#baru cormorant map

[muire-lo]

I wasn't able to find an image description for Baru's map, so here's one! Feel free to copy, paste, and share.

[ID: A map done in black, sketched outline, featuring mountains, sea, rivers, major cities, and borders between duchies. 

The very north of the map at the top of the page shows a mountain range in a horizontal line across the top of Aurduynn, labelled Wintercrest Mountains. 

South of the mountains is the northern duchies, from left to right Erebog, Lyxaxu, Vultjag, and Oathsfire.

Erebog is rectangular shaped, with a river running from the Wintercrest mountains south into Duchy Nayauru. Baru’s point form note reads, “THE CRONE. Clay. Landlord problems. Probably going to starve.”

Duchy Lyxaxu is also rectangular shaped. Baru’s note reads, “DUKE HIGH STONE. Quarries. Smart man, write back!”

Duchy Vultjag is a thin rectangle, the second smallest duchy. A tributary of the river Vultsniada runs through the duchy, feeding Oathsfire to the east. Baru’s note reads, “DUCHESS OF COMETS. Nice scenery. Utterly unimportant.”

Duchy Oathsfire is rectangular in shape, bordered to the east by the river Inirein which runs south to Welthony, in Unuxekome. Baru’s note reads, “DUKE OF MILLS. Lots of money. River trade. Awful beards.”

The next row of duchies includes Sahaule, Nayauru, Ihuake, and Pinjagata. Next to Pinjagata is the Duchy Unuxekome, which runs fully south to the coast. 

Duchy Sahaule is a thin rectangle. It’s labelled, “THE HORSEBANE. Good soldiers. Client to Nayauru. What’s the name about?”

Duchy Nayauru is rectangular at the top and more round at the bottom. A river flows in from Erebog and ends in many dams. Baru writes, “THE DAM-BUILDER. Reservoirs. Cavalry. Stupid feudal marriage politics.”

Dugy Ihuake is the largest duchy, wide and broad, with Mount Kijune in the north (labelled “climb me!”). It includes a sketch of walled Freetown Haraeod, with one very large building in the centre. Baru’s note reads, “THE CATTLE DUCHESS. Herds. Cavalry. Huge!”

By comparison, Duchy Pinjagata is merely a slice of land, even smaller than Duchy Vultjag. Baru’s note reads, “DUKE OF PHALANXES. Best soldiers. Bad at names. Client to Ihuake.”

The last row of duchies borders the Ashen Sea: Autr, Radaszic, Heingyl, and finally Unuxekome.

Baru’s notes on Duchy Autr reads, “DUKE OF BRINE. Good salt. Large muscles. Client to Nayauru.”

Duchy Radaszic simply contains notes that read, “DUKE OF WELLS. Grain. Olives. Complete moron.” Bordering Radaszic and Heingyl is the city of Treatymont, right on the coast, and it is sketched to show a large walled city with many towers. Notes on Treatymont read, “Apparently Duch Lachta? Best port, federal capital. Naval base. Stay out of northarbor.”

Duchy Heingyl has notes that read, “THE STAG DUKE. Cavalry. Grain. Hates joy.” 

Finally, Duchy Unuxekome, at the bottom east (right) of Aurduynn, bordered by the Ashen Sea to the south and the river Inirein to the east. The south of the duchy is labelled Sieroch floodplain. Baru’s notes read, “THE SEA GROOM. Good seaport. Pirates. Seems pleasant.” Where the river Inirein meets the sea is the city of Welthony, which has many small buildings and one large building with a tower. Baru’s note of the city reads, “Unuxekome’s capital. Second-best port.”

Baru has made notes of the areas outside Aurduynn. 

At the very top of the map, north of the mountains, is a blank area with an arrow pointing up, labelled Stakhi Empire? With a question mark. 

To the west (left), a blank area labelled GRASSLANDS, TAIGA, AND DESERT. Baru’s note reads, “What’s over here? Look it up soon.”

South is the Ashen Sea. Baru’s note reads, “Sail only in summer!” There is an arrow pointing south/down and a note from Baru that reads, “south to Taranoke and Oriati Mbo. south to SOUSWARD and Oriati Mbo.”

East is an arrow pointing east/right. Baru’s note reads, “EAST to AWFUL MARSHLAND and NORTH FALCREST. Completely useless in winter.” 

In the top right of the map is a compass decorated with the silhouette of a cormorant. End ID.]

[thematicparallel]

THE MONSTER BARU CORMORANT - MAP

[july-19th-club]

first thing i do with any baru book is read the entire table of contents and book three has like ten more stories about ash YES yes yes AND it ends with a chapter titled 'the lightning in the east' YES YES YES finally we get to go out there and see what horrible stuff is in the frightening zone yessssssssssssssssssssssssss

[ossifer]

i will not try to make a baru cormorant ttrpg. i will not try to make a baru cormorant ttrpg. i will not try to make a baru cormorant ttrpg. i will n

[bumpyfrog]

Most of the baru fandom is sapphic which makes sense but it does mean that Sea Daddy Unuxecomb (sp?) is criminally underrated

[unpickled-olive]

Realizing that, while I like Destiny lore, what I love is Seth Dickinson's writing.

The Final Shape was a lovely story and the characters' archs were all emotional and satisfying. Maybe a nostalgic tear was shed for Cayde bonding with his reformed, resurrected killer.

But the things that have kept me coming back for 9 years were missing. I thought there'd be concrete answers about the Traveler, or some more thorough insights into the Witness, or even good lore on the Dread. I was hoping for another great lore book to join the ranks of Books of Sorrow, Unveiling, Mysterious Logbook, Marasenna, Last Days of Kraken Mare, etc. Some philosophy and horror, a genesis or exegesis or thorough backstory on a yet unexamined character/species.

Sadly, I didn't find those. The Dread's origin is that the Witness made them. Do they think and feel? TBD. The Traveler's conclusion was something like "you just have to have faith <3." Fine for the characters, but not for the readers/players of a 10-year-old mystery.

There's some nice things. The Micah-10 Traveler interpretations are cool, as is her origin story. And the foreshadowing still has me excited for the Dreadnaught, a yet unseen Disciple, etc. But I think key parts of what made Destiny lore so alluring for me are diminished.

Maybe it's the layoffs at Bungie. Maybe it's new writers going in a different direction. Either way, the aspects of sci-fi/space fantasy—ancient mysteries, metaphysical warfare, _____—have taken the back seat to personal drama that frankly isn't that interesting or fleshed out.

Maya could be an interesting antagonist, but she needed more backstory than "this simulation was evil or something" and more nuance than "the Vanguard are coercive, so I will coerce all of humanity." Why not explore what her presence means for the Vex, or the other simulations helping Praedyth escape the Vault?

The Witness trying to sway various characters was fine, but that has been covered so many times, especially in Beyond Light.

All that said, back to Seth: their absence in TFS made me realize how huge their presence in the lore was for my love of Destiny. I finally went and read their original works. What an incredible writer.

First, I read Exordia, the first/only entry into a dark mindfuck of a space opera. Its horrific in abstract ways: mysterious alien monoliths that poison reality around them. It's horrific in grounded ways, too: the alien invasion plays off of parallels with the Anfal campaign and the US involvement in Iraq. It's campy at times (with a villain who shouts "I love genocide!") but also profound. There's souls and date, but also math. There's also my favorite trope: mysterious, ancient architects.

After that, I read Baru Cormorant—all three books in a month. It's tragic and inspiring and genius. Originally I couldn't get through the first chapter because of the "fantasy" label. I've already read Earthsea and wasn't in the mood for wizards on boats. But I had the wrong impression. Understandable, because there is just no succinct way to label it.

Is it even fantasy? Honestly, I still don't know.

What it is is its own world. One that the inhabitants haven't fully mapped. One whose past is a must and whose future is uncertain. It's about hegemony. It's about purpose, obsession, and revenge. It's about revolution and community.

The colonizer culture is a kaleidoscope of different influences. Seafaring. Peri-industrial. Eugenic. It strikes me as something like 17th century Britain with a 20th century grasp of science. They don't have guns, but they do have both Greek fire and lobotomies. The story plays with different cultural views on indigenous rights, race, sexuality, and gender in ways that commentary real life while serving as interesting world building.

This story also weaves an insane amount of intellectual concepts into it. But rather than bog it down, they lift it up. The fate of the republic hinges on a myriad of different questions: is evolution Lamarckian or Darwinian? Can mathematical proofs usurp cultural hegemony? How do economics influence history? Most importantly, can you destroy the enemy from within before it destroys you?

It is not just cerebral, but tragic and heartbreaking. I saw the end of the first book coming, and yet I was devastated by the last chapter. Crushed like no ending has ever really crushed me. I didn't want it to happen.

There will likely be some time before the final book comes out, which is understandable. So much research goes into these. So many plot threads need to be woven together. So many mysteries not yet confronted.

This is all to say: if you like what I like about Destiny–thorough examinations of ancient mysteries, sci-fi takes on souls and magic, fantasy takes on science and technology, obsessive characters and vividly fucked up monsters, cancer and math as motifs, metaphors manifesting, and genius characters written by genius authors–give Seth Dickinson a chance.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries below:

The Book Eaters by Sunyi Dean

Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food, and who retain all of a book's content after eating it. To them, spy novels are a peppery snack; romance novels are sweet and delicious. Eating a map can help them remember destinations, and children, when they misbehave, are forced to eat dry, musty pages from dictionaries.

Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like all other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.

But real life doesn't always come with happy endings, as Devon learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds.

Fantasy, horror, gothic, dark fantasy, contemporary, adult

The Masquerade Series (The Traitor Baru Cormorant, The Monster Baru Cormorant, The Tyrant Baru Cormorant) by Seth Dickinson

Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up from the sand of her home and see red sails on the horizon.

The Empire of Masks is coming, armed with coin and ink, doctrine and compass, soap and lies. They’ll conquer Baru’s island, rewrite her culture, criminalize her customs, and dispose of one of her fathers. But Baru is patient. She’ll swallow her hate, prove her talent, and join the Masquerade. She will learn the secrets of empire. She’ll be exactly what they need. And she’ll claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.

In a final test of her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. Aurdwynn kills everyone who tries to rule it. To survive, Baru will need to untangle this land’s intricate web of treachery - and conceal her attraction to the dangerously fascinating Duchess Tain Hu.

But Baru is a savant in games of power, as ruthless in her tactics as she is fixated on her goals. In the calculus of her schemes, all ledgers must be balanced, and the price of liberation paid in full.

Fantasy, epic fantasy, politics, secondary world, series, adult

[wearethekat]

Anticipated New Releases of 2024

**As anticipated by Me. Mostly SFF. Links are to goodreads because that's what I use, sorry. Anything marked "new to me" I haven't read anything by that author before and therefore can't vouch for the quality. I just think the premise is neat.**

Emily Wilde's Map of the Otherlands, Heather Fawcett (16 January)

Sequel to the charming novel about the fairy anthropologist.

Exordia, Seth Dickinson (23 January)

Well, it isn't a new Baru Cormorant, but this modern SF about first contact may be the next best thing.

City of Stardust, Georgia Summers (30 January)

New to me. A young woman descends into the underworld in order to break her family's fatal curse.

The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett (6 February)

New to me. A sherlock holmes flavored duo solves the mystery of the murder of an imperial official in a labyrinthine fantasy realm.

What Feasts at Night, T Kingfisher (13 February)

The sequel to the mushroom horror book What Moves the Dead.

The Warm Hands of Ghosts, Katherine Arden (13 February)

A ghost story set in WW1 about a woman searching for her missing brother.

The Fox Wife, Yangsze Choo (13 February)

New to me. A detective in 1908 Manchuria investigates a young woman's death in an area full of mythical foxes.

Redsight, Meredith Mooring (27 February)

New to me. Unpowered priestess and Imperial pawn is set on a collision path with a pirate with a grudge for the Imperium (Gay romance).

Sunbringer, Hannah Kaner (12 March)

Sequel about the professional godkiller Kissen.

Jumpnauts, Hao Jingfang (12 March)

New to me. A SF novel in translation from Chinese, with three scientists joining forces to deal peacefully with a first contact situation.

The Woods All Black, Lee Mandelo (19 March)

I liked Mandelo's debut novel very much so I'm excited to read this queer horror novella set in 1920s Appalachia.

Floating Hotel, Grace Curtis (19 March)

New to me. A series of cozy character vignettes on a space cruise ship after a murder has occurred. One of the four (!) space hotel murder crimes books coming out this year.

The Emperor and the Endless Palace, Justinian Huang (26 March)

New to me. Reincarnation gay romance set in 4 BCE China, the 1740s, and modern-day LA.

Alien Clay, Adrian Tchaikovsky (28 March)

Far future space xenoarchaeology by a man trapped on a prison planet.

Someone You Can Build a Nest In, John Wiswell (2 April)

New to me. Bizarre lesbian cannibalism monster romance from the point of view of the monster.

The Familiar, Leigh Bardugo (9 April)

Glad to see Bardugo writing more adult fantasy, and this one is especially exciting because it's a fantasy set in early modern Spain with a Jewish main character. Fun to see a more original historical period.

A Sweet Sting of Salt, Rose Sutherland (9 April)

New to me. Lesbian selkie romance.

Death in the Spires, KJ Charles (11 April)

Charles branching out from romance into historical Oxford murder mystery about a group of friends with dark secrets.

Audrey Lane Stirs The Pot, Alexis Hall (22 April)

The new Hall thinly veiled british baking show romcom. Libby says it's releasing in April but I've heard nothing from the author so I think it may be Alecto'd (shifted to next year)

Necrobane, Daniel M Ford (23 April)

Sequel to the dungeons and dragons-esque low fantasy lesbian necromancy book.

A Letter to the Luminous Deep, Sylvie Cathrall (25 April)

New to me. Sweet underwater epistolary academic romance.

How To Become the Dark Lord and Die Trying, Django Wexler (21 May)

New to me. A young hero caught in a fantasy time loop gives up and tries being the villain in an attempt to escape.

Goddess of the River, Vaishnavi Patel (21 May)

Another woman-centered retelling of Hindu mythology, this time based on the river goddess Ganga.

Escape Velocity, Victor Manibo (21 May)

New to me. Evil and toxic private school alumni jockey for position in a space hotel event in an attempt to escape a dying Earth.

The Fireborne Blade, Charlotte Bond (28 May)

New to me. Gay dragon slaying knight novella.

Evocation, ST Gibson (28 May)

New to me but looks very cool. Attorney and medium David attempts to escape his deal with the devil with the help of his ex boyfriend and his ex boyfriend's wife (Poly romance).

Service Model, Adrian Tchaikovsky (4 June)

In an SF future, a robot kills its human owners and ventures out into a world where human supremacy is beginning to crumble.

Lady Eve's Last Con, Rebecca Fraimow (4 June)

New to me. A con artist seeks revenge on the man who hurt her sister, who's coincidentally also on a space cruise ship (Sapphic romance subplot).

Triple Sec, TJ Alexander (4 June)

An actual mainstream published poly romance (!!) by trans author Alexander.

Running Close to the Wind, Alexandra Rowland (11 June)

Gay! Pirates! Scheming! Alt fantasy world! Monks! I liked Taste of Gold and Iron a lot and I'm very excited for this one.

The Knife and the Serpent, Tim Pratt (11 June)

New to me. Space opera about an interdimensional organization. Also, there's a sentient starship.

The Witchstone, Henry Neff (18 June)

A childhood favorite of mine's adult debut, featuring a demon who suddenly has to shape up at his curse keeper job after eight hundred years of slacking.

Rakesfall, Vajra Chandrasekera (18 June)

VERY excited to read more weird queer sff from this author after a fantastic debut. Looks weird. I'm in.

Foul Days, Genoveva Dimova (25 June)

New to me. A witch in a Slavic fantasy inspired world flees her evil ex, the Tsar of Monsters. There's also a plague and a detective.

Saints of Storm and Sorrow, Gabriella Buba (25 June)

New to me. Filipino inspired anticolonialist fantasy novel about a nun who is secretly practicing the religion of her goddess.

The Duke at Hazard, KJ Charles (18 July)

A queer regency with an incognito duke by one of my particular favorite romance authors.

Long Live Evil, Sarah Rees Brennan (30 July)

!!! Very excited to see a new adult fantasy by Brennan. A reader is dragged into a fictional world and finds herself the villain.

A Sorceress Comes to Call, T Kingfisher (20 August)

A retelling of The Goose Girl from reliably good fairy tale stalwart Kingfisher.

Buried Deep and Other Stories, Naomi Novik (17 September)

Collection of Novik's short stories.

Swordcrossed, Freya Marske (8 October)

VERY excited to see a new book by talented writer Marske. A man falls in love with the duelist hired for his arranged wedding. MEANWHILE. details of the fantasy world wool industry.

Feast While You Can, Mikaella Clements and Onjuli Datta (29 October)

New to me. Small town queer cave horror.

The Last Hour Between Worlds, Melissa Caruso (19 November)

Multiple reality murder mystery spy vs spy type antics, with lesbians.

[paradoxcase]

The Traitor Baru Cormorant, Chapter 3

I don't think this is how disease immunity works. Also, logically, if the people in the Masquerade were all actually immune to this plague, they wouldn't have brought it in the first place. I guess this plague must be similar to the flu, since it seems to be a virus that they have a vaccine for, that still regularly reoccurs in spite of that

I think "federati" is meant to invoke "foederati":

(Although the Masquerade's interest in Taranoke doesn't seem to be particularly military.)

So, their strategy for eugenics seems to be to just... not permit people to get married until they've been approved in some way? That's not remotely going to stop people from having children. Like, the actual IRL eugenics movement understood this and was non-consensually sterilizing people. I don't think the Masquerade just pretends that extra-marital sex doesn't happen, because if they did they probably would also just be pretending that gay sex doesn't happen

That is kind of a weird contradiction in the Masquerade's ethos - on the one hand, everyone is supposedly equal and can achieve any position through merit, but on the other hand, everyone is also doomed to be a good, useful person or not based on their genetics. It seems like they would have some sort of aphorism ready to resolve these two ideas since they both seem to be very central to their national identity, and you don't have to be smart to see that they're in direct contradiction, but for some reason Cairdine Farrier doesn't have anything to say to this

So I guess, from the rest of the chapter, that the "wolves" are the Stakhieczi and he is anticipating some war with them (and with someone else). Also interesting that he is now calling it "the Masquerade" when I think one of the first things he ever said to Baru was that calling it that was rude

So I guess we are meant to understand that "Treatymont" is an Aphalone name given by the Masquerade, and probably that also means that the other English placenames on the map, "Wintercrest" and "Oathsfire" are also meant to be translated Aphalone names

"Jurispotence" is a fun word, faux Latin modeled after "jurisprudence" but instead of meaning "knowledge of the law" transparently means "power of the law"

I like how effectively this communicates that they use family-name-first in Aurdwynn - it actually is kind of hard to clue people in when your fantasy country does names in a way that isn't a personal name followed by a family name because people will just assume that that's how it is by default. I think the only other book I've seen do this was K. J. Parker's Scavenger trilogy, but the way he introduced it there was so awkward. You kind of have to have people who are family in order to communicate this clearly, and those books just didn't really have a lot of characters that were related that way, I think actually none that were part of the relevant culture

Baru definitely said back in Chapter 2 that she had learned what the punishments for this were in the school, so I'm a little confused, here

Actually, these punishments are a little strange in general. They consider gayness to be a genetic affliction, but usually if you are considered to have bad genes it seems like the "punishment" for that is that you're not allowed to get married or presumably have children. Like, later on Cairdine Farrier talks about people who are "inferior" by virtue of being more susceptible to melanoma is just like "well, we'll just have to only breed them to each other". Like, the Masquerade seems real fond of violating people's bodily autonomy, but it doesn't seem like they're actually out there committing mass genocide to remove people with inferior genes. And even if they were, these punishments don't actually seem to be death sentences, they're punitive violence. If they believe that gayness is hardcoded in your genetics, why do they think that punitive violence will stop you from being gay? It's not clear how these punishments are actually meant to further their eugenics goals. It can't be that they think this is the only or best way to sterilize you, because there some real obvious ways to very effectively sterilize men that don't involve hot irons. At this point, this kind of seems like just a gratuitous punishment to show how evil the Masquerade is

Anyway, I guess if Salm does come back at some point, he will probably have suffered this

So I guess we will not be getting a reprieve from the violent homophobia?

I really really really much prefer the Locked Tomb approach to gay fantasy by saying "Diversity win! The Evil Empire is super gay!" to this approach of "The Evil Empire is super homophobic and hates my gay protagonist." I know you probably get drawn and quartered on tumblr if you say "I wish the protagonist of this book were not gay" but in this case I actually do almost wish she was not gay and we got to hear about whatever the author wants to say about homophobia from a non-POV character. I guess it's similar to how I don't like to read about aro or ace viewpoint characters having bad experiences as a result of their being aro or ace, and actually wasn't able to continue reading Loveless because of this, it's too close to home. I don't know, how do you guys feel about this?

Also, if any of you guys who has read this already can provide like, advance content warnings of any chapters were Baru maybe gets stabbed the crotch, that would be appreciated. Like, I'm still absolutely going to read it, it doesn't sound there will be any discussion of asexuality or aromanticism anywhere in this book, I'd just like to know beforehand

There's also, I think, kind of a disconnect between the Masquerade's homophobia and the use of the words "sodomite" and "tribidist", I think. The original connotation of these words isn't about who you are attracted to, it's about what you do - historically, Christians didn't care much about who you were attracted to, they just cared about whether or not you had gay sex. And even in the modern day, you will find plenty of conservative Christians who say things like "love the sinner, hate the sin" which basically translates to "we don't hate people who attracted to the same gender, we just hate people who have sex with people of the same gender" which is like, same difference for most people, but if they actually do really believe that, that does mean that the set of people they want to persecute is actually slightly different than the set of people we'd consider queer. That's the context for the word "sodomite", where it just refers to the action, and "tribidist" seems pretty analogous. But the Masquerade doesn't seem to actually see it that way. Lao was suspected of being a tribidist despite the fact that I don't get the impression at all that she was suspected of having had sex with anyone, and here is Baru worrying about being found out about who she's attracted to when she hasn't had sex yet, either. Earlier, Diline had said that whatever he was planning to do would "fix" Lao "before it enters the hereditary cells" - is "entering the hereditary cells" something that is supposed to happen after you have sex? Or is it just something that is supposed to happen when you get older? If it's just the latter, it's not clear why the book is using these particular words, unless it's just to invoke particularly old-school homophobia

Well, if this is going to get all intriguey and fantasy of manners now it might make up for whatever crotch-stabbing is probably occurring in the future

I won't say it's too early to be coming up with conspiracy theories because the last time I said that, my conspiracy theory that Corona was not actually a necromancer turned out to be true, so

I think it would be pretty fun if Cairdine Farrier turned out to be the Faceless Emperor

And really, who else would he turn out to be? He's obviously not who he claims to be, and we don't know anyone else from Falcrest, or the name of any other high-ranking title there. If it turns out he's secretly the Imperial Officer of Foreign Affairs or something, the reveal isn't impactful, because we've never heard of that guy and have no idea who he is or what his powers are. It doesn't really make sense for him to turn out to be anyone else, does it?

[dwellordream]

"Not even in death would Tain Hu serve Falcrest: not even as a pickled specimen or an entry in a catalogue of mental deformity. Baru would never let them map the rot of her body, never let them say, decomposition began in her liver, which had struggled to contain her sin... No. Let Tain Hu be laid to rest the way Baru's parents taught her. Let the birds scatter her across earth and sky. ...Baru remembered. She remembered all her dead."

Seth Dickinson, The Monster Baru Cormorant

[ladzwriting]

Instead of a trope map, here's a comp map

If you're looking for dark fantasy, spicy books, gothic horror, political fantasy, and some background on what rotted my brain to the slush that made THE FEALTY OF MONSTERS, here's a collection for you

THE FEALTY OF MONSTERS is a queer gothic horror political fantasy with vampires, body horror, magic, and the bloody politics that drove the Russian Revolution

Clockwise from the top: 👑 Rasputin: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs by Douglas Smith 🦟 Kalyna the Soothsayer by Elijah Kinch Spector 👑 Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake 🦟 The Wolf and the Woodsman by Ava Reid 👑 Kushiel's Dart by Jacqueline Carey 🦟 Vampire Hunter D by Hideyuki Kikuchi (illus. by Yoshitaka Amano) 👑 The Traitor Baru Cormorant by Seth Dickinson

Preorder here

[corpsesoldier]

sometimes I think about the first time I tried to read the monster baru cormorant and the map at the front made me cry and I had to set it aside for awhile. when will another book hurt me that bad.

[fictionandmusic]

omg are you reading Baru Cormorant ? thoughts ?

my thoughts are these books have changed my life !!!! i’m so obsessed with baru (& everyone in the series tbh) and how complex all the world building and relationships are, i feel like i can bite into it so deliciously

i’m almost done with the third book and I’ve really been putting off finishing it because I know it’s gonna make me so emotional and I know that the fourth one doesn’t even have a release dateeee

but I’m getting all the books for Christmas because I want to be able to have them all open when diff moment in diff books are being referenced & write in the margins of them and mark up the little maps, so i think that’ll motivate me to finally finish it 

I’ve also been proselytizing to all my friends about the book series in hopes someone else i know irl will read them & share my love!! especially my friends who’ve been talking about reading books with not a lot of good female characters bc this series is such a great cure for that !!

also I think seeing you post/reblog stuff about it sometimes was a lot of the reason I started reading the books in the first place so i’m glad we r full circle here haha 

[july-19th-club]

ok wwaitwaitwaitwait i got some duke math to do.

ok so who do we have left who's still on the board. first i think i need to check off who's already GONE:

radazchic: the fop, who dies first in his own ill-planned rebellion attempt (possibly cementing baru's idea for how to pass the test?)

nayaaru, autr, and sahuale all die in the same assassination, agreed upon by all the remaining dukes and instigated by baru

unuxekome goes down in naval battle (instigated by baru, playing to both his need for glory and his desire to impress her)

that leaves eight, who can be dispatched in the following ways:

erebog, currently having revolt problems, could be killed or otherwise made irrelevant if crushed by angry autr/sahuale remnants)

lachta, if you're counting xate olake as a duke, could be killed in close quarters or via purity, if purity comes back as is currently eliminating baru's competition in the test back in treatymont before she gets her own plans far enough to kill baru's

lyxaxu and oathsfire, both of whom will be in the battle at sieroch - good time to get rid of them, although it seems more likely that oathsfire will be the one to die on the field & lyxaxu some other way later on, post-battle

ihuake, same deal, i'm fairly sure she'll be at sieroch, although an easier way to get her would be in her camp, as she's not really a fighter so much as a behind-the-lines type of leader . maybe she goes after they win, possibly by some angry nayaaru remnant? (planned of course)

pinjagata who i keep forgetting about because baru spends the least amount of time with him or thinking about him: definitely out of the picture during sieroch if not very shortly afterward

and last but not least TAIN HU, which is personal

and that's how the world's worst little accountant ever assassinates an entire country's leadership by helping them win a rebellion against her real goal. what gets me most about this whole thing is: once she's in the secret council, surely they will all be thinking she'd do the same to them. she did it once, what's to stop her from taking out the entire underpinning of falcresti government, and what's to stop them from noticing, other than their own sense of inherent superiority (which members of the secret group probably don't share, since they tend to be intelligent sorts who don't go for societal illusions)? babygirl you got your work cut out for you

[athetos]

Opening up the monster baru cormorant and already I’m nervous because of how big the map is, all of aurdwynn last time felt huge but it’s only one territory here, and I can tell I’m not going to keep track of any of this as well as I did before. Also it shows that book 1 was just setting the stage and was so small in the grand scheme of things even though what baru did there is going to haunt her for the rest of her life. Goddamn.

[planet4546b]

image id: baru cormorant fanart showing a line drawing of baru and tain hu, standing together under a banner. baru looks at a map held in front of her, tain hu points over her shoulder. behind them looms the silhouette of a large coyote on a black background. end id.

The fairer Hand, her field general, The army of the coyote