The Traitor Baru Cormorant (Baru Cormorant #1) (2015)

Baru joins the civil service of the empire that conquered her home, hoping to turn its machinery against it. Finance, education and cultural control give imperial rule a reach that soldiers alone could not achieve. Her choices make the people around her vulnerable to a strategy they cannot fully see. A severe, tragic opening to the Masquerade sequence, especially rewarding for asking whether mastering an oppressive system can leave the would-be reformer intact.