Book review: "The Traitor Baru Cormorant" by Seth Dickinson
Jun. 20th, 2025 05:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rocky41_7 posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
fffridayOn Saturday afternoon, on the bus ride home, I finished The Traitor Baru Cormorant, because I couldn't wait until I got home to reach the end, despite a long history of reading-induced car sickness. It was totally worth it.
The Traitor Baru Cormorant is all fantasy politics. There's no magic or fairies or prophecies, just Seth Dickinson's invented world and the titanic machinations of Empire. And it is electric. Tentatively, I'd make a comparison to The Goblin Emperor, except that where TGE is about how Maia, completely unprepared for his role, is thrust into a viper's nest of politics, Baru Cormorant is about how Baru has painstakingly taught herself the ways of the empire and enters into the game fully prepared to rewrite the rules to her liking.
Dickinson creates a wonderfully believable world. The Empire of Masks—popularly known as the Masquerade—is sickeningly plausible, with their soft conquests of money and ideas backed by a highly-trained and well-equipped military. The Masquerade is not content to conquer land—it must conquer minds, people. It is relentless in its push to force its colonies and territories to adopt its ways of thinking, to the point of dictating who may and may not marry based on their bloodlines. With this comes a heaping dose of homophobia, frequently enforced on cultures who had formerly been relaxed or even accepting of queer identities and relationships. This presents a specific problem for Baru, who is the daughter of a mother and two fathers, and who is herself a deeply closeted lesbian.
The story makes use of incredibly mundane tools in its schemes, something that also rings realistic. It's not all backstabbing, murder, and blackmail—at one point, a serious political threat is nullified through currency inflation. Baru, who becomes an imperial accountant, is in a prime position to use these seemingly dull tools to marvelous effect. Many schemes are strangled in the cradle, such that only the plotter and the defeater are even aware that they existed. But the game goes on.
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Book review: "Even though I Knew the End" by C.L. Polk.
Jun. 20th, 2025 07:20 amrocky41_7 posting in fffridayOn Monday's outbound commute I finished the audiobook for Even Though I Knew the End by C.L. Polk. This is a supernatural/fantasy noir romance and it does pack a lot of all three of those things into its brief 4-hour runtime.
This book relies heavily on stock film noir tropes—the veteran down-and-out private (paranormal) investigator (here a lesbian, Helen, our protagonist) who drinks too much and is haunted by past mistakes, a mysterious and sexy female client with a unique case, and "just one last" job before the PI plans to quit and retire with a beloved romantic partner. I didn't find them overused—and seeing them reworked to queer and female characters was fun—but other readers may find them too worn out even here.
Because the book is so short, it moves along at a very rapid pace. The whole thing takes place over the course of two days—the final two days before Helen's soul debt is called due and she finally has to pay the price of her warlock bargain. In this way, any rush felt appropriate, since it fit both the size of the novel and the context of Helen's urgency to get this last job done before she has to pay up.
The characters weren't super developed, but again—4-hour runtime. They're a little stock character-y, but not total cardboard cut-outs. It was disappointing for me to see Helen make the same mistake at the end of the book that she did prior to the start, as if she hadn't really learned anything, but since the novel ends promptly after that, the story never has to reckon much with it.
I was relieved that Edith, Helen's girlfriend, wasn't just the damsel in distress/goal object for Helen, which I was a bit worried about in the beginning. Edith has secrets and goals of her own.
Overall, the book was fine, and it entertained me well enough for a few days. Nothing extraordinary here, but nothing objectionable either. I will say I think keeping it short worked best for this book—I think drawing it out might have only weakened it. A fun little twist on a typical noir novel.
Crossposted tobooks and my main
Crossposted to
books and my mainTwo New Vids (BtVS)
Jun. 14th, 2025 02:22 pmtafadhali posting in viddingperiru3 and I have posted the first two vids in our ongoing vid album Jagged Little Slayer, a mashup of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and Alanis Morissette:Title: All I Really Want
Character/Pairing: Buffy-centric, minor Buffy/Angel, Buffy/Faith, Buffy/Spike
Summary: Here, can you handle this?
Notes: Premiered at VidUKon 2025.
AO3 | DW | Tumblr
Naruto: Fest no Jutsu 2025
Jun. 13th, 2025 09:18 pmgerard_way_is_sexah posting in fandomcalendarDescription: Do you have a Naruto fanfiction you'd love to read, but just can't seem to find? A familiar trope, ship, or character you can't get enough of? A piece of fanart you want to see come to life? Are you a fan creator who wants fresh inspiration and a fun, low-stakes challenge? The r/NarutoFanfiction Discord server is hosting a fest/prompt meme for Naruto fanworks - and we would love for you to join! Naruto fans of all ages (13+) are welcome to cheerlead, submit ideas for fanworks they'd like to see, and create fanworks for others. Fic minimums for filling a prompt are 500 words and art minimums are a finished piece.
Prompting Period: Now-June 20
Works due & revealed: September 10
Creators revealed: September 17
An AO3 account is required for participation, and joining the r/NarutoFanfiction Discord server is highly recommended. By joining the server, you can participate in conversations about the event, make suggestions for this and future server events, and contact the moderators directly. For full event rules and for more information on how a fest/prompt meme works, please check the AO3 collection profile. If you don't wish to join the server, but still wish to participate and ask questions about the event, you may e-mail gerardwayissexah@gmail.com as well.
Links:
AO3 Collection Profile (signup and view submitted prompts)
Discord Server Join Link (never expires)
Prompting Period: Now-June 20
Works due & revealed: September 10
Creators revealed: September 17
An AO3 account is required for participation, and joining the r/NarutoFanfiction Discord server is highly recommended. By joining the server, you can participate in conversations about the event, make suggestions for this and future server events, and contact the moderators directly. For full event rules and for more information on how a fest/prompt meme works, please check the AO3 collection profile. If you don't wish to join the server, but still wish to participate and ask questions about the event, you may e-mail gerardwayissexah@gmail.com as well.
Links:
AO3 Collection Profile (signup and view submitted prompts)
Discord Server Join Link (never expires)
Naruto: NejiTen Month 2025
Jun. 13th, 2025 08:50 pmgerard_way_is_sexah posting in fandomcalendarDescription: NejiTen Month is a monthlong event for fans of the romantic pairing between Neji Hyuga/Hyuga Neji and Tenten. Fanart, fanfiction, moodboards, podfics, edits, and other kinds of fanworks are welcome! Prompts posted to Tumblr are just for inspiration - feel free to disregard, complete out of order, or combine however you please. There are no minimums for either the amount of effort put into a work, or the number of works you post for the event. It's all welcome!
Schedule: Post works to Tumblr and/or Archive of Our Own (AO3) July 1-July 31st.
Posting: Tag works on Tumblr with #nejitenmonth2025 in the first five tags so the mod can reblog everything. Please tag on AO3 with NejiTen Month 2025 or something similar. The AO3 collection is also an option.
Links:
Tumblr Blog
Full Event Rules
AO3 Collection
Schedule: Post works to Tumblr and/or Archive of Our Own (AO3) July 1-July 31st.
Posting: Tag works on Tumblr with #nejitenmonth2025 in the first five tags so the mod can reblog everything. Please tag on AO3 with NejiTen Month 2025 or something similar. The AO3 collection is also an option.
Links:
Tumblr Blog
Full Event Rules
AO3 Collection
Adventures Elsewhere — May 2025
Jun. 11th, 2025 10:55 pmhelloladies posting in ladybusinessAdventures Elsewhere collects our reviews, guest posts, articles, and other content we've spread across the Internet recently! See what we've been up in our other projects. :D
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Our Favourite Media of May 2025
Jun. 10th, 2025 10:51 pmhelloladies posting in ladybusinessEach month, we look back over the media we loved in the previous month, from books to film to video games and more. This entry in the series was written a while ago, but we haven't posted a favorite media since then, so we're posting it now for maximum completion!
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