I suppose this would be an "interquel" between Star Wars - Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars - Episode IV - A New Hope. Anakin Skywalker has fully embraced the Dark Side of the Force and become Darth Vader, Emperor Palpatine's right-hand man and enforcer of the Emperor's will throughout the Galactic Empire. However, in his early days he's very much an unknown quantity among the Imperial troops. They know he's different than they are and that he has a very high rank in the Empire, but they're not quite sure how to react to Darth Vader.

Here we get to see Vader's internal struggle as he comes to grips with what the Emperor has done to him, by providing Vader with a life-support system that is inferior to normal Imperial technology, causing constant pain and discomfort to Vader. This makes him a bit grouchy, as you might expect, so he unleashes his misery on anyone who defies him. Which of course helps establish a reputation of brutal capriciousness that will become Vader's trademark strategy for dealing with problems.

Meanwhile Bail Organa, Mon Mothma, and a few others start to plant the seeds of active rebellion against the Empire. Obi-Wan Kenobi lives in exile on Tatooine, keeping an eye on the the infant Luke Skywalker, who will turn out to be a new hope for the galaxy.

I've heard good things about this book and I enjoyed Islington's earlier Licanious Trilogy, so I decided to finally get around to reading The Will of the Many. It's about a young many who seeks to defy an Empire that crushed his homeland, but the nature of the Empire means he must work to defeat them from the inside, becoming that which he hates most.

The Empire here is very unusual, as it is literally a pyramid scheme with those at the top using the "will" of those below them to enforce their rule. It's a highly stratified society. The problem with this type of world is that it's hard to figure out how the children of the nobility inherit their rank, which is strictly based on how much "will" of those below a person possesses. It doesn't look like anyone is born possessing that much will--it has to be earned through advancement. So technically everyone starts out at the bottom. It's a very strange system of government when you start looking at it too closely.

Things get considerably more complicated after the climax of the book, but to say more would be a major spoiler.

The Tainted Cup is the first book of a series that was originally called Shadow of the Leviathan but now seems to be called Ana and Din Mysteries. Bennett (and reviewers) compare these stories to Nero Wolfe mysteries, where the main detective largely sits around their lodging, cogitating on the mystery at hand, while the assistant goes out to collect the clues.

In the first book, the assistant Dinios "Din" Kol" is tasked with finding out how a prominent officer of the Empire was killed in a bizarre manner by an organism that shouldn't exist. Naturally, intrigue abounds as Din uses his enhanced memory to collect the information that he brings back to his superior officer Ana, the mind behind the detective duo.

Along the way we are introduced to a very strange world where biological and alchemical engineering are used to secure the power of an Empire that defends its people from the enormous leviathans that come ashore every wet season to wreak havoc on the countryside. The bodies of dead leviathans are also the source of the Empire's prowess, as reagents from their bodies are used as the basis for the bioengineering practices of the Empire.

Another And and Din Mystery, the pair of investigators are dispatched by the Empire to a remote kingdom that will one day join the Empire. Their task is to find out who killed an agent of the Imperial Treasury. Here they become enmeshed in a local political controversy as there is one faction in Yarrowdale that wants to join the Empire and another that wants to remain independent. Meanwhile, the Empire's greatest leviathan research facility remains just off shore where the Apoth faction (apothecaries and alchemists) dissect the corpses of leviathans to find out what makes them tick. The strangeness of the place warps reality itself, corrupting everything and everone that comes into contact with it, which is the cause behind all of the bizarre events in Yarrowdale.

This is the third and most recent installment in the Ana and Din Mystery series. Ana and Din are sent to an agricultural community within the Third Ring of the Empire. It's the source of much of the Empire's food, as it's the home of the largest ranching facility as well as the home of the most important farming family. As usual, the ranching family and the farming family are at odds with one another, but there's a Romeo & Juliet subplot that connects the two families in a web of malice and deceit.

We also learn more about the Empire's history, as it turns out that several centuries ago, two Elder Races also had a conflict in the region that is the cause of the current day's woes. The Elder Races are long gone, but their legacy remains.