Seth Dickinson's Masquerade series raises essential and provocative questions about society
Grand Entrance
This week I finished my re-read of the Masquerade novels by Seth Dickinson: The Traitor Baru Cormorant, The Monster Baru Cormorant and The Tyrant Baru Cormorant. As with my first read of these books a little over two years ago, I find myself in utter awe at the brilliance and scope of these novels, with a strong impulse to declare them my favourite speculative fiction pieces.
I've previously referenced Seth Dickinson's series with regard to its worldbuilding and lesbian representation, but today and over the next couple weeks I'm going to take a significantly deeper look at the ideas and wisdom it has to offer. Now, providing a useful summary would take forever, so I'll do my best to keep things comprehensible and avoid plot spoilers while not shying away from the central themes of the text.
That being said, I can't recommend these books highly enough – before or after you read my posts about them.
So, what is this series?
As I tried to explain previously but lacked the term, the Masquerade series is hard fantasy with (creatively adapted) rational ideas and phenomena in place of magic. It is also deeply interested in sociology, stripping down colonialism into its many horrifying aspects to be confronted by its protagonist while also exploring other systems of political power.
(A central question in this world is how the colonizing, hygienic, ingratiating Falcrest will devour the millennium-old, continent-spanning, traditional Oriati Mbo – the survival and flourishing nature of which defies Falcrest's belief that their ways are the best and only.)
And I still haven't even mentioned the two most frequent descriptors of this series: it is queer and brutal as hell. (Maybe neurodivergent should be in there as well; I've seen claims that both author and protagonist are on the spectrum and it certainly works well for my lil brain.) Author Seth Dickinson is a fairly private person, but an interview earlier this year used they/them pronouns for them so I'll do the same.
The Players
Baru Cormorant by Canmom
Baru Cormorant, later codename Agonist, is a child when Falcrest begins its insidious colonization of her home island of Taranoke. Her cleverness leads her to be given a place at the new Falcresti colonial school – a direct reference to real historical residential schools – where she is quickly taught all the ways her society and family (with mother Pinion and fathers Solit and Salm) are improper and "unhygienic". At the school, being conditioned to hide and fear her lesbian sexuality ("tribadism") and internalizing Falcrest's philosophies, Baru is sheltered and vaccinated while infighting and smallpox are intentionally unleashed on her people.
Is it any surprise then, that upon graduation Baru dedicates her life to dismantling Falcrest from within?
Cairdine Farrier, codename Itinerant, is a charming and fatherly merchant always willing to offer a little wisdom developed over the course of his many travels. I absolutely love when we finally see him at home in the third book, and he shows off his jolly entertainer side:
Cairdine Farrier peeked out from behind the Throne. “Am I late?” Affectionate applause, cheers, boos, whistles of love and lust; he came dancing down the steps, wearing the polestar of Imperial authority on his half-mask. His handsome beard smiled with his mouth. “Yes, it’s me! Back home at last. If there are any of you who doubted I was one of the Emperor’s advisors, well, I hope you pay your bets. I am here today, more publicly than usual, because I need your absolute trust. Welcome. No, please, I mean that sincerely. Welcome. I’m glad you’re here. I never, ever dreamed I’d have the chance to share this moment with you.” The hundred steps leading up to the Throne were just slightly too large for a human to mount. Farrier came hopping down them like an eager bird.
Such a swell, lovable guy. Shame he's also dedicated to using operant conditioning through colonial schools to achieve a world where all unhygienic behaviour and thought is avoided and punished within the self until a world-spanning Falcresti society is entirely self-controlled. A horrifying question in the series is whether he has succeeded in this goal with Baru.
(While Farrier is the face of colonialism in the series, it's noteworthy that he – and everyone in this world except for the far northern Stakhieczi – isn't white. Skin colour simply isn't a factor of prejudice in this world: instead that discrimination is powerfully and horrifyingly cultural. I think this is a brilliant way of re-contextualizing these issues, as it shines a more direct light while avoiding our world's absurd obsession with hue and shade.)
Duchess Tain Hu by ConejoBlanco
Tain Hu is love, Tain Hu is life. She is a fascinating mirror to Farrier in that both are charming, successful and vibrant; both are deeply entangled with Baru's past and future. Yet everywhere Farrier is constructed and calculated, Tain Hu is genuine and passionate. Baru and Tain Hu's relationship is the stuff of legends, and is probably deserving of its own post some day. For now, to avoid spoilers, I'll simply say that Tain Hu is the one potential wrench in Farrier's dream of machinic control.
Tau-Indi Bosoka, Xate Yawa, Apparitor, Iscend Comprine, Shao Lune, and Aminata isiSegu all by ArianWells
These books are full of incredible and fascinating characters I'd love to go in-depth on. Tau-Indi Bosoka is a lovely non-binary ("lamen") Prince of the Oriati Mbo who demonstrates the Oriati belief in the interconnectedness of all people and beings. Xate Yawa is an older, calloused rival and colleague to Baru who wants freedom for her home just as Baru wants freedom for Taranoke.
Apparitor is a gay lightning-touched explorer mountain prince, turned dangerous cryptarch. Iscend Comprine is a physically perfect machine-like creation of genetics and life-long conditioning, beginning to break free. Shao Lune is a beautiful cutthroat political opportunist. Aminata is a childhood friend of Baru and member of Falcrest's navy, constantly fighting against stereotypes and expectations of her Oriati parentage.
I love them, and so will you. Did I say you should read these books?
The Name of the Game
"Two Sides of the Same Coin": Tain Shir and Baru by furniture_piece
In an incredibly insightful blog post from 2015, Seth Dickinson laid out their vision behind the first book. It's absolutely worth a read, but to boil it down to a ridiculous degree:
The central conflict of the book is the Masquerade’s attempt to condition Baru into compliance, while Tain Hu pulls the other way. These are the villains of the story, and the stories of the villains: - Gender is biology. (In a feudal power game, women serve as prizes, not leaders.) - Race is destiny. (When the colonizers arrive, the poor simple colonized are overwhelmed.) - Queer relationships are doomed. (In a homophobic world, queer people suffer and die.)
I love that Seth chose to confront these ideas, I love that they imagined this incredible world in order to do so and I love the complex way they go about it.
Gender in this series alone could be the topic of any number of essays:
the Falcresti Navy is primarily composed of women, while Falcresti men wear make-up and often are seen as overly passionate and given to emotions
the Stakhieczi have a huge divide between expectations and responsibilities of men and women, except they define men by who is dominant and women by who is submissive, leading to a couple hilarious moments where Baru explains why she is technically a man in their culture
and the Oriati, as seen with Tau-Indi, have lamen and transgender people – both of which Falcresti ambassadors and agents are happy to accept and go along with, believing it is an issue to be solved sociologically rather than personally or violently.
The question of Baru's compliance so far will be my focus next week, followed by a final (for now) post speculating about where the fourth and final book will go.
Thanks so much for reading, please get in touch if there are any ideas here you'd like to hear more about in the next couple posts! Until next week <3
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