws and blind spots. Her character asks the reader a fascinating question about just how long the ends can justify the means, and what an individual is willing to sacrifice for their notion of the greater good.
There were moments in the book when I felt Baru's motivations were a little foggy, a little hasty, but I was willing to forgive that because the rest of the book was so enjoyable. It wasn't until the very end when I realized I had missed something, and all the pieces fell into place, and her motivations were perfectly clear and logical.
Equally interesting are the ways the characters around Baru plot and respond to her. There was one moment near the end when I gasped out loud at a twist, and then realized later I'd made the same error as some other characters in assuming its causes. The thing with Dickinson's twists is that they all make sense in retrospect. There were some "I can't believe that just happened!" moments, but nothing that felt like it came out of the left field or that was not supported by the narrative up to that point. Dickinson also does a good job of making sure the characters around his core plotter still feel like real players in the game. He never falls prey to Baru being the only one with schemes and long games ongoing—the board pieces are constantly shifting as others make their own bids for power and Baru must adjust her plans accordingly.
And this book has things to say. Baru Cormorant is an unrelenting condemnation of imperialism, economic and militant, and it never shies away from the extent of personal and cultural damage done to the victims of the Masquerade. Everyone trying to survive in the Masquerade's world is having to compromise themselves somehow, to some extent, and no one survives contact with the empire unscathed, even those who eventually turn its power to their own ends. The economic control; the eugenics programs; the targeting of youth to indoctrinate them with the Masquerade's values; the wars of conquest; the coercion, manipulation, and bribery that keep the people adhering to the Masquerade's will—all of it is brought to light and examined and called for what it is: control, control, control, no matter how pretty a face is put on it.
I was hanging on every page by the end, and first thing Sunday morning I was off to the library to pick up the sequel, which I started the same day. I cannot wait to see how Baru's story progresses! Hats off for Baru Cormorant!
Crossposted from my main.
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