The Tainted Cup

Much appreciation to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine for giving me a chance to read this early.


Robert Jackson Bennett is, by far, one of the most unique fantasy authors of our time. The Tainted Cup only proves how versatile the man is at building worlds, magic systems and characters after such a wondrous series that is The Founders Trilogy. That series kicked ass, and now it's time to rave about this new series, Shadow of the Leviathan.

Colossal Monsters, yes.
Classic Whodunit, yes.
Fast-paced Mystery, yes.
One relatable weird character that makes makes everyone in the book uncomfortable at any given time, yes.

The strongest quality Bennett has is his the way he makes his characters believable in such a demanding and unique environment. He has a staple in his books that gives the reader comfort knowing they'll have a fantastic story from start to finish. The Tainted Cup is awesome in every regard. The setting, story and characters are great. We've got an eccentric female detective that is quick to love and exciting group of events that immediately get the story rolling. This is one of those stories that I'll be thinking about for a long time.

I'm pumped to read the sequel. Until then, I've gotta read Bennett's first trilogy, The Divine Cities.