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A review by woahno
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
3.0
I found out about this book years ago from r/Fantasy and I continued to see it be discussed and recommended since then. So once again, thank you internet community for bringing me to new books.
I consumed this story in two ways, through the audio book and a nice hardcover version. I wish I could find more time to sit and read, or to learn to read faster, or both actually; but alas I have failed to do so. I prefer sitting down and reading a hardcover to any other format. However, audio books allow me to get chores and some more mindless work done at the same time so I find more hours in any given day to listen to a book over reading one. And it is in this way that I arrived at my opinions below.
What I liked.
I positively love that this book talked so much about loans, taxes, trading, and just economics overall. I was even more thrilled to see how well Seth Dickinson worked in his plot and characters with all of that data. There are not many books in SFF that I have read that get into the details like this one did and I found it to be a major draw for me.
I also liked Baru a lot. I was cheering for her to succeed the entire time but there were many times when I did not agree with his choices. She was one of those gray characters that I see keep more and more of but with her own brand of agency.
What I did not like.
I'm not sure if it was the prose, or the intricate politicking, or something unrelated but I didn't ever become fully immersed in the story. This was not one of those books that I was lost in. I think that because of this I saw the ending more clearly. I'm not sure. On one hand, I think the shocked reactions are in part because those readers were just so enthralled and invested in the characters that they were probably hoping the choices made were different. But on the other hand, how freaking cool is it that an author can earn such a shock from some readers and other readers are like, "Well yeah, of course that happened. Look at all this set up for it. And the character is totally the type to do that." Now that's what I called an earned twist, even if it was one that didn't land as powerfully with me as it obviously has with other readers.
In the end, I liked this debut from Seth Dickinson enough that I will certainly be reading book two at some point. I just don't know when.
I consumed this story in two ways, through the audio book and a nice hardcover version. I wish I could find more time to sit and read, or to learn to read faster, or both actually; but alas I have failed to do so. I prefer sitting down and reading a hardcover to any other format. However, audio books allow me to get chores and some more mindless work done at the same time so I find more hours in any given day to listen to a book over reading one. And it is in this way that I arrived at my opinions below.
What I liked.
I positively love that this book talked so much about loans, taxes, trading, and just economics overall. I was even more thrilled to see how well Seth Dickinson worked in his plot and characters with all of that data. There are not many books in SFF that I have read that get into the details like this one did and I found it to be a major draw for me.
I also liked Baru a lot. I was cheering for her to succeed the entire time but there were many times when I did not agree with his choices. She was one of those gray characters that I see keep more and more of but with her own brand of agency.
What I did not like.
I'm not sure if it was the prose, or the intricate politicking, or something unrelated but I didn't ever become fully immersed in the story. This was not one of those books that I was lost in. I think that because of this I saw the ending more clearly. I'm not sure. On one hand, I think the shocked reactions are in part because those readers were just so enthralled and invested in the characters that they were probably hoping the choices made were different. But on the other hand, how freaking cool is it that an author can earn such a shock from some readers and other readers are like, "Well yeah, of course that happened. Look at all this set up for it. And the character is totally the type to do that." Now that's what I called an earned twist, even if it was one that didn't land as powerfully with me as it obviously has with other readers.
In the end, I liked this debut from Seth Dickinson enough that I will certainly be reading book two at some point. I just don't know when.