The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett
Published by Random House
Age Group: Adult
Format: Fiction
Genres and Categories: Bisexual Characters, Gay Characters, Queer Characters, Detective Characters, Diverse Representation, Detective Fantasy, Hard Sci Fi, Sci Fi Action, Transhumanism, Mystery, Thriller, Whodunnit, Mythological Creatures, Neurodivergent
Series: Shadow of the Leviathan #1
My Rating:
Published on: 5th November 2024
Pages: 432
Disability Representation: Autism Spectrum Disorder, Dyslexia, Neurodivergent
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A Holmes and Watson–style detective duo take the stage in this fantasy with a mystery twist, from the Edgar-winning, multiple Hugo-nominated Robert Jackson Bennett

HUGO AWARD FINALIST • LOCUS AWARD FINALIST • EDGAR AWARD NOMINEE • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: The New York Times Book Review, NPR, Elle, BookPage

In Daretana’s greatest mansion, a high imperial officer lies dead—killed, to all appearances, when a tree erupted from his body. Even here at the Empire’s borders, where contagions abound and the blood of the leviathans works strange magical changes, it’s a death both terrifying and impossible.

Assigned to investigate is Ana Dolabra, a detective whose reputation for brilliance is matched only by her eccentricities. Rumor has it that she wears a blindfold at all times, and that she can solve impossible cases without even stepping outside the walls of her home.

At her side is her new assistant, Dinios Kol, magically altered in ways that make him the perfect aide to Ana’s brilliance. Din is at turns scandalized, perplexed, and utterly infuriated by his new superior—but as the case unfolds and he watches Ana’s mind leap from one startling deduction to the next, he must admit that she is, indeed, the Empire’s greatest detective.

As the two close in on a mastermind and uncover a scheme that threatens 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.

By an “endlessly inventive” (Vulture) author with a “wicked sense of humor” (NPR), The Tainted Cup mixes the charms of detective fiction with brilliant world-building to deliver a fiendishly clever mystery that’s at once instantly recognizable and thrillingly new.

This book was provided for free by NetGalley and the publishers in exchange for an honest review. Many thanks to the publisher and the author for the opportunity to read this book!

Content Warnings:

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I was very excited to read a book that combined two of my favourite genres, unfortunately, this one didn’t end up going the way I’d hoped. The first thing I noticed about The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett was how elaborate and immersive the science and nature of the world I had stepped into. He has created a fascinating world that realises the idea of a completely organic society, and it is something else. If The Tainted Cup were purely a science fiction novel, then I would be satisfied; however, it is much more ambitious than that, and that is where it begins to show its cracks for me.

I’ve seen this book compared to Sherlock Holmes and Knives Out, and I want to talk about those two comps before I go any further. I saw the Knives Out comp while reading the book, and I spent the entire time trying to figure out how it related, especially as there is a mirror character in Knives Out. By the end of the book, I ascertained that the person meant that it was a whodunnit with a clever detective who doesn’t take any crap and sees a lot. For those of us who read or watch a lot of crime, that’s a pretty familiar archetype.

The comparison to Sherlock Holmes is much more on point. Ana is very like Sherlock in the sense that she is considered an anti-social genius who cares more about the case rather than social niceties. She also dabbles in “moodies”, mood-enhancing grafts, this universe’s equivalent of illegal drugs. Unlike Sherlock, Ana deeply cares about justice rather than just solving a puzzle, and she’s not a drug addict. I would also hesitate to compare Din, her assistant, to John Watson, other than to note that they have a partnership.

Having read the original Sherlock Holmes stories by Arthur Conan Doyle, I found the level of intricacy of the cases to be lacking. I remember reading A Study in Scarlet and The Adventure of the Speckled Band and being blown away by the out-of-the-box creativity of Conan Doyle’s writing. I didn’t find that in The Tainted Cup, and instead found that the answers to the mystery were clearly signposted to the reader. It was a little disappointing when the big reveals came along, and I had already worked them out long before.

The original fascination with Bennett’s world-building began to fade the more I read The Tainted Cup, for a few reasons. One, the transhumanist world he has created is hugely eugenicist. Organic grafts are used to achieve peak performance and to change the human body in a myriad of ways so that people can better serve the Empire, wiping out any physical weakness. What they can’t change are “weaknesses” that are already part of a person’s brain, things that are unique to them. For example, Din has a learning disability, and Ana is autistic-coded. Their brains are naturally different to their peers.

Some research shows that Bennett likes to include disabled characters in his writing. In this article, he talks about it in more detail, and referring to Orson Scott Card’s writing, he states;

I remember reading about these disabled characters in his stories, and never once feeling, well, pity for them. They weren’t cripples. They weren’t helpless. They got by. And we all get by, don’t we? Sometimes just barely, but we get by. Now that I’m older, and writing my own stuff, I see now that the reason his disabled characters work is that he didn’t start by writing them as disabled characters. He started by writing them as characters, as real people with real problems – the same way that the fantastical, powerful characters work the best. Sometimes they got over those problems. Sometimes – maybe a lot of the time – they didn’t. And I felt for them because I knew them because they were real.

Bennett may believe he has the best of intentions; however, as with all non-disabled authors, he is writing from the perspective of an outsider, and there lies the issue. This method of writing a disabled character as someone who is a person who “has problems” and referring to them as “real people with real problems” shows a complete lack of understanding of disabled and neurodivergent identity. You can’t write a disabled and/or neurodivergent character as a normal person because their lives are not normal.

As a result, you have a disabled character and a neurodivergent character that is not fully realised in their identities. There is a very nice scene towards the end of the novel where Din and Ana talk about being different, and quite frankly, it rang completely hollow. It felt more like inspiration p0rn, where non-disabled people can celebrate because these two “weird” quirky characters have finally found each other! That’s because that’s the way Bennett has written them.

I felt that both Din’s learning disability and Ana’s autism were used as plot devices. Ana is constantly described as being anti-social, and different, not being able to handle “stimulation”, particular eating habits, a deep desire for justice and other autistic traits. It is not until the end that Bennett takes the time to acknowledge that this is a disability; in fact, he avoids any language that identifies any disabilities throughout the book.

But maybe the language doesn’t exist in The Tainted Cup universe. I hear you say. Might I remind you that the author controls the universe? Disabled authors have managed it, and I highly recommend checking out Hell Sans by Ever Dundas and the short stories in Nothing Without Us and Nothing Without Us Too for great examples. It says a lot when a non-disabled author chooses to exclude it.

I was also not happy about the way Din’s bisexual identity was written, which, considering more than one review I read referred to him as gay, shows just how unclear his bisexuality was made. There is one scene where Din becomes aroused by a woman, and while pheromones are involved, they enhance arousal; they can’t make someone attracted to a certain gender. The sexual content of this scene doesn’t bother me; it’s the fact that it feeds stereotypes of bisexuality.

It’s easy to get swept up in the world-building and mystery of The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett, especially with the promise of more to come in the next book. It’s a solid three stars for me; however, once I started to see the problems with the representation, I couldn’t unsee them. This is one series that isn’t for me, and I won’t be continuing with it.

I want to remind anyone who disagrees with anything in this review that every reader brings their views and experiences to each book they read. Your reading of this book may be very different from mine.

About Robert Jackson Bennett

Robert Jackson Bennett is a two-time award winner of the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel, an Edgar Award winner for Best Paperback Original, and is also the 2010 recipient of the Sydney J Bounds Award for Best Newcomer, and a Philip K Dick Award Citation of Excellence. City of Stairs was shortlisted for the Locus Award and the World Fantasy Award. City of Blades was a finalist for the 2015 World Fantasy, Locus, and British Fantasy Awards. His eighth novel, FOUNDRYSIDE, will be available in the US on 8/21 of 2018 and the UK on 8/23.

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