The Tainted Cup was one of my favorite reads of last year, and I knew that this book was going to be on my 2025 reading list. Robert Jackson Bennet is a fantastic author who has an ability to write across a wide range of styles. Though billed as traditional murder mysteries, I actually think of this series, I actually think this series lives in a hybrid between mystery, thriller, and fantasy. Overall, I liked book 1 more, but this was still a fantastic read, and I’ll happily keep gobbling them up as they come out!
For my review of book 1, see The Tainted Cup.
Honestly, if you liked book 1, you’ll probably feel similarly about book 2. If you didn’t, I doubt this will solve any issues you had.
Read if Looking For: a murder mystery/thriller in a biopunk world filled with obscure and arcane grafts that modify humans into something more.
Elevator Pitch:
In this installment of Din & Ana’s adventures, they travel to Yarrow, a part of the world not (yet) part of the Empire, but which hosts the Leviathan dissection and processing facility known as The Shroud. When a member of the delegation supervising negotiations with the Yarrow government about joining the Empire turns up dead, Ana is called in to solve the case.
What Worked For Me
I don’t think I can really call this book a mystery proper; it’s even less meant to be ‘solved’ than the original (though I’m sure some people did). For me, I didn’t mind that so much. Exploring the world and different grafts and modifications to humans (especially how the affect wider society, instead of just in combat and warfare applications) is the reason I’ll keep coming back. It’s a great idea for a setting, and Bennet hits the sweet spot in not feeling the need to explain everything about the world, and instead only giving enough to understand the little slice of the empire you’re visiting in that book. It makes me excited for each new installment, to see what new corners of this world I get to discover along with Din. The highlight of this particular book was a patch of forest that seemed to have swapped human and plant parts. Trees with tongues instead of leaves was a beautifully grotesque image.
Din’s character got more development in this book as well, pushing him (and Ana the slightest bit) into something more three-dimensional than book 1 portrayed them as. Din’s bisexuality was more prevalent in this book, and I’m curious to see if his habit of sleeping around as a coping strategy for stress will come back to bite him – or if he decides he ever wants to put the effort into making something work with a single person. The secondary cast stayed fairly transparent however, and I think Bennet hasn’t figured out how to balance their roles as pieces of the mystery plot with the characterization skills he showed in Divine Cities.
What Didn’t Work For Me
Overall, I think this book was clunkier than the original. There are some unnecessary plot threads (a predatory lender plot comes to mind. It gets maybe 5 pages allocated to it and resolves itself out of Din’s life by the end of the book. It could easily have not been present at all). The book could have been 50 pages shorter, and I hope Bennet begins to mix up how Ana approaches her grand reveals. It was still very enjoyable, but not the triumph the original represented.
I also think this series began to muddle up the thematic direction of the series. Book 1 seemed to place the story in the anti-colonial bucket of fantasy. It wasn’t a strong theme to be sure, but there was enough ‘maybe the empire is messing things up more than it solves things’ present for me to grab onto, especially in the ecological balance department. This book pivoted, and largely abandoned those ideas. In fact, it presented the Empire as imperfect, but largely a force of good. In the author’s note, Bennet shared that Yarrow is inspired by the darker sides of European Feudalism and Autocracy, both of which get a thorough dressing down. Attitudes towards the Empire are downright patriotic in comparison, with Ana and Din on a quest to keep the Empire worth protecting. Not only did this seem to go against Bennet’s earlier inclinations from book 1, but I also think it presents a rather boring template for investigators in the Empire. I’m hoping that this is simply setup for some thematic depth, exploration, and complexity. Otherwise, I’d say this is a rather large missed opportunity.
In Conclusion: A worthy sequel that doesn’t quite live up to the original, with muddy themes contradicting each other between books
- Characters: 4
- Setting: 4
- Craft: 4
- Themes: 3
- Enjoyment: 4
Marked for Plot 