The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
“This is an accomplished debut, with a heroine whose motives are murky, seemingly even to herself. The twists and turns our unreliable narrator takes as she pushes the Aurdwynn nobles to rebel reveal her goals yet also expose her loneliness. We’ve only seen a fraction of the world of the Masquerade and a glimpse of Baru’s plans, setting the stage for a compelling series.” — Library Journal, Starred Review
The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson
“Dickinson’s debut, the start of a trilogy set in an impressively well-crafted fantasy world, is assured and impressive. After the island nation of Taranoke is conquered by the far-flung Empire of Masks, its culture and traditions are suppressed in favor of the empire’s rigid structure. Baru Cormorant, a young native woman, vows to do whatever it takes to rise to power within the so-called Masquerade so that she might someday free her people. At school, Baru is dubbed a savant; when she’s 18, she’s appointed to serve as Imperial Accountant for one of the Empire’s most troublesome regions, the country of Aurdwynn. There, Baru engages in a dangerous economic game against the empire and the quarrelsome dukes of Aurdwynn, always keeping to her own agenda while repressing her innermost longings, including her desires for other women. When her manipulations force the dukes into all-out revolution, she must pick a side and risk everything. Readers will share every one of Baru’s strong, suppressed emotions. Dickinson’s worldbuilding is ambitious and his language deviously subtle; both are seductive in their complexity. He combines social engineering, economic trickery, and coldhearted pseudoscientific theories to weave a compelling, utterly surprising narrative that keeps readers guessing until the end.” — Publishers Weekly, Starred Review
The cover has been revealed for 
The Traitor Baru Cormorant, the debut novel from Seth Dickinson!
From the catalog copy:
When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home, overwrites her culture, criminalizes her customs, and murders one of her fathers, young Baru Cormorant vows to swallow her hate, join the Empire’s civil service, and claw high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.
Sent as an Imperial agent to distant Aurdwynn, another conquered country, Baru discovers it’s on the brink of rebellion. Drawn by the intriguing duchess Tain Hu into a circle of seditious dukes, Baru may be able to use her position to help. 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.
“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 Baru Cormorant is a mic drop for epic fantasy.” – Max Gladstone, author of the Craft Sequence
“I do not gush about books often, because I’m picky in my loves and my ADD requires they basically do handstands to keep my attention. This is less of a handstand and more an entire fucking circus shooting ferrets with tiny capes and helmets out of antique cannons into kiddie pools filled with glitter while Queen’s Don’t Stop Me Now plays at an ear-rupturing volume overhead. Sweet jesus, I forget how much I crave good prose.” – Bo Bolander, Campbell-nominated author of “And You Shall Know Her by the Trail of Dead” and “Her Words Like Hunting Vixens Spring”
Look for Dickinson’s novel in both the US and the UK on September 15, 2015!
