A review of The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett. Plus, the dark underbelly of American poverty, and how control of fire is useful to man and birds alike.
Loved your thoughts on The Tainted Cup! I also read it recently & enjoyed the worldbuilding a lot--anything with mushrooms & clever use of swamp environment reminds me of The Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind (one of my favourite games) but the setting did many cool things beyond that. As for the morally grey / skirting of the law aspects, I'm curious how the investigator's past will be revealed in the sequel & whether it might explain some of her ambiguities, although it's understandable that it made you not want to read more too.
I'm going to read the sequel, don't get me wrong. It wasn't a deal killer just felt tacked on like the author didn't really think it through, if that makes sense?
Yeah, it's not really the tool use so much as how we constantly improve our tools. We learn from and build on the past ("standing on the shoulders"). That comes from our powers of imagination and abstraction — the true differentiation between us and other animals, I think. Those powers also give us math and art and fiction.
Loved your thoughts on The Tainted Cup! I also read it recently & enjoyed the worldbuilding a lot--anything with mushrooms & clever use of swamp environment reminds me of The Elder Scrolls 3 Morrowind (one of my favourite games) but the setting did many cool things beyond that. As for the morally grey / skirting of the law aspects, I'm curious how the investigator's past will be revealed in the sequel & whether it might explain some of her ambiguities, although it's understandable that it made you not want to read more too.
I'm going to read the sequel, don't get me wrong. It wasn't a deal killer just felt tacked on like the author didn't really think it through, if that makes sense?
Ah I see! In that case I will be curious if / how your opinion will change after reading more.
Yeah, it's not really the tool use so much as how we constantly improve our tools. We learn from and build on the past ("standing on the shoulders"). That comes from our powers of imagination and abstraction — the true differentiation between us and other animals, I think. Those powers also give us math and art and fiction.