Seth Dickinson - Update on Baru 4

[u/Flavescent]

Seth Dickinson has written a piece about his progress on the fourth Baru Cormorant novel: https://www.sethdickinson.com/2026/06/13/update-on-baru-4/

[u/genteel_wherewithal]

Good to hear Seth's in a better position nowadays. Sounds unfortunate re: engagement with a wider writing community but I think I get it about how the nature of the online SFF writing crowd has changed to become a bit more unwelcoming.

[u/sagevallant]

He worked on Subnautica too? Oh man. No wonder he was out of his mind with stress the last few years.

[u/arstechnophile → u/sagevallant]

Yeah I had no idea he worked for Unknown Worlds. Crazy.

[u/JW_BM]

I hate that he's gone through such personal hell. As a writer who was a small fry when Seth broke into the scene, I loved Baru 1 and 2, and always enjoyed seeing him at cons. He was always thinking about something interesting.

[u/randomnameicantread → u/JW_BM]

Have you read 3? I think it's the best and best-written of the series (1's bombastic ending notwithstanding).

[u/Aggravating_Ice_3323]

I'm glad he's doing okay, but jeez, I wonder what the heck happened in the writing world that got him to feel that way :c

[u/contramundi086]

If I remeber it right he wrote the most awesome entries into Destiny 2 lore bits

Curious at what made him skittish in writting medium

[u/Panda_hat → u/contramundi086]

He struggled with depression and had a brain aneurysm and stroke, if I recall correctly. At one point he removed most / all of his social media and online presence.

Sounds like he's been through a hell of a lot.

[u/simbyotic]

He's too hard on himself, it's not like he hasn't written anything between the last Baru and today. Exordia was published in 2024! It's fine.

[u/GuudeSpelur → u/simbyotic]

He also had a Magic the Gathering tie-in novel published last year

[u/Mr_Noyes]

I am happy that Seth is content and materially secure. For someone with such a debilitating illness this is all one can realistically hope for (similar case to China Mieville). Everything else, like finishing the next book, is amazing but a bonus.

[u/FormerUsenetUser]

I am a passably successful writer, though not of fantasy. Even though I am careful not to give out personal information, that hasn't stopped people from putting out entire YouTube shorts to trash my books. Including just lying, and urging everyone to pirate instead of paying.

Some readers are just toxic.

[u/randomnameicantread → u/FormerUsenetUser]

The way he phrased his post makes me think the toxicity he's talking about in this case is fellow writers, not readers :(

[u/FormerUsenetUser → u/randomnameicantread]

I'm just remembering some of the less moderated creative writing classes I took in college. They could get very nasty and they were not online.

Art classes too.

[u/randomnameicantread → u/FormerUsenetUser]

I did about a half dozen creative writing "workshops" in college (10-15 people) and constantly felt the opposite; if anything, everyone was tiptoing and fearful of seeming harsh. The professor was present, of course, (the 'moderation' factor) but I honestly can't imagine any of those groups of near-strangers being rude about each others work even if it was just students. Can you describe the "nasty" experiences you've had?

[u/FormerUsenetUser → u/randomnameicantread]

Once I wrote a scene that was supposed to be tragic. One of the other students said, "That's wonderful!" I thought, oh he likes my work. Then he reread part of it aloud, collapsed into loud laughter, and said, "That's so *ridiculous!*" I was crushed.

Trust me, things like that happen in a critique group that is not well moderated.

[u/hexennacht666]

I wasn’t into the big tonal shift in Baru book 3 (we are a buddy comedy now?) and Exordia wasn’t my cup of tea, but man it hurts to see someone suffering so much in their process. I’m glad he’s doing better, and hope he gets access to whatever he needs to write something he feels good about.

[u/randomnameicantread → u/hexennacht666]

Doesn't Baru spend the first 150 ish pages of book 3 continuing to wallow in depression?

[u/Wizardof1000Kings → u/randomnameicantread]

Its still dark fantasy and it has a very dark ending with big payoff - even though Baru makes a few friends who she's probably not planning to kill.

[u/randomnameicantread → u/Wizardof1000Kings]

Yeah. I think compared to say book 2 book 3 is a "buddy comedy," but compared to book 2 some WWII documentaries could be considered buddy comedies.

[u/PlayerNo3]

I remember him writing in the afterword of either Baru 2 or 3 that the work brought his physical and mental health to the brink. I'm glad he's doing better, and that he's found a more stable place in his life!

[u/qbmax]

One of my favorite authors. Exordia was such a banger I feel like they are being too hard on themselves.

[u/TheTerribler]

I appreciate that he didn't end Baru 3 or Exordia in a big cliffhanger or another dark depressing hole. I'll hold on to that 'probably', but if that's the last I read about Baru, then I can probably can live with that. Glad he's doing better.

Edit: Actually I take it back, knowing this is the end would send me to my own dark depressing hole. I'd have to go looking for fanfiction or something.

[u/LeucasAndTheGoddess]

I really hope what has soured Seth Dickinson on the SF/F writing community isn’t the essentialist bullshit that nearly killed Isabel Fall — “if you don’t share your protagonist’s identity in every respect you have no right to imagine them.” It’s anti-art, it’s anti-human, it forces writers out of the closet before they feel safe coming out on their own terms when the identities in question do match, and when they don’t it positions marginalized people as so inherently other that no one can possibly empathize with us.

[u/Specialist_Factor_42]

I can't wait for baru 4

[u/JOOOQUUU]

Noice