What I Am Reading: "The Traitor Baru Cormorant" by Seth Dickinson
The book I have recently finished is “The Traitor Baru Cormorant,” by Seth Dickinson. This was a fantasy novel in the genre that I think of as being “post-Tolkien,” characterized by a strong application of economics and realpolitik. The main practitioner (in my own taxonomy) of this realistic fantasy is George R. R. Martin, with others being Joe Abercrombie and K.J. Parker. Dickinson makes a strong addition to the subgenre.
The novel’s eponymous heroine in fact bears some resemblance to Martin’s Tyrion Lannister. Baru Cormorant begins the novel as a child in the peaceful pseudo-Pacific Island nation of Taranoke, which is on the cusp of takeover by the Imperial Republic of Falcrest, known informally as the Masquerade. This empire expands in the way that many real empires did, with economic manipulation leading to political domination. The novel’s world, with its interaction of well thought-out (and easy to understand) civilizations, can seem to be a bit anachronistic at times. The Masquerade travels by horse and sailing ship and fights by sword, but also by naval rocket. Their organization principle is a staunch meritocracy, and carries with it an Orwellian eugenics program (this government having been birthed in a rebellion against an incestuous aristocracy).
As Baru sees her non-heteronormative family and people repressed by the unstoppable invaders, she decides that the best way to save them is to gain power within the Imperial Republic’s system, and enrolls in their school system. Being a savant and a savvy political operator, she soon ends up with a commission as the Imperial Accountant in another part of the empire, the mountainous and feudal Aurdwynn, also recently conquered. Here, she finds a somewhat more traditional fantasy setting, as she must carry out the tasks of the Masquerade’s bureaucracy while dealing with the rebellious and faction-ridden politics of this medieval land, and try to accomplish her own goals along the way. The novels territories and characters (a cast of dukes) are both well-realized and well-differentiated, so I always felt that I had a strong grasp of what was happening.
At one point, another character asks Baru, “Is this how you intend to lead? Bolted up behind a desk, ink-stained and often drunk?” Like Tyrion Lannister, Baru’s power comes, not from charisma or physical might, but from her understanding of economics and her mastery of bureaucracy. Also like Tyrion, she maintains an outsider’s status, in her case because of her foreign heritage. She does understand other sources of political strength, however; and brings populism, aristocratic bloodlines, and mythmaking to bear in the course of her pursuits. It is interesting to see the meritocratic system of government (similar to that implemented for a millennium in Imperial China) come into conflict with a feudal system, though the strict eugenics program marks the Masquerade as clearly villainous. A clash between a bureaucratic and a feudal society reminded me somewhat of Ursula K. Le Guin’s The Left Hand of Darkness, though I will refrain from spoiling any similarities or differences in outcome.
Overall, it is nice to see a fantasy novel cast a public administrator as a hero, to provide a counterbalance to the Chosen Ones and Noble Kings that the genre usually entrusts with power. Dickinson has a second novel in the series out this year, and I look forward to reading it.