Title: Foundryside (Foundryside #1)
by Robert Jackson BennettPublishing Info: August 21, 2018 by Penguin Random House, Del Rey Books
Source: ALAAC18
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Date Completed: July 29, 2019
Find it on the web: Buy from Amazon // Goodreads
Related Posts: Shorefall (Foundryside #2)
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.
This book was so enjoyable from start to finish! Right off the bat, I connected with it. Sancia and really her whole gang throughout this book are sassy, clever, and such personable characters. I absolutely loved spending time with them, even the… inanimate objects? Robert Jackson Bennett really brought everything to life in this book and it made for such an enjoyable reading experience!
The setting was refreshing yet familiar all at the same time. Having read a lot of fantasy/high fantasy lately, I had grown a little weary of the medieval take on things and had switched to some urban fantasy for a while to experience fantasy in a more modern setting. While FOUNDRYSIDE still maintains that old world/technologically inadvanced feeling, the concept behind scrivings really gives it that feel of a sort of industrial revolution coming about and it was fun to see the progress as well as the more spiritual side behind things (gods and mythology and the like). There’s a lot of world-building present and I love how the reader is taken along the road of exploration to figure out how the scrivings work, where the concept came from, and how they could change the world entirely.
Everything just felt like it unfolded naturally. Key points were revealed at just the right moments. The crew came together in a perfect way that brought misfits together but everyone seemed to fit perfectly despite how different they all were. It was natural the way that they ended up finding each other and felt like they should have been together all of their lives.
This book also gave me a very Brandon Sanderson vibe. I love Sanderson’s books so much because of how much world-building he packs in and how perfectly timed his reveals are involving the secrets of his worlds. Robert Jackson Bennett has a similar style — in context as well as character tone — that really reminded me a lot of MISTBORN and THE WAY OF KINGS. I can’t wait to see where the next book goes because with everything that we learned in this book, I can only imagine getting even more lost in the politics, worldly secrets, and more hijinks!
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Kept Me Hooked On: Adult fantasy with attitude. Misfits! Cons! Sass! This book had all of my favorite elements combined with a fun and creative fantasy world.
Left Me Wanting More: Character relationships. I did like the character relationships that were there for sure! I feel like I wanted just a liiiittle bit more deep connections somehow!
Addiction Rating
Read it!
This was so enjoyable and I can’t wait to read more of the series!! This felt a little bit introductory and I’m excited to continue this and get even deeper into this world!
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1 thought on “Foundryside (Foundryside #1) – Robert Jackson Bennett”
My copy from the library finally came in so I can jump into this book too. 🙂 I’m glad it turned out so well.