Seth Dickinson

Actual rating 2.5/5

I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way.

Ok, so, I am definitely in the minority on this, so it is highly likely that you may disagree with me, but... I was deeply disappointed by this book. I went in with very high (maybe too high) expectations and I desperately wanted to like this. But I just didn't.

I guess there were quite a few things that just didn't work for me personally. For starters, the writing style didn't quite manage to catch my attention. It wasn't objectively bad, mind you, but it just didn't draw me in... This is of course an incredibly personal thing, but I found it heavy at best, and had real issues in keeping concentrated throughout the book. This was made worse by the fact that for about 25% of the book, I actually had no idea who anyone was.

Now, I am notoriously bad at learning names, but apart from our main character, Baru, I had just about no clue who we were talking about... And more than a quarter into the book is just too late for me to start figuring out who's who. The main flaw, for me, was the fact that several characters were presented at once, with no real chance for me to actually associate names and roles before the next one came in. And, as any fantasy book worthy of this name would have it, each character just has to have a more complicated name than the one who came before... It must be some sort of rule. Throw in some geographical locations too (though points for having a map at the beginning!) and... voilà! You now have a throughly confused reader just hoping she'll eventually figure out what's happening.

This was all just extremely frustrating for me, and it did impact on my enjoyment of the book as a whole. It's definitely something that relates to my personal taste, but reading is an entirely personal experience, so it's possible it won't bother you at all...

BUT! Not all was bad here, there were actually things I did enjoy, starting with diversity. There is an incredible variety of characters in this book, starting with Baru herself. She is a strong, independent woman, who'll stop at nothing to achieve her goals. And she just so happens to be an LGBT and black character. I loved the fact that the diverse characteristics weren't the main focus of Baru's character: they are just a part of who she is, no more and no less than her mathematical abilities, her fierceness, or her focus. However, I had real issues in getting attached to Baru, although it is possible that I was just so focused on navigating the rest of the book that I didn't take enough notice of her... Still, I hardly ever felt anything for her, good or bad. The rest of the characters (when I eventually managed to figure them out) were just sort of "there", and didn't really give me that much emotion... Which was a shame, because there was some real potential there.

I also liked the themes this book touches on and the reflection points it raises. Aside from Baru's personal mission, which is the main focus of the book, several questions are raised in relation to important and relatively unexplored themes, such as the rights of minorities; the issues relating to conquest and the relationship between conqueror and indigenous peoples; progress vs civil liberties, and so on... For me, this was probably the best thing in the whole book, and possibly the only reason I actually got to the end of it.

All in all, I had a very difficult relationship with this book. I had to seriously force myself to see the end of it, because for a very big part I was tempted to DNF it. Contrary to the majority of books, this one had no sprint in the beginning, picked up a lot in the middle, started lacking tension again towards the end and exploded at the very end. This continuos increase and decrease in tension, coupled with confusing characters and settings made this a very difficult read for me personally, even though I adored the themes explored by the author and the questions he raised. As I said, this book just didn't work for me based on my taste, so if it still makes you curious, by all means give it a try! It may be that the things that didn't work for me won't actually be an issue for you.… (more)

This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: NO!

Audio Narration
The narrator is Christine Marshall. I didn’t really care for her narration. Something indefinable just didn’t work for me. Part of it might be that I disliked Baru, so maybe that influenced my feelings for the voice that was narrating her, but I felt the same way even in the beginning when I was still interested in her.

I definitely had some trouble telling who was talking at times, as well as telling if Baru was speaking out loud or internally. The narrator could have done better at distinguishing voices, but I also blame this issue to some extent on the text itself for not having more cues that would work well in an audio format. I have by this point listened to many narrators who didn’t do the greatest job at distinguishing between character voices, and it can be a non-issue if the text itself makes it clear.

Story
When Baru’s a child, her people are conquered by an empire with advanced technology and a rigid belief system. Baru’s intelligence captures the attention of the empire and she’s sent to one of their schools. She excels there, but she never forgets her roots, and hopes to gain power within the empire so that she can eventually bring about their downfall. When she finishes school, the empire sends her to be the “Imperial Accountant” in a position where her two predecessors were both murdered.

In the beginning, I thought I was going to like this. Baru seemed like an interesting and nuanced character, and the story was heavily political which is something I often enjoy. However, all the plotting and the politics somehow began to grow tedious and I started spacing out on it. Additionally, I grew to dislike Baru more and more. With neither the main character nor the story holding my interest, this became a chore to listen to.

Baru is portrayed as a savant, at least in terms of finances and political strategy. However, I wasn’t convinced that she always made logical decisions. In any case, she often seemed incapable of considering multiple perspectives or accounting for the possible actions and reactions of the people around her. She’s very single-minded, wanting to achieve her goals at all costs, no matter how much damage her actions cause. I was sick to death of her by the end.

The following is a big spoiler for the ending. I thought the title at least somewhat spoiled the twist(?) at the end, when Baru betrays her fellow traitors. If the title had just referred to her being a traitor to the empire, it would have seemed way too obvious. I knew it was definitely possible that there was nothing more to it than the obvious explanation, but I’d also considered that it might have a double meaning, so I wasn’t surprised by her choices. Besides, it seemed like the scummy sort of thing she’d do. I also very much disliked the connivance to keep this “twist” from the reader even though we were in Baru’s head. It didn’t feel genuine to me that she’d simply blocked it from her mind until the moment came because she was so horrified by it. Having Baru question herself about it afterward and bemoan it at length didn’t make it feel more genuine for me.… (more)