Personally, while I found most of the technical details interesting, and presented with purpose, it started to bog me down and become tiring the last third or quarter.

Often times it feels like the narrative is secondary to allow the author to show us the vast world his has created. It covers in extreme details everything from economics, taxes & trade policies, cultural assimilation, diplomacy, naval & land battles, and family lineage. Will her outlawed secret desires be discovered? It reads like a text book on colonialism. Will Baru be able to avoid corruption that comes with power, can she stand by and not only watch, but be the instrument of the empire in conquering another culture, or join their rebellion at the cost of her revenge. Baru vows to tear down this empire from the inside by pretending to be loyal to gain power.

Not through war but with economics, trade policies and cultural assimilation.

As a child Baru Cormorant witness the Empire of Masks conquer her homeland. Especially since it's a long book, make sure you know what your getting into before starting. This is a hard one to recommend as it really depends on your taste. Read for detail explainations, skip otherwise 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.īut the cost of winning the long game of saving her people may be far greater than Baru imagines. Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. Sent as an imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn, another conquered country, Baru discovers it's on the brink of rebellion. 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. Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people - even her soul. 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.

The traitor seth dickinson