Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett – Review

Published: August 21, 2018

Publisher: Crown Publishing

Series: Founders #1

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 512 (Hardcover)

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

A copy of this book was provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Synopsis:

In a city that runs on industrialized magic, a secret war will be fought to overwrite reality itself–the first in a dazzling new fantasy series from City of Stairs author Robert Jackson Bennett.

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.

Robert Jackson Bennett has delivered another quality, compelling story that may be just as unique as his Divine Cities trilogy. I loved the Divine Cities trilogy and when news came forth that he was starting a new series in a brand new world, I practically jumped for joy! Foundryside is, as I mentioned, set in a brand new world so you don’t need to have read his other books to enjoy it. It’s full of strange technology, fascinating characters, and suspense (oh the suspense!!).

Sancia Grado is a stunningly talented thief thanks to her unique ability to know a room merely by touching its walls, or know a safe combination by touching the safe. Sancia truly one of a kind and this means she gets the exciting jobs, like stealing ancient Occidental artifacts for powerful Merchant Houses. The Houses are like city-states where those affiliated with them can live and work in luxury and they have SO much power. Each of the four houses competes with the others to create better, more powerful, and more efficient scriving techniques which basically make their country run. Scriving is the act of convincing an object that either is or is doing something entirely different than what it really is – they’re basically altering the reality of an object to achieve a certain goal. It’s really interesting, though it’s a magic system that definitely leaves some things up to the reader’s imagination.

Back to Sancia. She steals a box containing an ancient key that, SURPRISE, she can communicate with because Sancia herself is a scrived human. That’s generally illegal or at least unacceptable by the way. The key, who is named Clef, is full of ancient knowledge and in my opinion has a heck of a personality and definitely elicits sympathy from the reader. Two of the houses are after the key, one of which initial purchased it and the other which mostly recently hired Sancia to swipe it. Danger ensues – think chases across rooftops, near death, flying assassins, and eventual conspiring with a merchant house. It was a real edge of your seat, nail biting good time. I loved every page of it and will be thrilled for news of a sequel!

Overall, this was an excellent story and it’s clear that RJB is a talented worldbuilder and crafter of tales as this is the second series of his that I’ve loved. The characters are multi-faceted and enjoyable to read about and the story was fast paced throughout. Never a dull moment here!! I would highly recommend this if you’re a fan of heist novels and unique magic systems. Fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora will probably find this particularly appealing, though it doesn’t have quite the same sense of camaraderie for much of the book as the characters don’t come together until later.