Review of 'A Drop of Corruption'

A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett

The valley of Khanum is outside of the Empire, having mastered the skills of extracting magical elements from the bodies of sea-serpents - leviathans. There are discussions about bringing Khanum into the Empire but when a member of the imperial treasury goes missing with his body found in several pieces in a local canal there is a mystery to be solved. Member of the Iudex, the imperial institution for administering justice, Dinios Kol is sent to investigate along with the mysterious, brilliant Ana Dolabra who rarely leaves her rooms, spending most of her time blindfolded. Kol himself has talents as an “engraver” - Able to literally record events as they occur. As they come to terms with the way the city works with it's extreme separation of royalty and the working class along with the separate world operating under the “Shroud of Yarrow” where psychologically disturbed but brilliant workers on three year contracts to harvest the leviathans. There are schemes within schemes that will take all the power of Kol and Dolabra to untangle.

This is a disturbing but interesting book that talks about a mysterious world where biological magic is commonplace. We learn of the workings of the even stranger Khanum through the eyes of the Imperial inspector sent to unravel recent mysterious events, Kol. Even in this odd setting he struggles to understand all that is going on as we do though we still have to figure out how the rest of the world works. But, this is all quite intriguing and, though complicated, things eventually do fall into place and we end up with quite a complicated mystery to solve that never fails to deliver surprises and shocks. The characters are generally believable if not entirely likeable - We see things through Kol's eyes but his morality is slightly in doubt and he is not exactly a riveting personality, being basically our window into the story.

I had picked up this (e)book as part of the 2026 World Science Fiction convention, where it has been nominated for the yearly Hugo Awards, as a sampler but after reading that I had to request a full copy of the book to see how it was all going to turn out. Lots of action, often quite visceral, and suspense to keep the reader turning the page with an interesting protagonist who is able to go places we want to see and experience, with the talent of being able to fully record and describe what he is seeing to us…The ending is quite satisfying and ties together a many of the lose threads but leaves enough room for sequels (this book itself is a sequel to the 2024 novel “The Tainted Cup”).

An exciting, fantastic book that takes a bit of effort to get into, but it is so interesting it will keep you reading to figure out who did it and what the heck is actually going on…There are parts that are quite disturbing to read but that just adds to the character of what is an amazing book.

Rating: “Nearly perfect, but not quite”

Review Date: 2026-08-02

Genre: Fantasy

Publisher: Del Rey

Publication Date: 2026

ISBN: 9780593723838