SERIES: The Masquerade #1
AUTHOR: Seth Dickinson
GENRE: Fantasy, Lgbt
RELEASE DATE: September 15, 2015
WHERE TO BUY: Amazon
BOOK BLURB:
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.
THE REHASH
PROCEED WITH CAUTION MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
PROCEED WITH CAUTION MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD
- The Masquerade (Empire of Masks) start their conquering when Baru is 7. One of her fathers, Salm, is killed during a conflict war between Masquerade/Taranoke and the plainspeople, orchestrated by the Masquerade. Salm was killed because the Masquerade believe homosexuals are unhygienic and must be cleansed/cured.
- Baru starts attending a Falcresti school. She starts learning all the things.
- Lao, Baru's cousin, is found to be a tribadist and the social hygenist teacher (Diline) wanted to "cure" her.
- Baru befriends a navy officer Aminata to get rid of the teacher.
- Baru and Aminata become friends and is given a key to one of the exists of the school and is able to start sneaking out to talk to her parents again.
- Her parents don't think that Baru can fight The Masquerade from within and Baru doesn't think they can fight them with their spears.
- At 18 Baru takes the exam acing it. However, Aminata gets pissed at her because she finds out that the one time she helped Baru with her cousin/rape problem it wasn't really rape cause it was supposed to be a cure.
- Baru finds out that it was Cairdine Farrier, her patron, that betrayed that knowledge.
- Instead of getting sent to Falcrest to study more and start her own sort of conquering, she is sent to Aurdwynn as Imperial Accountant.
- Baru suspects this was because she went behind Farrier for the whole Lao problem.
- Baru is appointed an assistant from Aurdwynn, Muire Lo. She figures he was appointed to spy on her by Farrier and Farrier's creatures.
- Baru arrives at Aurdwynn and immediately pegs Xate Yawa as an enemy, current Jurisprudence and former assassin for the Empire, might be setting her sights on creating chaos in Aurdwynn.
- Baru also noticed that the Governor Cattlson almost bowed to Cairdine Farrier cementing her belief that Farrier is someone of more importance.
- Baru finds the Imperial Books in disarray and written in Oriati. Proceeds to start from scratch and gets all the receipts and such from the Fiat Bank to make her own books
- Baru visits the Jurisprudence and finds out about the Cold Cellar were chemical conditioning is done for social issues (cheating, being gay, etc)
- Aminata asks Baru if she wants to go out before she leaves with the ship the next day. They get drunk and find Muire Lo arguing with a big man. He ends up getting strangled and Aminata and Baru save the day. Muire Lo says he thought she might be getting killed that night which is why he was watching them.
- The next morning Xata Yawa comes to "apologize" for having set her man on watching her. Baru deduces she is in danger of getting killed and needs to go somewhere that would make this harder. Muire Lo advices Vultjag, and so she goes on the excuse of an audit.
- On the way to Vultjag, Tain Hu shows Baru the riots in Northarbor, followers defending a secret temple to Wydd.
- The Garrison throws acid at the followers to mark them with burn marks and then round them up and send them to the Cold Cellar.
- Tain Hu and Baru realize that the Falcresti allow this to happen so it's easier to see who are the dissidents. A honey pot scheme.
- Baru starts her audit and finds out that Vultjag used her own people to counterfeit and then launder the money back to her by selling her own land to them. She used the talented ilykari that were awaiting trial in the Cold Cellar to counterfeit the money.
- Baru approaches Cattlson with the information and he dismisses her as if she had no clue what she was talking about.
- Baru decides to act on her own and orders the Bank to print new money and allow it's ducal branches to offer small loans to private citizen but only on gold and silver. Effectively destroying the value of the Fiat note. This in turn caused poverty, riots, starvation etc.
- Three years later she meets Apparitor, member of "steering committee" the people behind the actions of the throne. (See highlights)
- In the three years since, she has had an arrangement with Bel Latheman, the Principal Factor of the Fiat Bank, to make it seem as if they were courting. Latheman finally wants an end to it because his reputation went to the gutters after what Baru did. He threatens Baru to give him a nice pension and a marriage certification or he'll tell Xate Yawa that she never looks at men. Baru answers by demanding a duel.
- Baru is visited by the Phantom Duke (Xate Yawa's brother). Tells her they don't need her and they'll have to wait 10years to act again. Baru disagrees.
- Cattlson finds out about the duel and incensed confronts Baru. Tells her that if she doesn't desist she will end up maimed or otherwise incapacitated and he would appoint a different Accountant, and in the mean time since she had ordered a change of guard, he assigned his own guards on her.
- The new guard is a Clarified. A person bred and conditioned in Falcrest to serve and only serve. Xate Yawa gives Baru one of the words of power that allow a measure of control over him.
- Baru offers Xate Yawa the tax money if they accept to start the rebellion by offering her a second for the duel.
- Day of the duel comes and Xate Yawa declines by not offering a second. Instead Tain Hu steps in as second and destroys Cattlson. The Rebellion has now been sparked. Baru ends up fleeing to Vultjag for safety.
- Baru meets up with the rest of the Dukes that want to start the Rebellion and so the planning starts.
- Baru's plan to hand over the vessels that carry the tax money is to hand over herself to Falcrest and therefore be on the ships, and so the highest commanding officer.
- She orders the escort to separate from the tax vessels so they can "hunt down pirates", while they dock in Duke Unuxekome's port. Here the fight starts.
- Clarified Cartone attacks Unuxekome and is shot in the chest with an arrow but manages to run off.
- The Xate Siblings start the riots back in Treatymont. Radaszic chose the rebels side but instead of fighting or keeping Heingyl away, he ran the other way and ends up dying by his hand.
- Baru ends up having to prove her loyalty to the cause again with various tests by Tain Hu.
- Baru decides she will be able to break the Traitors Qualm by finally renouncing her post and her "loyalty" to the mask.
- Baru asks to get Muire Lo into the rebellion with her.
- They manage to get Duchess Erebog on the rebellion side after her own citizens had enough uprisings that left them with no food stocks.
- By the time they manage to get Muire Lo to Vultjag, he is infected with pox. Baru can't see him for fear of infection and Muire Lo dies a day after.
- Baru decides they need to be seen and so she takes an army with Tain Hu and marches all around Aurdwynn. The commoners call them the Army of the Coyote.
- Spring comes and Nayauru decides to attack Ihuake instead of not deciding on which side to fall in. Baru's countermeasure is to pick off the ones too slow to keep up the march.
- They run into Nayauru's army and end up having to engage them. During the fight Baru and her escorts find a man running towards them, he gets shot down and they realize it's one of their own. The man was shouting "I left it in the well!" (Still no clue what this was about, no one bothers to freaking check?!)
- Oathfires' archers scout a set of wagons stuck in the mud and proceed to pick them off. The wagons contained the wages of Nayauru's men. With no pay they mutinied.
- Nayauru and the rest of the Midlands finally agreed to meet with the Rebel North. After 2 days of going nowhere Baru orders Unuxekome to kill Nayauru, Autr, and Sahuale, and he agrees by hoping that Baru will agree to marry him.
- Instead Clarified Cartone kills Nayauru on orders from Xate Olake. Cartone has been disguised as a Stakhezi woodsman after Xate Yawa had cast him out.
- Baru interrogates Clarified Cartone who is more than happy to oblige since he still sees her as the highest Flacresti order. He tells her that the secret-keeper ilykari priestess is an agent of the Paramount masters. Baru then orders Cartone to kill her.
- After divvying Nayauru's lands between Erebog and Ihuake, Baru and Tain Hu head back to her duchy with Xate Olake and Dziransi.
- Dziransi makes an offer to Baru from their "Necessary King". Baru rejects the offer of marriage for an alliance against the Masquerade but has to accept the "gift" of 2000 Stakhieczi warriors against Cattlson's army and agrees to meet their king afterwards.
- Before the battle Baru had mentioned a scheme to Unuxekome on the sly, and he took the bait and tried to take Treatymony harbor. Failed and died.
- During the battle Lyxaxu turns traitor and tries to kill Baru. He take a crossbow bolt to the heart from Xate Olake. Baru wins the battle.
- After the battle she finally confesses to Tain Hu and they have their night together.
- In the morning, she orders Xate Olake to take Tain Hu past Wintercrest, because she has been "cast out".
- Baru rides to the South to meet up with the Marines and the Apparitor and turns the rebels over to the Masquerade.
- During this exchange, Oathsfire figures out why Lyxaxu "turned traitor" and tries to kill Baru. He dies, but Baru takes a blow to the head from a guardsman.
- Afterwards, all the rebel Dukes and Duchess are killed one by one. Ihuake is poisoned, Erebog is burned and Pinjagata is knifed.
- Baru is taken to Elidad Keep to recuperate and await her last test to ascend. Here they find out the extent of Baru's injury. She, not only can't see anything from her right side, it simply doesn't exist to her
- A month later her last test arrives in the form of Tain Hu. Apparitor had Xate Olake killed and Tain Hu brought to the keep.
- Baru gets to have some last words with Tain Hu. She has accepted what Baru has done and after everything she still thinks that Baru can achieve her purpose, not only freedom for Taranoke but a free Aurdwynn, which is why she tells Baru what she thinks her last test actually is.
- The council works because each one knows a dark secret of the other and uses that fear to control them. The only secret the council can guess at is that Baru is a tribadist. Tain Hu advises Baru to watch her die without flinching and never beg to save her, because they will offer and if she accepts that's how they'll chain her.
- So Baru watches her die without flinching and doesn't save her and denies the "lie" that Tain Hu had told Apparitor of them having slept together. (This is when she finds out that Apparitor's dark secret is that he is a sodomite)
- Once Baru reaches Falcrest she starts sending out letters to:
- Aminata, now made lieutenant commander. She wants to discuss "Admiralty politics and the mutability of government"
- Cartone, making him her sole Clarified, and now ordering him to find the Stakhieczi king and tell him that she has located the missing Stakhi Prince.
- Xate Yawa, telling her she sees what her plan was and that she tried to save her brother but at the same time she is glad he didn't get a chance to find out about her treachery.
The End.
REHASHED BY:
ELLA
1 comments
Thats fantasy.
ReplyDeleteSeventh-Heaven is muuuuuch different
than bookish fantasy which only goes
to the last page. How bore'n.
Seventh-Heaven goes for a whole, lot
longer than 999,999+ omnidirection/
omnipresent/oemnillionsOyears, dear:
♡ en.gravatar.com/MatteBlk ♡
Love you.
Cya soon.
be@peace.
-GBY