Turncoat - Tīhema Baker
Taking a break from looking at potential Level 2 texts, this is a potential Level 1 text instead!
At the heart of Turncoat is an extended metaphor, an allegory, in which Māori culture and worldview is represented by the book's portrayal of humanity as a whole, and non-Māori culture - aka, the European-centric worldview - is represented by literal aliens, who invaded in past centuries and have now interbred with humanity to the point that most humans look just like them. Our main character, Daniel, is one such human, who understands and operates in Alien culture (called the Hierarch) all the time, but still seeks to influence the Hierarch to honour the original covenants they signed with humanity all those years ago.
The metaphor isn't subtle, and at times it purposefully (often humorously) becomes incredibly obvious, particularly for readers from New Zealand. So, in place of Captain Cook being the first European to really interact with Māori, the aliens had Commander Kookee; in place of a Māori hīkoi we get a human "road trip"... we also get smaller references that only New Zealanders will appreciate, such as a mention of the ancient human ritual of blowing on a pie before you eat it. The book also makes clear what is being written in 'human' versus the dominant alien language, by putting 'human' in Comic Sans. This allows Baker to reference concepts that aliens 'wouldn't understand', even though to humans they seem obvious.
With all this going on, the plot of Turncoat is probably less important to describe - its the world of Turncoat that Baker is trying to highlight. However, the plot is also quite interesting, as Daniel seeks to advance within the Hierarch and find ways of causing it to honour the Treaty the Covenant. He must balance the expectations of his mother, who leads the New Zealand Government, his troubled friend Hayden, and his possibly-romantic partner, the alien Neekor. He must also decide how much he is willing to compromise in order to achieve his goals, particularly when many humans who aren't working for the Hierarch see his actions as that of a turncoat.
There is more language than I like - again, mostly done for humour's sake - and the book does have an ending that, while appropriate for the story being told, made me a little sad, but overall Turncoat does its job: it makes the reader consider what life would be like if their worldview was constantly undermined by the predominant culture.
It's quite good, really.
Completed 21 February 2026.
Previous Book ~ Next Book
Comments
Post a Comment