/lit/ - Literature

>>19267634
The Tyrant Baru Cormorant - The Masquerade #3, Seth Dickinson
Unlike this previous two, this entry is told through a frame story. As with any frame story it's always unclear just how reliable or accurate the narrator is being, but I didn't see any reason to not believe what was being told. I don't think there would be any point to do so aside from speculation anyway. This book was better than the second, though not anywhere as enjoyable for me as the first, as it becomes ever more different from how it started. Some would call that evolution and others would say it's a bait and switch. My thoughts fall somewhere between. None of the characters particularly interest me, which is the greatest limitation on my enjoyment of this series. I was glad to see that the "A Story of Ash" split narrative was greatly reduced in overall length, as it was the low point of both the previous book and this one as well. For the first half or so, Baru continues on being ever more disabled, and I continued to be unable to appreciate that. The organization introduced in the second book was rather a let down to me, though I think that was also intentional. The last third changes pace and becomes less action oriented and more focused on infodumping and discussing ideas. I didn't mind that, though I wondered if it really needed to be such a discrete change. By the end, Baru has had, depending on how it's defined, sex with four women, teased a fifth, pines after a sixth, and promises to soon have as much sex as possible with as many women as possible.Considering how conveniently this book ends, it could've easily have been a trilogy, but the epilogue sets up a fourth. In terms of the narrative I find this to be rather odd, because I feel like it'll be more the first book of a new trilogy rather than the fourth. Even though the author says the next book is the final one, it just doesn't feel right. I would've been entirely satisfied with this as the final book, though I'm also interested in what possibly could happen with the fourth.
Rating: 3/5