Locklands

I will say that this book has one of my favorite covers but it just isn't interesting enough for me to care enough how it ends. I'm perfectly fine with how the second one ended and will move on to something else, for now at least.

Just couldn't connect with this one like the previous books.  Kept coming back and and trying but quit after 250 pages or so

A let down. The time skip and the raised stakes ruined the premise and bogged down the plot. The weakest book in the series, but the ending was sad and satisfying and gave a much needed closure to the protagonists.

Absolutely loved this final installment. A hard, but deeply beautiful ending.

In the end, I LOVED all the reveals about Clef/Cresedes and their backstories and interactions, as well as the final battle of Cresedes literally ripping islands out of the ocean to fling them at Tevanne's flying cities. However, this book really sidelined Sancia compared to the last few books and I didn't find myself caring much at all about Berenice (or the newly introduced Givans) even though I loved Berenice in Shorefall and Foundryside. 

There was also big parts of the book where it didn't seem like much was happening despite the breakneck pace, and the epilogue completely lost me. So basically everything that tied heavily into the previous books (Clef, Cresedes, the mysteries of the past) was awesome and everything based off the big tonal shift and time skip (all the Giva/twinning things, the war with Tevanne, how complicated and crazy scriving got) was a bit of a step down. 

Foundryside definitely remains my favorite part of the trilogy, as it also had a sense of fun that both Locklands and Shorefall are missing

Time jump, yes please. High stakes, oh yeah. I was so scared to read this finale of the Founders trilogy because I did not like the middle book, but this was everything I was hoping for and more. As for the time jump, I think it was appropriate and quite cool because it was like the original magic system on steroids and the reimagining of the magic blew me away.

The Founders Trilogy burst onto the scene with Foundryside showing an engaging cast of characters and a very clever magic system. Now we are at the close of the series, the gang of characters is mostly still with us but has expanded to include a whole nation with some intriguing new characters in the form of Aspects. And that expansion of scope is probably the defining feature of this finale. The scope is huge. Whereas the first two novels were largely confined to the city of Tevanne, we are now in a world spanning story. On the whole RJB handles this well, but the sprawl loses some of the intimacy of the earlier novels. The enemy has changed here too. Rather than wealthy elite, or god like Heirophant, they are now facing a world spanning AI entity. In some ways this shows an interesting allegory to modern society.

The story is as action packed as previous ones, the stakes do feel genuine (RJB is not scared of killing off characters). The world building is as fascinating as ever - the ancient city where the door through reality was first opened is an intriguing and vividly realised fever dream. The resolution between Clef, Cresades and Tevanne was well done, giving a satisfying conclusion. However, I miss the heists, the scheming and more intimate feel of the earlier books. This was a good finale, but it is my least favourite book of the series, mostly due to some of my favourite elements of the earlier books getting a bit overwhelmed by the increase in scale.

3.5 stars rounded up for a strong finish. I took a huge break from listening though because the middle of the book wasn't grabbing me as much.

This is a sci-fi story made possible with a fantasy magic system. It deals with a lot of heavy topics one might see in science fiction that left me with some existential dread I didn't enjoy. It is wonderfully written, but also painful to read the ending.

Spoilers

Being absorbed into hive minds and leaving the planet nearly abandoned is way too much for me. Talk about a nightmarish future.

Much appreciation to Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine for giving me a chance to read this early.

Locklands takes an unconventional risk, taking place eight years after the events of Shorefall. It's a trait that really pays off right away, for having not read the second book in The Founder Trilogy for a couple years, I was certain to be lost and unable to gain footing from the start. The pay off is dependent of the elements of the magic system and plot. We have a new perspective of this desolate universe that leads the reader in a new direction that feels invigorating.

The introduction of Locklands has one of the best openings I've seen in the genre and really brings the story into bloom. I felt book 2 was slower pace than 1, so the bridge between book 2 - 3 really kicked the conclusion in full gear. Characters are being fulfilled and the volume is past 11, a perfect recipe for a promising series of cruel events.

Overall, this series kicked ass and always one I will recommend.

The first two books of this trilogy were five star reads for me, with a terrific atmosphere, location and brilliantly imaginative magic system. This final volume massively increases the scale and goes full widescreen. Where the earlier books were largely set in one city this one covers a whole continent blighted by war between two impossibly powerful adversaries, and the stakes are about as high as they could possibly be. But for all the epic conflict there's a huge emotional core and the heart of the book is about two relationships, between a father and his son and our hero Sancia and her wife, and it's these that lead to the final satisfaction of the ending. There's an epilogue set after all the dust has settled and it's one of the most powerful and emotional sequences I've read for a long long time.

With this trilogy and the preceding Divine Cities series, RJB has produced some of the best and certainly the most original fantasy novels of the twenty-first century, and he's at the top of my must read list.

Requested fro NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Wow that was too much emotion. Standing ovation for the finale. Terrific work.

The first instalment took me by surprise, I instantly took to Sancia and Cleft. The support cast where also very likeable and the bad guys were fleshed out. Now the finale has completed the series and Sancia is a hero that we all need.

There's only a few books that I feel I am competent engrossed in the characters and can visually see them as real people and know what choices they'd make. This is one of them, very well written. I don't want to say too much as it's the final book and most of the story will be spoiler territory.

5/5 stars I encourage fantasy readers to dive into this series.

Come chat with me about books and all things sci-fi fantasy @readsgavin

For more of my reviews, check out my blog.

Thank you to Netgalley and Random House Publishing Group for providing an ARC copy of this novel.

Woof. Okay. I finished this book over the weekend while trying to get my teething 10 month old to sleep. Sadly, I wasn't a huge fan of Locklands. If you read my reviews of the previous two books, you'll know how much I enjoyed them. Needless to say, I am vastly disappointed in how this series ended. Those three stars I gave this book is me being generous.

Locklands is a hot mess compared to Foundryside and Shorefall. The prior two books felt like a natural progression. Shorefall raised the stakes the appropriate amount compared to the first book. The villain got scarier, the world got bigger and more dangerous. The characters developed and generally, it made sense that Shorefall followed Foundryside. Locklands problem is that it jumps ahead eight years after Shorefall. I generally do not like time jumps in books. They rarely do what the author thinks they do, and instead just make a series feel jumbled up and messy. We see little of those eight years, and as a result, you feel as if you've been dropped into the middle of something. You're left confused and unsure for a while until things feel slightly more familiar.

There is a huge concept in this book that was extremely confusing to me when they first introduced it — the twinning of minds. It technically was introduced in Shorefall, but Sancia and Berenice pushed this even further in those eight years that we don't see. The whole conversation/explanation in the text is only made more confusing by the diagram that's included.

I'm really not a fan when authors introduce a phrase/saying/concept in the last book of a series, and then act like it was a huge part of the series from the beginning. Sancia and Berenice use the saying, ‘There's no dancing through a monsoon,” over and over in this book. I think the author was trying to reiterate it enough to have some emotional impact on the reader. It didn't really work on me, though it probably would have if this saying had been introduced in the prior two books.

That's not to say there weren't parts of this book that I enjoyed — I really, really liked learning more about Clef, who he was, and what he did that brought about literally everything. What a character. He's deeply flawed, and at first you feel sorry for him, but by the end of the book everything you know about him changes. Crasedes Magnus, and Valeria/Trevanne get some serious character development, too.

In the acknowledgements at the end of this book, Robert Jackson Bennett shares that he wrote this book during the pandemic. I think that's why this book is the mess that it is. I'm really disappointed in Locklands, and I hate to say that overall, I didn't enjoy it.