The Tyrant
Page 81
“I have no worldly idea,” she said. “I have no idea at all. But it’s terrible. It’s atrocious.”
They had to make it home. They had to tell someone. There was something across the sea. Something in the storm. A threat to all civilization.
She wondered what the Emperor would do about it.
Acknowledgments
Sine qua non: Gillian Conahan, Jennifer Jackson, Will Hinton.
The following provided comprehensive and timely feedback on early drafts of the story: Maya Chhabra, Caitlin Starling, Neal Hebert, Sloane Leong, Django Wexler, Tom Crayford, Ursula Whitcher, John Chu, and Kalya Nedungadi. I am especially indebted to those readers whose people have experienced, or are still experiencing, the same tragedies that Baru glimpsed on Taranoke and Kyprananoke. All errors, misrepresentations, and mistakes are my own, and do not reflect on the expertise or preferences of these readers.
I owe continued thanks to Rachel Swirsky, Ann Leckie, Kameron Hurley, Max Gladstone, Yoon Ha Lee, Brooke Bolander, Mia Serrano, Alyssa Wong, Amal El-Mohtar, Caitlin Starling, and C. A. Higgins for their personal support. My personal thanks also to everyone who has taken the time to write or express support online—it never goes unnoticed.
Baru’s world (hopefully) evokes the same curiosity in the reader as it does in Baru herself: is this magic, or is it unknown science? Those intrigued by the Cancrioth immortata may find interest in the canine transmissible venereal tumor, a single clonal organism which has passed from dog to dog by transmission of live cells for the past several thousand years. Like the immortata, CTVT does no significant harm to the host and strongly prefers a specific part of the body. No equivalent human cell line has been discovered . . . yet (though see the acknowledgments to The Monster for further discussion).
The Cancrioth’s extensive use of radioluminescence depends on the ecology of the hot lands, where many organisms have evolved phosphors for mating displays, predation, and even metabolism. The sensitivity of the frogs used for signaling is exquisite, and given the relatively short range of most radiation, perhaps implausible; but evolution is ingenious.
The megatsunami at Kyprananoke is echoed in the real world by events in Lituya Bay, Alaska, and the Vajant Dam in Italy.
The economic power of Baru’s notional trade concern is hardly exaggerated. Nor is the possibility of the near-total destruction of an imperial economy by mismanagement on the part of a powerful few: interested readers may look into John Law’s time in France and the neighboring South Sea bubble in England.
Baru’s own neural peculiarities exist in the real world, although I have taken significant liberties in the specific symptoms of hemineglect. (Nor have I gone to the lengths of actually taking drugs like vidhara and datura—by all accounts datura is to be strictly avoided.) The antidepressant effects of some hallucinogens are, probably, real. Her poor brain’s resilience to repeated trauma, including mechanical penetration by steel needles, is true to the real world, where human brains have survived and adapted to all manner of physical traumas. The case of Phineas Gage, whose frontal lobe was impaled by a railroad spike, is often cited as proof that insult to the brain can also destroy the personality. But much less known is the fact that Gage, through hard work and therapy, made an essentially complete recovery, holding down a complex and cognitively demanding job as as stagecoach driver for several years. Of course, Gage ultimately died of seizure, so Baru’s safety and complete recovery are not necessarily assured.
Those who find the Masquerade’s programs of sterilization, economic intrigue, colonial adventure, and psychosurgery outlandish or unbelievably malicious (“too overtly evil,” in the words of a very smart friend) should familiarize themselves with the history of America in the twentieth century. Sterilization of Native American women (among other populations, including black women and immigrants) continued until the 1970s. In 1927 the Supreme Court upheld the mandatory sterilization of eighteen-year-old mother Carrie Buck on the grounds that she was “feeble-minded and promiscuous” and a “genetic threat to society.” In the 8–1 decision, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote that “three generations of imbeciles are enough.” Carrie had been raped by a relative and institutionalized, perhaps to hide the scandal of her pregnancy, and the highest court in the land could not give her justice. So the instruments of state power are used and upheld. The order to sterilize Carrie may have been intended largely as a test of the laws permitting eugenic intervention by those eager to widen the practice. The Supreme Court has never overturned the decision.
In the acknowledgments to the last book I cautioned the reader that stranger ways of life than the Cancrioth’s exist in Baru’s world. We have now received a small glimpse into one of those strange ways. As ever, I leave the question of supernatural power versus scientific unknown in your hands. But I admit I am particularly proud of this one: it gives me special delight to invent things which probably could happen on Earth, had things gone a different, stranger way.
I hope you enjoyed the book. I cannot promise exactly when the next and final one will be ready. These books are deeply draining to write, and, increasingly, they feel like a negative-sum process, an engine that accepts labor and produces self-doubt, loneliness, and the harshest internal criticism. I feel that if I lose all the joy of writing, the result will be equally joyless. I want to do justice to the end of Baru’s story. I may need some time to step back and find a fresh, powerful, concise voice for that end—a voice that is as gripping, clear, and compulsive as Baru’s own rediscovered sense of purpose. Still, the story is ready, the plan is clear, the ending is set. We have only to help her reach it. And I want to do a good job of helping her; I want to do it right.
Praise for the Masquerade series
‘Brutal, relentless and with the heartbreaking beauty of the best tragedies’
ALIETTE DE BODARD
‘The Traitor is a tale of intelligence and wonder, set in a believable, detailed world that is populated with rich characters. From the first page I was sucked into a world of captivating intrigue and Machiavellian politics, with a great protagonist that you can at once empathize with and root for’
JOHN GWYNNE
‘A beautiful, perfectly formed crystal of a novel borne out of a tight plot mated with elegant language’
JOHN CHU
‘Smart. Brutal. Gut-wrenching. You’ll be captivated from the very first page. Dickinson is a sly, masterful writer who pulls no punches. Get ready to have your heart ripped out through your throat. Highly recommended’
KAMERON HURLEY
‘Dickinson has written a poet’s Dune, a brutal tale of empire, rebellion, fealty and high finance that moves like a rocket and burns twice as hot’
MAX GLADSTONE
‘A new fantasy world as rich and complex as our own . . . A remarkable achievement’
SEBASTIEN DE CASTELL
‘With its twisty intrigues, visceral action and characters who struggle to escape their own calculations, The Monster is a fantastic read that never lets up’
YOON HA LEE
‘In a field where too many writers simply retell the same old stories, Dickinson’s originality and ambition are to be applauded’
Guardian
‘Heart-stopping and utterly harrowing, and makes Game of Thrones look like Jackanory’
Independent
‘Dickinson packs a lot into this dense, multilayered, complicated epic . . . [Baru] continually proves herself as a fascinating, morally grey protagonist in a complex world where conflicts take place on the high seas, in the ballroom and in the marketplace’
Publishers Weekly
‘A highly impressive debut that engages intellectually’
Kirkus Reviews
‘A truly fine and distinctively individual fantasy novel that delivers action and philosophy, economics and warfare, love and hatred, in equal measures. His voice rings out strong and clear as a new addition to the chorus of fantasists’
Locus
About the Author
/> Seth Dickinson’s short fiction has appeared in various publications including Analog, Asimov’s, Clarkesworld, Lightspeed, Strange Horizons and Beneath Ceaseless Skies. He is an instructor at the Alpha Workshop for Young Writers, winner of the 2011 Dell Magazines Award and a lapsed student of social neuroscience. He lives in Brooklyn, New York. The Tyrant is his third novel, following The Traitor, which was shortlisted for the 2016 David Gemmell Morningstar Award for Best Debut, and The Monster.
BY SETH DICKINSON
The Masquerade series
The Traitor
The Monster
The Tyrant
First published 2020 by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC
First published in the UK 2020 by Tor
This electronic edition published 2021 by Tor
an imprint of Pan Macmillan
The Smithson, 6 Briset Street, London EC1M 5NR
EU representative: Macmillan Publishers Ireland Limited,
Mallard Lodge, Lansdowne Village, Dublin 4
Associated companies throughout the world
www.panmacmillan.com
ISBN 978-1-5290-0328-4
Copyright © Seth Dickinson 2020
Cover Images © Shutterstock
The right of Seth Dickinson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
Map Artwork © Gillian Conahan
Pan Macmillan does not have any control over, or any responsibility for, any author or third-party websites referred to in or on this book.
You may not copy, store, distribute, transmit, reproduce or otherwise make available this publication (or any part of it) in any form, or by any means (electronic, digital, optical, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the publisher. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Visit www.panmacmillan.com to read more about all our books and to buy them. You will also find features, author interviews and news of any author events, and you can sign up for e-newsletters so that you’re always first to hear about our new releases.