2 upvotes, 6 direct replies (showing 6)
View submission: The Best Books of 2024 Winners!
There's a couple in there I'd never heard of. Can anyone speak to *The Tainted Cup* and *The Mercy of Gods*? Robert Jackson Bennett is an author I've completely ignored, I like good fantasy but his work has always looked . . . pulpy? The description makes it sound right up my alley though. James S.A. Corey is an author that, on paper, I should love but I never got into Leviathan Wakes, in part, I think, because I had seen the show first. Wondering if I should give him another shot with a new series that hasn't been spoiled for me yet.
Comment by strider85 at 19/01/2025 at 21:45 UTC
7 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Finished The Tainted Cup in the last few weeks and it was so good - really looking forward to the second book. Also highly recommend the audio book as the narration is top notch. It’s a fantasy murder mystery but the world is really interesting and the ‘magic system’ is very grounded for the most part
Comment by katemp0712 at 20/01/2025 at 18:00 UTC
3 upvotes, 1 direct replies
The Tainted Cup is honestly unlike anything I've ever read. The world building is immense, but it's woven into the story instead of the first third being used for that. The characters are complex and multidimensional, the story and setting are fascinating... I loved it! I wanted to immediately read it again to see what I could discover the second time around :)
Comment by HotPoppinPopcorn at 19/01/2025 at 23:04 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The Mercy of Gods is good, but it's accompanying novella Livesuit is the best thing I read all of last year. I am slowly reading through the Expanse novels and this is probably on par with those.
Comment by mr_cristy at 20/01/2025 at 06:16 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I absolutely loved the tainted cup. It was a breath of fresh air. Fantasy meets Sherlock Holmes. It was definitely my top fantasy of the year and I read at least 10.
Comment by SilverSie at 20/01/2025 at 19:30 UTC
2 upvotes, 1 direct replies
I must be in the minority about The Tainted Cup; I was so looking forward to it and was a little disappointed. The dialogue is enjoyable, some traits of the POV character were neat, and I liked one minor character in particular, but I find eccentric detectives uninteresting (or at least this one) and maybe overdone. Some worldbuilding was really neat, other wasn’t to my taste. The mystery was a neat premise but didn’t blow me away; like another comment said it’s not really something you can put together yourself. But anyway a lot of this is a matter of personal taste so I hope you enjoy it anyway, and I’m still going to try his other series at some point. ☺️
EDIT: oh, and this was the second narrator ever that I actually really did not enjoy ☹️ was not a fan of some character voices, but thankfully they were secondary characters.
Comment by DylanHate at 20/01/2025 at 00:50 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
Personally I loved the Expanse series and found it even better having watched the show. It starts off a bit slow since there's a lot of world-building to set up, but once it takes off it is addicting. The audiobooks are *fantastic* and one of the few I'd recommend over reading the book.