The Traitor Baru Cormorant (The Masquerade, #1) in The Sword and Laser

Oct 31, 2015 John Wiswell rated it it was amazing

The island nation of Taranoke is going to fall. It's at the mercy of the economically powerful Masquerade, a merchant-savvy empire that is rapidly taking their natural resources in return for money that the Masquerade itself controls. By the time a war starts, the people of Taranoke won't be able to fight.

So the clever and eponymous Baru Cormorant, a young girl, strives to enter the Masquerade's service, becoming a lowly accountant with the goal of sabotaging everything she can. Weaken the empi The island nation of Taranoke is going to fall. It's at the mercy of the economically powerful Masquerade, a merchant-savvy empire that is rapidly taking their natural resources in return for money that the Masquerade itself controls. By the time a war starts, the people of Taranoke won't be able to fight.

So the clever and eponymous Baru Cormorant, a young girl, strives to enter the Masquerade's service, becoming a lowly accountant with the goal of sabotaging everything she can. Weaken the empire, and her people might one day live free. Gaining real power in this new government, though, requires compromises that would turn any decent civilian's blood cold. How much will Baru give up in order to save her homeland, especially as she builds this new life elsewhere?

Baru lives a stifling life for her cause; the empire is violently homophobic, requiring her to hide her sexuality, and bigoted against her ethnicity. Anyone who does real work in the Masquerade wears a mask, hiding their identity in favor of anonymous rational argument, so even her work is technically secret.

This could so easily be a stuffy, over-humid read, but Dickinson deploys brisk writing, often gliding along legs of rebellions or political movements in court. Baru finds mentors and allies for some relief, and when one lady in particular calls out Baru's attraction, you're probably going to fistpump with happiness.

When we dwell on the slog, it's because something vital has happened, as one scene where Baru realizes all her pretending to be callous and calculating has left her actually colder to suffering. We're watching an idealist struggle to remain good and find relief.

Some reviews have overplayed the bureaucratic side of The Traitor Baru Cormorant. Yes, she does have to wade from political quagmires, but even early on, as she's figuring out how to trick her immediate superiors into overprinting currency, she's also challenging jackasses to duels. And throughout her plan is to foster a rebellion within the country that will give her own homeland a fighting chance. The last quarter of the novel is a vast campaign that ought to satisfy on the level of Grace of Kings's battles.

It's a novel that gets better with every hundred pages, so much so that the first hundred do it a disservice. In early chapters you acclimate to how much exposition, by dialogues and by semi-historical synopses, you're going to consume, and it can feel lazy. By mid-novel, you realize it's establishing a language of exposition to remix knowledge - to weave in falsehoods, subvert tropes, and place Baru in the right (or tragically wrong) places. If your interest flags early on, please stick with it, because that richness of information reveals itself to be an amazing strength.

One of my favorite Fantasies of the year, and a fresh approach to how Fantasy deals with empire, The Traitor Baru Cormorant is the real deal. My biggest question coming away from it was how many friends I was going to gift copies to. ...more

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Oct 16, 2015 Jlawrence rated it it was amazing

Shelves: sword-and-laser, favorites

Set in a richly worked-out alternate middle-ages featuring a imperialist power that colonizes, absorbs, modernizes, and 'corrects' weaker powers (for instance, torturing or putting to death those who, like the main character, are drawn to partners of the same sex), this novel asks: how far can someone de-soul them-self in an attempt to pretend to be part of the machine - a collaborator - as a long, long con in order to take revenge upon the conqueror from within?

Dickinson is equally skilled in w ...more

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Oct 18, 2015 Kdawg91 rated it really liked it

Wow...seriously, easily one of the most brutal books I have ever read, and totally beautiful, It takes EFFORT for me to not see something coming, you got me.

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Apr 17, 2024 Steve Coughlan rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

About 20% of the way in, I transitioned from "confused but not lost" to "I love this book", And the feeling held all the way to the end. Do I feel bad that I didn't see the ending coming? No, because I suspect almost nobody did, yet the clues were there. All we could see were Baru's words and actions, and her inner heart, but not all of her plans to achieve her goals. Nothing that happened was a surprise, or divergent from her stated intentions... yet none of us (I suspect) saw the convolution o ...more

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Mar 09, 2016 Dara rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, ff

Fantastic and so so very painful. To say more would mean hiding everything for spoilers, but oh my god the ending! There's supposedly another book coming, so I'm looking forward to finally seeing Falcrest, and more of the creepy Masquerade. ...more

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