I love these books, it’s as simple as that. Robert Jackson Bennett has a propulsive style of writing that, in combination with the excellent worldbuilding he does, makes these the ideal reads for me. I loved his Divine Cities trilogy and these are in a very similar vein, exciting fantasy mysteries. I am not usually a mystery person, so my mom was surprised when I mentioned I was cheerfully reading in the genre, but these are fantasy enough to keep me fully engaged. A Trade of Blood is the most book in the series and then I went back and read the other two since it had been a while, and they held up. I had forgotten the culprit in each book, so that helped with the re-readability.
The series is set in a Roman-ish world where every rainy season, monstrous leviathans with blood that has horrible corrupting effects try to breach the sea walls that surround the Empire. People have been able to use the blood and weird plants and creatures the leviathans have created to do a variety of things, including changing themselves so their senses and minds and bodies are improved. This has a lot of side effects, including sterility, so while not everyone gets augmented, the population is declining and there’s tension throughout the series about what’s going to happen long-term. Din, the point of view character, has a perfect memory, which he uses to help Ana, his very eccentric and autistic-coded lead investigator, solve complex mysteries. There’s a ton here to dig into around empire, colonization, what being human even means, justice, engineering, factory farming — it’s all in here, and it’s all really fascinating.
I think my favorite in the series is probably the second one, A Drop of Corruption, where Ana and Din explore a kingdom that is about to join the empire and we get to think about different governmental systems and how people get drawn to the idea of autocracy, but all of them have something to recommend themselves with, whether it’s Din’s struggles with duty versus glory, Ana’s many personal mysteries, or the overarching ongoing questions that get raised with each new revelation. I’m so curious about what lies within the inner rings of the Empire and all of the stuff that Bennett keeps hinting about. I also love the very visceral and gory parts of this world, because this is a setting where a lot can go wrong and people are changed in pretty horrific ways. It’s not grimdark, there’s plenty of humor and an optimistic spirit, but it’s not a cozy mystery by any stretch of the imagination. Sometimes the visceral descriptions can be a lot, so if you don’t like that sort of thing, these are not the books for you, alas. But for those of us who do enjoy imaginative body horror, this is ideal! I’m really excited for the next one in the series and for him to keep writing these for a long time (no pressure, but I’m just so thrilled that this isn’t a trilogy and is going to keep going).
