Saturday, March 2, 2019

The Traitor Baru Cormorant

The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson, 400 pages

Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant is this month's Orcs and Aliens book club book, and man is it a ride. Told from the vantage point of Baru Cormorant, a young woman of an imperialized island nation, as she becomes first a student of the Empire of Masks schools and "hygiene" regimens that destroy her native culture for its unclean ways, then as an account for the Empire of Masks in the country of Aurdwynn, where a feudal hierarchy has bred waves of rebellion and problems. All through the novel Baru uses play and counter-play, intrigue and savvy accounting, to confront the conflicts that arise around her. From secret rebellions to dukes vying for her hand in marriage, Baru keeps pushing her agenda of reclaiming and saving her land. And the ending. Oh the ending. I did not see it coming at all. This is the first in what is planned as a trilogy, and I am excited to read them and see where this goes.

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