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

Oct 11, 2024 Kelsey Baguinat marked it as to-read

Note: Do NOT listen to the audiobook of this one. Narrator mispronounces SO. MUCH. For instance, "duchy" and "duchies" are not pronounced as "doochie" and "doochies". She pronounces "tabard" as "tay-bahrd". According to the author, the narrator even mispronounces the main character's name. Just no.

I had to put down the audiobook, but I will pick this one up again in physical book form. ...more

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May 28, 2020 Tom rated it did not like it

In the beginning, I was drawn in, when Baru is a young girl and shows razor sharp intellect/observation. But I really struggled through 90% of this book. For most of the book, we're expected to accept Baru's intelligence and cleverness, without really getting any proof of it? She's described as this exceptional prodigy, but I just didn't buy it. Straight out of high school (or the equivalent) and directly appointed to "Imperial Accountant" (what would that be, the equivalent of the US Treasury S In the beginning, I was drawn in, when Baru is a young girl and shows razor sharp intellect/observation. But I really struggled through 90% of this book. For most of the book, we're expected to accept Baru's intelligence and cleverness, without really getting any proof of it? She's described as this exceptional prodigy, but I just didn't buy it. Straight out of high school (or the equivalent) and directly appointed to "Imperial Accountant" (what would that be, the equivalent of the US Treasury Secretary)? Those must have been some friggin' *amazing* SAT scores! Seriously, I found myself skimming along, trying to find significant plot developments, which I found few/far between.

Baru suppresses a revolution via currency manipulation and inflationary practices (yawn!). In later, big battle scenes, characters dart to and fro with the action difficult to track, perhaps due to my complete lack of connection, or care for, the "Duke of That" or the "Duchess of This" These folks are sometimes also referenced by one of their other two or three names/titles, very confusing. There were only two or three characters in this book that I really paid attention to and none of them called to me.

(view spoiler) Anyway, resolution of that major theme (as much as we're given) is pushed off to the very end. The surprise in the final pages was a great concept, but not worth the time/attention investment it took to get there. ...more

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Oct 02, 2019 L. Lawson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, ebook, whispersync

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Audiobook and ebook. Whispersync (when it worked).

SPOILERS! Don’t read unless you’ve read The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

This novel was sublime. Simply sublime. I was hesitant when I heard the writer was a writer on Destiny simply because the story in Destiny had potential but was opaque without being able to deliver on that quality in any substantial way. I was worried this novel would be the same.

I needn’t have worried.

The author carries some of that same opaqueness in his writing here, but it com Audiobook and ebook. Whispersync (when it worked).

SPOILERS! Don’t read unless you’ve read The Traitor Baru Cormorant.

This novel was sublime. Simply sublime. I was hesitant when I heard the writer was a writer on Destiny simply because the story in Destiny had potential but was opaque without being able to deliver on that quality in any substantial way. I was worried this novel would be the same.

I needn’t have worried.

The author carries some of that same opaqueness in his writing here, but it comes across more as subtle and evocative than camouflage for answers even the writer doesn’t know (think Lost or, well, Destiny). Here, likely because the author isn’t writing by committee, the subtlety leads to answers and plot movement and consequences.

Big consequences.

In every paragraph, you can find a line that evokes much more than the writer is saying, lines that caused me to consider just where the narrative was driving and what the characters were really thinking. There’s a surface to this story and there is the depth below, and each line limns the surface and hints at what’s beneath with skill that was perfectly balanced for me.

Does that mean the entire novel was perfect? Nope. I feel like the subtlety, the skipping around the edges led to some disconnection between the reader and the many characters. Did I care for them? Only very few. Did I know much about them? Only enough to become invested in the plot (as opposed the the characters’ places in the plot). And the character names? Thankfully, the audiobook helped me situate the consonant/vowel clusters on my reading tongue. A last criticism: one or two neat coincidences stood out as, well, a little too neat.

As the story crescendoed, I was certain where it was headed—partially because, of course, the title of the novel calls Baru a traitor and partially because I knew the writer was too crafty to settle on the initial turncloaking (verbing that, thanks) as the entire justification of the title. It was clear she’d turn again, but I’d decided she’d simply turn on her love, Tain Hu, in order to stay leader of the rebellion. At no point did I consider she’d never actually turned her cloak against the rebellion by never, at the start, ever turning her back on the Masquerade.

But I should have know. It was Baru’s driving motivation from the very first chapter: infiltrate the empire to destroy it from the inside. The only was to do that was to ascend into the empire, to sit behind the throne, and the only way to do that was to stay true to the Mask while rebelling. Subtle layers upon layers of subterfuge mirroring the subtle layers of words building into sentences.

This novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant, is one of my very favorite novels of the decade and certainly in my top 50 of all time. I recommend fans of good writing and storytelling, irrespective of genre (this is Hard Fantasy, by the way, with the fantastical elements very, very, very sparse—really, in my view, just the Clarified) read this SUBLIME novel. ...more

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Oct 07, 2015 Will rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, sword-and-laser, audible

This book really split me in two (not literally). I had high hopes as the premise and world building had so much to offer. But it somehow failed me on both. The world it was building was epic in scope. The ideas, culture, everything had so much to offer the reader. This was going to be fun. But it wasn’t.

Because of the scope of world building, the plot and story seemed small and 2 dimensional. I felt nothing for any of the characters as because of how big the world was, the action & characters w ...more

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Oct 09, 2015 Jon rated it really liked it

Shelves: epic-fantasy, fiction, fantasy, library-loan

3.5-4 stars

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Sep 29, 2015 Brenda rated it liked it

Baru's homeland has been taken over by the Empire of Masks. They will change her culture, traditions, pretty much everything she knows and loves. She vows to rise in power in the Empire and get revenge for her homeland from the inside.

I think one of my main problems with this book is I could just never connect with Baru. I never really saw the charisma that supposedly drew everyone to her and made all these people follow her. I just didn't buy it. And I didn't care much for any of the other cha ...more

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Jun 11, 2019 Matthew rated it liked it

Shelves: audio-book

This is going to be a tough one for me to review. I really liked this book quite a bit, but at the same time, certain elements of the narrative didn't seem to make sense to me. They seemed incongruous to the basic plot-lines or motivation of the character.

Perhaps I'll just bullet point out what I liked and what I didn't like about the book.

Liked
-The world building was really well done. The cultures and tribes really felt unique and poignant.
-Baru, our main character was generally well written. ...more

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