A review by porgyreads
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

5.0

Political fantasy at its finest! New favourite fictional sociopath to add to the collection. I jest - but this is a hard book to describe.  If that’s not your vibe I think it’ll be easy to have eyes that glaze over at the sheer amount of detail given to setting up the political landscape.

The slow poison of empire and all the complicity of that is thrust on the reader through baru even with the detached third person narrative which is a feat in itself. Such a well-crafted story. 

I wish I hadn’t taken a long pause in the middle because that re-entry time dulled the effect of some of the middle of the book. But that last chapter? Continues to resonate like a blow to the head. 

Also love the inclusion of a somatic trauma based injury she will now have to contend with above all else… she has suffered in the footsteps of Christ and we are only one book down of a trilogy.

(4.75 initial rating but bumped up as months have passed and I keep thinking about it. )