Such a good book, so well written.
The book touches a number of tough topics. Baru is a deviant (at least in the society she chooses), exploited talent in a colonial system, a skilled administrator and accountant–and how easy is it to make accounting sound interesting?
At the heart of it is Baru, who is very engagingly written and someone I was interested in seeing both what she chose to do, and what she’d pay doing it.
The author does a great job of making her viewpoint consistent and engaging; I was a huge fan of Baru, even as a child in a terrible system. The empire she serves feels like a well established empire, successful at recruiting and converting at least some locals to support the system.
It’s engaging and well written; while there is strong closure, I can also imagine a sequel. Whichever way it goes, I’ll pay attention to Seth Dickinson going forward.