Originally envisioned as a trilogy, Seth Dickinson’s The Masquerade—which began with The Traitor Baru Cormorant and continues this fall with The Monster Baru Cormorant—will be getting a fourth novel, completing this critically acclaimed epic fantasy saga.
“Three books weren’t enough for Baru’s ambitions—or for the surprises she had in store for me,” Dickinson reveals. “A fourth book gives her the resources and scale she needs to reach for true world domination… and, harder yet, maybe a chance at real happiness. Of course, it’ll give her enemies more space to work, too.”
The Masquerade is the story of Baru Cormorant, a young queer woman whose island nation is subjugated by the Empire of Masks. To free her people and end the Masquerade’s tyranny, Baru sets herself on a course to be educated by the empire, rise within its ranks, and destroy it from the inside.
“It was intended to be a trilogy,” explains Tor Senior Editor Marco Palmieri. “But as time and writing process demonstrated, the story Seth set out to tell in the middle novel proved too ambitious to be contained a single reasonably sized volume. The original manuscript came in around 360,000 words. Seth retooled the story into two large novels—not simply a matter of splitting it in half, but revising and expanding the narrative even further so that the books work more independently. It’s very exciting, the way the series is evolving, and I know Seth’s readers will be very pleased with the results.”
The Traitor Baru Cormorant is available now at the links below, or from your favorite retailer.
Tomorrow, on the beach, Baru Cormorant will look up 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 will 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, join the Masquerade, and claw her way high enough up the rungs of power to set her people free.
To test her loyalty, the Masquerade will send Baru to bring order to distant Aurdwynn, a snakepit of rebels, informants, and seditious dukes. 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.
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The Traitor Baru Cormorant
The Monster Baru Cormorant publishes October 30th—pre-order available at the links below.
The traitor Baru Cormorant is now the cryptarch Agonist—a secret lord of the empire she’s vowed to destroy.
Hunted by a mutinous admiral, haunted by the wound which has split her mind in two, Baru leads her dearest foes on an expedition for the secret of immortality. It’s her chance to trigger a war that will consume the Masquerade.
But Baru’s heart is broken, and she fears she can no longer tell justice from revenge…or her own desires from the will of the man who remade her.
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The Monster Baru Cormorant
