Monthly Archives: December 2023

The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett

In Daretana’s most opulent mansion, a high Imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree spontaneously erupted from his body. Even in this canton at the borders of the Empire, where contagions abound and the blood of the Leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death at once terrifying and impossible.

Called in to investigate this mystery is Ana Dolabra, an investigator whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol. Din is an engraver, magically altered to possess a perfect memory. His job is to observe and report, and act as his superior’s eyes and ears–quite literally, in this case, as among Ana’s quirks are her insistence on wearing a blindfold at all times, and her refusal to step outside the walls of her home.

Din is most perplexed by Ana’s ravenous appetite for information and her mind’s frenzied leaps—not to mention her cheerful disregard for propriety and the apparent joy she takes in scandalizing her young counterpart. Yet as the case unfolds and Ana makes one startling deduction after the next, he finds it hard to deny that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens the safety of the Empire itself, Din realizes he’s barely begun to assemble the puzzle that is Ana Dolabra—and wonders how long he’ll be able to keep his own secrets safe from her piercing intellect.

Featuring an unforgettable Holmes-and-Watson style pairing, a gloriously labyrinthine plot, and a haunting and wholly original fantasy world, The Tainted Cup brilliantly reinvents the classic mystery tale.

I got this ARC from NYCC 23 at the Penguin Random House booth where I took an oracle quiz on an iPad. The algorithm oracle picked the Court of Wits for me and the girl gave me a choice between two books. I chose The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. I had read his other book, Foundryside, which was also a choice in Court of Wits. I have to finish the Foundryside trilogy. 

I liked the world building. It was very unusual and unique with the plant science, and the leviathans, and the human augmentations. Not the type of fantasy environment one comes across often.

The murder mystery was a strange case too. That kept me interested but the pacing sometimes dragged so it did take me a while to read. I made it to the end though and I liked reveal at the end.

I did like the characters, though I must admit that I needed a character list because with all the strange names I couldn’t keep the minor characters straight, or their jobs. Also, I didn’t like all the cursing. Besides the fact that I find its excess use to be vulgar, in an other-worldly fantasy setting, our curse words are out of place. 

Still a good, unusual murder mystery series that I might continue in the future. The Tainted Cup is expected to be released February 6, 2024.

3 out of 5 Deadly Blooms.

Favorite quotes:

Page 124: For a memory is just a sketch a mind makes of one’s experiences, imperfect and interpretive; yet what my mind made, from that moment on, was perfect, absolute, and endless. 

Page 400: “Ha! You remembered.”
I gave him a look.
“Oh, right,” he said. “I suppose that’s not terribly surprising…” 

The Firebird Trilogy by Claudia Gray

A Thousand Pieces of You (Firebird 1) by Claudia Gray, narrated by Tavia Gilbert

A thousand lives.
A thousand possibilities.
One fate.

Marguerite Caine grew up surrounded by cutting-edge scientific theories, thanks to her brilliant physicist parents. Yet nothing is more astounding than her mother’s latest invention—a device called the Firebird, which allows people to leap into alternate dimensions.

When Marguerite’s father is murdered, all the evidence points to one person—Paul, her parents’ enigmatic star student. Before the law can touch him, Paul escapes into another dimension, having committed what seems like the perfect crime. But he didn’t count on Marguerite. She doesn’t know if she can kill a man, but she’s going to find out.

With the help of another physics student, Theo, Marguerite chases Paul through various dimensions. In each new world Marguerite leaps to, she meets another version of Paul that has her doubting his guilt and questioning her heart. Is she doomed to repeat the same betrayal?

As Marguerite races through these wildly different lives—a grand duchess in a Tsarist Russia, a club-hopping orphan in a futuristic London, a refugee from worldwide flooding on a station in the heart of the ocean—she is swept into an epic love affair as dangerous as it is irresistible.

My sister quite enjoyed this trilogy and recommended it to me. 

I listened to the audiobook. Tavia Gilbert is a good narrator. She executed a good range of voices and accents for the different characters.

The story keeps you interested and has you on your toes because crossing dimensions and taking over bodies leaves it open for unreliable narrators. Throw in some tension and action, and then you’re in for a fast paced page turner.

I didn’t even mind the love-triangle YA aspect. The tropes (the one bed, the hypothermia, “I was the nice guy”) were amusing and didn’t fall into the trap of being annoying.

I’ll continue listening to the series to see it to its conclusion. 

3 out of 5 Dimensions.

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Top Ten Tuesday December 26: The Ten Most Recent Additions to My Bookshelf

1) Who Speaks for the Damned
By: C. S. Harris 
Narrated by: Davina Porter

2) Auntie Poldi and the Sicilian Lions
By: Mario Giordano, John Brownjohn
Narrated by: Matt Addis

3) Sorry for Your Loss
By: Michael Cruz Kayne
Narrated by: Michael Cruz Kayne

4) Anne of Green Gables
By: Lucy Maud Montgomery, Abi Hynes – adaptation
Narrated by: Sandra Oh, Catherine O’Hara, Victor Garber, Michela Luci, full cast

5) Golden Son (Part 1 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation): Red Rising Saga, Book 2
By: Pierce Brown
Narrated by: full cast

6) Golden Son (Part 2 of 2) (Dramatized Adaptation)
By: Pierce Brown 
Narrated by: full cast

7) The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden. 
8) The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett.
9) The Art of Prophecy by Wesley Chu.
10) To Gaze Upon Wicked Gods by Molly X. Chang.