Seth Dickinson

First, some trigger alerts. Tordotcom is known for novellas. At 540 pages, Exordia is not a novella. If genocide, rape, mind control, and lots of gory mass destruction offend you, opt out. Many readers liked the beginning but found the later development not to their taste. I was not offended, but I did wish for a bit more concision.
Some reasons to opt in. Seth Dickinson has done his research on the recent history of Kurdistan, fractal mathematics, and particle beams. It gives a codger like show more me a cultural frisson to read about the Obama administration as a historical era. In his afterword, Seth Dickinson says that the book was drafted in 2017 but delayed by COVID and the exigencies of traditional publishing, during which time history changed the story's ambiance.
So what’s it all about? A Kurdish refugee of the Iraq war is living in New York when she encounters an alien eating turtles in a pond. She and the reader initially suspect it is a symptom of post-traumatic stress, but sadly, it is real. The alien is an outlaw with a homicidal streak, but it is not so bad as several other groups of aliens that have landed in Kurdistan and involved two American brothers on opposite sides of their interstellar conflict. It all makes Independence Day look like a cakewalk. The aliens offer several variations on Sophie’s Choice and the Trolley Problem. But then, so did our actual history.
How about this for a conundrum? “What’s a promise worth when it comes from a multigenocidal space snake?” Or this: If we are “temporarily immortal,” should we be temporarily immoral too? show less

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: Baru Cormorant will pay any price to liberate her world — even if it makes her a monster.

When the Empire of Masks conquers her island home and murders one of her fathers, Baru makes a vow: I will never be powerless again. She'll swallow her hate, join the Empire’s civil service, and claw her way high enough to set her people free.

Suspicious of her loyalty, the Masquerade exiles her to an accountant's post in distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of show more informants and seditious dukes. Targeted for death by the uncomfortably intriguing rebel duchess Tain Hu, Baru fears a more intimate disaster — if her colleagues discover her homosexuality, she’ll be jailed and mutilated.

But Baru is a savant in games of power, ruthless enough to make herself sick. Armed with ink, lies, and one dubiously loyal secretary, she arranges a sweeping power play — a win–or–die double–cross gambit with empire as the prize. Survive it, and she'll save her home...but the cost will be appalling. Her dream of liberation might make her a tyrant. And if she's so very clever — why was she fool enough to fall in love?

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER. THANK YOU.

My Review: Part of the olden-days Tor.com book-club giveaways. Author Dickinson pointed the way that the forces of reaction are doing their damnedest to reshape US society into more of a hellscape than they already have...take over the bureaucracy and you harm more people for longer than if you just militarily abuse 'em for a while.

This lesson needs to be heeded.

The lesbian anti-hero of this anti-colonialist fable of destruction is perfectly rendered for her grimdark purpose. She's coldly calculating (accountant joke)...“Your error is fundamental to the human psyche: you have allowed yourself to believe that others are mechanisms, static and solvable, whereas you are an agent”...emotionally reserved due to the damage inflicted by her conquerors, and driven by her hatred of them. One I share, incidentally.

In many ways this unsettling, unpleasant, perfectly realized character reminds me of Stalin. She laser-focuses on legitimate grievances...“I am a part of this, but I do not have to love it. I only have to play my role. Survive long enough to gather power. Gather enough power to make a difference”...and uses them to power her revenge on those who have aggrieved her. This is a perfect way to drive a story, but not so perfect a way to allow the reader to invest in her. In this first-of-series novel, we're investing in The Struggle&8480; not in Baru Cormorant per se. It's all going to change, I assume, as she loses the laser focus on hatred to her new luuuv the Duchess.

The reason I feel safe recommending this story to straight readers is its absence of sex. Seth Dickinson, a man, was wise enough not to go peeping into any women's bedrooms. Same-sex love is unremarkable in this story of the world Baru has lost, but it's also not closely observed. Her drive to restore the lost paradise is, for this old cisqueer gent, deeply compelling reading.

I keep meaning to get to the other books in the series, but y'all know how that goes in a biblioholic's life.... show less

Rating: 4.5* of five

The Publisher Says: “Anna, I came to Earth tracking a very old story, a story that goes back to the dawn of time. it’s very unlikely that you’ll die right now. It wouldn’t be narratively complete.”

Anna Sinjari―refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker―has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. While humanity reels from disaster, she must join a small team of civilians, soldiers, and scientists to investigate a mysterious show more broadcast and unknowable horror. If they can manage to face their own demons, they just might save the world.

I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA NETGALLEY. THANK YOU.

My Review: A species (!) of hard sci fi from a writer previously celebrated in the fantasy field for The Traitor Baru Cormorant, here blending queer representation with cosmic horror via military sci-fi in the paranoid Cold-War mode, heavily Cthulhu-ized.

That sounds like something I'd hate. Why didn't I?

Seth Dickinson. He has a deft touch with humor to lighten the darkness, irony to show the urgency of perspective, and unflinching realism to get the reader's investment in the stakes. Which are, I know this will surprise you, existential for Humanity.

On the nose, in our present political and environmental climate? I thought so going in. I think so now. However, there's a reason I recommend this story for your immersion and entertainment anyway. It is about the ways and means used to accomplish political goals while using people's fears and anxieties to motivate them into actions that are genuinely necessary. It takes us into the labyrinth of tech-dominated institutions of force apllication, and shows us the internal conflicts that impact everything done or not done in these institutions. The stakes are often secondary to the purposes of the instituion's inmates.

Yet...in the end, after much troubling back-and-forth...the people are clearly all working for something they see as Right and Good. No matter what outcome eventuates, someone's plans will fail, and someone else's will sorta-kinda work. Will anyone be fully happy? No. The way the book's structured, the changing PoVs are the way to keep this story from devolving into Us-v-Them predictability. Whose ideas and goals you empathize with really isn't the point. It's recognizing the goals and ideas matter TO THEM, and using that knowledge to get what *you* want.

A hard leap to make, as witness the fact that so few ever make it. Author Seth shows the reader the idea of it with startling clarity and not a little dark humor. The results...you'll discover the specifics...are exactly and precisely what the actions of all the characters add up to. There is no deus ex machina here. There is, in the second half, a lot of science to go with your fiction, mostly physics.

I typed that sentence with a sinking heart. I know some significant fraction of my readers just went *click* into the off position. It is, of course, entirely y'all's privilege...but please hear me out. Your prior knowledge of physics would enrich the uses of it. Your entire ignorance of it will not in any way diminish the force of its uses in the story. You read about magic without understanding how it works, this is essentially the same thing. The scientists are casting spells on ushabtis, not writing code to make drones work in concert...it's all a matter of looking at the technology talk in the proper storytelling spirit.

Appeal made. You decide. What you'll miss, if you ignore my recommendation of this read, is a cracking good story about how people, real people with needs and wants and ideals, get together to accomplish goals in the real world. That story will, I wager, appeal to readers of technothrillers, geopolitical spy stories, and SF gulpers as we head into the season where a big, immersive read will keep you from needing to pay attention to Aunt Lurlene's stories about her neighbors you've never met and couldn't care less about, or your nephew's reprehensible politics. show less

This is a book that I guarantee will be on all the award lists this coming year. I was sent an excerpt of it through the publisher on NetGalley, and I had to buy the full book to find out what happened. This book is brutal, ruthless, and unique. In truth, it's a study of human psychology against a vast and detailed epic fantasy world. Baru Cormorant's home islands were quietly conquered by the Masquerade when she was a girl. She's a savant, and she realizes what is happening before one of show more her fathers is even killed in the war. Her parents--her mother and two fathers--were deemed an abomination by the new order. The Mask doesn't tolerate such perversions, as they are all about deliberate breeding and purity.

From an early age, Baru represses her own sexuality. She represses much of her compassion and humanity as well. Her private obsession is infiltrating the Masquerade and reclaiming her home. When the Mask recognizes her brilliance and schools her, she thinks her future is set, and then she graduates and is sent to play accountant in a backwards, rebellion-riddled realm...

I can't do justice to how intense and vicious this book is. It shows how money makes a kingdom, how food and disease are the worst enemy of any army, and how far a person will go as they play the long game. The ending of this could teach GRRM a thing or to. It's utterly heartbreaking and horrible, yet so in keeping with Baru. It's a credit to Dickinson that she's a highly relatable character in spite of her cold calculation. show less