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I got recommended a scifi book, skimmed it and found it interesting but now cannot recall or google it's name anymore - perhaps someone can help.
The core concept was about some heroine whose nation was assimilated by an evil empire taking her revenge by joining its bureaucracy and working her way to power within that.
The cover had a picture of a mask, I believe.
The book was fairly recent, probably 2014 if not 2015.
The book is The Traitor Baru Cormorant, by Seth Dickinson. The heroine, the eponymous Cormorant, is from a Polynesian/Native American-esque island people, conquered by the Empire of Masks, aka the Masquerade. The Empire is a stereotypically European colonial power, ruling with navigation and napalm rounds in their ships' cannons.
Cormorant resolves to undermine the Masquerade from the inside, and being something of a savant, is quickly promoted within that same empire.
It's a gripping read. Dickinson manages to make the economics and logistics of war and empire just as gripping as the battles and social tilting.
