The Traitor Baru Cormorant

By: Seth Dickinson

Narrated by: Christine Marshall

In Seth Dickinson's highly anticipated debut The Traitor Baru Cormorant, a young woman from a conquered people tries to transform an empire in this richly imagined geopolitical fantasy. Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people - even her soul.

When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, Baru vows to swallow her hate, join the empire's civil service, and claw her way high enough to set her people free. Sent as an imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn, another conquered country, Baru discovers it's on the brink of rebellion. Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. As she pursues a precarious balance between the rebels and a shadowy cabal within the empire, she orchestrates a do-or-die gambit with freedom as the prize.

But the cost of winning the long game of saving her people may be far greater than Baru imagines.

©2015 Seth Dickinson (P)2015 Macmillan Audio

How do you change the world

One of my all time favorites. I'm looking forward to the sequal when we see how far Baru goes once she has reasources.

Decent story strange pronunciations

The story was good enough and it's a bit rare to have fantasy tackle broader social issues like imperialism. That said, the overarching plot undercuts the author's emphasis on economics and social structure by introducing an Illuminati equivalent that actually pulls all the strings.

The voice acting was fine except for some weird pronunciations. it would be easy to gloss over them except some were very frequently used words. in a book about a ducal rebellion is grating to hear duchy pronounced /doochie/ every couple pages.

A triumph of a debut!

A terribly cunning display of the untrustworthy narrator (it's in the title, after all!) Baru is an incredibly engaging protagonist, and this fantastical political thriller keeps you guessing about loyalties, love, and what drives a person to ultimate treachery. This narrative weaves a spectacular warning to the readers: of social injustice, imperialism and the profound danger and power that comes from being truly alone in your mind. Machiavellian machinations in a spectacular feat of world building. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful.

If you have a problem with is pronunciation give this a miss

I thought the book was good but the narrator can't pronounce, among others the word duchy which is used in what felt like every other sentence it became struggle for me to finish it.

Not a fan, but somehow still a fan

This is beyond amazingly well written. The apparent setting is a wholly unique world separate from our own, while still managing to mirror the hauntingly recognizable realities of what was early English/American colonization. Told from the perspective of one of those who’s small, hut-dwelling society, was peacefully yet forcefully assimilated into that of a deceptively well-meaning, advanced power hungry empire. The plot of this character’s story is strictly adhered to in a way that I have never seen so seamlessly done before. Usually a plot throughout the story remains loose, pliable, and changes based on unfolding events and the character’s motivations. This story manages to do the complete opposite. The plot remains an immovable obelisk Baru is tethered to that no matter how hard the character might pull, fight, or struggle to break away from, cannot.

Be sure not to forget that we are not reading as if we are Baru. We are reading as outsiders and guests in her mind. We only truly know what she sees and what does. Just as some thoughts go unspoken out of fear, so too do thoughts that go unthought. Baru is wading through territory where many thoughts are too dangerous to think.

So amazing is the writing that you will push through every agonizing step Baru takes in order to achieve her revenge against that which destroyed her culture, her family, and her home. Her victories are hard earned and briefly enjoyed, if enjoyed at all, but no matter how rare, it is enough to keep going.

It is certainly a story you must take your time with in order to fully understand and follow everything happening, or else you risk reading as if one of the sheep of the Empire. At he same time, being able to understand this story as Baru’s true equal is as futile as her own struggle to escape the obelisk. Her layers run so deep you do not realize you do not truly understand her until the very last moments in this book.

It is there at the end where I say I was not a fan; but literally only in the sense that Baru is so brutal a tactician it was too much for me to handle. I understand Baru to the point where she genuinely scares me. She is so much the antithesis of who I am as an individual, that rather than make me angry, dislike, or even resent her; it makes me genuinely afraid of that little feeling I get that makes me believe how I could become someone like her. The fact that the next book is called The Monster Baru Cormorant unsettles me enough to avoid, but I will recommend this series to everyone I know.

The performance is impressive, I only give 4/5 stars just because I’m picky and not a huge fan of her particular style of enunciation.

Great story, terrible reader

This is an incredibly incentive and gripping story. The audio book narrator, however, seems not to have been familiar with the English words "duchy" and "elided," which was frustrating and distracting.

Libertarian fan fiction

The Evil Empire is coming to kill all the gays! And their weapon is...fiat currency! Fortunately, our hero, armed with gold (the one true money) is here to infiltrate their evil statist bureaucracy and bring them down!

OK, this is a caricature, but the number of libertarian tropes in this book made me laugh. I listened to it for a book club, and the main question people asked was "Is this fantasy?". I answered "Yeah...the economics is the magic."

That's far from my only criticism, though. The protagonist's motivations are never really explored in depth. We know she's out for revenge for the death of her father and the conquest of her hometown, but that hometown culture just isn't developed very thoroughly. We never get that warm, homey feeling of pre-colonial society the way we would in, say, an Ursula LeGuin book. Instead, Baru seems to be making a bunch of dire decisions and dreadful acts of will for...what? We never really know.

So I'd say this is a fun book, but ultimately unsatisfying.

Fantastic story marred by subpar narrator

This is one of the most original and gripping fantasy books I've ever read. It shares the trope of the child prodigy with many works, but twists it in very interesting ways. Baru Cormorant is not like your other child prodigies. Her genius is political and financial, and seeing how she plots her way up, around, and through various obstacles is gripping.

Unfortunately the narrator is quite hard to follow. Her inflection is often rather odd and in general she speaks too quickly. There is also not much variation between different character voices making it hard to follow at times.

I'd recommend reading this, but if you prefer listening it isn't as bad as some reviews make it sound. If you play the title at reduced speed it becomes more listenable. I'd suggest 70 to 80 percent speed.

This is like Siri or Alexa Reading a Book

I have been reading this book on a kindle and bought the Audible recording for when I could not read. I have hundreds of audiobooks and the narrator is terrible. I believe this is a computer narrator, no real human feeling. It’s a terrible shame; the book is excellent. I am writing this as a warning to those who value a dramatic performance with subtle tones and inflections. You will not find this here. Ugh.

Worth the price

as a good, but not great, read. The premise of the book is how a "good" person becomes evil as she works to avenge a real wrong done to her homeland by the empire. Well written with many twists (no spoiler here) it demonstrates how the "ends justify the means" approach destroys lives and damages the humanity of a person pursuing such a path.

A "low magic" and realistic setting (that allows the willing suspension of disbelief) the Traitor Baru Cormorant is a solid addition to the low fantasy genre that does not throw up one fantasy trope after another I have grown use to encountering but ploughs new ground. Yet I found I never really cared about her family and really about her, I am not sure why that is, but I suspect it is due to the author's focus on events and keeping Baru's inner thoughts hidden (because if he did not he would blow up the surprise ending). Having said that the story and writing were good enough (or great enough) to maintain my interest in the book and the coming sequel.