FOUNDRYSIDE
by Robert Jackson Bennett
Crown
August 21, 2018
From Goodreads:
Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle.
But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic–the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience–have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims.
Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them.
To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined.
The good people at Crown Publishing and NetGalley provided me a digital ARC of Foundryside in exchange for a fair and honest review.
Fantastic. Unique. Compelling. [Other words meaning ‘really fricking good!’]
For a long time, every fantasy book on the shelves felt like another story taking place in Tolkein’s world. Not entirely a bad thing, but in need of some freshening. Books like Mistborn and The Name of the Wind came along and showed us that fantasy can be done without subscribing to all the tired and heated tropes.
Foundryside is the latest book to take everything we thought we knew about fantasy and flip it on its head. And to do it exceptionally well.
If anything, this is one of the freshest takes yet. That may my opinion at the moment with the book so fresh in memory, but maybe not.
Jackson Bennett presents us with a world where there’s actually no magic. No wands, no potions. But items can be imbued with an accent writing to give it new and fantastic abilities. This writing actually affect physics more than magic. It can ‘trick’ an object into thinking it’s heavier than it really is, or bigger, and made of a different material.
Wheels can be ‘programmed’ in a way to turn all by themselves. Doors can be set to only open for certain people. And amor can be altered to do far more than basic leather and metal ever could on its own.
On top of this fantastic and fresh premise is a story filled with characters that jump right off the page. Most of them, you aren’t sure if you should cheer for and wish harm upon. Even as it gets later into the story, you’re never quite sure. Even once you think you, you still don’t know.
Which is how most of the plot points were handled as well. I thought I knew where things were going, and then they went the other way. Over and over again.
So if you want a thrill-ride of a fantasy with fantastic characters that keeps you guessing and gives you such a spin on magic that it borders on science-fiction, this is for you. If you don’t… then I’m sure there’s a magazine or an encyclopedia around here somewhere…
Glad you loved this! It’s one of my top books of the year😁
Great review! This is a book I still need to finish, I set it aside at 30% or so back in August because I was starting to feel burned out on fantasy. I am going to try to read it before the year ends… which means I need to get to it!
Definitely worth finishing!