THE TAINTED CUP - Robert Jackson Bennett

5 stars

Absolutely brilliant, give me 10 of them right now. This was FRESH, new, and exciting in a way that I haven't felt about a fantasy read in quite some time.

Concept: ★★★★★
World building: ★★★★★
Plot/Pacing: ★★★★ 1/2

I find the more fantasy I read, the less excited I get about new books—because odds are, they'll remind me of something else I've read. That's NOT a criticism of all books, just a fact about frequency and how there's only so many ways to do certain types of stories.

So it's always a huge, huge joy when I find a book like this.

The Tainted Cup is a gorgeous, hybrid kind of thing. Part high fantasy—with an atmosphere of low fantasy—and part murder mystery, this novel lives in the middle of the venn diagram for a lot of subniche interests.

We follow the story of Dinios "Din" Kol, the assistant to investigator Ana Dolabra, as he works to solve a murder mystery in the far reaches of the Empire, a fantasy coastal world with an emphasis on organic plant life, wet seasons, and... leviathans from the sea. Yes. Follow me.

With the core murder mystery at hand, Din and Ana dive into their complex world of contagions, altered bodies, walled rings of caste systems, political corruptions, and survivalist populations in a world that feels like a very unique blend of Pacific Rim-level kaiju beings (yes, big monsters, named Leviathans in this story) and a Sherlock Holmes-style gentry mystery.

I know, that's a LOT to process.

But, in a truly spectacular blend of brilliant storytelling and good writing, the author masterfully sucks us into this complex world in bite-sized pieces while keeping the easily digestible murder mystery plot at the forefront. Hence my comment earlier that this novel is both high- and low-brow fantasy feeling in equal measure. However, let the record state that this novel is not like other genre hybrids of its type in the low fantasy area—there is a refreshing seriousness to the writing that I appreciated, as most novels that get this "wacky" get very campy as a result. The Tainted Cup is NOT that kind of novel, to assure other readers like me who are not usually a fan of that kind of storytelling.

I couldn't put this book down, folks. The Tainted Cup was gripping as hell and a fun time to boot, and I am SO glad to hear it is a series so that we can more of this world and these characters.

Come for the Sherlock Holmes pitch, stay for really interesting worldbuilding and well-written characters.