This is a novel associated with the rpg Numenera from Monte Cook Games. The setting is a fantasy world where technologies of dead civilisations play the role of magic or weirdness.

The narrative is based around a character, Talia, who escaped a past of being a tortured instrument of violence for the sadistic (but rather vaguely specified) "vordcha". Having got away (not without sacrifice), she is trying to build a new life by taking on the role of "Poison Eater" in the city of Enthait. The Poison Eater puts their own life on the line to gain premonitions of dangers that the city's protectors can prepare to meet. But of course, all is not quite as it seems.

Honestly, this was a bit of a slog. There are some nice ideas here, and I really wanted to like it (I like the rpgs from Monte Cook Games). The writing is...fine. The characters are....fine. But it all feels a little bit too much like the protagonist is mired in self-pity rather than guilt. There's little to no impetus for the narrative itself (the villainous vordcha are supposedly hunting her but they're never described or made clear, so there's no clear sense of the threat).

The machinations within Enthait itself have the tone of intrigue without actually being very intriguing. It all just doesn't quite land for me. I really wanted to like this much more, but couldn't get there.