This is one of the best books I've ever read and it doesn't even come out until next year?? Illegal.

The Tainted Cup has one of the most unique magic systems and worlds that I've seen in a few years. I loved the Holmes/Watson dynamic and method of storytelling and mystery, and I loved the disability representation in the main characters.

Thank you to netgalley for the arc.

The Tainted Cup was an enjoyable book. The author has crafted an interesting empire, power dynamic and nature of threats. Din, apprentice investigator, is perceived as a dullard and a nobody, and believes himself to be a fraud. However, it turns out that he has one of the rarest abilities possible. He is also someone who genuinely wants to do good and make things better but can, and often has to, bend the rules to achieve the necessary results and meet the demands of his rather unusual and intimidating boss.

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett is the first book in the new fantasy series Shadow of the Leviathon. When a high imperial officer dies due to a tree spontaneously erupting from his body, Ana Dolabra is called to investigate. But due to her eccentricities, she sends her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din has a perfect memory, so he investigates the suspicious death and reports back to Dolabra. This ends up being a much bigger investigation than either of them originally suspected, and the reader learns a lot about these two investigators as well as the world that they live in. I really enjoyed this story and the characters, and I will definitely be checking out the next book in the series once it is released. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

this was my first RBJ read and all i can say is i want the sequel NOW. it was like a mix of the dynamics of Sherlock & Watson + the eccentricities of Benoit Blanc in Knives Out... but if both were set in a fantasy world with a murder mystery, some legit but enigmatic existential threats, and Benoit Blanc is an old woman in a blindfold who's hired an apprentice detective to be her eyes and ears but it turns out he barely passed his exams but thank god he has a photographic memory.

needless to say, it was a fun, wild, and unexpected read in the best possible way. The plot, the twists, the pacing, the characters and their development, and everything else were so well crafted, I was truly disappointed when I got to the end. But what really surprised me was how well this book represents its neurodivergent protagonists without stating it outright. There's definitely some underlying parallels and subtle commentary about our world and how we treat those who are considered "different".

If you're up for a fun, enigmatic mystery with high stakes and a lot of quirky characters, pick this one up! I am eagerly awaiting the sequel.

Robert Jackson Bennett has done it again. It was an amazing experience reading this book, I really liked. It's way different from the author's series, but in a good way

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett is a high fantasy crime novel about a murder mystery that just keeps getting larger, while destruction gets closer.

What I liked:
* The Attack on Titan vibes. ★★★★★
* The world building was detailed and well made. Bennett put a lot of thought into his writing.
*Ana as a character as well as her's and Din's dynamic.

What I didn't like:
* The book was confusing with too much things to keep track of such as characters, relations, and nicknames (i am terrible at memorizing names). I felt like I should have written notes.
* The romance between Din and a side character was so miniscule that it became unneeded. I love a LGBTQ+ rep, but that wasn't it.

I will still continue this series despite some confusion I had while while reading. I enjoyed my time with A Tainted Cup and look forward to more of it's world.

I also hope for some more character development as I didn't feel like I connected to Din much (and I hope for more leviathans).

“The Tainted Cup” by Robert Jackson Bennett offers a captivating blend of mystery and fantasy, introducing readers to the contrasting personalities of Ana and Din as they navigate a unique and intricately crafted sci-fi dystopian world. Ana’s scandalous nature and Din’s naivety create a dynamic duo that kept me engaged throughout. Bennett’s imaginative world building sets this book apart, offering a fresh take on the genre. As a first-time reader of Bennett’s work, I found “The Tainted Cup” to be a compelling introduction, leaving me eager to delve deeper into the series. Overall, a must read for fans of mystery and fantasy alike.

If you had told me that I would be five starring a murder mystery book with little romance, that borders on fantasy and science fiction, AND written by a man, no less, I might have been a bit incredulous. And then this book happened. And it kept on happening.

There was a lot to take in. What started off as a murder mystery unfolded into something much grander. It involved the political machinations of an Empire that also happens to be facing monstrous sea creatures of calamitous proportions every few seasons. It centered around an eccentric investigator and her trainee assistant and the hazards that come with investigating crimes that seem much more dangerous than what they've signed up for. And honestly, all that chaos melded into one spectacular masterpiece. Don't even get me started on the mushrooms.

The dynamic between Ana and Din was definitely my favorite bits of this book, and Ana is a neurodivergent creature of beauty. I loved her chaotic character the moment she entered the scene. And I greatly respected Din for the fact that in those few months he's known her, he's managed to match her in conversation with the monotone way he speaks and reacts to her chicanery. I felt like this duo was a match made in Sherlock Holmes heaven. And to be honest, the lack of a romance between them--despite the blatant hints of protectiveness between mentor and trainee--really helped in this case.

Can't wait to read the next book! Absolutely devoured this zombie velociraptor murder mystery apocalypse!

I requested this book as background reading for a review we ran on BookBrowse. Sadly, I have not yet had a chance to read it (but hope to); however, our reviewer thought highly of it, rating it 5-stars, and we featured it as our of our four weekly Top Picks across BookBrowse:
https://www.bookbrowse.com/casbah/books/index.cfm?fuseaction=edit_book&book_number=4772

When I heard RJB was writing a Sherlockian fantasy, I knew I'd love it. There was no doubt in my mind that if anyone could pull it off, it would be him. I was right. I absolutely loved the twists and turns this book took. It was fun seeing this from the "Watson" character's perspective. I also really enjoyed that there was this underlying sense of dread from the titans. We never really knew when one would attack making the book have a sense of urgency from start to finish. Fantastic! Can't recommend enough.

Imaginative and deftly plotted with plenty of intrigue, witty prose and colourful characters. A pleasure to read.

My two favorite genres merged into one: What more could a girl ask for!

I really do need more fantasy/mystery mashups! This book, like the few other similar ones I've read, was incredibly good! Cool magic system and governing body, eccentric madwoman genius investigator with an apprentice with some badass secret talents of his own, secrets and plots aplenty! This book had it all, and it was funny and on top of it! I'm so mad it's the first in a trilogy though, because I don't want to wait to jump back into this world!

I absolutely adored the writing and world building in this book. There were many different elements to the story and they were all tied in so nicely. I also really loved all of the representation in this book. It’s hard to get that in a fantasy book and the author did an amazing job of incorporating it.

I’m very excited to see where this series goes!

This book was a DNF for me. I read the first 25%, but could not get into it. Just not the right book for me!

Although The Tainted Cup took me quite some time to get into, once I did, it sucked me in and I couldn’t stop reading. Ana and Din make quite the pair, and the out of the box thinking made for a fantastical investigative read.

Absolutely obsessed, new favorite series, I need more and more and more!

Bennett's world is my favorite new fantasy world in ages, and I don't think it's a coincidence that it so strongly reminds me of my three most recent favorite fantasy worlds: The Witcher, Bloodborne, and Dishonored. But the story is pure Holmes and Watson, with the two MCs, Ana and Din, being the same sort of character archetypes as Holmes and Watson, respectively.

This is a fantasy jungle that I kept imagining as Karnaka, a tropical strip of land in a massive empire, which just so happens to be the favorite location of this world's particular brand of kaiju, leviathans. They really are the back drop, though they're woven into the story in ways that feels natural. I cannot wait to learn more about them in future books (fingers crossed), because they currently remind me of something between the whales in Dishonored and old ones in Bloodborne.

Bennett is a very skilled writer as well. He drops hints, clues, and red herrings like he's Doyle while building a world so weird but so familiar at the same time. I was initially tempted to put this off as the language was so strange and I wasn't sure I had the energy to pick it up, but thankfully I decided to give it one chapter, because that's all I needed to realize that Bennett knows how to write the strange in surprisingly approachable way. Even with the archaic speech of the characters lol

I really cannot recommend this book enough to anyone even remotely interested in fantasy or a good detective story, because The Tainted Cup delivers both in spades.

This was quite the adventure!

I liked the murder mystery aspect of this story, the adventure and the unique characters, but I had a hard time grasping the world and understanding the world building, and I think that make some of the reveals at the end not as impactful.

They were revealing one thing after the other near the end as the mystery was solved, and I was like ooooh okay, and I got it, but just had the hardest time getting into the world this story took place in.

The narrator did a wonderful job, I enjoyed all the different voice tones for the different characters, but with all the different names and the fantasy elements, reading the physical book would be the best choice here.

Overall, not a book for me, though I enjoyed the mystery element, but if you like fantasy/mystery, I think you’ll enjoy this!

Thank you @netgalley and @delreybooks for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

I have a complicated relationship with Robert Jackson Bennett books. It’s complicated because they all sound amazing and people love him, but for some reason I never seem to like them. This is the third book I’ve tried to read by him, and it’s also the third book I’m deciding to DNF. I gave this book until the 30% mark, but I’m just incredibly bored. I will not be reading any more books by this author, but I encourage others to try them if they sound intriguing because he is a popular author.

I hadn't read Robert Jackson Bennett before, and I'm so happy that I got to experience his writing for the first time! The Tainted Cup is a wonderful detective novel, set in a dystopian world where leviathans regularly threaten to destroy civilization. The world-building was ingenious–both in terms of the larger concept and the smaller details–and the characters were well thought out and engaging. I hope this becomes a series, I can't wait to read about the adventures of Ana and Din again!
4.5/5, rounded up.

WOW! I did not expect this to be one of my new favorite books, but I am so glad it is! I enjoyed one of Bennett's books before (Foundryside), but it did not stand out. This book, on the other hand, is unique, mysterious and engaging. I listened to it as an audiobook and kept wanting to keep listening or get a print copy to keep reading.

I absolutely loved the world this is set in. It is extremely unique from other books. Here, things are made with plants, and people (and plants) are augmented by chemicals created by giant leviathans that threaten the land every wet season. Din, our main character, is one of those augmented people who can remember everything and is the assistant of a quirky detective, Ana. They are tasked to find out the murder of an officer and to solve a larger plot as the leviathan threat is ever present. The mystery mixed with the fantasy is highly engaging, and Din is such a great character. He is the Watson to the Sherlock of Ana, whose probable dyslexia makes him even more endearing to me. The last 15% of the book puts everything together in such a satisfying way that you want to reread it and find the clues yourself. I only figured out one of the answers; the rest was a surprise. The pacing was just right, and there was no point where I was bored or thought it was going too fast.

I cannot wait to read more of this series and hope to get my hands on a special edition of this book because I love it so much.