About the Book
Baru Cormorant believes any price is worth paying to liberate her people - even her soul.
When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, Baru vows to mask her hate, join the Empire's civil service, and claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to put a stop to the Emperor's influence and set her people free -whatever the price.
A natural savant she is sent as an Imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn - a post she worries will never get her the position and power she craves. But Baru soon discovers Aurdwynn is a complex and secretive country, seemingly on the brink of rebellion. All it would need is a match to the tinder . . .
Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help create a revolution that will threaten the Empire's hold on the country; an outcome, which if successful, could threaten to bring the Empire to its knees.
As she pursues a precarious balance between the rebels and a shadowy cabal within the Empire, she orchestrates a do-or-die gambit with freedom as the prize. But winning the long game of saving her people may be far more costly than Baru imagines.
About the Author :
Seth Dickinson's short fiction has appeared in various publications including Analog, Asimov's, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. He is an instructor at the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers, winner of the 2011 Dell Magazines Award, and a lapsed student of social neuroscience. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Traitor is his first novel.
Review :
Smart. Brutal. Gut-wrenching. You'll be captivated from the very first page. Dickinson is a sly, masterful writer who pulls no punches. Get ready to have your heart ripped out through your throat. Highly recommended.
Seth Dickinson skillfully combines intrigue, action, and philosophical musings to create a suspenseful and deeply satisfying read. An intelligent and accomplished first novel reminiscent of Le Guin in its reflections on imperialism, colonialism, and the attractions and corruptions of power.
Not many books have me literally flailing with delight. [The Traitor...] did. Fascinating characters, a world imagined with wonderful depth, and storytelling that succeeds on both an epic and a powerfully intimate scale. This is really something special.
A beautiful, perfectly formed crystal of a novel borne out of a tight plot mated with elegant language.
Dickinson has written a poet's Dune, a brutal tale of empire, rebellion, fealty, and high finance that moves like a rocket and burns twice as hot. [The Traitor] is a mic drop for epic fantasy.
An extraordinary debut--powerful, complex, and passionate. I was blown away by it.
Amazing and inventive.
A new fantasy world as rich and complex as our own . . . Baru Cormorant is brilliant, bold, and very, very dangerous.
Brutal, relentless and with the heartbreaking beauty of the best tragedies. The Traitor is a haunting book that asks hard questions about revolution, change, and what it means to keep faith
Stunning! There are moments that take my breath away
Heart-stopping and utterly harrowing, and makes Game of Thrones look like Jackanory.
Beautiful and brutal. This is unflinching fantasy
The Traitor is a tale of intelligence and wonder, set in a believable, detailed world that is populated with rich characters. From the first page I was sucked into a world of captivating intrigue and Machiavellian politics, with a great protagonist that you can at once empathise with and root for. And that sting in the tail... Highly recommended.
Visceral and unflinching, The Traitor employs a rich palate of cultures to explore brutal moral complexities
A fascinating tale of political intrigue and national unrest
Dickinson's debut, the start of a trilogy set in an impressively well-crafted fantasy world, is assured and impressive . . . Readers will share every one of Baru's strong, suppressed emotions
A highly impressive debut that engages intellectually
Literally breathtaking . . . a crucial, necessary book
A truly intense, brutal, yet beautiful geopolitical fantasy . . . . I don't think I've actually read anything quite like it
A hundred pages in, and I knew The Traitor would be a game-changer
Like its namesake, The Traitor lures you in, puts you at your ease, wins your confidence, and then destroys you . . . It's the way this story gets under your skin and hits you where it really counts that puts it in a class by itself
Breathtakingly original and carefully crafted, The Traitor by debut novelist Seth Dickinson is one of those very few works that straddle the line between "genre" and "literary" fiction . . . Dickinson's writing is intricate, sometimes delicate, and always absolutely delicious
The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms meets Guns, Germs, and Steel
As for Seth Dickinson, I can only applaud the sheer audacity and courage to deliver a book like this. It is a triumph of imagination and a powerful reminder of what fantasy is for
This is eloquent, grown-up, intelligent Fantasy that will keep you thinking long after you finish and will demand that you read and reread it'
