The Traitor Baru Cormorant

Whoever said economic theory wasn't sexy?

TBC merges the colonialism of dozens of different societies with Nazi-esque eugenics over a vast and diverse empire. The title character, and island girl from a society where two men and one woman is a standard marriage, watches her home be overridden by the Masquerade and decides the only way she can save it is by working within the system. She puts on her own masks, and convinces herself she can commit any atrocities for the greater good. You never realize the amount of atrocities a good accountant can commit.

Dickenson pulls no punches. Do not read this story if you are after a happy ending. Or beginning. Or middle, really. No one gets to be happy long in this novel. But if you're looking for a story about perspective, where love and loathing, help and harm, home and exile, are all just a minute perspective shift apart, try it. You may be depressed, but you won't be disappointed.