Shadow of the Leviathan Series
by Robert Jackson Bennett
Reviewed by Galen Strickland
Posted February 12, 2024
Addendum on April 15, 2025
Book 1: The Tainted Cup / 2: A Drop of Corruption
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I debated whether to use the first book's title in the URL, instead of the collective name for the series, Shadow of the Leviathan. I chose the latter, mainly because it took 90% of the book for me to understand the significance of the tainted cup, whereas I knew about the leviathan(s) almost from the beginning. They should recur in the other books, but not the cup. It also made sense because I am sure to read the rest of the series, and when I do I will add comments about them to this page. This could be taking place on another planet, but I suppose it should be considered a secondary world fantasy. I gathered the Empire of Khanum had been established centuries before, on land previously occupied by various peoples, and previously ravaged by leviathans (alternately called titans). They are an amphibious species that periodically came onto the land, although the reasons for that were not explained, but they occurred during the 'wet' seasons. A series of earthen walls had been constructed to defend the land against leviathan incursions. A map shows four different walls in a semi-circular pattern, with the heart of the Empire within the inner circle. These lands also are home to many invasive plant and animal species which must be guarded against, but they also provide the means of concocting defenses against them, produced by the Apothetikals.
Other divisions within the Empire include Legion (military), Iudex (judicial and investigative), Engineering, Treasury, etc. There is of course a landed gentry who control much of the business and agricultural endeavors. This has been described as a Holmesian pastiche, which is correct in a way, with the first person narrative from an apprentice to the main investigator, Iudex Immunis Anagosa Dolabra, who has been based in the Daretana Canton for the past four or five months. Her apprentice is Signum Dinios Kol, who is also an 'engraver.' That word means something different than you might expect. Many people have been enhanced or altered for specific purposes, including for strength and endurance in the military. Dinios Kol's enhancements allow him to remember everything he sees and hears, 'engraving' the impressions on his mind so he can recount them accurately later. He is limited by a disability, which he thinks he has been able to hide, even from Dolabra, although he should have known that was impossible. In addition to the map there is also a chart showing the heirarchy of governmental positions, the Chain of Command. The highest rank below the Emperor is Conzulate. An Immunis is four ranks below a Conzulate, with a Signum two rungs below that. Dolabra is the Holmes character here, but also different from Sherlock, mainly because she stays in her home, sending Kol out to observe, and she also wears a blindfold most of the time. She says it is to block out unnecessary stimuli, allowing her to concentrate on her other senses. She can even 'read' text simply by finger touch, and I don't mean through Braille. Instead of limiting her, blocking exessive stimuli helps her do the most important thing; think.
The story starts with Kol investigating the death of a high-ranking official, a Commander of the Engineers, who had been staying in a house owned by one of the richest of the gentry. One of the invasive plant species referred to above is dappleglass. If the spores were inhaled they could sprout within the body, then burst out in a devastating bloom. How and when was the victim exposed, and why was no one else in the household affected? Kol and Dolabra track the victim's movements prior to his death to determine if it was accidental, or should be considered a murder. Dolabra realizes she must travel for more information, while still wearing the blindfold most of the time. They go to the Talagray Canton, which is very near the outermost Sea Wall. Other deaths through dappleglass are discovered, ten more Engineers. Are they related to the first death? What about another death revealed later, a member of the family related to the first death? A decade or so before, dappleglass had been the cause of an entire canton being destroyed, forever quarantined. The suspicion is that someone who had escaped that canton was using dappleglass as a means of revenge against those who had been unable, or unwilling, to fight the dappleglass invasion and save the canton. But who, and how had they been able to move about with samples of dappleglass, and use them to kill without being detected? How had they found out who they should target?
So, a murder mystery set within a complicated society, with the usual red herrings (at least from Kol's perspective), with the main investigator withholding information until the very end. The later chapters go a bit too far into the typical "gather all the suspects together and recount the evidence," with the preceding clues being mostly glossed over and vague until then. The one about the cup should have been more obvious, but not to Kol at the time, or to me. Kol is a very observant person, dedicated to helping Dolabra solve the case, while also trying to keep his secret. She had known everything before they even met, in fact part of his problem helped her decide to request him as an apprentice. He proved brave and resourceful on numerous occasions, exhibiting skills he hadn't realized he possessed, and without being enhanced or altered for those skills. He passes his apprenticeship, becomes a full Assistant Investigator, and I assume he will remain in Dolabra's service. But they won't be going back to Daretana. Dolabra has more important mysteries to pursue, which will probably take them within the First Ring Walls. I will want to continue following the clues with them, and hope to be more observant of them next time. Highly recommended.
UPDATE: The Tainted Cup is now a finalist for the 2025 Hugo Award for Best Novel..
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Posted April 15, 2025
I will only identify three of the main characters by name, and one of them only by their first name. I didn't make many notes while reading, nor bookmark any page of e-book at all, so I would probably misspell most of the others if I didn't search the text again. In addition to A Drop of Corruption being the second book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, the cover shows another sub-header: "An Ana and Din Mystery." Ana is Iudex Immunis Anagosa Dolabra, one of, if not the most accomplished investigator in the Empire. Promotional blurbs call this a Holmesian pastiche, with Ana the stand-in for Sherlock. Her Watson is Signum Dinios Kol, who in the first book was a probationary apprentice, but now a full Assistant Investigator. Through the first few chapters I considered creating a new page for this one, thinking the leviathans would not be featured, and they were not in the specific way they were in the first book. Yet things about leviathans permeate nearly everything in the Empire of Khanum and adjacent territories. When a leviathan is killed, many Apothetikals disect the beasts, saving organs and blood, along with plants and other animals which have been saturated with the blood. From those, many defenses against the leviathans can be created; reagents and grafts.
Once again, this is a murder mystery that needs to be solved by Ana and Din. Dinios Kol is an "engraver," having enhanced capabilities of observation and recall, which is necessary since Dolabra wears a blindfold most of the time to block extraneous stimuli. He observes, then tells her what he has seen and heard. She prefers to remain isolated in a dark room, plucking on her lyre. Sometimes the situation compells her to venture forth to a crime scene, and yet she still keeps the blindfold on most of the time. She has acute hearing, able to deduce things from how an interviewee answers the questions, how they are breathing, maybe even hearing their heart beat. They have come to the Kingdom of Yarrow, which is northeast of the Imperial Sanctum, and not protected by any of the ring walls. That is one thing that confused me in the first book. Apparently the leviathans only encroach from the east. The outermost sea wall ends well south of Yarrow, and the third ring wall ends to the southwest of the Yarrow border. The first ring wall is closest to the Sanctum, further inland. There are two maps included, both the Empire, and a close-up of Yarrow, but neither has a distance scale, so it is hard to tell how far Yarrow is from the Sanctum, or the walls it is closest to.
About a hundred years prior to this book's action, negotiations between the Empire and Yarrow were conducted, the result being an agreement that Yarrow would eventually be subsumed by the Empire. That time is approaching, and further negotiations have been taking place between Yarrow and members of the Empire's Treasury. One of the Treasurers is the (first) murder victim. It appears to be a locked room mystery, even though the body is not in the room, only their blood and other tissue, but none from whoever may have killed them. The body had yet to be found, but both door and windows had been locked from the inside, and no one had seen anyone exit that room at the supposed time of death. In the harbor northeast of Yarrowville lies the Shroud, an island where Apoths have been conducting experiments on leviathans, creating new reagents. The Shroud itself, which Kol initially thinks is just a fabric like a ship's sail, was actually created from tissues from a leviathan. The reagents used by the Apoths who do the most sensitive work are so strong they limit a person's time there to three years, or maybe less if the deleterious effects present themselves sooner. In both books Kol wonders what enhancements Dolabra has, which she refuses to divulge. She has severe mood swings, and also uses various reagents, not to mention different psychedelics on occasion. She won't reveal the how, what, or why of her deductive abilities, but he starts to wonder if she had ever been an Apoth. Not all Apoths do the same work. A native Yarrow who has been working with imperial groups becomes Ana and Din's associate investigator. Malo is an Apoth "warden," but like "engraver" that means something different than you might think.
One of the main reasons Malo works for the Empire is that Khanum said once they take control of Yarrow, the practice of slavery would be abolished. Malo was one of the very rare cases of a slave that found their freedom, but I will not tell you how. She and her fellow wardens have also been enhanced through reagents and grafts. They have acute hearing too, even more so than Ana, as well as higher levels of smell and taste, which they use while tracking a culprit. Reagents can also provide temporary enhanced speed and strength, which Din also partakes of on one search. Ana has determined the murderer is also responsible for many thefts of reagents, going back at least two years. Whoever they are, they have left nary a clue as to their identity. That is, until Ana decides they had to have accomplices who provided information about the schedule of reagent shipments. One other clue, which I won't reveal, leads her to guess their quarry once worked within the Shroud. The negotiations for the Empire takeover have been extended and delayed multiple times, and part of that is due to a potential new way of handling leviathans, which would negate the necessity for the Shroud. If that succeeds, the Empire would not need Yarrow anymore, and their payments to the king, and other Yarrow natives that have been working for them, would cease. Luckily, Malo impressed Ana enough for her to gain her a new job with another investigator. It is possible she may recur in a later book.
Some mysteries are not as clever as their authors might hope. There are times I can make guesses very close to the truth. That does not apply to these books. All of my suppositons were wrong. That includes who the murderer was, their motives, and who their accomplices were. I suppose I can console myself with the fact no one else besides Ana figured it out, and even she was stymied multiple times. Din and Malo were mostly in the dark too. Another thing about the titles and the collective name for the series; there is a tainted cup in this mystery too, but for a later death, not the one that brought Ana and Din to Yarrow. Corruption is the more important word in this title, and it applies to many different things, not just the murderer(s), but also the Empire, the Shroud, and quite a few of the Yarrow. I was also thinking Shroud of the Leviathan might be more appropriate for the series, but then again, maybe not now. As with the first book, the only criticism I will level here is the standard trope of the investigator gathering a lot of the suspects together and presenting their case. Other than that, I loved this book, and hope it is not too long a wait for the next installment.
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