I'd been a model officer for almost all my career, but I had to join the Iudex to become a true criminal.
The Tainted Cup
by Robert Jackson Bennett
Genre: Adult Fantasy
About: Din is an apprentice assistant to Ana - a mad but ingenious investigator. Though in the outer rim there isn't usually much to investigate. That is until a high ranking officer is found dead with a impossibly large tree growing out from him. The case leads them to more dangerous places, all during wet season when the threat of an impending leviathan attack has the empire on high alert. Death, corruption and the end of all civilisation are suddenly just part of another day at work for Din.
Thoughts
I'm a huge fan of Bennett's Founders Trilogy so I was really excited to delve into another world from this author - and this did not disappoint. I loved the originality of the magic system in Founders and this new series has another highly original, deeply detailed and fascinating world. Bennett blurs sci-fi and fantasy elements to give us mushrooms cooling the air, vines barring gates and death by tree infestations. It also had such a cool atmosphere. The wet season bringing the god-like leviathan monsters, combined with a corrupt murder investigation made me feel like I'd stepped into a film noir. There was definitely a Bladerunner feel to me, even that the story and characters are not at all similar.
Though it wasn't a perfect read. The introduction to this new world did have some info dumping moments and I do wish we'd known some more of the Haza family or even the engineers because so many of the deaths were people we'd never met and so it was harder to care about the investigation.
Also the swearing. I'm not against swearing in real life but it is a weird thing to read as frequently as it's put in this book. It made some of the characters sound a bit too similar to each other, and was sometimes distracting from the actual conversation. I much preferred when characters used their fantasy curse words like "Titan's taint" as that brought me back to the really cool world Bennett's created. Whereas all the f-bombs took me out of the story.
I should say something about the characters because Din was of course my favourite. I loved that he gives some dyslexia representation, and I thought the hints of future problems his abilities might cause him was really interesting. The magic, or rather technology, of this world is so well thought out. It has huge benefits and huge drawbacks and these weigh on so many of the characters.
And then there's Ana, whose a Sherlock Holmes-esque character in that she's extremely eccentric and several steps ahead of everyone around her. I really enjoyed Din and Ana's dynamic, though I laughed the most at the scenes of Din and Miljin.
Overall, the mystery elements were really well done, the world was so cool to step into and I cannot wait to discover more about the leviathans and what other crimes Ana and Din will need to solve. So happy this is a series and I had such a fun time reading this first one!
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