REVIEW: The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
Publishing information: Hardback; 400 pages
Publisher: Tor; 15 Sept 15
ISBN: 978-0765380722
Standalone
Copy: Provided by publisher
Reviewer: Tyson
Amazon
Synopsis: "In Seth Dickinson's highly-anticipated debut The Traitor Baru Cormorant, a young woman from a conquered people tries to transform an empire in this richly imagined geopolitical fantasy.
Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people-even her soul.
When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, Baru vows to swallow her hate, join the Empire's civil service, and claw her way high enough to set her people free.
Sent as an Imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn, another conquered country, Baru discovers it's on the brink of rebellion. Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. As she pursues a precarious balance between the rebels and a shadowy cabal within the Empire, she orchestrates a do-or-die gambit with freedom as the prize.
But the cost of winning the long game of saving her people may be far greater than Baru imagines."
When I received this book for review the publisher was really excited and sent me a few emails confirming that I did in fact receive the book. I had seen the cover (Yagiz even did a quick little blurb about the UK cover reveal), but I didn't know much about the story or the author. With a baby on the way, I wasn't keeping up with all the news and praise that the book was receiving. So I had no idea what to expect when I finally got around to reading it.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant is the story of Baru, a young girl with a gift for numbers and a secret desire for revenge. The book starts out with Baru living a rather spoiled life with her mother and two fathers when they are invaded by the Empire of Masks, or Masquerade. The Empire is fairly advanced in culture and in technology. Instead of a long, drawn out war they take over through commerce and trade. Once the Empire has control of a territory they then take the children for re-education while genetically wiping out the "undesirables." In the case of Baru's people, that means killing/maiming those with sexual preferences that do nothing to do with breeding as the Empire has a strong desire to great a genetically superior race.
As Baru works her way through the Empire's re-education program she is singled out as a truly gifted student with an eye for seeing things hidden from the surface. As she graduates from the school she is given a very illustrious position as the treasurer of the distant and fractured Aurdwynn. A territory that the Empire conquered several years before they set sights on Baru's island nation. Baru is tasked with rooting the insurgency that is gaining ground and threatening to overthrow the Empire's grasp on Aurdwynn. As Baru digs deeper and deeper to uncover the rebels and their plots she starts to lose more of herself.
There a lot of themes going on in The Traitor Baru Cormorant. There is the concept of sexual identity, revenge, and cultural norms to name a few. As Baru goes on her personal crusade to enact her quest for revenge she slowly starts to lose who she is as a person. The cost of getting revenge is losing one's self a payment that Baru is willing to pay. One would think that the story of a person who balances the books would be quite boring but Dickinson has woven a novel full of intrigue that has so many twists and turns that when you reach the end of the book you will find yourself with your mouth agape. It is a truly compelling story. But no mistake, this book is dark not gritty dark but dark. There are no happy endings in this one. After all, the title is The Traitor Baru Cormorant. I am disappointed with myself that I didn't get to this one quicker as it was a hidden little gem and easily made my Best of 2015 list. Highly recommended.
Overall 9/10
Comments
Post a Comment