The Traitor Baru Cormorant Seth Dickinson Read Online Free

"Whatever price. Any sacrifice. It is the just way to take a piece of their ability for our own."

Previously known for numerous short stories on scientific discipline fiction and fantasy magazines, his work with the Freespace mod Blue Planet, and Destiny's Grimoire, Seth Dickinson's debut novel is an extension of his short story "The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Her Field-General, and Their Wounds", which has been adjusted as the novel's concluding chapter. Do not read this short story if you lot program on reading the book, as this short story spoils the novel in full.

Armed with scientific discipline, economics, and bureaucracy, the Royal Republic of Falcrest, or the Masquerade equally it is called by its detractors, slowly conquers Baru Cormorant's seaside homeland of Taranoke. Baru, lured away by the Empire'south hope of a more prosperous society, watches from inside the Imperial academy's walls as the Masqerade rewrites Taranoke's culture and criminalizes the island's customs. Withal, Baru is a savant, talented with the calculus of numbers and power, and she sees that the but way to defeat the Masquerade is past changing it from within.

While the Empire dismantles Baru's island society, Baru dives headlong into Masquerade didactics, where her talents take hold of the eye of an Imperial agent. Afterwards her graduation, she is selected for an infrequent mail service equally the new Purple Accountant for the recently conquered feudal nation of Aurdwynn, a powderkeg of sedition and rebellion. In order to earn the ability that volition free her people, Baru must navigate Aurdwynn'due south treacherous politics while keeping her true motives and her sexuality hidden, and in doing so larn that the toll of liberation will exist exacted on her conscience.

The sequel, titled The Monster Baru Cormorant, was released in Oct 2018.

The post-obit tropes take been found in this work:

Arcadia: Baru'southward home country of Taranoke has shades of information technology, simply this is probably the effect of u.s. seeing it through Baru's optics when she was a kid.
Ambiguously Chocolate-brown: Nearly everybody in the globe of the novel is portrayed as being of decidedly non-European appearance, including the people of Taranoke, Aurdwynn and even the Masquerade, which is itself racially various. Baru herself, every bit a Taranoki, has brown skin, but the novel never otherwise describes the appearance of the Taranoki (every bit the novel is told from her indicate of view, she has no reason to comment on information technology). There is a nation of pale-skinned people in the far north, only they are a rare and exotic appearance in the Masquerade's sphere of influence.
- Aminata's descriptions feel vaguely Asiatic.
- Monochrome Casting is thereby consciously averted.
Animate being Motifs: Shows up a lot. You have The Stag Duchy, the army of the coyote and afterward the regular army of the wolf, equally well as the full general association of birds with Taranoke and Baru herself.
The Beard: Baru bullies Bel Latheman into being this for a while. It goes well-nigh as well as annihilation else does, really.
Condign the Mask: Baru fears doing this for all the figurative masks she wears.
Brainwashed: The Masquerade has a method of making people into what amounts to man robots that are entirely compliant to their established masters, as well every bit being deadly warriors.
Bury Your Gays: Baru'south dearest interest, Duchess Vultjag, is executed by the Masquerade at the end. Baru might accept prevented this, simply does not - she considers information technology necessary to quash rumors of her "tribadist" inclinations, and to prevent the Masquerade'south camarilla from blackmailing her with her lover'due south being. Merely, this being something of a Crapsack World, it's non every bit though anybody gets a happy ending, either.
The Chessmaster: Aurdwynn is full of them. So is Baru. Her recurring flaw is seeing people as pieces on a board, to be moved as she wishes, without accounting for the fact that they're players in their own right with their own conflicting ambitions.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Baru, the titular traitor, is afflicted by this, but more out of necessity than desire. In turn, she betrays her homeland Taranoke by joining the Empire, that Empire by leading Aurdwynn's rebellion, that rebellion by betraying it to the Masquerade, and her lover Tain Hu by ordering her execution. All of this, so she can gear up the stage for one concluding betrayal that will annihilate the Masquerade from within.
Culture Chop Suey: By design, no culture in the volume tin can exist mapped directly to any ane culture in real life. The Masquerade exhibits features of real-life empires such equally those of U.k., France and China. The ii former can be recognized in the Masquerade's cultural imperialism, dubious racial theories, and moral zeal. The Royal Democracy'southward warship names, which include Kingsbane or Egalitaria, repeat Revolution-era French ship names such as Tyrannicide or Droits de 50'homme. Aspects of Imperial China constitute in the Masquerade include its hierarchy and its exams for obtaining authorities posts.
Counterfeit Greenbacks: It'due south how Vultjag gets its riches, despite the duchy beingness the poorest of Aurdwynn.
Conflicting Loyalty: Baru is torn betwixt her beloved for her homeland Taranoke and her duties as a newly-minted Imperial technocrat. And then also between all that and her leadership of Aurdwynn's rebellion, too every bit between the insubordinate dukes' desire to take their putative queen marry and institute a dynasty, and her attraction to her female person field-general Tain Hu.
Culture Police force: The only values allowed in Imperial lands are Imperial values, and it uses a variety of insidiously peaceful methods to write over ethnic values with its own. Marriages are tightly controlled by the Imperial Jurispotence for eugenics purposes. And though strength is ordinarily a last resort, promiscuity, faith, and homosexuality are punishable by brainwashing, mutilation, and death.
Darwinist Desire: The Masquerade advisedly manages who in the Empire is allowed to marry who for this reason. Function of its understanding of biology is that every ethnic group has its own specialized advantages and disadvantages compared to other ethnic groups, and that those traits can be combined or bred out by breeding those groups together — which is also a adept mode to enforce cultural homogeneity!
Didn't See That Coming: Frequently, equally the book is in large role about Baru learning to exist a Chessmaster. Run into Fatal Flaw, beneath.
Does This Remind You lot of Anything?: The methods used by the Masquerade to expand its borders are eerily close to methods used past real-globe colonial nations to subjugate a colony'due south aboriginal peoples.
- During protests in Aurdwynn, rioters are sprayed with a weak acidic mixture in society to identify them for arrest when they seek treatment for their irritated skin. In the real world, similar tactics (albeit with paint or dye) have been used against protestors in some countries.
- The Empire's "treatments" for sexual deviancy look a lot like conversion therapy.
Double Reverse Quadruple Agent: It's Baru's whole bargain. And Xate Yawa's.
The Empire: The Purple Republic of Falcrest, also referred to as the Masquerade or the Empire of Masks.
- Which sees itself as The Democracy: Falcrest's current, nominally republican régime emerged from a encarmine revolution against the ruling nobility.
- Hegemonic Empire: The Masquerade's imperialism is mainly of the cultural and economical multifariousness. Armed forces forcefulness is a last resort.
Everybody'southward Dead, Dave: The governor of Aurdwynn and every single one of its dukes and duchesses are either killed in the rebellion or assassinated in the Empire's mop-up afterwards. The only Aurdwynni movers and shakers that survive are Baru and Xate Yawa, the Empire's two direct agents.
Exactly What It Says on the Can: It turns out that the traitor to the rebellion is the titular character in the volume named "The Traitor Baru Cormorant".
Exotic Extended Union: Baru'south parents, a mother and two fathers, although since it is her culture she doesn't see it equally peculiarly exotic. The Masquerade, on the other hand, is less pleased.
Fantasy World Map: The novel includes ane for Aurdwynn.
Fatal Flaw: As pointed out multiple times in the narrative, Baru's is viewing other people every bit static pieces to be played, non individuals with their own agendas playing their own games. Information technology causes her to be blindsided by other people's gambits on multiple occasions.
Gambit Pileup: A given, since Baru, the Jurispotence, the 13 dukes, the Imperial Governor, and the Masquerade at large all have their own plans for Aurdwynn.
Grey-and-Gray Morality: No one is squeaky make clean, but no one is outright evil, the villains tending more towards I Did What I Had to Do, Social Darwinist, or unwitting puppets of more powerful rulers utilizing their flaws. By the aforementioned token, even the most heroic dukes are manipulative, feudal and will turn on each other for the sake of advancement.
I Did What I Had to Do: Baru'southward justification for what she does for power, and the whole indicate of the Hierarchic Qualm:
"The sword kills, simply the arm moves the sword. Is the arm to blame for murder? No. The mind moves the arm. Is the mind to blame? No. The mind has sworn an oath to duty, and that duty moves the listen, every bit written by the Throne. So information technology is that a servant of the Throne is blameless."
Heel–Face Mole: Baru is leading the rebellion of Aurdwynn against the Masquerade at the bidding of the Empire's ruling clique, who prefer rebellions they themselves control to the other kind.
Heteronormative Crusader: The Masquerade as an institution, and many of its officials, notably Cairdine Farrier, Baru's mentor. It's unsaid that the Masquerade's institutional homophobia is in part due to his influence.
Higher Education Is for Women: What the Masquerade believes, surprisingly. Their "Incrastic Science" holds that the female mind is more suited to abstract thought than the male, so women hold prominent positions in the navy (because navigation is complicated), bureaucracy, academia and (as in Baru's instance) finance.
Insistent Terminology: Loyal servants of the Throne will insist that you accost the Masquerade every bit "The Imperial Commonwealth", or "The Empire of Masks".
Impale It with Fire: The Regal Navy loves burning things, whether with regular incendiaries or their infamous Navy Burn
Lady of War: Tain Hu, Duchess Vultjag, one of Aurdwynn'southward ruling nobles, and a very competent fighter and general.
Lord Country: All the dukes and duchesses of Aurdwynn are named after their duchies to the bespeak where the names of the duchies are used as if they were their personal names: Duke Oathsfire of Oathsfire becomes only Oathsfire, Duchess Nayauru of Nayauru becomes just Nayauru, and so on. The but exception is Duchess Tain Hu of Vultjag, who sports a first and last name but is also vastly more important to Baru.
Low Fantasy: Cynical, entirely human and ostensibly magic-less setting where everyone's morals are grey at best, and even wars for independence are laden with greed and machinations.
Macross Missile Massacre: During the last climactic battle, the Regal forces scroll out hwacha - cart and send-mounted multiple rocket launchers.
Magic Feather: Earlier Baru takes the civil service exam that marks her graduation from school and will determine her career opportunities for the residue of her life, Farrier slips her a vial of water mixed with an attention-sharpening drug he says all the Faculties apply. Afterward the exam, Farrier playfully asks if the placebo he gave her helped. Subverted, though: Baru never drank information technology, and crushed the exam anyways.
The Man Behind the Man: The Emperors are lobotomized vegetables who are disposed of after their term of service is done, and the Imperial Parliament doesn't really get anything done. The Masquerade is run past the committee of paramount masters, two of whom advise Baru throughout the story, and for whom the whole novel is Baru'south entry exam.
Mayhap Magic, Perchance Mundane: The setting is definitively Hard Fantasy, though mentions of curses and magic appear sporadically, unremarkably framed as superstition and given fiddling credence. Then again Baru'south notes at the very terminate of the novel betoken that there may be supernatural phenomenae on a neighboring continent...
- Dickinson has said that the magic system in the novel is an economy "simple enough for people to twiddle the knobs and get predictable results."
Meaningful Rename: Baru takes the name of "Agonist" on becoming i of the Empire's secret rulers. An agonist is ane who takes part in a struggle or contest.
- A geographic one halfway through the book when Baru's native Taranoke is renamed "Sousward," causing her some distress.
Slap-up Freak: The Incrastic philosophy of the Masquerade is obsessed with hygiene and cleanliness on a level that goes well beyond physical sanitation and into mental and moral grounds, leading to their fascination with eugenics and psychological conditioning. It is more than notorious in their Navy.
Noodle Incident: Why Sahaule is chosen "Horsebane". (What's the proper name about?)
Not in This for Your Revolution: Baru, equally it turns out. At the behest of the Masquerade'due south ruling clique, she betrays the very rebellion she orchestrated, too equally her lover, all in guild to proceeds ability within the Empire and to enable her to pursue her ultimate goal of liberating her homeland.
Non-And then-Omniscient Council of Grouse: The Masquerade'southward committee of Secret Masters is held in balance considering each member has clay on one of the others — deliberately so. Indeed, being blackmailable seems to be one qualification for recruitment.
Out-Gambitted: Baru's good, but her more experienced rivals frequently get the all-time of her.
Body of water Mine: Naval mines were invented by the Oriati, i of Falcrest'southward main rivals. Most prominently, they're deployed to kick off Baru's betrayal of the Masquerade, used to sink Falcresti tax ships so the materials they carry can exist used to fund her rebellion. Notably, they don't work past blasting holes in ships — the blast is to displace all the h2o the ship is sitting on and being supported by, causing it to split under its own weight.
Symbolic Mutilation: In the final battle, Baru suffers a head wound that results in partial cortical incomprehension - in other words, she ends upward with a physical blindside to match the tactical 1 she demonstrated throughout the book. In addition, the wound resembles the sacrifice Odin made to proceeds wisdom.
The Unfettered: Baru will do anything to attain her goal.
Trigger Phrase: "Suspire", the control word with which one of the Clarified has been conditioned.
What the Romans Take Done for U.s.a.: The Masquerade volition overwrite your culture and government, make you lot pay for its wars, and mutilate or kill you if your acquit is deemed "unhygienic". Merely it will provide you with free education, constructive healthcare, and sanitation. This is part of what makes it so unsafe.
Will They or Won't They?: Baru and Tain Hu, Duchess Vultjag. The two are attracted to each other, but circumstances are such that neither is able or willing to act on information technology until near the end of the novel.