Spoilery Discussion: The Monster Baru Cormorant by Seth J Dickinson

This post will be dedicated to a spoilery discussion of The Monster Baru Cormorant, because I have too many thoughts about the book that I need to put down somewhere and tried to make my review non-spoilery as possible (it spoils Traitor, but well, that's a given for a review of a book's sequel).

If you have not read The Monster Baru Cormorant, this is your last warning of any spoilers - do not go beyond the jump here.  My Non-Spoiler Review is HERE:



Part of the reason why Monster feels like such a mess, especially at first, is that the book includes a bunch of one-of point of view chapters early on that never return - within the first act we have a POV chapter for Ormsment, one for Lindon (at least his is an interlude), and a quick one for Farrier himself (which I think blends back into Baru's POV in the rest of that chapter, but it's hard to tell with the eARC formatting).  Still once we get past that first act, the point of views included all work together rather well - Xate Yawa is amazing and hilarious with her profanity, Apparitor is incredibly sympathetic, and Aminata's thoughts as she's torn between her professional and personal interests makes her extremely interesting, and it's probably the biggest disappointment in the book that her confrontation with Baru - who learns of Aminata's secret ties to Farrier and worries about whether to trust her friend - doesn't happen here.  And well, Tain Shir, I'll get back to her in a bit.

Getting back to the Cryptarchs: One touch I did really like by the way is the letter from the deceased former cryptarch, as well as the revelation/implication (since well it could be fake) that a few other potential Cryptarchs committed suicide upon their actions leading to exaltation.  It bothered me a little after Traitor that there were two candidates for exaltation (Yawa and Baru) at the same time in this one part of the Empire, which made it seem like there should be a lot more leaders behind the scenes than there were.  And of course the answer is there have been quite a few Cryptarchs....but very few have managed to get to the level of Itinerant/Hesychast or the ultimate leader, the mysterious Renascent (I'd had a theory that Kindalana would turn out to be Renascent at one point, but this doesn't fit the timeline as Renascent is mentioned by Hesychast during the flashback sequence as having been the one behind his and Farrier's mission as hostages).  It's just that these cryptarchs don't survive the acts of being the secret rulers, with all the other conspirators at play.  

And Baru's situation is far more precarious, because she and Hu miscalculated - by removing the lever the other cryptarchs could use to manipulate Baru, they made Baru a greater threat to be removed - both Yawa and Apparitor would've been potential allies if they felt Baru was on the same playing ground (well somewhat), and was just as willing to do things for a loved one as themselves.  

Baru's dreams of a world ruled by Hesychast and Itinerant's ideals are chilling and show her mental state as broken, and in retrospect the idea that Yawa was Baru's equivalent under Hesychast's tutoring is really interesting given her former role as the instrument of behavior modification through torture (which Hesychast would deem impossible).  Like Baru, Yawa is molded by Hesychast into pursuing her mentor's ideal of the world (one of eugenics and biology), although she attempts to think otherwise at first and give Baru a chance, she gives up on that.  

And of course in contrast to all of this is Tau-Indi, whose tragic story (which isn't finished I hope, because we still don't know how the Oriati regained their balance after it seems like the Masquerade's attacks had succeeded as normal and we know it didn't, or how the trio of friends broke up, etc.) provides a clear contrast to all of the Cryptarchs - for him any such scheming is a violation of the Trim, and the optimism that he provides is what Baru needs to make her final choice NOT to sacrifice her parents.  

Not that Tain Shir, the UTTERLY SPECTACULAR Tain Shir, would believe it.  Forget about the cliffhanger that Shir was the one who abducted Father Salm for a second - Shir's vengeance being to force Baru to confront the reality of her sacrifices is absolutely brilliant.  Obviously Shir is wrong in that Baru did love Hu and that Hu forced Baru to sacrifice her, but Shir's decision to let Baru live and force Baru to see that when one sacrifices everyone you love, you wind up with nothing are utterly chilling - especially when prior to Tau-Indi's influence, Baru is indeed going down that dark path.  Shir has apparently done atrocities in the name of the greater good, the very path Baru sought to go down in Traitor, and has rejected the idea that such a path can result in a greater good:

"Tain Shir is here to teach a lesson.  A lesson about the costs of manipulation, and the hubris of forcing others to pay those costs for you, and the lie that you can serve a master today without also ceding to him all your tomorrows." 

To Tain Shir, the question that Traitor asks: "Can you really bring down an evil empire by climbing up from within, perpetuating its evils in order to eventually gain the internal power to take it down" is answered firmly with a "No."  And that makes her the ultimate antagonist for Baru.  Of course, now that Baru has seemingly chosen not to sacrifice her parents to Ormsment's threat (although her decision was influenced by her perceiving the duel would be interrupted by something so maybe that doesn't count), that might change...assuming Shir can be talked down from her vengeance.  

Anyhow, I'm kind of rambling, because there's just so much to think about and I'm sure I'm missing some stuff.  This book is just like that.  Jeez.