Donald Maass Literary Agency

NPR: To read The Traitor Baru Cormorant is to sink inexorably into a book that should not be anywhere near as absorbing as it is — to realize that the white-knuckled grip with which you hold it was provoked by several consecutive pages of loans, taxes and commodity trading. It seems impossible that the economics of a fantasy world should be so viscerally riveting, but they are, and it’s incredible: You think you’re on solid ground right up until you feel that ground closing around your throat.

This is not a happy book. It is not an uplifting book. But it is a crucial, necessary book — a book that looks unflinchingly into the self-replicating virus of empire, asks the hardest questions, and dares to answer them.

Washington Post: Narrated by a young woman seeking revenge, Seth Dickinson’s first novel, “The Traitor Baru Cormorant,” is a fascinating tale of political intrigue and national unrest. Baru Cormorant is just a girl when the Empire of Masks conquers her island. The new rulers create roads and better sanitation, but their strong-fisted policies erode the country’s economy and punish the people cruelly if they don’t adhere to a rigid code of sexual conduct. Baru decides that the only way to fight such oppression is to infiltrate the government. But just how brutal will she have to become to undermine an empire? Dickinson moves the plot steadily along as he explores issues of sexual oppression and colonial power.

Library Journal: VERDICT: The author blends familiar steampunk and fantasy elements (airships, wizardry, and heroes from a monarch’s guard) in a fresh and wonderful way that results in a fantastic ride. This should well satisfy fans of fantasy, sf, or their stepchild steampunk.

With this novel, Butcher (“The Dresden Files” series) launches a new fantasy series, and it is a splendid beginning indeed. After throwing a carefully calculated tantrum, Gwendolyn Lancaster, heir to one of the most powerful families in Spire Albion, enlists in the Spirearch’s Guard in which she meets her cousin Benedict, a warriorborn who has the blood of lions in his veins, and Bridget Tagwynn, last daughter of a fallen house and her guardian cat, Rowl. Adding to the mix is Captain Grimm and his airship Predator; the ensemble cast is completed with etherealist Master Ferus and his apprentice Folly. These characters’ individual concerns are soon washed away by an invasion of the spire and a call from the Spirearch himself for their unique talents. Like many a Butcher novel, once the setup is complete, the action is nonstop to the end.

Tor.com: Be she traitor or patriot by the end of the book — ­to who might be the more pertinent question­–Baru Cormorant must be the most memorable character fantasy fiction will feature in 2015. Happily, the narrative Dickinson designs around her is every inch as rich and convincing. His debut is paced like a race­–excepting some slight slowdown in advance of a surprisingly action-packed last act–­and never less than poetically put.

All told, The Traitor Baru Cormorant is a devastating debut­–and doubly so due to a twist in the tale I’ll be damned if Dickinson doesn’t nail. A financial fantasy reminiscent of nothing so as The Folding Knife, it’s filling, chilling and thoroughly thrilling.

Read the full review of The Traitor Baru Cormorant at Tor.com.