Science Fiction

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.