The Masquerade

Seth Dickinson's series about Baru Cormorant, a savant from a conquered island who joins the empire that took it in order to rise high enough inside to destroy it. The books trade swordplay for accountancy, treaties and currency manipulation, and keep asking what is left of a person who has spent everything she loves as a means to an end. Three novels are published, beginning with The Traitor Baru Cormorant in 2015, with a fourth planned.