The Monster Baru Cormorant

It's exhausting to read this book. It does not live up to the promise of the end of the first book in the series. Baru becomes less and less interesting as well as less and less competent as the story continues. I just couldn't bring myself to finish before my library loan was due, and can't be bothered to wait in line to check this out again.

I'm afraid this is will be the best book I'll read all year, which is frightening because it's so early in the year. And yet, I can't see something else surpassing it.

This book blew me out of the water. I've never seen a social critique so apt, yet set in a fantasy setting so devoid of our current culture. I've never seen worldbuilding so in-depth yet so thoughtfully in-sync with the themes of the book. I've never seen such complex characters who felt both authentic to the totally fictional cultures and struggles created for them, yet completely understandable and sympathetic to the reader.

It is, in short, a masterwork.

It's not a light, happy masterwork. This book is dark, depressing, about how imperialist structures like racism and sexism and homophobia live inside us all and in turn destroy us all, not just ‘us' as individuals but ‘us' as in our society and the bonds we make within society.

Without going into too much detail, there are two central metaphors in the book: the bounds of society and what they mean, and cancer. Both are incredibly apt. There is a huge amount of discussion dedicated to what family and culture and society and obligation mean to every person and every culture and every person within that culture. There is a huge amount of discussion dedicated, as well, to the nature of cancer, tumors and radiation, and whether or not these are actually a force for good or evil. The metaphor is clear: this alien thing lives inside you, contributing nothing, slowly killing you and those around you, as it slowly and painfully separates you from others and keeps you sick and unable to contribute to the society around you. A tumor only infects one person, but it affects everyone. The book is in places disgusting, gory and painful, but the kind of exorcism that we as readers need, especially in the current political climate.

Which is to say, if you don't want politics in a fantasy book, this isn't the book for you. Yes, this book is a fantasy, but it's also very, very, very real. Baru and her struggles mirror our own in a way that can't be understated. The characters in this book use different words, have different cultures, and different concepts, but they're going through the same struggles we are now.

I once took a film course in college, and one of the lessons that stuck with me the most was the idea that ‘all movies made durring wartime are inherently war movies'. While obviously not film, this maxim applies here. This is not a book ‘about' the current political climate, but it also undoubtedly, inarguably is. I'm generally reticent to make wide sweeping generalizations about the nature of people's understanding of books and films and the like, but I'll make an exception in this case: If you don't think this book is about where we are now as a culture, you've missed the entire point.

In short: If you want the best written political fantasy I've ever read (and I've read quite a few), with fantastic and thoughtful forward motion, pacing, worldbuilding, characters, and nuance? Get this immediately. It may make you feel sad, or uncomfortable, or scared, or frustrated, or uneasy... but if you're living in the world we are now and you don't already feel those things? You're not living in Baru's world anyway.

2025 Reread: Since I read this during Trump's first term, I figured I'd reread it during the second. The first time, I got really weird about it! I was kind of going through it. I'm not gonna pretend I'm not going through something right now, but at least I have more perspective.

Some very dramatic whinging aside, I do think this is an excellent novel, a pure distillation of what fantasy is capable of when you put aside comfort food, shallow moralism and anxious Puritainism. (If you like those things, cool! The entire publishing industry does. Go read that stuff and leave me alone.) I think this book is a masterpiece on a craft level, from the worldbuilding to the tone, the themes, and much of the prose. In terms of pacing, it's kind of stretched out, and it ends on a hell of a cliffhanger. I don't personally mind it, but I can acknowledge this is because the book is so extremely special interest content for me that I can't be completely objective.

From this series' interest in eugenics, class, corruption, forms of government, cultural anthropology, technology, inequality, economics, Enlightenment-era ‘science', and ‘magic' as a cultural phenomenon... look, I understand intellectually why people don't like this book or this series, but I can't quite ‘get' it emotionally. One of the best fantasy books of all time for me personally, topped only by the sequel. If the 4th book never comes out, I'll be content, because Monster and Tyrant are truly everything I could ever ask of the fantasy genre.

DNF'd @ 65%

CAWPILE SCORE
C-9
A-7
W-7
P-6
I-8
L-6
E-5
TOTAL-6.86/10

I absolutely loved the first book in this series. unfortunately for me this book seems to have middle book syndrome. I'm really hoping that the third book is much better. There was so much that i felt could have happened and didn't. which i'll talk about in the Spoilers section. This book does branch off the 1st person only view from Baru and we start to see other characters POV. I was not a huge fan of the Flashback chapters as they didn't help me feel invested in the characters it was about. As with the first book, the occasional use of real world things like uranium threw me out of it. but still good


CAWPILECharacters.Lets start with BARU. I felt like she lost a lot of what made me love her so much. After resolving to let Tain Hu die, so she can't be controlled she doesn't do a lot. I was really expecting her blindness but actually split "personality" where she can see, she just can't process it conciously, to have more of an effect or purpose in this story. I can see lots of foreshadowing of it, but nothing came of it yet. The parts were Baru was showing her smarts instead of me being told she is so smart was the best parts. Xate Yawa. whines the whole time that Baru doesn't have a hostage and as per the rules is always trying to get rid of Baru. i kinda feel like her chapters were only included to show things Baru wouldn't know. which felt extra to me and unnecessaryAminata: Loved the wrestling that Aminata does between Duty and Desire/Friendship. She wants to help Baru, but also wants to do her duty and prevent the breakout of another war especially with the Oriati Mbo. her chapters were my second favoriteApparitor/Svir: super whiny. never shown his competency on screen, always happens away from view. which made me think it was just plot deviceAtmosphereThe Atmosphere is everpresent and when i was reading i could tell that the world was completly fleshed out and had real effects that were going on.WritingSeth Dickinson's writing is striking and great. However I still get pushed out of the story everytime he uses a regular word in his story. ex Uranium. everything else is unique words to this world PlotThe Pacing of this book is a bit different. the Plot being that Xata Yawa, Svir/Apparitor and Baru must find the Cancrioth, a subset of the Oriati that the Empire can use to cause the Oriati Mbo to collapse and takeover. while at the same time avoiding Tain Shir, Ferrier's old apprentice, who has decided that Baru must die for letting Tain Hu die. the first half i feel like barely anything happens. they are on the island. they get told what to do, they are attacked and must flee, the go somewhere Tain Shir shows up, repeat. IntrigueSo is MAGIC real or NOT. fine either way just want to know. The Creepy Cancrioth and the cancer that is transplantable is very creepy and intriguing. i really want to know whats going to happen next with Baru. for 2 books there has been no magic, so I'm a little hesitant about how its going to be introduced. i'm really hoping it'll just be a science so advanced its like magicLogicI must say the choices that the characters make for the most part seems to be logical according to everything we know so far. and it seems to be following the same style as the first book.



I will be talking about it on Libromancy 05/16/2021 https://libromancy.podbean.com/

The Traitor Baru Cormorant (published in the UK under the much less interesting title of The Traitor) is one of the best fantasy novels of recent years. Magnificently written, complex and involving, with an ending that was emotionally devastating.

This sequel (once again published as simply The Monster in the UK, which I can only assume is part of a cunning plan to make peoples' eyes slide over it on the bookstore shelves) opens up the world and admits other POVs that add to the dramatic tension, as we now know things that Baru doesn't. It offers new, rich and detailed societies, and covers lots of ground around gender, sexuality, colonialism, economics and philosophy. It's not your regular “farm boy finds out he's the heir to the lost kingdom” kind of fantasy book. If you want lost swords and dark lords, this one isn't for you. But if you want something to work at, something morally ambiguous where the heroes aren't necessarily the good guys, or indeed something where it's not even clear if there are good guys at all, something that will get your brain puzzling, this is very much for you.

On the downside, this is very much a middle volume book. It develops the story, but doesn't really resolve much, and Baru herself is left helpless and inactive for most of the book as she struggles to come to terms with the end of the first volume. It doesn't move very fast either, but takes its time getting pieces into place. Let's hope that Dickinson sticks the landing with the final part(s), because if he does he'll have produced one of the finest fantasy works of the past few decades.

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.