The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson :: Review

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
Publisher: Tor. September 2015.
Pages: 399
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Library (audiobook)



ADD TO GOODREADS

BUY FROM INDIEBOUND

BUY FROM BOOK DEPOSITORY

The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. They'll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She'll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she'll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.

In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu.-Goodreads

I don't really know where to begin describing how good this book is and how badly you need to read it. I don't care who you are, you need this book. Even if you don't normally read fantasy, READ THIS BOOK. Because I don't normally read fantasy either. I'm not biased against it, but I just don't read it that often. This is a standalone (though apparently a sequel's being worked on, which is SO EXCITING) geopolitical fantasy about a woman named Baru Cormorant. When she's young, her home country Taranoke is invaded by The Empire of Masks/The Masquerade/a bunch of assholes who like punishing people for sins and doing weird selective breeding stuff. She grows up seeing them change her island, her mother and two fathers are split apart and punished, and she goes to school to be taught the empire's education. And she's really, really smart. But she harbors a hatred of the empire for what they've done and she wants power to save Taranoke. She's willing to work her way up through the empire to get it. Her superiors (excuse me for avoiding using names, I listened to the audiobook and have no idea how to spell anything) notice how smart she is and she's eventually sent to a far away country where she's to be the imperial accountant. It sounds like a boring job at first, but through examining the accounts, Baru unearths a conspiracy. And that's where she begins practicing exercising power and navigating the politics of a country very thoughtfully. Shit gets crazy.

So much of this book is about politics and economics that I didn't think I'd enjoy it, but it's ABSOLUTELY riveting. If you like the politics of Game of Thrones, you'll absolutely love this. Baru Cormorant is an incredible character. Sharp as hell, incredibly thoughtful, sometimes ruthless. She knows what's going on and she's willing to play any game she has to. We never know who around her she can trust. And all the while, Baru has a secret about her sexual orientation that could get her killed by the empire. You never know for sure where loyalties lie. It is so intense and so much fun. The drama is real. There are so many twists. So much gasping. I'll stop gushing now.

If you want to be entirely wrapped up in a story, enjoy complicated plots and well written characters, and are interested in stories that feature interesting gender/sexual orientation stuff, you have to check this out. The ending will blow you away. Please read this book so we can talk about it.

8 New Books to Look For This August

August is looking like it's going to be a great month for interesting new books. And, lucky for you, a bunch of them are coming out right away! There's China Miéville, one of the most original sci-fi writers out there. There's N.K. Jemisin, the author who turned me from vaguely anti-fantasy into a fan. There's new Murakami! And a bunch more! Now go extend your TBR list until it's alarmingly long. Feel no shame.

Three Moments of an Explosion by 
China Miéville (Aug 4)

ADD TO GOODREADS

"London awakes one morning to find itself besieged by a sky full of floating icebergs. Destroyed oil rigs, mysteriously reborn, clamber from the sea and onto the land, driven by an obscure but violent purpose. An anatomy student cuts open a cadaver to discover impossibly intricate designs carved into a corpse's bones—designs clearly present from birth, bearing mute testimony to . . . what?

Of such concepts and unforgettable images are made the twenty-eight stories in this collection—many published here for the first time. By turns speculative, satirical, and heart-wrenching, fresh in form and language, and featuring a cast of damaged yet hopeful seekers who come face-to-face with the deep weirdness of the world—and at times the deeper weirdness of themselves—Three Moments of an Explosion is a fitting showcase for one of our most original voices."

Wind/Pinball by Haruki Murakami (Aug 4)

ADD TO GOODREADS

"The debut short novels--nearly thirty years out of print-- by the internationally acclaimed writer, newly retranslated and in one English-language volume for the first time, with a new introduction by the author.

These first major works of fiction by Haruki Murakami center on two young men--an unnamed narrator and his friend and former roommate, the Rat. Powerful, at times surreal, stories of loneliness, obsession, and eroticism, these novellas bear all the hallmarks of Murakami's later books, giving us a fascinating insight into a great writer's beginnings, and are remarkable works of fiction in their own right. Here too is an exclusive essay by Murakami in which he explores and explains his decision to become a writer. Prequels to the much-beloved classics A Wild Sheep Chase and Dance Dance Dance, these early works are essential reading for Murakami completists and contemporary fiction lovers alike."

The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (Aug 4)

ADD TO GOODREADS

"Three terrible things happen in a single day. Essun, a woman living an ordinary life in a small town, comes home to find that her husband has brutally murdered their son and kidnapped their daughter. Meanwhile, mighty Sanze -- the world-spanning empire whose innovations have been civilization's bedrock for a thousand years -- collapses as most of its citizens are murdered to serve a madman's vengeance. And worst of all, across the heart of the vast continent known as the Stillness, a great red rift has been been torn into the heart of the earth, spewing ash enough to darken the sky for years. Or centuries."

Make Your Home Among Strangers by 
Jennine Capó Crucet (Aug 4)

ADD TO GOODREADS

"When Lizet-the daughter of Cuban immigrants and the first in her family to graduate from high school-secretly applies and is accepted to an ultra-elite college, her parents are furious at her decision to leave Miami. Just weeks before she's set to start school, her parents divorce and her father sells her childhood home, leaving Lizet, her mother, and Leidy-Lizet's older sister, a brand-new single mom-without a steady income and scrambling for a place to live.

Amidst this turmoil, Lizet begins her first semester at Rawlings College, distracted by both the exciting and difficult moments of freshman year. But the privileged world of the campus feels utterly foreign, as does her new awareness of herself as a minority."

The Girl Who Slept with God by Val Brelinski (Aug 4)

ADD TO GOODREADS

"Set in Arco, Idaho, in 1970, Val Brelinski’s powerfully affecting first novel tells the story of three sisters: young Frances, gregarious and strong-willed Jory, and moral-minded Grace. Their father, Oren, is a respected member of the community and science professor at the local college. Yet their mother’s depression and Grace’s religious fervor threaten the seemingly perfect family, whose world is upended when Grace returns from a missionary trip to Mexico and discovers she’s pregnant with—she believes—the child of God.

Distraught, Oren sends Jory and Grace to an isolated home at the edge of the town. There, they prepare for the much-awaited arrival of the baby while building a makeshift family that includes an elderly eccentric neighbor and a tattooed social outcast who drives an ice cream truck."

The Beautiful Bureaucrat by Helen Phillips 
(Aug 11)

ADD TO GOODREADS

"In a windowless building in a remote part of town, the newly employed Josephine inputs an endless string of numbers into something known only as "The Database." After a long period of joblessness, she's not inclined to question her fortune, but as the days inch by and the files stack up, Josephine feels increasingly anxious in her surroundings. When one evening her husband Joseph disappears and then returns, offering no explanation as to his whereabouts, her creeping unease shifts decidedly to dread.

As other strange events build to a crescendo, the haunting truth about Josephine's work begins to take shape in her mind, even as something powerful is gathering its own form within her. She realizes that in order to save those she holds most dear, she must penetrate an institution whose tentacles seem to extend to every corner of the city and beyond."

Slab by Selah Saterstrom (Aug 11)

ADD TO GOODREADS

"On a slab that's all Katrina left of her Mississippi home, Tiger tells her story, and it is as American as Horatio Alger, Schwab's Pharmacy, and a tent revival. She was a stripper, but is she now a performance artist and best-selling author, and it is really Barbara Walters she's narrating this tale to? We're too dazzled to know more than that this is about how a girl ends up in the backwash of decadence and sin and how out of the flotsam and jetsam she might construct a story of herself and the South to carry her to salvation.

Serial killers, preachers, and prison flower-arranging classes. Bikers, bad boyfriends, and a stripper who performed as a Trans Am. Tiger has seen it all and as she sits on her slab, identifying anecdotes as they go by, we witness Selah Saterstrom at her greatest—funny, bawdy, and steeped in the landscape and all the devastation it has created and absorbed."

The Incarnations by Susan Barker (Aug 18)

ADD TO GOODREADS

"Who are you? you must be wondering. I am your soulmate, your old friend, and I have come back to this city of sixteen million in search of you.

So begins the first letter that falls into Wang’s lap as he flips down the visor in his taxi. The letters that follow are filled with the stories of Wang’s previous lives—from escaping a marriage to a spirit bride, to being a slave on the run from Genghis Khan, to living as a fisherman during the Opium Wars, and being a teenager on the Red Guard during the cultural revolution—bound to his mysterious “soulmate,” spanning one thousand years of betrayal and intrigue.

As the letters continue to appear seemingly out of thin air, Wang becomes convinced that someone is watching him—someone who claims to have known him for over one thousand years. And with each letter, Wang feels the watcher growing closer and closer…"

What new book do you want to read this August?

Why Won't Anyone Go to Middle-Earth with Me?

It's 2 am, so obviously it's time to be stressing about Lord of the Rings. And how nobody I know wants to read it (or finish reading it).

The only time I've ever been sad near my map of Middle Earth

In my head, everyone should want to be reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy every second of their lives, but it is becoming more and more apparent to me that there are people outside of myself.
Startling.

I tried to convince my boss that he should finish reading it, because he stopped in the middle of Fellowship in high school. So I tried soliciting opinions from my coworkers as they streamed in and out of the room. "Have you read Lord of the Rings?" was met by a lot of "haha"s and "I couldn't finish them"s. Then I remembered my coworker, Luc, who is obsessed with Lord of the Rings. I rushed off to find him, dragged him to my boss, then told him to tell my boss why he should finish.

"Oh, I couldn't get through Fellowship." Devastating.

My boss questioned why I wasn't labeling things or whatever I do here. I told him I quit. Ok, I didn't actually. Well, I probably did. But I say that every other day, so I went back to my desk to move papers around (I can't remember what I was hired to do).

The Lord of the Rings has been so profoundly influential on my life. To the point where I play the Lord of the Rings MMO, just because I want to hang out in Moria and visit Tom Bombadil (most ridiculous character in anything ever). Anyway, I'm not trying to tell people that it's the best book in the world. I don't need them to convert to anything (though that would be exciting for me). I just want them to give it a shot, because I think it is so beautiful.

My list of mildly convincing things I tell people:

1. It is like the movies, but longer!
2. No no no, I'm not really a fantasy person either, this doesn't count! (What does this mean? I'm not sure.)
3. Yeah, it's sort of dense, but it is dense with beautiful words. Please just read all of them.
4. It's more exciting than The Hobbit. Period.
5. A paragraph about an herb actually made me cry! (Referring to athelas. This one normally scares people out of the conversation)
6. I will literally give you a free copy, so you have to read it.


Is anybody else met with this much resistance even from people who loved the films? Is there anything I can say to my boss to make him actually want to read this? I gave him a copy, so he sort of feels guilty/obligated. I don't think he's read it yet, though. He's been avoiding eye contact.

Help me, please.