Foundryside: A Novel

I own the first book in Robert Jackson Bennett’s Divine Cities series but I still haven’t gotten around to reading it, so when I saw this book was coming out, I wasn’t convinced that it was something I needed to pick up since I’m trying to limit my book buying this year. Then I saw a few reviews on Booktube about how fantastic this book was, so I decided to give it a go.Originally I was a little nervous because the magic system is a lot different than what I tend to gravitate towards. In this book, the magic system revolves around technology and something called scriving, while I normally lean towards things like spells and elemental magic. BUT once I started reading this book, I realized that this system is so complex and interesting that it didn’t matter that it was my usual magical system!I loved that we learned about the magic system throughout the book and that it wasn’t all shoved into your face right away. Throughout the book, you would have questions about scriving and it was all slowly revealed, and even at the end it left enough questions regarding the magic and the world that I know the next book will continue to build and expand on what we’ve already learned.This book is mainly about Sancia, a sarcastic thief with an interesting ability, but we also get a few other perspectives thrown in to really get a good look at the action and what is going on. Sancia ends up on a heist right at the very beginning of the book to steal a very important object and gets sucked into a conflict that she wants to part in.That particular object that she steals is one of my favorite parts of the book, and it’s a HUGE part of the plot and the history of the world, so I don’t want to go into too many details, since the moment you realize what this object is is such a fun moment in this book!Sancia ends up being caught by Gregor, who is trying to -unsuccessfully- bring order to this city, and since Sancia is disrupting that, he decides he needs to bring her to justice. Eventually, we also meet Orso and Berenice who are both scrivers for Gregor’s family. Beside the object Sancia finds, Orso is probably my other favorite character. He is so sour and curmudgeonly but knows a lot and you can see that he’s been through a lot in his past.I don’t know if I could fully explain what scriving is since the book does it so much better than anything that I could say, but basically it is convincing an object that it’s reality is…different. It’s a very interesting system that really fits in with this world that has been created and was so much fun to learn about! The city that our characters live in, Tevanne, makes use of these scrivings to make things easier for the upper class (carriages that move on their own, unbreakable locks, floating lights, etc). These scrivings gave this world an industrial feel, which normally isn’t something that I like, but I LOVED it in this book!This book starts off small with just one simple heist but gets bigger and bigger with more heists and more risks and more characters needed to pull of the heists.The writing is extremely easy to read and understand, which for a fantasy this big in scope with so much detail into the magic system that has its basis in science is actually a good thing! The way this is written makes me feel that this would be good for people who are working their way into fantasy after getting a few under their belts.The last 150-200 pages of this book flew by and I had such a hard time putting this down! It did have some slow parts towards the middle of the book, but once you get through that the book picks up the pace like a large boulder going downhill. The ending is just so intense and you really have no idea how the next book is going to go, but you know that it’s going to have even higher stakes and even more risks!I’ve read so many great books so far this year, and this one is no exception and it is very possible that it will make my top 10 of the year. I can just tell that this year that list is going to be a tough one to pull together!*I do want to point out that this book does have abuse, slavery, and the MC suffers from PTSD. If you are someone that is very triggered by that content, maybe skip this one. I personally don’t have any sort of triggers and i was able to get through it without any issues.*

I want to focus on the world building because this concept is what sold me throughout the book. It’s fresh, original, and incredibly creative. I was fascinated. The idea that one could “scrive” items to change their characteristics using simple to understand ideas, was something I’ve never seen in a book before. “Scrivings” are symbols that represent ideas, and by putting these symbols on ordinary objects, one can enchant the object to believe it is something it isn’t. That can be accomplished even if it means defying the laws of physics, such as the laws of gravity. A pair of handcuffs are scrived to believe each half is a lover, and the two lovers can never be parted unless there is a special key, otherwise, they “love, love,love” each other and must never be parted. Carriage wheels can be scrived to believe they are on a hill and are constantly moving downhill, so naturally, they want to keep rolling at all times. Items can even be scrived to be “twinned” where two objects believe that they are the same object and thus, one reflects the sentiments of the other. The list goes on. It seemed that in the world of Tevanne, one could scrive just about anything, and this opened up a enormous possibilities. The best part was, all of these ideas were so simple to understand, and so so brilliant.The one thing that bothered me throughout the book was the character of Clef. Clef was supposed to be an ancient “artifact” made by the initial creators, which Sansia managed to steal. Clef was lost for years immeasurable. Sancia had a unique ability to communicate with Clef through telepathic means. My issue was this: Clef’s voice was too modern and didn’t fit with what he was supposed to be. I wasn’t bothered by the fact that he was a talking key. That was easy to get past. What I couldn’t get past was Clef’s frequent use of “kid” when addressed Sansia. “Hey, Kid!” or “Don’t do that, Kid,” and so on. The way he talked was far too slang-modern, making their dialogue seem somewhat juvenile. If an object has been hiding for thousands of years, it seems out of place for it to talk with modern speech. I think had the author made Clef’s speech more archaic, It wouldn’t have felt so jarring and juvenile. This turned me off in the beginning and I really struggled to get through the first half of the book. I even considered quitting it a few times, but the incredible world building kept me reading.While the first half of the book seemed to drag on, the second half of the book’s plot kept me hungrily reading. Sansia followed a well defined character arc, and it was obvious that she went from someone who only cared about her own survival, to someone who really cared about bringing justice to a broken world. I couldn’t put the book down once I reached the halfway point, and ended up reading nearly the entire last half in one day, while the first half took me one month. But I promise you, it’s worth it.All in all, this book is perfect for anyone who loves sci-fi/fantasy ideas and wants to read something fresh with ingenuity. There’s a unique form of magic in the way of “scriving” and the plot takes some unexpected turns at the end that really elevated it. I recommend this read to all fantasy lovers and can’t wait for the second book coming in 2020!

What a great first novel. The plot was well fleshed out and the characters were really interesting and realistic. I’m really looking forward to book two.

Bennett has built a unique world with fascinating “technology “ and a great cast of characters. The wealthy vs the powerless trope is worked in new ways. The main character, Sancia, is a true force of nature, and I look forward to seeing how she applies her growing powers in the war to come.

Imaginative world-building and a different twist on your typical fantasy with morally grey characters.

Kitap hasarsız bir şekilde elime ulaştı ve kargo gerçekten çok hızlıydı. Genelde internetten kitap almam, hasar alma olasılığı çok yüksek oluyor. Ancak bu siparişimde sorun olmadı, paketleme çok iyiydi. Kitap İngilizce ve boyutu tam istediğim gibi, sayfaları diğer tüm ciltsiz yabancı kitaplar ile aynı incelikte. Orijinal ürün, barkodu da var. Konu olarak da çok sürükleyici, içine çekiyor.

An original worldA lot of intriguesEndearings characterA long time since I read such a good bookThank's at the author

4.5 starsRobert Jackson Bennett is the author of the wonderful "Divine Cities" trilogy, so it is no surprise that this latest novel is replete with muscular worldbuilding, a fascinating system of magic and a cast of characters that we readers can root for enthusiastically.It is also no surprise that Bennett has a few things to say about the elements of freedom, about the way economic systems develop and evolve, and about who is able to benefit from economic advancement, and for what reasons. It is most eloquently shown in this story that without choices, freedom is a pretty meaningless thing to possess. Escaped slave and thief, Sancia Gordo is free enough to starve, living as she does on the chancy fringes of the Foundryside shantytown, itself clinging to the interstices between the grand compounds of the four great merchant houses of Tevanne. All of the benefits of economic advancement have accrued to these great merchant houses, not through their hard work alone, but through their ruthless application of power to crush their rivals. Gregor Dandolo, traumatised soldier is free to try to bring justice and order to the docks despite the disinterest of his family and virtually anyone else.The system of magic which drives the economic wheels of the city is based on 'scrivings'. Elaborate sigils written onto inanimate objects serve to convince those objects that their reality has changed. A wheel is convinced to roll down an imagined hill. A gate believes that it must stay closed. These scrivings are designed and created by adepts in vast foundies, jealously guarded within the great merchant houses. And the origins of these strange devices, well these are lost in the mists of time, and in the rumour and legend of a vanished civilization of hierophants, who were as gods walking the earth. Rumours of lost artifacts brought to Tevanne's chaotic dockside provide Sancia Gordo with an opportunity to obtain the desires of her heart, and freedom from her afflictions of a sort. One daring heist would do it. Only of course, nothing could be that simple. And the attentions of Gregor Dandolo are the very least of her worries.Eligible for the 2019 Hugo Award for Best Novel, and a very worthy candidate. The sequel (2nd of the planned trilogy) is titled 'Shorefall'

It's fresh, it's interesting, it's fun.Just do yourself a favor and read this book, you won't regret it at all