I just finished A Drop of Corruption, which is the second book of the Shadow of the Leviathan series by Robert Jackson Bennett, and I really enjoyed it. The first book is The Tainted Cup, which I also very much enjoyed.
First let me say that the series is classified as fantasy, not SF, though it seems like it’s in a grey area to me. It’s set in a world where giant creatures swim the seas, and sometimes wreck havoc by coming up on land. Over the generations, the people have learned how to kill the creatures, though not easily. They have found that distilling elements of the dead creatures allows them to modify people for certain enhanced traits, like complete memory recall. So fantasy, but approached more like biology and pharmacology. Certainly not hard SF, but not wizards and elves and such either.
The books are essentially murder mysteries that take place in this setting, with a very quirky detective type and her assistant that have a vague similarity to Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. The characters are really well fleshed out, and very enjoyable to follow around. The mystery elements are well done as well.
As they say, if this is the sort of thing you like, you’ll like this one.
I just finished A Drop of Corruption as well! I enjoyed the ride and am digging the biopunk setting. Although I feel like the leviathan threat was noticeably absent since it seems like a core trait of the worldbuilding.
Ana is an incredibly fun character to read, and Din makes a good straight man for a partner. I do think the author has leaned a little heavily into the whole Sherlock holmes bit already after only 2 books, but it hasn’t taken anything away from the story.
Extra points for the totally new genre of fantasy-biopunk-mystery-kaiju defense.
I completely agree with everything you said. I was okay with the leviathan threat being less noticeable though because they were in an outlying land that doesn’t have as much direct threat from them, and because the story took place out of season.
I just feel like his stories are really well crafted, which is the main thing for me.
I really enjoyed those books! I found them when I was digging through the Hugo’s for something to read and these definitely seemed like they deserved it. I generally avoid mysteries because it seems they have a tendency to intentionally mislead the reader but these felt complete. Every detail is important and contributes to the story without being out of place or a distraction. Highly recommend
Yeah, mystery isn’t my normal genre either, but as you said, these are great.
I also start with Hugo and nebula nominees and winners to populate my reading list, so found these that way as well.
I forgot about the nebulas! My list just grew
You might also want to look at the Locus Awards.
Sweet thanks, adding to the list
I really liked his Foundry series of books, I’ll have to check this out! Sounds interesting.
Just looked that one up. Apparently that one is firmly fantasy, but looks interesting - maybe I’ll add it to the list. I pull things off the list faster than I add to it anyway.