Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - The Traitor Baru Cormorant

This was disappointing after seeing it so highly praised and discussed. I really enjoyed the first half, but the second half falls flat, and the conclusion didn't land for me at all. There are too many characters, very few of which are unique enough to easily tell them apart, and that made all the war games difficult to follow. I kept mixing up who belonged where, what they offered, and their personalities didn't stand out. It might've been better if (major ending spoilers)

Baru's betrayal wasn't a 'surprise twist' -- and the reader experienced her struggle more directly through the whole war. Instead, since it's all her POV, she abruptly just becomes less insightful as a narrator, and you can put two-and-two together. Justice for Tain Hu, the only really good character. If I didn't already know she died, this would've probably made me much more upset about it. I think they needed to actually be together for more than one night for that betrayal to really cut deep. Instead, it feels gaudy.

I probably won't pick up the sequels, unfortunately. Highly suggest looking up content warnings as well.

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mimit's review

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challenging sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Possibly one of the best SFF books about colonialism that I've read. It's complex and deeply deeply tragic and painful, and possibly very slow for readers who prefer fast-paced action/battle scenes, but I really enjoyed it!

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plushmaya's review

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adventurous dark mysterious slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

My problem with this book is a problem endemic among war books: it loses itself to the story beats the author wants to hit while neglecting to meaningfully engage with its themes. This pattern is particularly disappointing in Baru Cormorant, a book that sets up ostensibly complex ideas of colonization, identity, eugenics, and power but refuses to spend much time with them. Dickinson has set up an interesting concept— a woman injured by empire deciding to become its agent— but fails to reach a meaningful conclusion. A war starts. It doesn't mean much. Characters are numerous and opaque, including Baru herself, and they die frequently, swiftly, and without much fanfare. This style of killing players off could be effective and meaningful, given the war narrative, but for all but a few cases, we aren't given enough information to care. Dickinson decides to set up mystery by revealing nothing to readers. The final twist feels especially lackluster: without enough information to know what's coming and dread it, it has none of the emotional payoff it was presumably intended to have.

This isn't to say I hate the book completely; the prose is fine and some characters are eyecatching. Tain Hu was clearly meant to be one of the more interesting characters and it works, although she remains a bit bland from Baru's perspective. Purity Cartone is probably the most fascinating character in the book, despite possessing a small part, because Dickinson follows through on what he sets up in ways that both provide a satisfying conclusion and further questions that tie in to broader ideas about both Falcrest and imperialism.

This book would be good for those who enjoyed R. F. Kuang's The Poppy War (I didn't), but best skipped by those who prefer war stories like Samantha Shannon's Priory of the Orange Tree. Maybe the sequels are better; I'm not left interested enough to read them.

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flyingryndeer's review against another edition

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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

3.5

Slow paced throughout the majority of the book, the ending comes very fast

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theirgracegrace's review

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challenging mysterious tense fast-paced

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? It's complicated

4.75

The Traitor Baru Cormorant asks the hard questions about what it means to rule in a way that very few court intrigues ever have. Baru's homeland has been conquered by the Masquerade, and she has spent her life preparing to take it down. But in order to get to the heart of its government, she needs to prove herself as the capable and brilliant ruler she is. Filled with enough worldbuilding and plot twists to keep Baru and the reader constantly guessing, I can say with certainty that I'll never read the likes of this book again.

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