NWil’s Reviews > The Traitor Baru Cormorant > Status Update

The March was successful though. They showed strength across the duchies and hope to the commoners. And then they march to treatymont.

The death of Muire Lo is Baru’s first emotional moment. Seeing her racked with grief at her hand in bringing about his death by keeping him in the dark about the plot is great emotional connection with this character. But it does seem to have driven her to madness. To march in winter for aggrandizement to the peoples. Tain Hu, clearly shallow, joined her. Then sickness started killing the men in the march. Sigh.

Baru, as military tactician, has been extremely skilled & adept in understanding & predicting the actions of both the vessels of empire & the duchies in Aurdwynn. Where luck has not been on her side (the failed rebellion in Treatymont) she has managed to outsmart it with cunning & thinking. She truly is a savant. As we enter the final third of the book, I’d like to see her skills come up against a true barrier.

A lot has happened in this part in furtherance of the rebellion, culminating in Baru openly declaring herself as leader of the plot. But these activities have been neither emotionally engaging nor particularly action-filled. They were somewhat thrilling but they suffered from having too many characters with no personality. The failure of the rebellion to catch in Aurdwynn is likely the most significant event.

Okay. Baru is a comedian. Why she confessing her desire for women here?? Joker.

Lol. Lyxaxu and Oathsfire are part of the sedition plot? Lolol. Aurdwynn truly cannot be ruled.

My wonder - how will this section end? What will be the point of this change of tack? Farrier and his colleagues still have an important hand to play in this. The empire still looms large and imposing and it is usually a fool’s errand to think you can master it best it.

Running toward the end of the first half and this second part is a bunch of political machinations. Baru has switched sides because of the effect of her inflationary gamble to her reputation in Falcrest and with Parliament. She’s decided she can’t destroy from within so she’ll join the revolution like Ffare Tanifel and destroy it from without. Tain Hu has come onside of her plan and is her only ducal ally.

Plot is slow moving, but Dickinson writes so well, it’s easy to continue reading even when NOTHING is happening.

Chapter 11 was so filler. Lol.