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Featured Fantasy: The Tainted Cup (Shadow of the Leviathan Book 1) by Robert Jackson Bennet

April 25, 2025 by Carolynn

$1.99 as of April 25, 2025
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada, Germany (Even less on United Kingdom but full price at Australia)

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay

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

“Great fantasy detective stories are too rare, but Bennett—[a] rising star of fantasy—more than delivers.”—Charlie Jane Anders, The Washington Post


“A thoroughly satisfying delight from start to finish.”—Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review

NOMINATED FOR THE EDGAR AWARD • 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.

Filed Under: Box Set Featured Fantasy, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: Robert Jackson Bennet, Shadow of the Leviathan, The Tainted Cup

Featured Fantasy: City of Stairs (The Divine Cities Book 1) by Robert Jackson Bennet

January 9, 2025 by Carolynn

Featured Fantasy: City of Stairs (The Divine Cities Book 1) by Robert Jackson Bennet

$1.99 as of January 9, 2024
Click for current price: Amazon US, Canada, Germany (Regular price at: United Kingdom, Australia )

Apple, Nook, Kobo, GooglePlay 

An atmospheric and intrigue-filled novel of dead gods, buried histories, and a mysterious, protean city–from one of America’s most acclaimed young fantasy writers.

The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions—until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world’s new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself—first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it—stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy.

Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani. Officially, the unassuming young woman is just another junior diplomat sent by Bulikov’s oppressors. Unofficially, she is one of her country’s most accomplished spies, dispatched to catch a murderer. But as Shara pursues the killer, she starts to suspect that the beings who ruled this terrible place may not be as dead as they seem—and that Bulikov’s cruel reign may not yet be over.

Filed Under: Box Set Featured Fantasy, The Box Set List Features Tagged With: City of Stairs, Robert Jackson Bennet, The Divine Cities

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