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| Hardcover, 458 pages Published 2018 Acquired October 2018 Read November 2018 |
It took its time getting here, but at least we have the sequel to 2015's The Traitor Baru Cormorant, the second of four installments in the Masquerade series. It's much less focused than the first installment, for two reasons. The first followed Baru from girlhood as she attempted to obtain a position of power in the Masquerade; in this one her goal is much more amorphous (something something destroy the Masquerade). Additionally, the first book told one complete story despite implying follow-ups; Monster is very obviously the first part of a larger story.
Both of these things made it harder for me to like Monster as much as I did Traitor. It took a considerable time for the direction of the book to come into focus, though the more it did, the more interested in it I was.
I also thought that Baru and her fellow cryptarch, Apparitor, didn't always impress as being the powerful manipulators they ought to. Baru is weirdly naïve at times; Apparirtor weirdly cowardly. I expected Baru to be more proactive, but she's actually more reactive than in book 1, despite possessing more power than before.
Still, I think I liked it. If the story begun in this volume finishes in book 3, it will probably take that book for me to know for sure. Dickinson writes strong characters, great prose, and I especially like his worldbuilding. It's a trend I'm noticing in more sf of late: attention to the particularities of culture and the interactions between them (it's also a key feature of Ancillary Justice and its sequels). Little details and big ideas-- no society is just one way, and the way the societies affect and absorb each other is as important as their existence in the "pure" states. Dickinson has built up a complex, living world, and I look forward to seeing it evolve, and to discovering Baru's place in it.
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