Full disclosure: When The Traitor Baru Cormorant (or ‘The Traitor’ in the UK) came out, I raved about it to anyone who would listen. I still do. It was, easily, one of the best books of its release year. So I met the sequel with a great deal of anticipation, and, through no fault of its own, the story had some rather high expectation set for it.

Does it meet them?

I think so. The Monster Baru Cormorant (just 'The Monster' in the UK!) is a complex, thoughtful book. It examines identity and empire, the way people are shaped by the forces around them and what they can do about it. It looks at revolutions, their costs and consequences. It explores internal ethics, and the politics of judicial murder. It talks about trust, and about vulnerability. It’s a story of love and loss (often at the same time). And it doesn’t flinch away from making that loss bloody, figuratively or literally. It’s dense with personal examinations, with politics, and with the occasional poisoning.

It’s also a book about consequences.

Baru has, if not everything she wants, then certainly everything she worked for. She’s part of the elite of the great Falcrest imperial project, a guiding hand that can shift politics from afar, with gunboats or currency. Perfectly positioned to redirect or, perhaps, scupper that project. Baru is a titan. She is, however, also bereft. The story shows us how she copes with loss, and the answer is…not always well. However, as a character study, it’s incisive, insightful and unforgiving. Baru drinks too much. She makes impulsive, perhaps unwise judgements. She somehow manages to step out of herself and be something more, and crawl back into her own personal hell of internal judgment and second-guessing simultaneously. The portrayal of grief and loss, the process of, if not acceptance, accustoming oneself to a missing part, is played pitch-perfect.

This examination of love and grief is, I think, the emotional heart of the book, and it has the brutal, razor-edged honesty which compelled so much in the first book, but it’s backed by something new; we’re given different points of view here, from others around Baru. There are old friends, but also peers, and those who see her as a threat, or an enemy. Getting those distinct perspectives from time to time, seeing the world from another set of eyes, lets us see the harm living inside the protagonist, as well as how successful she is in masking it. These other viewpoints also invite consideration of what seem like good decisions through other eyes, and the picture they paint is equally intelligent, equally nuanced, and often not as accepting of Baru’s motives as she is. There’s a lot of introspection going on here; characters are questioning themselves and their motives as well as each other, which is always fascinating. Taking a deep dive into potential antagonists, and seeing them as the heroes of their own stories, of their own resistance, is wonderful – and makes the impacts they have on Baru (and vice-versa_ all the more terrible for our empathy.

It’s not all scheming and self-recrimination, mind you. It’s also the story of how Baru is off on a journey to look into some oddities and weirdness for her not-quite-superior in the cabal that runs the Falcresti empire. But there are people who look on her rather askance, and have their own schemes in play – and several of them are going with her. But they do see marvels and horrors along the way. We get to see the Mbo, sometime foils to the Falcresti, whose social system, based on mutual support and understanding may mask a certain amount of class division, but seems baffling to the remote, incisive cipher Baru wants to become. The Mbo are about people, about connection, about understanding and consensus – where Baru is a lone intellectual blade on the board, they’re a net. Whether they’ll snare her is another matter. But it’s marvellous to see a cultural antidote to Falcrest, even if it inevitably has its own demons.

The character work isn’t just limited to Baru (and her enemies!) either. Aminata surfaces again, wondering if Baru is herself, or who she’s working for. Questioning her old friend’s motives, and wondering whether she needs to do her duty or put her trust in the Cormorant. But Aminata isn’t just a foil for Baru – she’s made her own choices in the meantime, has made her own reputation, her own legend, carries her own demons. Reading her parts hurts, because of what it shows us about people trapped inside a system they despise, and about the compromises they make within it, which can eventually break them.

This is (less directly) explored throughout the text; the question of when you’ve become so compromised by the system that you become the system is an undercurrent in a great deal of the dialogue. Each of the actors is making their own decisions about how far they’re willing to go, and who else they’re willing to sacrifice – and for what. It’s a slow simmer under the multitextual layers of prose, but it’s there.

I do want to talk about the prose for a moment. Dickinson brings the A-game here. I caught symbology, intellectual asides, callbacks. And that was on a first reading. It feels like there’s a lot here to unearth, a lot of meanings sliding in the subtext in the dialogue, a lot of understandings that need further parsing before I can really say I get the book. That it reads as cleanly and clearly as it does is a triumph. There’s a heck of a lot going on, even from an initial read; I ‘m looking forward to digging into the text again to see what other gems I can sift out of the text.

Coming back to my initial question – does this meet my expectations of a sequel to the superlative The Traitor? Yes, I think it does. It’s a different book though, structurally and narratively, as much as Baru is a different person. Much of the first two thirds feels like a slow simmer, as the pot gets warmer by inches, as Baru struggles to find her agency in a situation where the more power she hands out, the less she actually has. It’s interesting, mark you – seeing the world through other eyes, seeing Baru fall into a well of grief but try to function like a person. Seeing her pay price after price, and justify it to herself when others pay it – it’s painful, emotionally honest, and it kept me turning pages. And the back third is an absolute joy of dangers braced, horrors met, and Baru trying to understand herself and the world a little more.

This isn’t always a positive story. There’s blood and death and moral qualms and philosophy and more than a little atrocity. But it always had interesting things to say and interesting ways of getting there. I think it’s built a solid foundation under its feet for whatever comes next; or, if you prefer, built a damn good fire which I suspect is going to set the world ablaze.

If you’re coming to this fresh: Stop. Go and read The Traitor Baru Cormorant. You need the context that gives you, to feel the passion and pressure and despair and hope sliding around here under the words. If you’re coming in after reading the first book in the series: yes. It is good. Let it pick you up and carry you along in the story it has to tell. Even now I’m not sure if it’s the story you might expect, where Baru does amazing smart things to save the world. But it’s certainly one where a hurt and lonely woman drives herself to succeed against the odds, while asking herself what it is she actually wants.

It’s a complicated, complex book, but then, Baru’s a complicated person, and the world she lives in is, er, complex. There aren’t any easy answers, except perhaps to the question of 'Should I read this?'
Yes, yes you should. You should read this.

I absolutely loved The Traitor Baru Cormorant, so I was incredibly excited to dive into her world yet again with the next book in the series, which I believe has been extended to four.
Much like the first book, this one is excellent at world-building and exploring cultures, especially when it comes to the Oriati Mbo. Dickinson does a great job bringing their society, culture, and rich history alive. Baru is not quite herself in this novel, she is hobbled by what I perceive as PTSD. Where she was once sure of herself and confident, playing her games and biding her time in Aurdwynn, waiting to strike, she's now unsure, and pretty much constantly outmaneuvered. It seems a bit ironic, that she made it as a cryptarch but now seems to have lost her control over her world.
Perhaps because of this, I did not connect with Baru as much as I did in the first novel. In addition, the pacing feels a bit off, at times too much attention is paid to long-winded descriptions instead of actions. There's far too many characters to fully be able to care about all of them. The political machinations are still present, just not as subtle as before, but still enjoyable. Overall, I think this was a solid second book, as they are notoriously difficult, and it did not diminish my anticipation for the rest of the series at all.

Just like the first book, I really wanted to like the sequel, but I just didn't. The story itself is good, but the prose is off-putting for me. I have to really concentrate, at times, to focus on what is actually happening. While this isn't a bad thing, I feel the writing is unnecessarily convoluted.

The story only becomes much more complicated than the first installment and Baru has to make a lot of choices, many of which are quite questionable. The twists and turns keep coming but while Baru used to be a much more sympathetic protagonist before, here she comes across as naive and unsure until almost the end when we get to see her strength again. I guess I was expecting much more from this novel, but it didn’t work out that way.

Thanks to the success of George R.R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire as well as other geopolitical fantasy series, morally gray characters conniving their way into power are popular. With his debut novel, The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Seth Dickinson set himself apart from the pack with the diversity of his characters and the strangeness of his world. Though it's set in an empire that feels, culturally, like it's set during the Renaissance, there appears to be no magic. And yet there is enough technology to give it a science fiction edge although the characters fight with swords and crossbows.

Then there is the diversity of its characters. The Empire of Masks has its eye on cultures and kingdoms that have their foundations in Africa and Southeastern Asia, as well as the more expected Western European traditions. But while the Masquerade is powerful and nearly impossible to resist, it does not conquer through straight out war. It sidles up to you, puts its arm around you and whispers sweet promises into your ear while simultaneously undermining everything you've known.

Into this world walks Baru Cormorant, a prodigy marked for greatness by those in power who carries secrets of her own, namely that she wants to destroy the Masquerade and thereby save her home country of Taranoke. Baru paid a terrible price to get where she is now, though. In the first book, she was sent to Aurdwynn to try to bring it properly under the Masquerade's control, but attempting to do so required her to betray nearly everyone around her and make a horrific sacrifice.

In book two, Baru is doing everything she can to ensure that sacrifice was not in vain. Now that she has the power she was hoping for, she must outmaneuver her opponents and make careful alliances, all the while wondering if she isn't already being controlled by the political puppet master who truly controls the empire.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant was a gripping tale of revolution, betrayal, loyalty, and the power of closely held secrets. While I predicted one aspect of the outcome, I did not see everything else bearing down on Baru, nor did I notice the clues that likely would have told me to expect the unexpected. Dickinson told his story masterfully, and I couldn't put the book down even though it required all of my attention to keep track of what was going on.

The Monster Baru Cormorant expands upon the world of and around The Masquerade while ratcheting up the political tension and action. This, I think, is detrimental to the story. There seem to be battles and fights at every turn and while I do not mind action-packed stories, the sheer number of characters working at cross-purposes was overwhelming, giving neither Baru nor I, as the reader, space or time to pause and sort out friend from foe. I realize that the uncertainty is part of the political nature of the story, but it left me unmoored. With only Baru to really rely on-- and with her duplicitous nature already a factor in my calculations-- I felt like I had no one to rely upon to guide me through the story. Everyone might be at risk of death in A Song of Ice and Fire, but I can at least trust Jon or Arya to stay true to themselves.

The combat was not the only thing Dickinson increased. The number of Points of View grew, too. In the first book, we are almost exclusively with Baru. In The Monster Baru Cormorant, we are given more than half a dozen new perspectives, including one that drops into First Person, as well as flashbacks that go back in time up to twenty-five years. It's a lot to keep track of and demands an incredible amount of attention. If you enjoyed the political machinations and double talk in the formal dinner scene in Frank Herbert's Dune, but wish it had been expanded to cover everything, including battles, then Dickinson has the books for you.

I appreciate the diversity of Dickinson's books. The characters come from vastly different cultures. They have different skin colors, different clothing, and differing views on what makes a family. Gender roles are turned on their head, as well. In parts of the Masquerade, men wear the makeup and fashionable clothes and are expected to be passionate and emotional, while women are the cooly rational ones who can be counted on to lead troops and sail ships into battle. The warrior women are not dainty, nor are they ashamed of their broad shoulders and strong arms. Gay and lesbian characters play vital roles, and their sexuality is vital to their history and position in the empire and not simply a curious side note added in for #diversity. Dickinson takes full advantage of the fact that a fantastical world does not have to be bound by gender and cultural norms that we take for granted in most of our stories.

Where The Monster Baru Cormorant fell short for me was in the often chaotic sprawl of world building and characters. I realize that this could be a side effect of the trauma Baru endured in the first book, but it made for a scattershot read that was less gripping than its predecessor.

Will I read the third book, whenever it comes out? Yes, I probably will. If, as I suspect, the third book will tie up the chaotic elements of The Monster Baru Cormorant into a tightly-knit story that only feels chaotic at first glance, the conclusion will be every bit as fantastic as the first installment.

I previewed The Monster Baru Cormorant by reading the first four chapters. It’s a powerful book, but it’s not for a newbie who doesn’t know anything about the main character or the backstory. I missed out entirely by not reading the first book.

The Monster Baru Cormorant is a deeply political story of intrigue, betrayal and deceit that doesn’t leave the horrors of war to the imagination. The author uses grotesque descriptions expertly, filling the scenes with every detail to paint a hyper-realistic picture. It’s a method I haven’t seen in recent memory, making it a unique addition to this year’s publications.

I found the politics most intriguing, though they were quite detailed and complicated. This is not a book that should be read without first reading its predecessor. There’s a lot of history of this world and previous events that were briefly explained. Having not read the first novel, I had trouble fully understanding the allusions to past betrayals of the eponymous character. It’s my own fault for coming into this novel blind.

It’s brilliantly written from multiple perspectives, each showing a different aspect of this horrifying empire and its use of violence and terror to rule with an iron fist. Check it out if you’re looking for political intrigue, hyper-realism and two-faced characters who are much deeper than their surfaces would betray. I strongly recommend starting with the first book, The Traitor Baru Cormorant. The series deserves to be read from the beginning.

I'm a fan of science fiction, but this novel couldn't make me believe in the new technology or in the characters, either those on the voyage or those on the previously undiscovered planet.

The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Remember the Red Wedding scene in GoT?

That sense of horror and disgust and shock and the feeling that everything was NOT going to be all right ever again?

That's how I feel now, having read Monster Baru Cormorant.

Sure, sure, I kinda felt that way at the end of Traitor Baru Cormorant, too, but this is the real deal. The Game is set up and all the pieces are on the board. No side trusts her and yet, no one KNOWS, and yet she still manages to keep everyone doubting. Is Baru with them? Against? Is she fighting and scheming against the Masquerade? For it?

Even she doesn't know. She's betrayed so many people, thinks of herself as a monster, and yet she is still having an issue between wearing a mask for doing the right thing or just doing the right thing because it's right, with no calculation.

It's obviously a journey novel, but she knows all the islands in this fantasy realm. She's the one gaining ever more power. But pushing aside the deeply dark bits, it's more about identity. Being a lesbian, being feared, finding real connections with others, and making absolutely impossible decisions... regularly.

The novel juggles all of it brilliantly, and more. The islands and cultures are amazing. The depth of worldbuilding is as good or better than almost any Fantasy novel I've read. And the author doesn't stint when it comes to economics, politics, science, medicine, and even the mythological ramifications of a world rich with uranium (and how it poisons the people here).

Every character is smart. Almost everyone wears a mask between official beliefs and keeping an open mind, between faith and mistrust. But best of all, the journey Hits Hard. *shiver*

Well worth the wait.

The Traitor Baru Cormorant was (and is) one of my favorite fantasy books of all time. I'll admit I wondered if the sequel would be able to live up to it.

Well. Spoiler alert...it did.

Dickinson doesn't relent with the twists and suspense, even as he expands the world of Baru and companions to introduce more about the Oriati Mbo and the powers behind the Masquerade--as well as a fascinating new character, Tau-Indi Bosoka, an Oriati laman Prince.

The book is intensely feminist and intensely political, as always--a fierce reckoning of colonialism, imperialism, capitalism, homophobia, and sexism. Don't put off reading this sequel a second longer. I mean it.

Pros: political intrigue, interesting characters, fantastic worldbuilding

Cons:

Baru Cormorant’s actions on Aurdwynn have numerous consequences. She is now Agonist, a cryptarch, one of the secret lords of the Imperial Throne of the Imperial Republic of Falcrest. She has also made a lot of enemies, one of whom is a navy admiral, who decides to mutiny in order to bring Baru to a form of justice.

Baru believes she’s one step further towards destroying Falcrest and freeing her homeland, but cryptarch rivals Hesychest and Itinerant have a job for her and two of their other proteges.

This book picks up immediately where the previous one ended, and if you don’t remember all of the characters and subplots of the first book, I’d highly recommend giving it a quick reread. I was very happy that an issue I had with that book’s ending was dealt with pretty heavily in this one.

There are plots within plots, and two main points of view, that of Baru (told in third person) and Xate Yawa (told in first person). The switch was a bit jarring at times, but insured you didn’t mistake who’s thoughts you were observing. There are also flashbacks to a previous war from the viewpoint of Tau-indi, a prince of the Oriati Mbo, which gives cultural and historical information for the continent and for the war of ideas between the cryptarchs.

The worldbuilding is incredibly intricate. Everything is connected and the language recognizes differences from our own world - like ‘matronizingly’ instead of ’patronizingly’, because some cultures have a matriarchy as a system of rule. I loved the attention to detail.

While Baru is often - though not always - able to avoid personal consequences for her actions, once again it’s clear how she causes serious fallout in her wake, particularly with regards to trade and the economics of some of the islands she visits. Very serious consequences, for what seems like limited gains on her part. This makes her an increasingly hard character to like or sympathize with. Which I believe is the point.

A lot of the action is set-up for the next book, so the plot here feels scattered at times. Having said that, the level of intrigue is high and I never felt bored.

Be prepared to remember a lot of names and get lost in intrigue. If you like morally dubious characters, this book is for you.

Monster picks up right after Traitor, so you really need to read book 1 first (but you can read Traitor as a stand alone!). Baru is now in the power circles that she desired. But was it really worth it? Throughout the book, Baru struggles with guilt and keeping the path open to her end game. Similar themes are tackled again in this book, but not as deep as book one. While the issues are still there, it doesn’t seem as visceral to Baru now that she has risen so high. There are also additional POV’s that really show us how others see Baru which helps round her character out. I will say this doesn’t quite live up to Traitor, but that would be a hard level to achieve. It definitely feels like a middle book, but that doesn’t make it bad. It is very good. But it is dark, even darker than book one in all honesty. I most definitely recommend this series, but maybe wait until the other books are published before picking up book 2. But please, read Traitor, like yesterday!

"No one else dies for us. No great wars begin. We settle this like women."

Something about this second entry in the series just didn't blow my mind like the first one -- though of course the writing is excellent and Baru remains a singularly unique character that I've rarely seen before. Not sure that I'm going to continue with the series after this one.

I liked the first book in the series, but had a hard time finishing this one. Perhaps it just wasn't what I was in the mood for now, maybe it was formatting and stylistic issues with the ARC that may have been changed for publication.

It's been three long, interesting years between the release of Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant and this long-awaited sequel, in which the Traitor becomes the Monster, and it's fair to say this has been one of my most anticipated releases of the year. Traitor Baru Cormorant blew me away when I read it in 2015. I was still relatively new to modern adult SFF, and at the time I didn't realise that it was possible to capture this type of political and economic intrigue in fantasy. Baru's journey from island prodigy to rebel leader was immensely satisfying, as was the fact she was doing it all as a civil servant. Then, like all books, it ended, and as anyone who has read it will sympathise, it ended like that. I lost hours of sleep. If you haven't read the book and don't know what I'm referring to, let me warn you not to look for queer happy endings in this otherwise magnificent book and send you away to do what you will.

The Monster Baru Cormorant starts with a new perspective on that very scene: (really, this is your final spoiler warning) the death of Tain Hu, Baru's Aurdwynni lover, as part of her induction into the inner circle of the Empire of Falcrest (also known as the Masquerade), aka the imperial power that conquered her childhood home and ruined her life. This outwardly heartless act turns out to be the key to putting Baru beyond the empire's plans for her: the empire's elite "cryptarchs" are selected not just for their value, but for having a particular person or secret that the empire can blackmail them with and keep them in line. By refusing to beg for Tain Hu's life as she is executed (a decision which Tain Hu herself made and insisted Baru agree to), Baru becomes one of Falcrest's very few "unbound" cryptarchs, a position which unsettles and impresses the other cryptarchs around her. Her promotion also throws her into a world where, perversely, everyone is now aware of secrets she had previously guarded on pain of death, just as her peers are now open about their own secrets. In Falcresti terms, Baru is a "tribadist" -- that's "lesbian" to you and me -- a sexuality subject to severe punishment in a society that values its version of heteronormativity above all else. To make matters even more interesting, a head injury at the very end of Traitor has left Baru with dextral hemineglect, a neural condition where she is effectively "blind" and cannot pick up signals or exercise full control over the right side of her brain.

I wish I could say I had time for a reread of Book 1 before diving in to The Monster Baru Cormorant, but life is what it is and I ended up returning to Falcrest without the opportunity to refresh my memory on what had come before. Luckily, there's a slow start as Baru is inducted as a cryptarch and adjusts to her new normal in the relative comfort of the Elided Keep, which means there are enough reminders about her two-faced plan to bring Aurdwynn to the brink of victory to jump in without previous events fresh in one's mind (this recap will also help). That said, the first section of this book was far from my favourite, with the slow, wary interactions between the cryptarchs and Baru's own . Perhaps it's the weird nicknames, which makes everyone sound like they should be bit players in a Warhammer 40,000 Imperium fic, and which seems out of place in Falcrest's otherwise deliberately sterile culture. 

Or maybe it's the sterility itself that's the problem here. The Masquerade is a compelling villain, representing a creeping totalitarianism clothed in civilising influence, but up close it's by far the least interesting culture in Dickinson's otherwise vibrant world. Most of the time this is a feature, not a bug: by making the empire clinical and soulless when it isn't actively employing sexual violence and lobotomies to control its populations, we can't help but root more desperately for the generally more benevolent, or at least more human, cultures that risk being wiped off the map. However, it means that the scenes where Baru -- now, in a move which I really can't take seriously, calling herself "Agonist" (luckily Dickinson doesn't push this too hard) -- is getting to grips with her new role feel a little devoid of anything except relentless, unpleasant political scheming.

Luckily, it doesn't take long before Baru and some of her fellow cryptarchs, including a new-ish "friend" called Apparitor (snort) and Baru's old enemy Xate Yawa (who also now has a silly nickname that I've deliberately forgotten and refuse to look up), are sent off to the known world's remaining superpower, a federation of states called Oriati Mbo. Having subdued Aurdwynn's civil war, conquering the Mbo is next on Falcrest's to-do list, and rogue navy captains and awkward Mbo involvement in Aurdwynn notwithstanding, they'd like to do it without descending into all-out war. Unfortunately, hot in pursuit of Baru and co is Tain Shir, Tain Hu's cousin and former prodigy of Cairdine Farrier, the same older cryptarch who trained up Baru. Tain Shir, having heard of the execution of her cousin, has taken it upon herself to hunt her down and show her the "error" of treating people as disposable elements of her plans. Baru herself responds to this with a combination of intense grief and a sense of sunk cost fallacy: she has to succeed, because the woman she loves has died to make it happen. Interspersed with Baru's adventure on the high seas, Dickinson also weaves in the past and the present of a prince of the Mbo, a non-binary "laman" called Tau-indi. Tau provides a window into the culture of their people (which is much more interesting than Falcrest, because everything in this world is), and on meeting with Baru becomes the token cinnamon roll in a story that's otherwise teeming with vipers.

Once again, it's interesting to see Baru's status as an "economic savant" played out in Dickinson's well-realised world, where her toybox is the economics of empire and conquest. Now that we're past all the twisty betrayal stuff, Baru's motivations and actions are generally more straightforward and limited in scope: she spends most of the book in situations where she doesn't have the power to for kind of machinations that brought down Aurdwynn. I spent a lot of time musing on the way that Dickinson portrays political change and the impact that the cryptarchs have: Baru herself, and her mentors in this book, seem to conceptualise politics as a "great game", to the point where the cryptarchs literally have a strategy game designed to model their own world that they use to consider scenarios to bring down Oriati Mbo. In the real world, of course, the causes of political change are complex and can be modelled only in statistical probabilities, if at all - there is no way to trace causes of political change in the way that a strategy game allows. Ultimately, the narrative recognises this as well , and it becomes even more clear in this volume that Baru's ability to manipulate political situations is actually more a talent at coming up with a plausible move in any given circumstance, rather than having power over long-term outcomes. Where the Traitor Baru Cormorant was about the shock of seeing a character turn their extensive powers towards unforgivable goals in the name of protecting something even more valuable, The Monster Baru Cormorant is about watching that character come up against the limits of their own power, and what it means for someone whose reason for existence is so singularly focused towards overcoming that limit.

Whether this book will work for you, of course, very much depends on how much time you have for this particular character study, especially given the grimdark fantasy backdrop Dickinson sets it in. If you read The Broken Earth trilogy by N.K. Jemisin and maintained sympathy for Essun and the awful choices she makes in response to a world that seeks to destroy her, Baru's journey may well appeal along the same lines. Interestingly, what I think sets Baru apart from Essun is her ambition, a trait which female characters (and real human people) are disproportionately punished for having. Baru is setting out to secure the survival of her people and their culture, where Essun simply wants to exist freely; does the fact that Baru's atrocities are in pursuit of that wider goal, rather than pure self-preservation, contribute to her "monstrousness"? It's a compelling question, if you buy in to what Dickinson is doing here: but this is definitely not a book for everyone. It also ends on a cliffhanger, which is honestly an enormous disappointment in a book that was so long in coming! The acknowledgements assure me that the end of Baru's journey is already written, but I am somewhat nervous about the lack of publishing date.

If The Monster Baru Cormorant lacks the "wow" factor I found in The Traitor Baru Cormorant, that's probably a reflection of where I am as a reader rather than the quality of this book. Readers who enjoyed the first will find a worthy continuation of Baru's awful adventures, with more of the same political scheming and cultural clashes that made the first book so outstanding. At the end, I feel like this review could ramble for another 5,000 words about different elements of this book (gender! hemineglect! Tau! The Lloysdanes! Xate Yawa's schemes! The Cancrioth!), and perhaps that's the best stamp of approval I can give a book like this: I'm not sure I agree with every choice it makes, but it makes me want to sit and reread and unpick it more. I'll be scheduling a full series reread before the final instalment for sure, and I can't wait to see how Baru's mission ends.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 8/10

Bonuses: +0 no, you don't ACTUALLY get a bonus for avoiding more tragic queer deaths. +1 dense political worldbuilding which left me with a lot to think about.

Penalties: -0 I'm not penalising Baru for being an "unlikeable" female character with ambition either, no matter how reprehensible her means of achieving it are. -1 the slow start and cliffhanger ending make this a frustrating volume from a storytelling point of view

Nerd Coefficient: 8/10

This book is a 3.5 for me (3 stars on Goodreads, and 4 on NetGalley since their ratings systems are different), and I'm going to give it the most enthusiastic endorsement for a book I've rated 3.5, maybe ever. Why? Because while I had a few issues with how The Monster Baru Cormorant came together on a technical basis, Seth Dickinson is still writing a story unlike any other out there, and in Monster it's clear he's leveling up. He's deepened the character work began in The Traitor Baru Cormorant, raised the stakes and broadened the scope of the plot, and I have a strong feeling that whenever this series is completed, the overall achievement is going to add up to more than the sum of any one book.

So, the issues: the first thing to know is that in terms of tone, Monster is quite a bit different than Traitor. In Traitor, Baru herself was tightly controlled, in actions and emotions. Those around her seemed similarly withholding, and as we were inside Baru's perspective nearly the whole time, there was a lot of guesswork and subtlety in determining other characters' feelings and motivations. In Monster, it's as if due to the climactic events of the previous book, everything is exploded: the book opens with a TON of emotion, and a large portion of Monster rests on Baru's directly grappling with the (perhaps unexpected by her) emotional toll of her choices. Not just that, but other characters, like Apparitor and Xate Yawa for example, also seem to express emotions and motivations more directly. There's nothing wrong with this approach, but it did jar me a bit as I adjusted to it during the first third of the book.

The second thing is the scope of this tale has changed: no longer are we only following Baru in her plots and machinations, in Monster there are several new POVs added to the mix. It's a lot! Ultimately, I settled in and enjoyed most of them - in particular, one that goes back in time and develops a trio of new characters in Oriati Mbo. (Prediction: people are gonna love Tau-indi.) However, I do admit it was a bit confusing at the start (and um, the middle), and there's one POV, strangely told in first person, that still seems pretty gratuitous to me. I guess what I have to say about this aspect is: your brain had better be sharp when you pick this book up, and not distracted. It took me a lot longer to get through this book than the first one, and longer than I expected. More so than the first one, IMO, you really have to be in the right mood and mindspace for this complex tale.

What hasn't changed, and is still a true delight, is Dickinson's careful exploration of relative morality, and dry sense of humor, both very much evident throughout. And thank goodness, because there are some parts of Monster that are arguably darker than in Traitor. There's certainly more gore and horror elements too.

Overall, if you liked The Traitor Baru Cormorant, this is a good - though sometimes frustrating - follow-up and expansion of that tale. Despite some "sophomore album" struggles in this second book, I'm in for the long-haul on this series.

Many thanks to Tor and Netgalley for providing my very first ARC through the service. While I acknowledge my genuine enthusiasm and gratitude for this opportunity, this does not affect my review.

Absolutely riveting. The sequel to the fabulous Traitor Baru Cormorant is different in many ways. Baru has achieved the power she desired, and must now figure out how to achieve her goals of overthrowing the Empire of Masks. However, she has stacked against her the other Cryptarchs with their own agenda, the possibility that she's actually brainwashed by her mentor, people seeking vengeance for what she did in Aurdwynn, and her own guilt, trauma, and physical disabilities. All this without the philosophical questions of whether it's right to want to turn back change from an empire and globalization, when culture is in fact a fluid thing. We meet and experience the pov of many other characters (friends and foes), which I absolutely loved - it's hard not to sympathize with some, even if they are set against Baru on the board. We learn about the Oriati kingdom and culture, which is ABSOLUTELY fascinating, Read this book for that alone. There is plenty of action and explosion, and quite a bit of scheming, although slightly disappointed that there was less economical wrangling by Baru in this one. It's pace I felt was slightly better than the first book, because we're constantly on the move through the book world. The ending basically has me begging for the next book asap. Can't wait to see more of these power hungry crazy people and their attempts to control their world.

Ok, just like book 1, this book is tough to get through. Honestly, if I hadn't only JUST read book 1, I would have forgotten everything because it's so damn complicated. Also, I didn't like this one as much as book 1 but it was still pretty great. Dealing with grief and loss but clearly in the most unhealthy way possible. We also get a new-ish story about a Prince from the land that the empire wants. It was interesting to see into the past, see what made Farrier Farrier, and the world that's desperately trying to hold on to their culture.

Characters: There are so many haha. Our main cast, though, is still excellent. They are all super complicated, have their own agendas, and are basically all just trying to win for various purposes. Baru is actually kind of annoying in this one. She's not dealing with her loss very well, and it's irritating to see. I also do NOT like that there are no real friendships in this and the ones that they do have are fragile and easily broken. meh.

Plot: Ok so Seth introduced a new concept of the Cancitroth (sp?) which is what they're all trying to find. I'm still not really sure what it is, but it has to do with literal Cancer, like metastatic tumors. I'm not sure i'm supposed to understand yet, but it was a little confusing. I'm not sure how that'd solve the empire's problem but hey. Did I have a good time tryna figure it out? Hellz yes.

Writing Style: It's soooooo dense. Like soo filled with detail that it's maddening. But, while it is dense, I still really like it? I like being challenged. And even though it's tough to read sometimes, it's beautiful.

There may not have been a book I was looking more forward to this year than The Monster Baru Cormorant. This book is the sequel to The Traitor Baru Comorant, an incredibly dark/brutal book about a brilliant woman who decides to rise up the ranks in an evil repressive empire in order to destroy it from within....no matter the sacrifices she is forced to make in the Empire's service in order to rise up the ranks. Traitor is one of the few books that I've ever given a perfect 10 out of 10 score to, and it left off on an incredible cliffhanger.

Monster is nowhere near as streamlined as Traitor, featuring some more elements of modern Epic Fantasy - multiple point of view characters, fantastical elements, etc - that didn't always work for me (the fantastical elements in particular). But the overall core of this book remains absolutely incredible and the result is a strong follow up that continues asking interesting questions as it follows its protagonist along her dark path.

Note: Spoilers for Traitor follow, there's no way to discuss this book otherwise. Read Traitor first, You can't start this series here.

More after the Jump:

----------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------
Baru Cormorant is on the verge of her Triumph: She is now an ascendant Cryptarch, one of the masters of secrets who rules the Masquerade behind the scenes, and her fellow Cryptarchs lack any hold upon her after Baru let her beloved Tain Hu be sacrificed. There is seemingly little to stop her now from commencing her revenge, destroying the Empire of Masks from within, and saving her home.

Baru Cormorant is on the verge of her own Destruction: Having betrayed all those who trusted her, she has no one left whom she can trust or rely upon - and she is utterly heartbroken after essentially causing Tain Hu's murder. Not only is she physically she is unable to see anything on one side of her face, but Baru might have become the very monster her mentor Farrier was aiming for - the very type of being that had destroyed her home in the first place.

Baru isn't sure what she is, but all she knows is that it all will have been for nothing if she cannot move forward with a plot to bring down the Masquerade. But Baru's actions in getting to this point have made her a number of enemies who will not simply wait for her next move: an angry admiral bent on revenge for the death of his sailors, a number of naval officers who suspect her of instigating a new war and her fellow cryptarchs - who see an unshackled Baru as a monstrous threat to their own ambitions.

But the biggest threat to Baru isn't a military force, a cryptarch, or even the fantastical power allegedly held by the Empire's chief rival; no, the biggest threat is a woman who has walked down the road Baru now travels and seeks to prove to Baru what it really means to sacrifice everyone you could possibly love.....
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As I kinda said above the jump, unlike Traitor (which was streamlined to perfection) The Monster Baru Cormorant is well....kind of a narrative mess, featuring a bevy of point of view characters* rather than just following Baru as she moves forward with her plotting to save her homeland and survive and destroy her enemies. There are at least 8 characters who get at least one section written from their point of view for instance, each with their own motives and beliefs, and its incredibly messy, and there are times (particularly early) where the book goes a while without returning to Baru, our main protagonist who we care the most about. At a few points we flashback to the story of a character years before this series even began...and these flashbacks come out of nowhere, with the first taking place at a part of the novel prior to us even being introduced to any of the characters or ideas within being introduced in the present story. It can be a bit annoying to the reader - or it would be if Dickinson was a lesser writer.

*As I mentioned above, this book was read as an e-ARC, and it's very possible, if not likely, that the final published version has extra formatting which clears up some of this mess and makes it a little more readable. As such, I'm not really going to critique the book's formatting in this review.
Here's the thing though - while this makes this book very different from Traitor - where we only realized how certain characters thought of the world through Baru's realizations and experiences - and more like a more modern and typical Epic Fantasy, it all works. Baru in Traitor was a more together person - at worst she was driven to drink by depression, but when driven she was constantly moving forward and always thinking of what to do next (even if her plotting was often the result of missing human variables). The Baru here is broken - she's still screwed up in failing to think of the thoughts of other human actors in her schemes, but she's eaten up by her own actions and as a result finds her plotting often scattershot due to indecision and loneliness and her fear of becoming what she hated. There's one sequence where Baru manages a piece of brilliant and hilarious economic engineering to get what she wants that reminded me of her old self, but it's just a small circumstance that doesn't last.

The book's format essentially mirrors this, feeling scattershot as we keep shifting viewpoints away from Baru and seeing how others perceive her actions - often incredibly inaccurately to Baru's great detriment. It helps that some of the more major new viewpoints are really really compelling characters - I'm not going to spoil all their identities here, but one character who is essentially Baru's rival as a new cryptarch is utterly amazing in her profanity and thoughts on Baru, Apparitor is compelling in his terror at Baru's actions, the new Oriati character almost seems sadly out of place with his optimism but forms a nice contrast, etc. (there are others too I'm not even mentioning here)

And then there's the new antagonist, the Bane of Wives, who provides an utterly chilling enemy for Baru throughout the book, wanting at first personal vengeance upon Baru (like everyone else) but going about it in a more terrifying way than simply trying to kill Baru. She's just an incredible antagonist whose progression becomes more and more terrifying, and I don't want to say more lest I spoil.

Not as successful as the new viewpoints, the other characters, are the fantastical elements introduced here. Traitor was low fantasy (with the level of technology being kind of unclear - there are melee weapons used in war, but there's also pistols and rockets being fired) without any sign of magic having ever existed. But in this book, a major plot element is the search by Baru and the other characters for a supernatural (or at least supernatural-esque) force of great power and well....it's never quite clear how exactly that power is supposed to work or what the characters intend to do with it.

Still, the overall package provided by Monster's plot is generally really really good, even if the ending is only mostly satisfying. And then there's the brutal cliffhanger as the cherry on top - if the finale to this story is another 3 years away, it's going to be a long painful wait.

In short, The Traitor Baru Cormorant was perfect, and The Monster Baru Cormorant is just slightly less so, and anyone who is not adverse to dark, sometimes brutal stories should be reading this series.


My Review can also be found on my blog here: https://garik16.blogspot.com/2018/10/scififantasy-book-review-monster-baru.html

For me, this has been one of the most anticipated releases of 2018. I couldn’t wait to return to the world and see where the story takes Baru next, I pre-ordered in case I wouldn’t get the ARC, and when I did, I was almost wary of reading it, anticipating the emotional punch. The enthusiasm from bloggers who got it earlier was contagious. Sadly, while it was good, it didn’t quite live up to its hype.

The prose and the characters are, as in the first book, fantastic. I highlighted a lot. Baru is still as ambitious as ever, but deeply messed up from the Empire’s training and the events of the previous book, not trusted by anyone, conflicted and unsure what the right thing is. She has a lot of feelings and no idea what to do with them. There are sections from the POV of different characters that highlight just how much of an unreliable narrator she is, and each of them is as complex in their motives as she. My favourite would probably be Tau-Indi, an Oriati laman (non-binary person) who is Baru’s polar opposite - they are a strong believer in human connection and truth rather than scheming and lies, and immensely likable because of it.

Some worldbuilding developments are rather unexpected, but not necessarily in a bad way. I also did not reread the first book, so while I did remember broad strokes well enough, any subtle foreshadowing was likely missed. There is a stronger horror undercurrent (though I can’t specify in what way without spoiling) and the world is expanded by a lot, introducing us to many other cultures. They are all flawed, all interesting, all fresh, and all feel very authentic. I hope the hardcover will include a map. Again, I liked the Oriati the most because of the contrast they provide to Falcrest (eugenics give me the creeps…), but fellow fans of cultural worldbuilding with a side of social commentary will find plenty to enjoy. The magic remains ambigous to nonexistent. Any strange things that happen can be explained in a non-supernatural way and only time will tell which way it leans. If.

There was, however, one problem that made the book a bit of a disappointment: it has a pretty bad case of middle book syndrome. When I picked it up, I ended up reading a few chapters, but as soon as I put it down I had little desire to pick it up again. It took me over two weeks to get through it where I would be perfectly capable of reading it in a day or two. There’s a lot of travelling around, visiting new places, trying to solve a mystery, political scheming, lots of Baru angst…but no coherence. It gets a bit stale. There’s no strong sense of the plot going anywhere for most of the book and the pacing isn’t particularly good. It’s all set-up, and compared to the first book, it pales. And I’m normally pretty good with slow books.

Will continue the series? Yes. There’s still plenty of potential, the writing is solid. Still, I can’t help but be let down a bit.

"I MADE IT she wanted to scream, red-lipped, broken-toothed, marrow spattering off her tongue, as certain and lethal in her arrival as a shark breaching with the broken body of a seal in its mouth. I made it. No living thing may call itself my ruler."

I only read Traitor this past summer, but after that particular ending, it felt like Monster couldn't come too soon. And though this sequel feels different than the first book in so many ways, it was still a wild, emotional, intrigue-packed ride, and I love this brilliant haunted lesbian accountant-turned-cryptarch as much as ever.

The reviews already out note that the pacing of Monster is slow, which is absolutely true, but I still raced through this book in about two and a half days. Dickinson spends plenty of time fleshing out a large cast of characters, including previously minor characters like Aminata and new faces like Oriati prince Tau-indi, as well as diving deeper into the complex worldbuilding and geopolitics.

We learn a lot about the Oriati Mbo nation, different factions within the Masquerade, and, because Baru and crew spend much of the book sailing around, separate island states under Masquerade control. There are newly introduced details of a variety of cultures, some matriarchal and some patriarchal, and through it all is woven the theme of colonization, the subjugation of corrupt empire. Through what means do empires conquer, and at what cost to all parties? Is part of this process simply the natural advancement of human society, or should we revert to how it has always been, and who has the right to dictate such things?

The reason why Baru Cormorant is one of my favorite main characters of all time is that for all her scheming, her selfishness, her decisions to sacrifice others, she is so utterly human. She doubts herself, she's quick to anger, she can be irrational, and, as Monster reveals, she's starting to realize that maybe she doesn't want to be completely alone after all. Like all the other characters in this series, Baru is carrying so much weight from her past, and it's beginning to show.

For all the brutality of this world, there are still plenty of moments of levity. Apparitor gets a much bigger role in this book than the last, and besides being a fascinating character, his bantering and bickering with Baru is a joy to read. There's also a short scene of Baru as a precocious child on Taranoke, which was one of my favorite passages in the entire book:

"The laman squinted, stroking their chin. ‘Why would you sell such a marvel?’
‘I already have a full set,’ Baru boasted, pounding her tiny chest. ‘I’m immortal. All I ask is a fee of twenty reef pearls, and a signed contract releasing me from all indemnity and malfeasance!’

The only thing I wanted from Monster was more of Baru flexing her skill with games and numbers, but that's probably more of a personal attachment than anything. She is a character who is clearly maturing, even as she slips further into despair; this book is an entirely new game, requiring new skill sets. I can't wait to see where her journey leads next.