Reviews tagging 'War'

The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

64 reviews

justasking27's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.25

Brutal.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Rape, War, Police brutality, Lesbophobia, Forced institutionalization, Homophobia, and Colonisation

kingcrookback's review against another edition

challenging dark tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

This is a compliment: The last twenty percent of this book made me want to scream. The way Dickinson seeded the reveal, just enough to barely rouse suspicion at first, and the way it all started adding up, terrible but unstoppable. I sometimes felt like I was watching someone start building a cage, only to suddenly understand that they're building it around themselves. God, it was almost unbearable, so effectively constructed.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, War, and Violence

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Racism, Lesbophobia, Alcohol, Death of parent, and Homophobia

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Murder, Outing, and Sexual content

bloodbrooxv's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

As a revenge trope truther, i LOVED this book. 
The worldbuilding was thrilling and I adored all of the political intrigues, even tho i felt a bit lost with all of the names and plot threads (probably because I'm not a native speaker). 
Baru was such a compelling and complex character to follow, especially towards the end. Her conflict is realistic and speaks volumes when we consider how colonialism is the main theme in this novel. The other characters were a bit flat, but I particularly liked both Tain Hu and Murie Lo. 
The thing that bugs me the most about this book is probably the fact that it prefers telling you things rather than showing you, which isn't always necessarily bad. For example, even tho the other characters' motivations are clearly stated in the story, we don't really see how the consequential events play out, but rather we get to know about them through Baru.
Overall i really loved this book, the ending BROKE ME and i can't wait to read the second one.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Homophobia, Violence, War, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Animal death and Torture

Minor: Rape

strawberrybex's review

4.0

Ooh there’s a lot that’s really great abt this book. I had slightly mixed feelings abt some of the pacing, but by in large a solid read. 
please do look through the trigger warnings though! they are very real. and like add on pretty extensive discussions of eugenics (as like a mechanism of the big evil empire but. thorough and frequent)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Death, Homophobia, Violence, Lesbophobia, and Murder

Moderate: Racism, Sexism, Sexual violence, War, and Death of parent

imperialism, colonialism, colonial violence, genocide and cultural genocide, race science and eugenics. also threats of sexual violence include like. threats of FGM. also conversion therapy

third_bookworm's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book makes me unwell. It's so, so well done and also so upsetting. Really excellent in many ways. This was my second time reading it, and like all my favorite books it truly hits differently the second time through.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Lesbophobia, Colonisation, War, Violence, and Religious bigotry

Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Torture

emeraldrina's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A masterpiece of world building and intrigue. Each time I picked up this book I was so immersed that I forgot I was reading. The world is both complex and believable, the characters all beautifully complicated, and the plot just the right amount of knotted mystery to keep you guessing and on the edge of your seat without being confusing. At times the strategic planning was a touch over-explained, but that might just be because I have a background in the subject. And it wasn’t redundant enough to put me off or make me feel bored. Other than that, the writing was stunningly beautiful, and yet never so present that it was distracting from the story.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Lesbophobia, Homophobia, War, and Murder

Minor: Cursing, Blood, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Death of parent, Outing, Vomit, Death, and Pandemic/Epidemic

indeedithappens's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Abandonment, Body horror, Sexual content, Addiction, Animal death, Cursing, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Kidnapping, Racism, Sexism, Ableism, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Biphobia, Blood, Body shaming, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Bullying, Child abuse, Violence, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Misogyny, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Terminal illness, Excrement, Forced institutionalization, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Vomit, War, Xenophobia, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Lesbophobia, Police brutality, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Slavery, Torture, Toxic friendship, and Toxic relationship

bisexualwentworth's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I loved the political intrigue. I loved the parts of this book that leaned more into being a character study of Baru. I liked Tain Hu and thought that she was handled very well. I just sometimes felt like there was too much emotional and narrative distance between us and Baru, and I’m also not sure how much I care about reading the sequels anytime soon.

That being said, anti-imperialist speculative fiction is my shit, especially when it’s queer, so I absolutely gobbled most of this up. 

Extremely strange encountering the word “sodomite” in a high fantasy novel, though. I will be pondering that choice for a while I think.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Misogyny, Death of parent, War, and Colonisation

Moderate: Racism and Murder

Additional content warnings for murder and drowning. Also, the homophobia is VERY intense here.

ave's review

adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Colonisation, Homophobia, War, and Violence

fauxpunk's review

challenging dark sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I will never be ok again 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, War, Colonisation, Violence, Genocide, Xenophobia, and Lesbophobia