FOUNDRYSIDE by Robert Jackson Bennett – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Series: Founders #1
Published by Crown on August 21 2018
Genres: Adult, Fantasy
Pages: 512
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: A unique and action-packed start to a new series full of fascinating magic, complex characters, and even some unexpected humor.

A struck match sounds like a kiss in the dark, sometimes. She remembered thinking that, watching the flame crack to life and then flutter down to the pools of alcohol running across the floor.

No one had made it out. And as she’d sat and watched, she’d realized—master or slave, all screams sounded alike.

Foundryside was quite the reading experience, and it’s going to stick with me for a long time. This is the kind of story that begs to be read in a short period of time, because it is so complex, and the magic system is so intricate, that you don’t want to lose any of the threads while you are reading. Robert Jackson Bennett blew me away with his unique brand of world-building in his Divine Cities series, and once again, I’m stunned and delighted by the magic system in this book. If you’re looking for fantasy that breaks new ground, then look no further. And it doesn’t hurt that I fell in love with Bennett’s characters as well!

At its core, this is a thrilling heist story with furious, non stop action. Sancia Grado ekes out a living as a thief, doing jobs for her friend Sark. She isn’t wealthy enough to belong to one of the four merchant houses in Tevanne, so she makes do outside the walls in the Commons, often struggling to find enough food to stay alive. But her luck may be changing, because Sark has just offered her a king’s ransom to break into a warehouse at the docks and steal a box from a safe. Sancia manages to pull off the heist, but when she opens the box out of curiosity, she’s surprised to find an ornate key inside, a key that can not only communicate with her, but can apparently open any lock. As Sancia grasps the implications of what the key, who calls himself Clef, is able to do, she realizes that the ones she stole the box from will certainly come looking for her, and since she has no plans of giving up Clef to those who would use him for ill purposes, Sancia knows she must get out of Tevanne at once.

But it’s not that easy. With a group of powerful people after her, Sancia joins forces with some unlikely allies to try to bring down the one person who could threaten their future.

There is so much I want to talk about, but let’s start with breaking down the magic system, because everything in the story hinges on it. Bennett has created a type of industrialized magic, where everyday objects can be altered by attaching “scrivings” to them, strings of magical words that are etched into metal plates. Scrived objects, or “rigs” as they are called, basically change what an object can do. For example, if you scrive instructions on a piece of wood and convince it that it is actually stone, the wood will act like stone and hold up much longer. Or you could tell a carriage’s wheels that they are on an incline, and that will make the carriage go faster because the wheels think they are going downhill. You can see how the possibilities would be endless, and these examples barely scratch the surface of what Bennett does with this idea.

There are also some types of scriving that are illegal, like scriving gravity or creating a scrived human. And if you think this story involves some illegal activities, then you would be right;-)

The art of scriving is relegated to those who live in the merchant houses, but there is also a rebel group of scrivers on the outside who are just as talented and creative, but of course they don’t have the means to belong to a house. Sancia has made friends with a couple of them who she calls “Scrappers,” since they have to use their wits to find raw materials to use for scriving. They sell their scrived rigs to commoners who are in search of a bit of comfort, but they work in hiding for fear of being caught. I absolutely loved Claudia and Giovanni, the two Scrappers who end up helping Sancia, and I hope they make an appearance in the next book.

And I can’t talk about the magic system without talking about Sancia, who has just been elevated to the top of my “favorite characters” list! Sancia has a special ability to sense and understand objects whenever she touches them, to the extent that this talent has saved her life many times over. For example, she can touch a floor board and it will “tell” her everything it knows, like who has walked over it recently, how many people are currently in the area, or even the entire layout of a building. This ability makes her a very successful thief, since she can tell when someone’s coming and figure out the best way to escape buildings. She can also hear scrivings “talk” when she gets close to them, which comes in handy when she’s trying to break into a safe, for example. She isn’t sure why she can do this, but she knows it’s connected to the huge scar on her scalp. I won’t tell you the reason, even though I’m DYING to, so you’ll just have to read the book to find out.

But I didn’t love her just for her amazing abilities. Sancia is a hardened and resourceful girl, a criminal who knows how to get away with just about anything, and most of all, a survivor. We get a peak at her horrible past—she grew up as a slave in a plantation—which has made her wary of getting too close to people. She also has a talent for managing to destroy everything around her, which was pretty funny. She’s plucky and fierce and angry and also loyal, she swears a lot, and I absolutely loved her.

This is a fairly large cast, and my review would go on for thousands of words if I talked about everyone, but besides Sancia, I fell hard for Clef, and unfortunately I cannot tell you much about him because, spoilers. There is also a military captain named Gregor who I really didn’t like much in the beginning. But he grew on me and by the end he was one of my favorite characters. Oh, and Orso and Berenice! I adored them too.

Bennett has imagined an entire history about how scriving came to be, but he barely touches on it in this book. The Occidental hierophants were literal gods with tremendous power, but at the time of this story, it is believed that all the hierophants have died. They left behind a vast store of ancient artifacts, some of which may contain a great deal of power, if only one could figure out how they work. In some ways Foundryside felt very contained, since the entire story takes place within Tevanne, but we’re given glimpses of a far bigger and more wonderous world that will hopefully be explored further in future installments.

And you know me, I’m always looking for the Buffy angle or reference when I’m reading, and there was a very strong Buffy moment for me in this book (and it could be completely unintentional on the author’s part), although I can’t really tell you about it because it might spoil the story! So if you’re a Buffy fan, you must read this and let me know if you spot it. (Season 5. That’s all I’m going to say.)

Foundryside is a dense and intricately plotted story about people who will do anything to survive, and others who will do anything for power. There was never a dull moment, and at times the whole thing felt like one big chase scene. But if you love heist stories and watching the good guys pull off the impossible (think Ocean’s Eleven!), and if you love complex relationships and characters who will worm their way into your heart—even the not-so-nice ones—then you will love this book. Highly recommended!

Big thanks to the publisher for supplying a review copy. Above quote was taken from an uncorrected proof and may differ in the final version of the book.