Words I Write Crazy: Week 2 Reviews: Foundryside, Shorefall, Locklands

Saturday, January 11, 2025

Week 2 Reviews: Foundryside, Shorefall, Locklands

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.

From Goodreads:

As a magical revolution remakes a city, an ancient evil is awakened in a brilliant new novel from the Hugo-nominated author of Foundryside and the Divine Cities trilogy

Having narrowly saved the metropolis of Tevanne from destruction, Sancia Grado and her allies have turned to their next task: sowing the seeds of a full-on magical-industrial revolution. If they succeed, the secrets behind scriving—the art of imbuing everyday objects with sentience—will be accessible to all of Tevanne's citizens, much to the displeasure of the robber-barons who've hoarded this knowledge for themselves.

But one of Sancia's enemies has embarked on a desperate gambit, an attempt to resurrect a figure straight out of legend—an immortal being known as a heirophant. Long ago, the heirophant was an ordinary man, but he's used scriving to transform himself into something closer to a god. Once awakened, he'll stop at nothing to remake the world in his horrifying image.

And if Sancia can't stop this ancient power from returning? Well, the only way to fight a god…is with another god.

From Goodreads:

Sancia, Clef, and Berenice have gone up against plenty of long odds in the past. But the war they're fighting now is one even they can't win.

This time, they're not facing robber-baron elites, or even an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe—a ghost in the machine that uses the magic of scriving to possess and control not just objects, but human minds.

To fight it, they've used scriving technology to transform themselves and their allies into an army—a society—that's like nothing humanity has seen before. With its strength at their backs, they've freed a handful of their enemy's hosts from servitude, even brought down some of its fearsome, reality-altering dreadnaughts. Yet despite their efforts, their enemy marches on—implacable. Unstoppable.

Now, as their opponent closes in on its true prize—an ancient doorway, long buried, that leads to the chambers at the center of creation itself—Sancia and her friends glimpse a chance at reaching it first, and with it, a last desperate opportunity to stop this unbeatable foe. But to do so, they'll have to unlock the centuries-old mystery of scriving's origins, embark on a desperate mission into the heart of their enemy's power, and pull off the most daring heist they've ever attempted.

And as if that weren't enough, their adversary might just have a spy in their ranks—and a last trick up its sleeve.

A god wages war—using all of humanity as its pawns—in the unforgettable conclusion to the Founders trilogy.

My Review:
Oh, this was such a fantastic trilogy! I really enjoyed his other series, and I'd heard really good things about this one, so I had to pick it up! And oh, they were such entertaining reads! I do think I prefer the Shadow of the Leviathan a bit more, just because of the mystery element, but these were also really fantastic!

This world where they can alter reality, to command it not to work as it's supposed to, for example, shooting a projectile weapon, and making it think that it's straight, horizontal path is it going down, and having been going down for a very long time. It was such an interesting idea, and had so many uses, many of which were discovered as the books went on.

Absolutely loved these characters and how they were shaped by the world that they lived in.

Loved reading these books and I can't wait to read more by Robert Jackson Bennett!

Author: Robert Jackson Bennett
Series: The Founders Trilogy #1, 2, 3
Read: January 5th, 6th, 7th, 2025
Source: Ebook.bke, Own
Reason Why: Love his writing and the series sounded really good, and they're Prequel & Sequel Challenge 2025 Books, and Locklands is a End of Series 2025 Book!
Publisher: Crown, Del Rey
Published: August 21st 2018, April 21st 2020, June 22nd 2022

Foundryside: