Book Review: A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

Overall Rating: ★★★★★ (5/5 stars)

Listened as Audiobook on Audible

I loved this book. I think all of my potential misgivings with the first installment were cleared in this one, offering a delicious mystery in a high-fantasy setting, with a beautiful political thread, character development, and insanely good writing.

Please note: This review contains major spoilers. If you haven’t read the book and prefer to go in blind, consider returning after you’ve finished it.

Overview

We see Ana and Din summoned to solve the murder of Immunis Mineti Sujedo, a member of the treasury delegation that arrived on high imperial business. The man disappeared from a locked room in a tower and was later found dead in the canals, leaving the entire investigation team puzzled—hence why the Iudex is summoned. There is some concern that the motive behind the murder might be purely political, as Yarrowdale is not yet part of the Empire but is set to become a formal member within the next decade. Ana and Din go on to uncover that it is much more than that; it is a ploy for both the throne and power, as well as for extracting as much financial gain from the Empire as possible.

The brilliant mind behind the initial murder and many subsequent crimes turns out to be an accidental by-product of a plan developed by Immunis Rava Ghrelin and Commander Prificto Kulaq Thelenai. Ghrelin and Thelenai were deeply involved in the operations of the Shroud—a facility built in the Bay of Yarrow used to study and exploit the flesh of dead Leviathans, which is a key factor in the Empire’s efficiency. The two believed that the Empire had outgrown the Shroud and devised a method to simplify the process of harvesting and transporting Titan blood—by maintaining marrow that could continue to produce blood on its own. If successful, the Empire would no longer rely on the Shroud or on the extraction of fresh blood; instead, it could ship marrow to needed locations, where it would generate fresh blood on-site, thus preventing spoilage during the long journey from Yarrow to other parts of the Empire.

I’ll pause the summary here to say that, while the use of Titan blood is disturbing in itself, this concept takes it to a whole new level. I am amazed the author managed to create such a simple yet chilling element for his book. He blends quite a bit of horror and gore into his work but excels at making simple things horrifying.

Ghrelin and Thelenai operated in utmost secrecy because they believed the King of Yarrowdale would act against them if he learned of their work. They also knew that the transport of continuously producing Titan marrow would be a logistical nightmare and extremely dangerous, potentially resulting in mass casualties if it went wrong. To even reach the stage of "binding" marrow, as they called it, they created augury—a special form of alteration that temporarily grants a heightened mental state. It was augury that produced Immunis Sunus Pyktis, a man who worked in the Shroud on the marrow and later faked his own death to carry out a plot to take over Yarrowdale.

Pyktis was one of the King’s children, and over the course of the book, he manages to kill both the King and his brother, the Prince, and assume the throne. This is possible because the royal bloodline is unusually full of twins and triplets, and Pyktis was a twin of the Prince. As his plot is revealed, Ana leaves it to the King and Prince’s advisor to deal with Pyktis as they see fit. Thelenai is arrested, and the marrow is secured, awaiting a future where it may be used to usher in what they call the Fifth Empire—a new era.

The story is difficult to summarize efficiently, but I found it engaging and not nearly as convoluted when followed step by step as it seems when attempting to summarize it. I found the plot compelling and the characters nuanced. The setting was excellent—perhaps even better than in the first book. The story unfolds at a pace that is easy to follow. As with the previous book, you arrive at many of the revelations alongside the characters, which is once again a great feat for any writer to accomplish.

Where Are Our Characters?

Din

Din had a lot going on in this book.

There were a lot of money issues for him, even more so than in the previous book. His father died and left him a huge debt with the Usini Lending Group. It allowed the author to explore other sides of Din that he might not otherwise have had the chance to. I am also impressed by how mundane the plot is—because, well, yes, creditors are not something I expect in a high fantasy book. They added a certain noir element, with that touch of financial corruption and a bit of moral decay. I also like that, while we do get underdogs and people from lower classes, the way Din is impoverished is somewhat relatable—he works, pays his loans, and is still left with next to nothing for enjoyment. If that isn’t a very modern sentiment, I don’t know what is.

Tied into Din’s financial struggles is his desire to be a part of the imperial legion. The Legion fights back the Leviathans on the sea walls and is respected and honorable.

“Those who donned the sable uniforms saved untold lives every year, whereas I, in the Iudex, merely looked upon the dead, and could do little else.”

Din’s struggle to find meaning in his work was also an interesting point of his character in this book. I did feel it was just a bit out of the blue, but it was well executed, so I cannot complain too much.

“But... when we come, the deed is already done. The body is cold, the blood cleaned away. We often find the killer, but that heals nothing, as far as I can see. It only leads to a rope, or a cage, and many more tears. (...) Is it so strange a thing, ma’am, to helplessly look upon the slain and dream of instead saving lives?”

While I don’t think we were ever supposed to seriously wonder if he’d leave Ana and go to another Iyalet, his journey to realizing that there is good to be done even in the Iudex was very satisfying. It was also subtly tied to his fling with Captain Kepheus Strovi from the last book, which I thought was nicely done—I don’t think Din thought he was in love or anything, but it was clear the affair had left a lasting impact on him, and that he admired Strovi a lot and would have been happy to give the relationship a chance if it were viable.

It was also satisfying to have the Usini Lending Group effortlessly taken down by Ana, who was looking out for Din so sweetly in this story.

Ana

I find Ana endlessly fascinating, especially as we get to see more of her, but I also find her hard to relate to. I would argue that is the whole point, so this isn’t a critique in any way. I also love her communication style so much. She is so direct, and her one-liners always hit.

Just as an example:

“Just keep an eye out for the fellow with testicles large enough to cause back deformities, and we shall have our culprit!”

Or, on a more serious note:

“This work can never satisfy, Din, for it can never finish. The dead cannot be restored. Vice and bribery will never be totally banished from the cantons. And the drop of corruption that lies within every society shall always persist. The duty of the Iudex is not to boldly vanquish it but to manage it. We keep the stain from spreading, yes, but it is never gone. Yet this job is perhaps the most important in all the Iyalets, for without it, well… the Empire would come to look much like Yarrow, where the powerful and the cruel prevail without check.”

She displayed such a keen understanding of justice and what needs to be done to achieve it, and I loved her for it.

The revelation of what she is was also interesting, and I didn’t see it coming. It is revealed that she is probably a new version of the old Khanum, the great race that built the Empire. I always thought she had some crazy augmentations, but this is way cooler. I look forward to seeing where that character point goes in future installments.

I also like how there’s almost a tenderness that develops over the last few chapters between Ana and Din. At the end of the book, Ana is exhausted enough to require several days of sleep, akin to an induced coma, and Din is there checking on her every day. And she in turn has a heartfelt conversation with him in the epilogue, allowing him to leave the Iudex but grateful that he decides to stay. An overall huge improvement on their already amusing and strong relationship thus far.

Tira Malo

By far my favorite character addition. Tira Malo is a part of the Apoths in Yarrowdale and has a past as one of the indentured servants that I think we can freely call slaves to the nobles of the realm. She is brave, dutiful, and smart, so no surprise that I love her. For a moment, I was afraid she had somehow been involved in the villainous plot, but that was thankfully not the case.

She has built her future on the upcoming merge with the Empire, but the events of the book make her aware that she will have to find a different path soon. Ana suggests she could also become an assistant investigator, and I hope we get her own books in which she does exactly that.

The Leviathan Threat

“You think it’s mad, for us to talk of spirits,” said the second maid archly. “But given what they do with the Shroud out there in the bay… perhaps the ghosts of these things linger, and hate us, for all we make from their flesh.”

Where the Leviathans were an active threat in Talagray in the first book, they are things to be experimented on in this one, and that does not decrease the horror in any way. If anything, it increases it, because the potential damage Leviathan blood and marrow can do is off the charts.

The forest where the camp was is a brilliant example of this. The description of what had happened there is so gruesome that it’s just a tad difficult to get through. I was also listening to it in audiobook format, and the way that scene flows is just amazing.

Din also gets a chance to visit the Shroud, and I think I expected more descriptions and for it to go more in the direction of being horrifying. The way I ended up picturing it is almost like a factory, with the business described. I really enjoyed the augurs, though, and their strange type of communication and perception of the world. They were really starved for information, and I think that drove home the point of how borderline inhuman their treatment was.

Author’s Note

I never skip author’s notes, but if there was only one author’s note I think you should read in this entire year, it would be this one.

Final Thoughts

I feel like I could talk for ages about this book. As long as this review is, I still feel like there’s so much I did not discuss, and it’s worth mentioning. The book was fun, yet it explored complex themes and offered a lot of intriguing scenes and characters. An absolute must-read.