u/jaymae21

If you enjoyed The Tainted Cup with its Sherlock Holmes-like mystery plot set in a complex fantasy world, then join us for the next book in the Shadow of the Leviathan series, A Drop of Corruption! We'll be starting in just a few weeks, so be sure to grab your copy!

StoryGraph blurb:

>!In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard. !<

>!To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol. !<

>!Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future. !<

>!Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire’s greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.  !<

>!Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.!<

Schedule:

5/31/26 - Ch. 1-13 with u/myneoncoffee

6/7/26 - Ch. 14-25 with u/Comprehensive-Fun47

6/14/26 - Ch. 26-35 with u/Amanda39

6/21/26 - Ch. 36-46 with u/jaymae21

6/28/26 - Ch. 47-55 (End) with u/jaymae21

Check out our discussions of The Tainted Cup here.

Don't forget to record your thoughts and theories in the Marginalia! 🔎

Will you be joining us for more Ana & Din mayhem & mystery?

Fantasy lovers, if you are ready to put your sleuthing caps back on, then please join us in June for the sequel to The Tainted Cup, A Drop of Corruption by Robert Jackson Bennett! 🔎🪴

StoryGraph blurb:

>!In the canton of Yarrowdale, at the very edge of the Empire’s reach, an impossible crime has occurred. A Treasury officer has disappeared into thin air—abducted from his quarters while the door and windows remained locked from the inside, in a building whose entrances and exits are all under constant guard. !<

>!To solve the case, the Empire calls on its most brilliant and mercurial investigator, the great Ana Dolabra. At her side, as always, is her bemused assistant Dinios Kol. !<

>!Before long, Ana’s discovered that they’re not investigating a disappearance, but a murder—and that the killing was just the first chess move by an adversary who seems to be able to pass through warded doors like a ghost, and who can predict every one of Ana’s moves as though they can see the future. !<

>!Worse still, the killer seems to be targeting the high-security compound known as the Shroud. Here, the Empire’s greatest minds dissect fallen Titans to harness the volatile magic found in their blood. Should it fall, the destruction would be terrible indeed—and the Empire itself will grind to a halt, robbed of the magic that allows its wheels of power to turn.  !<

>!Din has seen Ana solve impossible cases before. But this time, with the stakes higher than ever and Ana seemingly a step behind their adversary at every turn, he fears that his superior has finally met an enemy she can’t defeat.!<

Missed the first book? No problem! The discussions are always open - you can find the schedule with links to all of the discussions here.

Will you be joining us for more Ana and Din adventures?

Welcome, terraformers and explorers, to our second discussion of the recently released sequel in the Children of Time series, Children of Strife!  The cover design of this book is starting to make more sense after this week 🌱

This week’s discussion will cover Ch. 4.4-Ch. 8.3.

First, a note about spoilers: Please use spoiler tags for anything beyond this week's section.  As always, use spoiler tags for any works outside of this series that you may wish to connect here.  You do not need to use spoiler tags for any tie-ins to the previous three books in this series.

You can add a spoiler tag by enclosing your text with > ! Your Text Here ! < (no spaces).

Schedule

Marginalia

Previous Discussions

Children of Time (#1)

Children of Ruin (#2)

Children of Memory (#3)

Chapter Summaries

PART 4: THE THIRD AGE (Con’t)
Children of Bad Decisions

4.4 - Alis, on the planet, walks around until she comes across a woman with a gun.  She speaks a language Alis doesn’t recognize.  The woman shoots her through the stomach, then runs away as the hole in Alis starts to close up immediately.  

PART 5: THE FIRST AGE
The Centre, Not Holding

5.1 - Hartmand wants guns to go hunting on the planet (typical).  The crew agrees to rotate through godhood, sharing control of the direction of the planet, since the bugs keep coming back. They make some progress on the biosphere, and follow developments on Earth.

5.2 - The crew receives radio signals from Earth, decades later, that things are degrading.  Wars and terrorist attacks abound.  Hartmand believes that colonists will be heading their way soon, full of his loyal followers.  Kott thinks about killing all of her crewmates.

5.3 - Kott gets another turn at playing planet god, and sets about fixing her predecessors’ work.  Except for Pil’s, who seems to have been encouraging the bugs again.

5.4 - Kott wakes from her shift, and gets up to speed on the happenings down on Earth.  There is a full war over resources happening in the Earth’s solar system.

5.5 - Hartmand gives a rousing (to him) speech about the faithful colonists that are sure to show up at any time. He declares he won’t be going under for his shift in anticipation, and Kott gladly volunteers to fill in.  But once she’s under, she discovers Pil is there too, using the set up in his own quarters that he didn’t dismantle.  Pill suggests that when the colonists come, it should just be him and her to welcome them.

5.6 - Kott wakes up to find the rest of the crew surrounding her, and they have some news.  The war on Earth has ended, and Hartmand is still so sure the colonists will be coming across to greet them.  They will have no governments, no regulations to stop them, only progress.  Suddenly, Earth goes quiet, and Domus along with their other systems go down.

PART 6: THE SECOND AGE
Hope, Disappointment, Acceptance

6.1 - A prelude of sorts to our next section, as we see what happens after the events of Ch. 5.6.

6.2 - Cosimir, Engineering Chief of the ark ship Nergal, receives her disgusting food ration and sits with her crew discussing their prospects for getting to depart Earth.  They have been waiting a long time for their turn.  She goes with a few of them onto the roof to watch the skies for shuttle launches.  The Nergal is up on a test run after a suspected engine issue.  They watch as the ship falls from the sky.

6.3 - Cosimir and the rest of her crew are now without a ship, and so will likely be stranded on Earth.  Hannoy, in Project Management, urges her to meet her later, saying that her aptitude tests showed she could be a Captain.  

6.4 - Cosimir goes to the Project Management building for her meeting with Hannoy.  Captain Olumo, previously of the Pangu and now of the Marduk, is there as well.  It turns out, there is something wrong with him that will make him unable to Captain the Marduk.  Hannoy wants Cosimir to be Captain instead, and head to a world that is not in the record of terraformed worlds.  Instead, all they have is a message from Gerey Hartmand.

6.5 - On the launch field, Cosimir meets with Denizon Kieraven, the Security Chief for the Marduk, and one of her immediate subordinates.  She asks him if he believes “this Hartmand business”, and he doesn’t really.  Cosimir responds similarly, but says that once they are launched, she will believe it wholeheartedly.  

6.6 - The Cargo is being loaded into the Marduk, and the crew is preparing for take-off.  

6.7 - The Marduk manages the first phase of its journey with nothing going wrong (yet), and Cosimir allows herself a moment to finally breathe.

6.8 - Before going to sleep for centuries, Cosimir delivers a speech to her crew with the theme that no matter the odds, they will survive.

PART 7: THE THIRD AGE
Bitter Fruit

7.1 - The Dissenter makes its approach to the strange green planet where its crew disappeared.  The planet has a ring of green growth around it, with the wreck of an ark ship entwined within it.  They locate the other half of the Dissenter, but it has been penetrated by plant shoots.  Alis suits up to go out and investigate.

7.2 -  Cato, Alis, and Kern venture out on a spacewalk, and see that the name of the ark ship was the Marduk.  The plant thing has penetrated the interior, and a shoot almost takes out the Kern spider robot, but Cato and his quick reflexes save it.  They find the body of Helena, who was not so lucky with the plant.  

7.3 - Cato uses a laser to cut the foliage so they have a path through, and wonders if he could cut the stalk that connects to the planet.  They find the Cargo section, full of dead people in their sleep pods.

7.4 - They find another body of the crew, this time Galean, a Human.  Then they find Portia and Fabian.  They deduce that Mira must still be alive, and break through a recently welded wall in front of them.  They expect to find Mira, but instead find the the Kern spider robot that was budded off from the main Avigael Kern when the crew separated.  There is something very wrong with it, and Cato insists on a quarantine when they get back to the ship.  They notice a strange hole in the hull of the ship, facing towards the planet, and wonder if someone survived and made their way down the well.  Kern tells Alis she needs to explain something about Mira, but Alis will likely find it distressing.

PART 8: THE SECOND AGE
Beanstalk

8.1 - Ilshir, Engineering Chief, is woken from his sleep pod just after Hieron, the Science Chief.  They have arrived at the planet, and find that 17% of the Cargo has spoiled.  They decide to leave that for Cosimir to decide what to do about, not being able to bring themselves to spacing them.  They find the planet to meet the specifications for habitation by humans.

8.2 - The crew note several odd things about the planet.  First, there are no transmissions coming back from it, despite them signalling to it with their best knowledge of the Ancients.  Second, the elevators from the planet’s surface are not the technology they were expecting, but are instead a plant, a giant beanstalk.  They cannot see any sign that any humans are living on the planet at all.  Cosimir commands them to start waking people, and to start investigating a larger hub near the beanstalk.

8.3 - Hieron’s team has dubbed the large knot in the orbital plant structure as the “Kernal”.  They begin taking samples, and Hieron marvels at how this thing is surviving in low orbit.  They make their way inside the structure, and find the remains of a ship.  They breach the ship and find it is a tomb for 4 people, though everything, even the bodies, have been taken over by plants.

Welcome sleuthers, to our final discussion of r/bookclub’s Fantasy selection, The Tainted Cup. It’s been quite the journey, and we have all the answers now thanks to Ana (or do we?).  I look forward to hearing your own thoughts!

This week’s discussion will cover Ch. 31-42.

First, a note about spoilers: Please use spoiler tags for anything beyond this week's section (i.e. further in the series, since this is the last one for this book).  As always, use spoiler tags for any works outside of this series that you may wish to connect here. 

You can add a spoiler tag by enclosing your text with > ! Your Text Here ! < (no spaces).

Schedule

Marginalia

Chapter Summaries

Part IV: Hell and the Gentry (Con’t)

Ch. 31 - Ana and Din interview the other officers on the investigation that were at the Haza party.  She asks each one if they could think of any connection between Blas, Kaygi Haza, and Oypat.  Nusis postulates that the fire starter could have been blackperch mushrooms, which apparently smell like urine and react immediately with fire.  She also reveals the shock that they had had a cure for the dappleglass contagion in Oypat, but could not get approval from the Preservation Boards of the cantons of Juldiz, Bekinis, Qabirga, and Mitral.

Ch. 32 - Back in the Iudex tower, Ana, Din, and Miljin talk shop, and explain to Din their theory that the Hazas have employed a twitch (someone with augmentations so they can move super fast) as an assassin, killing Aristan and Suberek to cover their tracks.  Miljin also has Din try out the fancy locking mechanism for his sword, and proves that Din has an engraver’s muscle memory as well, a rare trait.  They also deduce that Jolgalgan was working with a crackler, who could have lifted the sluice gate for her to get into the Haza grounds.  This cracker had yellow hair, and so was likely also from Oypat.  Ana steals a couple hairs from Din for protection from poison.

Ch. 33 - Din and Miljin meet the Apoths’ contagion crew, and they head towards the sea walls to look for the source of the dappleglass and find the crackler named Ditelus.  Luckily cracklers are pretty easy to track down.  They interview the princeps of the outpost, who says he is missing, but directs them toward the direction Ditelus would return from, when he disappeared before.  They find him shambling through the plains, and find that he is bleeding down the front. Ditelus says he is going home, to Oypat, but then he sprouts a tree from his throat.  They find their way to the old fortress, where they find Jolgalgan dead via dappleglass, in what looks like a makeshift Apoth laboratory for producing dappleglass.

Part V: The Shadow of the Leviathan

Ch. 34 - Din and Ana report their findings to Commander-Prificto Vashta.  Ana emphasizes how everything comes back to the Hazas, but Vashta is too preoccupied by another incoming leviathan.  Vashta seems to think the case has been solved, but allows Ana another week to conduct interviews and review evidence.  There will be a banquet on the eve of the confrontation with the leviathan, and Ana asks Din to go in her stead.

Ch. 35 - Din goes to the Banquet of Blessings and witnesses priests of the imperial cults blessing the Legionnaires who will be operating the bombard in the leviathan attack.  He meets Immunis Uhad, who congratulates him and describes his afflictions related to being an aging engraver.  He will be stepping down and leaving for the first ring of the Empire soon, but asks if Din would make him a cup of tea before he goes.  Din runs into Strovi, whose face is covered in dried blood from the ritual; he will be on cannon duty.  Din invites Strovi to the bathing chamber in his room, but he is pulled away by an urgent request from Ana.

Ch. 36 - Din goes to the Apoth tower, where Nusis has been found dead in her office, with a hole in her head leaking blood.  Din can smell alcohol on the safe, which is locked.  The Apoth Kitlan uses a corrosive to open the safe, and there they find a copy of the reagent key Din gave to Nusis, but it’s not the original.  Ana postulates that the twitch came to steal it, but found it was already stolen, and so cleaned up the blood on the safe to make it look like they hadn’t been in there at all.  Ana quickly sends for Vashta, and tells her that she suspects an attempt will be made on Fayazi Haza’s life, urging her to offer protection and bring her to the Iudex tower the next day to be interviewed.  Ana wants to prepare her room, and tells Din he is not to go in there under any circumstances. 

Ch. 37 - In the morning, Din meets Miljun in the atrium of the Iudex tower.  Vashta enters with Fayazi and her two Sublimes.  Ana makes her appearance last, and gives a summation of what she knows, much to Fayazi’s annoyance.  She accuses Kaygi Haza of patronage, and believes Jolgalgan was one of those, since she would have to have knowledge of the Haza house and grounds.  The 10 dead engineers were likely a second, smaller, more exclusive set of Haza’s patrons, and they were all infected at the Haza house during that party.  Kaygi Haza’s bath was poisoned with the dappleglass, which in turn likely contaminated his wine drinking glass.  This same cup was used at the exclusive party for the engineers, infecting them with a smaller dose of the dappleglass than what Kaygi Haza was exposed to.  Ana then accuses the Hazas outright of being responsible for the breach. She explains how the dappleglass cure was suppressed by the same cantons that were receiving money from Blas, and correspondence from Kaygi Haza shortly before the breach.  She postulates that the Hazas made a lot of money through the Oypat disaster, as they were able to negotiate contracts with the loss of Oypat farmland.  Blas was blackmailing the Hazas with his knowledge and likely had one of the three sets of the dappleglass cure that was stolen from the Apoths.  Fayazi’s axiom is then accused of being the twitch, and it turns out she cannot do any math.  Vashta orders Miljun and the Legionnaires to arrest the twitch, but the tocsin bells go off, signalling the arrival of the leviathan.

Ch. 38 -  The twitch uses the leviathan bells as a distraction and takes down several Legionnaires with a stiletto blade before jumping out of the window.  Ana deduces that she traveled up the building, to Ana’s room to get the reagents key.  They go to the atrium as Vashta comes down the stairs, mouth pouring blood.  Ana set her room up as a dappleglass trap.  Din battles with her and shoves his sword through her eye socket just before the dappleglass blooms, killing her.

Ch. 39 - The city is in chaos as people try to evacuate, and Ana and Din decide instead to head towards the sea wall, to get a glimpse of the leviathan.  Din admits to cheating on his exam, and Ana admits to knowing this already (unsurprising).  Ana confesses that she has no alterations, that she is naturally easily overstimulated and agoraphobic.  Apparently, these qualities are what have made her “amendable to an experiment”.  They watch as the leviathan approaches and is taken out by the bombards.

Ch. 40 - In a meeting with Vashta, Uhad tells Ana and Din that the Haza family holdings in the third ring have been seized. The Haza clan in the other rings may be displaced, and replaced with Fayazi Haza.  This could have ramifications for all of the gentry.  Din is declared to be a full Assistant Investigator, no longer an apprentice.  Ana drops yet another bomb that she knows who the true dappleglass poisoner is - Tuwey Uhad.  As an engraver, he could memorize how to open Nusis’s safe. His motive: ending the corruption of the gentry in Talagray.  He tried to poison Ana with dappleglass in her teapot. Not content with just one truth bomb in a day, Ana reveals that she was sent to Daretana to investigate the Hazas, not as a punishment.

Ch. 41 - Miljin gives Din his sword, deciding instead to rejoin the Legionnaires.  Then Din catches up with Strovi, and tells him he believes he will be leaving in a few days.  Strovi gives Din some shootstraw pipes, and Din gives him a kiss.

Ch. 42 - Ana and Din leave Talagray, and Ana tells him she is going to see the Iudex conzulate, who is waiting on her.  She will still need an assistant and asks Din to stay with her.  Din gives her a gift - a box of very illegal mood grafts (the hallucinogenic kind).