Series
Shadow of the Leviathan
Robert Jackson Bennett · 3 novels · 2024–2026
Shadow of the Leviathan is Robert Jackson Bennett's fantasy murder-mystery trilogy: The Tainted Cup (2024), A Drop of Corruption and A Trade of Blood. Set in an empire built along the shores of colossal sea monsters, it follows an unconventional investigator and her sharp-eyed assistant solving crimes that expose the empire's engineered biology and its rot from within. The Tainted Cup won the 2025 Hugo Award and World Fantasy Award for best novel.
Summary by Loreful, from public sources
Reading order
The order the books came out.
Best read in the order they were published.
Map
Shadow of the Leviathan at the centre, its books fanned around what holds them. Pick anything for its details, and zoom out for similar series in orbit — the reading order above lists the same books as text.
Stats
By decade
- 2020s3
Shape
3 novels
1 author
reads like:fantasymurder investigationsecondary worldtimeless or unspecifiedmysteriousadult
Mood
Grim and intense: 100% of this series' placed works, the catalog's 46%.
this series · the catalog · one dot = one book3 of 3 works carry a tone
Edges of the map
- The Tainted Cupdarkest · calmest
- A Drop of Corruptionbrightest · most intense