Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

This was another one of my series-sampling audio listens, to see if I might want to pursue it in print someday. The verdict: NO!

Audio Narration
The narrator is Christine Marshall. I didn’t really care for her narration. Something indefinable just didn’t work for me. Part of it might be that I disliked Baru, so maybe that influenced my feelings for the voice that was narrating her, but I felt the same way even in the beginning when I was still interested in her.

I definitely had some trouble telling who was talking at times, as well as telling if Baru was speaking out loud or internally. The narrator could have done better at distinguishing voices, but I also blame this issue to some extent on the text itself for not having more cues that would work well in an audio format. I have by this point listened to many narrators who didn’t do the greatest job at distinguishing between character voices, and it can be a non-issue if the text itself makes it clear.

Story
When Baru’s a child, her people are conquered by an empire with advanced technology and a rigid belief system. Baru’s intelligence captures the attention of the empire and she’s sent to one of their schools. She excels there, but she never forgets her roots, and hopes to gain power within the empire so that she can eventually bring about their downfall. When she finishes school, the empire sends her to be the “Imperial Accountant� in a position where her two predecessors were both murdered.

In the beginning, I thought I was going to like this. Baru seemed like an interesting and nuanced character, and the story was heavily political which is something I often enjoy. However, all the plotting and the politics somehow began to grow tedious and I started spacing out on it. Additionally, I grew to dislike Baru more and more. With neither the main character nor the story holding my interest, this became a chore to listen to.

Baru is portrayed as a savant, at least in terms of finances and political strategy. However, I wasn’t convinced that she always made logical decisions. In any case, she often seemed incapable of considering multiple perspectives or accounting for the possible actions and reactions of the people around her. She’s very single-minded, wanting to achieve her goals at all costs, no matter how much damage her actions cause. I was sick to death of her by the end.

The following is a big spoiler for the ending. (view spoiler)[I thought the title at least somewhat spoiled the twist(?) at the end, when Baru betrays her fellow traitors. If the title had just referred to her being a traitor to the empire, it would have seemed way too obvious. I knew it was definitely possible that there was nothing more to it than the obvious explanation, but I’d also considered that it might have a double meaning, so I wasn’t surprised by her choices. Besides, it seemed like the scummy sort of thing she’d do. I also very much disliked the connivance to keep this “twist� from the reader even though we were in Baru’s head. It didn’t feel genuine to me that she’d simply blocked it from her mind until the moment came because she was so horrified by it. Having Baru question herself about it afterward and bemoan it at length didn’t make it feel more genuine for me (hide spoiler)].