The Tainted CupRobert Jackson Bennett
The Tainted Cup
by Robert Jackson Bennett · first published 2024
7mentions
6recommended by
7HN commenters
2025–2026first – last mentioned
86% recommend14% neutral
Why HN recommends it
A fantasy murder mystery pairing a Holmes-and-Watson duo, featuring inventive bioengineering magic and well-told plotting. It offers an alternative to the usual fantasy fare, such as dragon stories.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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…quite inventive and odd. The sequel won in 2022. * 2024 - Some Desperate Glory by Emily Tesh - basically a story about growing up as a terrorist in a sci-fi setting, with some wild turns. * 2025 - The Tainted Cup by Robert Bennett Jackson - a very bizarre Holmes & Watson take set in a land constantly invaded by sea kaiju, and where there's "magic" (or is it science) based on harvesting the dead kaiju's bodies.…
on “Book Prizes Don't Work How You Think” ↗…reading sci-fi & fantasy series. On the fiction side I can strongly recommend Lois McMaster Bujold's Vorkosigan saga, Seth Dickinson's The Traitor Baru Cormorant & sequels, and Robert Jackon Bennett's The Tainted Cup & sequels (fantasy murder mystery series). On the non fiction side, I'm slowly chipping away at Joe Studwell's book How Asia Works, about East Asian development. In the first section of the book, the…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗If you’re into this kind of fantasy bioengineering I highly recommend reading The Tainted Cup and the sequel, A Drop of Corruption. And if anyone has read these, please tell me about any other books in this similar bioengineering genre, or even just highly unique fantasy worlds (I’m just so sick…
on “Sea snail teeth top Kevlar, titanium as strongest material (2015)” ↗Lots of scifi and fantasy. The Works of Vermin. Exceptionally well written. Not an ounce of flab anywhere. The Carryx series, 2 books so far. Best villains ever. Tainted Cup and sequel. Sherlock Holmes meets Godzilla. Goblin Emperor The Prophet (Gibran) Los Alamos (Kanon) Hyperion (reread) Finally, a shout out to the best book I read in 2025: Terra Ignota. Yes, the whole…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…final thoughts/words; in that world, someone learns a dark secret from a victim... * Trade of Blood -- Another fantasy mystery that is exceptionally well told; it's Book 3 in a series so I'd start with Tainted Cup if you haven't read that already * The Infinite State -- new SciFi by Richard Swan (usually a fantasy author); a universe where ultra wealthy can establish colony planets, someone attempts to start a…
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗I just finished The Tainted Cup and moved on to the next. I've read every Bennet there is, his writing is compelling. One of my auto-buy authors, same as Claire North. I paticularly enjoyed her Gameshouse series.
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗…Angel Down, Daniel Kraus - Piranesi, Susanna Clarke - Between Two Fires, Christopher Buehlman - The Everlasting, Alix E. Harrow - The Prince of Tides, Pat Conroy - Nettle & Bone, T. Kingfisher - The Tainted Cup, Robert Jackson Bennett - The Nickel Boys, Colson Whitehead
on “Ask HN: What are you reading?” ↗