Book #37 of 2017:
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson (The Masquerade #1)
A fascinating character and culture study, most reminiscent of Ann Leckie’s Imperial Radch books. Baru Cormorant is a young woman whose homeland gets annexed by an expanding empire, after which she privately vows to rise through her conquerors’ ranks to take down the enemy from within. The empire’s strict heteronormativity makes this a very personal battle for Baru, as she is the child of a three-parent home and a woman interested in women herself. But to destroy her enemies and free her people she will need to submerge herself completely into her new role, and there is heartbreak and betrayal aplenty as her decisions twist everything she holds dear. As court intrigue spills into open armed conflict, The Traitor Baru Cormorant presents a captivating look at the insidious forces of cultural imperialism and the personal costs to one woman’s soul for resisting it.
★★★★★
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