The Traitor Baru Cormorant

It's difficult to discuss what might make Baru unlikable without delving into spoilers, but that's fine because you must see this book through to appreciate it fully.

Baru, an accountant, finds herself caught in the jaws of empire when her homeland is colonized and one of her fathers is killed. Cold and calculating, Baru desperately claws her way to power in an attempt to fight empire from within, and along the way, must reckon with how much of herself she is willing to sacrifice for her goals. I can’t emphasize how bleak this book is, and part of that comes… show more.

This book blew my mind!

Dickinson’s vision of a fantasy world driven by an exceptionally well-thought-out system of economics and social engineering is complex and fascinating, as is his main character, Baru. Her journey—starting with her adolescence on a small island as it’s colonized by force, through her mastery of the colonizers’ education system, and her slow, cunning infiltration of the Masquerade’s hierarchy of power—is tense, and made even more compelling by her need to hide her queerness from the homophobic powers she pretends to serve.

Her learned ruthlessness and the sacrifices she ultimately makes in her quest for power… show more.

In the first novel of Dickinson’s The Masquerade series, Baru Cormorant’s life undergoes a sudden and brutal change as her island nation is subjugated by the Empire of Masks.

Thrust into a world that shuns her local customs, even unto death, Baru begins an arduous and brutal climb through the empire’s ranks via cunning and education. Now an outsider on the inside, her goal is the eventual restoration of her homeland… and nobody is immune to her single-minded ambitions.

This book is delicious as Baru uses the empire’s own rules to beguile, subjugate, and destroy the people above her as… show more.

How can a fantasy novel about a math and economics genius in a world governed by an empire top my list? Suffice it to say that these subjects fascinate me. And I read it at a time when the housing crisis devastated so many people, many of whom I knew personally, so the economy and its manipulations were front of mind. The world of Baru Cormorant is rich and gritty. Baru herself is complex, brilliant, and likable, but deeply flawed. She has a plan, but to accomplish it she might have to choose between the people she loves and her… show more.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant explores plague through the lens of empire, as a deliberate tool of conquest for the monstrous Masquerade. It’s only one of the tools they use, but it’s the single best exploration of the deliberate use of infectious disease as a weapon I’ve ever encountered in fiction. The protagonist, the titular Baru Cormorant, is also one of the most competent protagonists in fantasy, and her struggle to tear apart the Masquerade from within without letting herself be corrupted by power is absolutely compelling.