Author: Seth Dickinson
Genre: Fantasy ; Adult ; LGBTQA+ ; Science fiction; Politics
Publication: September 15th 2015 by Tor Books / Tom Doherty Associates
Pages: 399
Format Read In: Audiobook
Summary from Goodreads (GOODREADS LINK)
Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up from the sand of her home and see red sails on the horizon.
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.
But Baru is a savant in games of power, as ruthless in her tactics as she is fixated on her goals. In the calculus of her schemes, all ledgers must be balanced, and the price of liberation paid in full.
Trigger warnings: homophobia, racism, eugenics, genocide (physical, cultural), violence, gore, war crimes
My Review [SPOILERS AHEAD]:
As someone who seems inclined towards female war criminals, this novel has popped up on my radar a lot, especially when it’s coupled with other novels featuring sapphic, questionably-dubious protagonists. And this cover has always caught my eye; beautiful composition.
What I Liked
- Baru was an awesome protagonist, from the get-go! Deeply intelligent and curious as a kid, I admired that she stuck fast to her culture and beliefs, while being taught that her upbringing was “savage”, and she still managed to manipulate those around her who thought they were smarter and better. That fierce intelligence continues throughout her life in the novel, tittering into a paranoia. But I like characters who think through the things they do. The way Baru kept pushing back and finding new ways to maneuver around dangerous people was fascinating and wonderful; a lot of show and less tell, which is always good. I guess this is another war criminal I simple can’t help but love, because though she does unspeakably bad things, there are pockets where she tries to be good which kept her from falling into an “unlikeable” villain.
- The homophobia and polyphobia is pretty rampant in the book, and at times difficult to handle, but I thought Dickinson did a good job making the bigotry almost normalized in the book and something Baru privately comes up against without internalizing it. Also, I was happy to see the brief representation of a poly relationship at the beginning, where we learn Baru was raised by a mom and two dads, as the summary notes.
- The geopolitical movements in the novel were at times confusing, but nonetheless, very interesting. Dickinson has really thought hard about this world and I do see aspects of the real world woven into the setting and history. The way the Masquerade quietly conquers the lands around it, not with wars but with slow steps of building schools and forcing the children to abandon their family’s teachings to take up the Empire’s lessons, and introducing their currency as the only one that can be used, and just…the quiet dismantling of customs and religions is so deeply sinister and familiar. The way Baru is molded into essentially a secret soldier of the Masquerade, wearing the mask of a foreign land but with the Empire’s customs to share, was really something to recognize by the end of the novel.
What I Didn’t Like
- As noted above, this would have been a better read via physical/ebook just to keep track of everyone and each movement. I was often confused and had to backtrack a lot whenever I put the audiobook down to remember who was who and why a certain move was so drastic.
- This is an absolutely brilliant novel but I simply can’t swallow what Baru did in the end. I felt so betrayed by her, although it completely makes sense why she betrayed the Aurdwynn rebels and is totally in line with her character. I just thought we were going in a different path. By the end, I felt like I wasted so much time caring about and following Aurdwynn’s politics, it’s citizens and politicians, and several duchies, only for that all to burn up as the Empire completely took over, thanks to Baru’s betrayal which came out of left field as she never reveals her true intentions to the reader. And then they killed Tian Hu after all that chemistry build up…it’s too much for me.
Conclusion
This is the only novel that I can tell people is utterly seamless, with a fantastic and brutal protagonist, a wide world, a complex but interesting political arena and a fiery sapphic romance, but who’s series I don’t plan on continuing as I felt just as betrayed by Baru at the end as the Aurdwynn rebels felt.
My Rating: 4/5
Where to Find Me
sweaters.and.raindrops@gmail.com
Sweaters & raindrops 