Read History
2026 | Score: 7
A really cool, unique world where we follow the perspective of a protagonist who is pretty much a “Watson” witnessing a smart detective deduce stuff. The body mutations are interesting, the broader world in danger of leviathans is interesting, the mystery is ok. The surrounding world does the heavy lifting for this which makes me want to continue deeper into the series. Audiobook was not my favorite narration ever.
Format: Audible
Days: 4
Date: 6/28/2026 -> 7/2/2026
Summary (Spoilers)
The Tainted Cup
Robert Jackson Bennet
Shadow of the Leviathan #1
The Tainted Cup Summary
Dinios (Din) Kol gets summoned to the house of a rich gentry family, the Haza’s. He is the assistant to the local investigator, and acts as her “Engraver”. Din is a sublime, someone who has been genetically modified, and now has a perfect memory. He uses smells to help collate different memories. He discovers that an engineer, Taqtasa Blas, has been killed by the contagion Dappleglass. If it gets into your body it will grow rapidly and explode out, killing you. We learn that Din suffers from something similar to Dyslexia, giving him a lot of trouble reading.
He interviews people in the house and returns to the investigator. Anagosa (Ana) Dolabra is very eccentric. She hates to leave her house and often wears a blindfold to reduce stimulation. After going over what he saw with her, Ana has Din bring three servants of the Haza estate to her house. After interrogating them she makes the groundskeeper reveal that he helped an assassin enter the house and plant the dappleglass seed.
Soon after this there is a breach of the Sea Wall, a Leviathan/Titan got through. Ana and Din are invited to the neighboring canton of Tala to investigate, since 10 engineers there died from dappleglass the night of the breach. They are introduced to the investigator for this region, Tuwey Uhad, and his assistant Tazi Miljin. Miljin and Din go and interview the partners of the dead engineers and Din learns they all visited Talagray (Canton capital) 8 days before the breach. They find a Reagent Key (A key that can open certain plant doors it is near) in one of the dead engineers, and they walk around with the key until they discover it opens a door to the Haza estate in Talagray. They also suspect the assassin is Kiz Jolgalgan, since she was known to hang out with the dead engineers.
Din and the officer Kepheus Strovi go to investigate a local miller but find him dead and have to fight off some deserters. Din turns out to be a very good fighter since he can engrave actions as well as memories (uncommon ability). Him and Strovi have romantic tension the rest of the book but nothing important.
Din goes and breaks into the home of Blas’ assistant, and finds her dead with a hole in her head, the same as the miller. He also finds an odd reagent key, as well as lots of money and references to 4 specific cantons. He gives the odd key to an Apothetikal named Ionia Nusis to research. Ana figures out that both of the dead people were killed by a Twitch, and enhanced person who can do super fast bursts of movement, and the Haza family is known to employ them.
Fayazi Haza, the daughter of the local family head, reveals that her father died 2 weeks ago and her house has been in quarantine since then. Din gets sent to investigate and finds dappleglass in the bath. Something seems odd about the way Fayazi interacts with her servants, especially her Axiom (good at math people). He also finds evidence that the Haza family was sending letters to the same four cantons Blas’ secretary would visit.
Din and Miljin track down Jolgalgan but she is already dead from a dappleglass contamination, probably not an accident, she was killed. Shortly after this the Apothetikal Nusis is found dead in her office, and Din discovers that the Reagent Key in her safe is not the same one he left for her.
Ana tells Fayazi Haza that her life is at risk to make her and her servants come to the Iudex (police) headquarters. There she reveals that a Canton that died from a dappleglass contamination 11 years ago was intentional by the Haza family. They blocked the development of a cure (That is the odd key Din gave to Nusis) in order to make their own land far more valuable. The supposed Axiom servant is actually the twitch sent by the main family branch to watch over Fayazi (who knew nothing). The Twitch dies due to a trap set by Ana and Din’s swordwork and they have enough evidence to indict most of the Haza family.
A leviathan approaches the walls but is killed in a single shot. Ana also confronts the other investigator, Tuwey Uhad. He was angry about the corruption in his city so helped Jolgalgan, but got carried away and too many people died. He admits it and is in trouble. Din gets promoted to full time assistant and him and Ana ready for their next adventure. THE END.