“A Drop of Corruption:” Robert Jackson Bennett

Having read “The Tainted Cup,” the first book in Robert Jackson Bennett’s new series of science fiction mysteries, a few weeks ago, I had planned to wait at least a few months before opening the second volume, “A Drop of Corruption.”

The second book was released in April and it will likely be a year or more before the next “Ana and Din Mystery/Shadow of the Leviathan” book will be published.

Temptation proved too great.

“A Drop of Corruption” is an excellent follow-up to “The Tainted Cup” and establishes the eccentric yet brilliant detective Ana Dolabra and her multi-talented assistant Dinios Kol as the Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson of another world. Like Watson, Dinios is the narrator of these stories; unlike Watson, young Dinios learns from his mistakes and has a penchant for also solving riddles within the mystery. Ana is odd (she wears a blindfold so she will not suffer sensory overload), mysterious, abrasive, abusive, with gigantic appetites and interests, and an intellect matched only by her overwhelming ego. 

Here, an imperial treasury officer has vanished from a high room in a heavily guarded tower. The door and windows are still locked from the inside. There’s never a good time for a missing person case but this one comes during tense negotiations between the empire and the independent realm of Yarrowdale.

Ana is assigned to the task, with Din joining her.

She learns the missing person was actually murdered. Not only might the murder imperil the negotiations but it may well affect the Shroud, a nearby compound where the Empire harvests properties from the blood of fallen titans.

Readers can often step into a mystery series anywhere, whether it’s the first book or the 12th, and pick up the narrative for that volume. Readers should be able to do that with “A Drop of Corruption,” too, though it’s highly advised to read “The Tainted Cup” first. Readers will have a better understanding of the world that Bennett is creating.

For example, the empire’s main function is security from the Leviathans – the giant titans living in the seas. Several people have been enhanced. Some people have been given grafts that affect their strength, or enhance their senses, or like Din enable him to have a photographic memory.

Bennett performs a wonderful trick with these books. He is building an exotic other world with a foundation set in familiar worldly ways. While he is establishing entire cultures, their populations are fueled by well-known sensibilities and sins: honor, lust, ambition, duty, greed, vengeance and love.

At the heart of the first two books is the relationship developing between bold, wise, demanding, abrasive Ana and the young, developing, honorable Din.

Hopefully, a “Drop” will go a long way because the wait for the next book is likely to be slow – even if it is only a year.

 

Pronoun Trouble: John McWhorter

Folks who seek and see the political in everything may think John McWhorter’s new book, “Pronoun Trouble: The Story of Us in Seven Little Words,” is about a person’s ability to choose a personal pronoun.

While McWhorter does spend some time on the use of they/their as a singular, rather than plural, pronoun for people who do not wish to identify as gender specific, the majority of the book is about seven pronouns that populate/dominate the English language: I, you, we, he, she, it or they.

McWhorter writes about how and why these specific words likely came to be, how properties of our English pronouns differ from those of pronouns used in other languages, etc.

For example, why is there no formal plural of you in our modern English vocabulary? He notes that the Southern “y’all” actually does the trick but most people don’t accept it in formal writing situations or speeches. I often say y’all and even use it in text messages but I do not use it in regular news stories or formal writing unless quoting someone verbatim.

Another example, McWhorter argues, is saying something akin to “John and me are going to the store” should be perfectly acceptable but grammar snobs cling to the notion that the correct form should remain, “John and I are going to the store.”

McWhorter should know. 

He is the language expert. He is a renowned linguist who teaches linguistics at Columbia University. He’s a bestselling author whose works include “Nine Nasty Words.” McWhorter makes the art, history, culture and stories behind language fun and educational. This is not a book for everyone, but people who love words should love this book of words about words.

As for the use of a singular person self-designating as they/their, McWhorter writes people should find nothing controversial about it. English-speaking people have been designating individuals as “they” for years.

For example, take the sentence: “With that door unlocked, every employee will think they can just go in there and grab a snack whenever they want.”

People say things like this all of the time to designate an individual, who can be either male or female, from a group of people. We use “they” to denote an individual far more naturally than saying, “With that door unlocked, every employee will think he or she can just go in there and grab a snack whenever he or she wants.”

McWhorter notes the term “they” can be confusing when designated to a specific person; however, people are already adapting to the concept.

A big takeaway from “Pronoun Trouble” is that our pronouns do change but slowly over lifetimes. While new nouns are created and some nouns become verbs, our pronouns remain roughly the ones we know: the seven basic ones and their derivatives.

We don’t create new pronouns but, as McWhorter implies, that doesn’t mean our available pronouns can’t be adapted to different uses.