Foundryside

This book has its flaws (and they're glaringly obvious too) but damn if the world and the magic system doesn't pull you in. In most other books displaying the storytelling problems that this one does, I'd probably have rated this much lower, if not completely DNFed long ago. Foundryside had the huge, huge advantage that it has such a compelling and fascinating world, lore, and magic system that it managed to get away with its problems and still shine.

With a tragic past behind her, Sancia Grado makes her way being a sneak thief in the seedy underbelly of Tevanne. What enables her to have survived so long and be so good at what she does are certain talents that she possesses. When she touches an object, she feels everything they do, so touching a building allows her to instantly know how many guards are positioned within it and where, and where the weaknesses in its defences are. Things go wrong in Sancia's latest job, however, where she had been instructed to steal a precious cargo from a safe. Out of curiosity, Sancia opens the parcel that she has just stolen and her life is never the same again.

Probably one of the main attractions of this book to me is the world and the magic system. Tevanne, and indeed the world that Sancia lives in, is fascinated by scriving, a process in which objects can be “re-written” to believe in a different reality from its own. Wheels can be scrived to believe they are rolling down a hill even while they are on flat ground, essentially propelling it forwards. People have also found ways to control such scrivings, thus being able to maneuver the wheels in certain directions given by a lever - essentially inventing driving by magic instead of by fuel and engine. That's really just the start of it. We learn more about this vast and complex magic system along the way, and it only gets crazier and crazier. Most stories rely on plot alone to provide a hook for readers to keep on reading until the end (and there's nothing wrong with that), but in this one I felt that, while the plot had some hook to it, the revelations of how the magic system worked also kept me going. I wanted to know more and find out more.

It's odd that in a book where there are a number of main characters running around doing things, I found myself more endeared to the number of semi-sentient inordinate objects like Clef and the Mountain in particular, but sometimes also all the random scrived objects that they talk to and befuddle. Because Tevanne is basically a shit hole of a city, it makes complete sense that all the people in it are either really jaded or really corrupted, or both. However, it doesn't make for very endearing characters that I can get attached to. The death(s) of any of the main characters may not have made me blink an eye.

A major problem of the book that was immediately obvious from the beginning chapters was Bennett's storytelling style. Instead of the classic “showing, not telling” approach, Bennett constantly adds info-dump after info-dump into his narrative. The first few chapters were a fairly obvious set-up for him to explain this world and magic system to us - it felt almost like a tutorial sequence in a video game. There were actual paragraphs where Bennett just ruminates about how Sancia's talents worked, exactly what she can sense and what she can't, and it's all done in an expository way instead of us seeing it play out in the plot or in a relevant scene. It felt a little unpolished and jarring, but Bennett had the advantage of having also built a really compelling world to distract me from those flaws.

A lot of things also happened illogically or way too conveniently. One point I noted was how Sancia, a hardened and jaded street urchin who has survived a lot of violence and treachery, also seems to scream at every thing that shocks her, even during an adrenaline-charged situation where people are firing bolts at her. That's not really how I'd expect someone whose entire means of survival is steathily infiltrating into places and stealing things to behave. I particularly had issues with the bit in Ch 26 when Sancia gets her body taken over by Clef, and he starts having a very interesting discussion with Orso about the nature of scriving, and Sancia just randomly starts fading in and out of consciousness even though there is no good reason for her to do so, and she only catches very convenient snatches of the conversation between Clef and Orso as this happens. I was so mad at this part!! Especially when she finally regains consciousness permanently just at the bit where she miraculously figured out and had to make a dramatic announcement to the party that Clef must've been a person before this. And then she never faints again even though they have a somewhat lengthy discussion about Clef's previous identity after that.

The book has a lot of flaws, and a lot of them are glaringly obvious. I wouldn't fault someone who chose to DNF because of them, especially if the world and magic system doesn't compel them. Personally though, I thoroughly enjoyed the setting so much that I was able to just glaze over the flaws (which would otherwise have driven me close to DNFing too). I'd continue the series just because I really want to know more about the lore of this world.

i was nervous getting into this because i had heard that it wasn't as good as RJB's previous trilogy, the Divine Cities trilogy (which i adored). while i agree with that, i still enjoyed my time in his new world. i do really wish that RJB would add maps to his books, or some kind of dramatis personae, so that we could more easily remember who belongs to which house, but oh well. i'll probably pick up the next one, but likely won't be in any sort of rush to.

2.5. My attention kept wandering.

I have been so excited to read this book because I have seen so many book reviewers raving about it. However, it fell short for me.
Let me start off by saying that the world building and the magic system are some of the most interesting I've read in the fantasy genre. Bending reality to do certain things is bizarre and hard to wrap your mind around while reading, but ultimately is so fresh and interesting.
However, because of the complexity of this world, half of the book felt like an instruction manual to me. I felt like I was just trying to learn how everything works with a little bit of a story sprinkled in through much of the beginning of the book. Sancia as a character is fun, and I love heist stories, but I just couldn't get behind some of these characters. They were entertaining, but I didn't feel emotionally connected to them in any way.
The ending really turned much of this book around for me. I texted my husband as soon as I finished and was like “I take back everything I said I loved it”. Now that I've sat with it, I still agree with my critiques, but the ending really was suspenseful and super fun. I'm excited to read the second, and I hope that now that we've learned how a lot of the world works, we will be able to dive right into the story.

Very enjoyable, I think.

I like the “magic system” and the world building, even though it wasn't very vast.
I like the characters. I like the love story. Starting slowly, very cute, very promising.
I like the villains.
I like the mysteries and questions.
I love Clef. :-)

My favorite part are all the plannings involved in each mission, even when they don't turn out as expected.

Omg yes

I was drawn to this book by the description of the magic system. It sounded interesting and flexible and something I hadn't really seen much of, almost like combining magic with science and computer logic/language. But the further the book progressed the more layers were added until it became overly complicated and turned into a lingo salad whenever anything needed explaining (which happened frequently).

I also didn't really connect with any of the characters. The main character is flawed and dramatic, the side characters are sort of flat and one dimensional. I didn't see much development of either the main character or the side characters honestly, and was a little let down. The dialogue between characters also felt a little stale, and the author switches frequently between using common English swear words and made up or repurposed swear words seemingly at whim.

Overall I was a little let down by this book, I completed the book but likely will not continue with the series.

What an excellent read. It took me about 30 pages to get into it and then I was hooked. This has made it into my top fantasy reads of all time. Highly recommend!

Sancia is a thief in a city run by four powerful merchant fiefdoms. There's a form of industrialized magic being used to varying degree called scriving. This is the art of using coded sigils to imbue objects with commands that can override reality. Things get a bit nutty when Sancia steals an artifact of huge power – an artifact that speaks to her! This story was full of cool ideas, great action scenes, and fun characters. Just really well done. I'll be looking forward to the rest of this trilogy.

Fantastic story filled with the world building that the author is known for. Warring dynasties and a magic system that is refreshing and unfamiliar make this book a must read for 2019.

Not quite 4 stars but closer to 4 than a 3 - the main character felt a bit cliche (sad backstory but they're an emotionally hardened badass now) and I didn't really enjoy the writing style, especially at the start.

I got this book from Del Rey publishing at Denver Pop Culture Festival through their “Book Wizard” program. I was extremely excited to read it since the Divine Cities trilogy is one of my favorites. This series plays out very differently, but still has RBJ's skill for extremely tight plotting and world-building. Basically, this is a fantasy novel for coders. The entire magic system is basically divine coding, and I think it would be a great gift for anyone in IT. It's also a superbly plotted heist that really never stops and has a Divine Cities hint of the gods walking among us, which is always a favorite theme of mine.

That said, I didn't like it as much as Divine Cities, and part of that was the characters who just weren't as vibrant as in that novel. These feel a bit more stock, and there is an extremely ham-fisted lesbian romance just kinda thrown in. Granted, I'm happy that we've progressed as a society where ham-fisted romantic subplots can also be gay, but this felt very much like a straight white man throwing this into a book to prove he's inclusive, and it just didn't develop enough for me. I usually don't care for romance sub-plots, and this one was just no exception. When facing the end of the world, I just can't see getting a date as a the top priority.

I love RBJ and will probably continue on when Shorefall comes out next year, but yeah straight male writers, beware of token lesbian romance syndrome.

I found this book quite a mix of good and bad. When I reach around 2/3 of the way through any book I start thinking about how I'm going to rate it. In the case of Foundryside, I found it much harder than other books to determine how I would rate it.

The plot concerns Sancia and her unique ability to hear scrivings. Scrivings are the language that is engraved onto objects which can alter reality and change how these objects work. Sancia uses this skill to steal objects because she is desperate to change her life. It is definitely changed when she steals a talking key called Clef and discovers the job she was doing is so much more than it seemed.

I found the plot fairly fast paced and for the majority of the book it was really easy to read. I got fatigued with the plot in a way I've never experienced before and would end up skim reading every 40 pages or so. The world was fleshed out, but I found the set up quite info-dumpy. While this initially didn't bother me it did become repetitive throughout the book. I lowered the rating a star also in part due to fact that the book read partially like a young adult novel and partially adult.

My biggest issue concerns the rules of the city the story takes in. The city has four merchant houses with large compounds and the poor slum areas fill the gaps between the compounds. Early on in the book, Sancia mentions that there are no rules that govern the city and the individual merchant houses enforce their own rules within their compounds. It is mentioned at least twice later on, however, that certain things are illegal or prohibited in the city. I found this contradiction distracting, so I lowered the rating a star partially for this reason. It could have been my fault for misinterpreting or misreading the initial comment in the book, but I can't check now as my library comment has been returned now.

I would recommend Foundryside to readers of YA fantasy or any readers of fantasy in general. It was a quick, fun read and the characters were enjoyable. A few twists towards the end kept me engaged and interested and I'm definitely going to keep an eye out for the sequel.

Foundryside is a fun book brimming with discovery with its creative magic system and mysteries. I enjoyed reading it and following Sancia especially, although I thought it lacked in-depth characterization and could be too exposition-heavy at times.

My Rating: 7.5/10 (I kept going back and forth between 7 and 7.5 so I rounded up)

Review on My Website

Executive Summary: Another excellent book by Robert Jackson Bennett. He's up there with [a:Django Wexler 639491 Django Wexler https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1357865518p2/639491.jpg] for best fantasy author you're probably not reading but should be.Audiobook: Tara Sands does a fine job, making the audio a decent option. Her normal reading voice seems like a good fit for the protagonist and does some additional voices that adds that little extra something to the book.Full ReviewI'm typically a big fan of thief protagonists, and heist stories, so it's no surprise that I was excited to see how RJB tackled the genre. I really loved his Divine City books, especially the first two and I was looking forward to read a story in a different setting.Sancia is a pretty good protagonist, although I didn't connect to her right away. Once things finally got going with the magic key however, things picked up quite a bit for me.The story in this book was enjoyable, but for me the best part was the excellent magic system. I'm a sucker for a well thought out and detailed magic system. I'm a software engineer by trade. The details of how scriving works reminds me a lot of how software is built. You start with a foundation of lower level language and build higher level languages on top of that.I loved, loved LOVED this system, and I'm hoping we continue to get some more interesting details about it as the series progresses.Overall this was a pretty solid start to a new series that only got better as the book went along. I'm really looking forward to seeing where he takes things next. If you haven't read anything by Robert Jackson Bennett, I highly recommend it. His Divine cities books are excellent, and this one is right up there with them.

Ah, I loved this book! I absolutely scrumming loved it! There's this little place in my heart that begs for gritty Fantasy. The kinds of stories that feature more than their fair share of backstabbing, and unbelievable twists. The kinds of stories where characters that I already love come to be characters that I can't dream of living without by the end of the book. That, my friends, was Foundryside. I'm smitten, and I don't care who knows it.

This story is heavily character focused, and I think it just works. Sancia Grado, our main character, is so much more than that just an epic thief. Bennett slowly, gently, draws the reader into Sancia's past, her present, and then leaves this beautiful opening for what will happen to her in the future. I was so attached to this proud woman after the first few chapters, that I actually legitimately cried when her backstory was revealed. Her character is an opportunity to showcase the damage that being someone's property does to a person, and Bennett weaves that whole story arc masterfully through the story. Sancia is definitely someone that you'll care about.

Further kudos go to the author for walking that really thin line between epic world building and forward plot movement. I never felt like I wasn't fully settled in Tevanne, but I also never felt like the book dragged to allow me to feel that way. I basically learned my surroundings by following along with Sancia, and seeing through her eyes. The dark alleys, the ramshackle homes, all stood in stark contrast to the shining campos. Bennett manages to say so much about equality, and the concept of self worth, without every actually saying anything at all. I can't even explain it to you, only promise you that it's a beautiful thing.

So, if it wasn't glaringly obvious, I have fallen in love with this series. I don't know what I expected from this book, to be honest with you. All I know is that it blew everything I have been feeling about cookie cutter Fantasy books completely out of the picture. This is good fiction. I absolutely cannot wait for more.

This review is based on an ARC given to me for free by the publisher, Crown Publishing, via Netgalley. This does not in any way affect my review.

... Throughout the novel the characters come face-to-face with all the ways their world is wrong, how it is just broken, until one particular moment when one of the characters declares that the only proper reaction to a broken world is not to roll over and give up, but to fight back. It is this idea ??? resistance instead of acceptance, revolution instead of complacency ??? that forms the novel???s thematic backbone, that gives it its power and impact. And it is something that we, as readers, need to think about, something we need to remember when we are confronted by the seemingly endless ways that the world can and has done us and those we love wrong. This book tells us that the time for complacency is over. It is time to fight back.

The city of Tevanne is divided into Merchant Houses. They hold the cities magic, wealth, and power. If you don't belong to one of these Houses, chances are you are probably poor.
The magic is called scriving. Scriving is using codes to make an object sentient. Only the Houses are allowed scrived objects. If the poor have these objects, they probably stole them, or made them illegally.
Sancia is a thief. She has taken a very dangerous job, but the money is worth it. At least she thinks it is. She is sent to steal an artifact from a safe on the waterfront. She has no idea what she's stealing or what she's gotten herself into until numerous parties try to kill her. She has a lot of questions, but the first one is who hired her. If she can figure that one out, that will be a good starting point to figuring out what the hell is going on.
I really enjoyed this story. I loved Sancia and Clef. I thought it was a very unique and fun read.
I received a copy from NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Hard to believe this is by the same person who wrote the various City Of books. Got about a third of a way in before having to give up due to extreme annoyance at the complete lack of a feeling of place. And also the fact that the talking magic item sounds like any internet commenter 2018. And the main character about the same. And we were starting a quest for the lost ancient magics just stop. Reread any “City Of” book instead.

Robert Jackson Bennett has quietly built up a reputation as one of the best genre authors currently working. The City Of Stairs books were excellent and imaginative takes on the fantasy genre, while previous works like The Troupe and American Elsewhere were some of the strongest dark fantasy of recent years. This new novel is the opening in a new series, and at first glance appears to be set in his most traditional milieu yet, analgous to post-Renaissance Western Europe society creeping towards industrialisation. It's the cause of that industrialisation that is at the core of the novel, and I'm happy to report that it's a cracking idea, one of the best magic systems I've seen in a long time. I say magic, but it's closer to science, taking ideas from coding and quantum entanglement and refracting them through the prism of a pre-scientific society. The story around them is perhaps Bennett's most straightforward, and veers close to YA at times, with the lead character being a young girl who discovers her own amazing powers. It doesn't have the complexity of the Bulikov books, but there is enough charm and power to the writing, let alone originality of approach, to overcome this potentially hackneyed material, and we end up with probably one of the fantasy novels of the year. Can't wait for the next one.

Pros: unique magic system, intricate world-building, fascinating characters, interesting plot

Cons:

Three years ago Sancia Grado was a slave. Now she's a skilled thief, hired to pull off a very difficult job. The payout means she can finally get a physiquere to fix the scar on her head and remove the metal plate beneath it that was scrived to allow her to hear the thoughts of every object she touches. But the item she steals is connected to the Occidentals, also known as hierophants, those who became like gods, able to use scrivings to change reality itself. Suddenly the plate in her head's the least of her worries.

This book was amazing. I've only mentioned Sancia's plot thread, though there are several others that intersect with hers once the book gets going. She's a thoroughly engaging protagonist, and while her scrived state makes her fairly powerful in some respects, that's balanced by the pain speaking with objects causes her.

I absolutely loved Clef. He's such a fun character, coming out with all the sarcastic, swearing, responses people would love to use but don't because they want to be polite. The book does have quite a lot of swearing, which I sometimes found jarring and other times thought fit the situation nicely.

The worldbuilding was intricate and detailed, with several layers to it. The main setting is the city with it's four campos and the commons, but other locations are mentioned. History comes mostly in the form of mythology - which different sources report in different ways.

The magic is unique and hard to describe in few words. It's remarkably... logical, though it takes some time to wrap your brain around what the people are doing.

The plot is interesting, with several threads wrapping around each other. There is some downtime to get to know the characters and let them figure out their next moves, but the majority of the book is one daring break in or escape after another.

As I said, it's an excellent book. If you're looking for a unique fantasy novel, I highly recommend this.

4.0 out of 5 stars

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

Fresh off his brilliant Divine Cities trilogy, author Robert Jackson Bennett is back with Foundryside, the first book in The Founders trilogy. If this first installment is any indication, readers are in for another great fantasy series.

Set between the massive walls of four merchant house cities, Foundryside follows Sancia Grado, a street urchin whose unique relationship with scriving, the magic that fuels Tevanne's industry, causes all sorts of issues...but also opportunities.

This book has pieces of everything I want in a fantasy novel — an intriguing magic system, rich worldbuilding, interesting characters, humor, and heart. Those pieces coalesce into something really interesting and make for an enjoyable reading experience. Bennett has done an impressive job building the framework of this world, from the physical structure of Tevanne, to the types of characters that inhabit it, as well as the magic system that makes unexpected things possible.

That said, the explanations and complexities of the magic system were sometimes confusing to me and took time away from developing the cast of characters that will need to be further fleshed before I'm fully committed to their plights.

Luckily, Foundryside is swiftly paced, has great action, and features loads of sharp, snappy dialogue. It's a fun ride that I won't be getting off any time soon. I'm very much looking forward to the next book, even though the wait will be longer than usual since this book doesn't technically come out for another 112 days!