Foundryside is an urban fantasy novel, replete with thieves and magic, that enchants the reader both through the adventure of one uncommon thief, Sancia Grado, and the inventive magic that makes everything in the city of Tevanne run.

There are really two protagonists in this story - the aforementioned thief, Sancia, a former slave who, after being forced by her masters to undergo brutal surgery on her skull, her mind, her very being, developed an interesting power that aided her escape and has proven quite helpful to her thieving; and the magic itself, in the form of a sentient magicked item. When the two join forces, the rival families that rule Tevanne have met their match.

The setting of Foundryside is also a major factor to the story. Tevanne is a city-state akin to those of Renaissance Italy, ruled by powerful rival families, each residing in their walled-off enclaves, controlling the economy and resources. In particular, they manage the infrastructure of the city and the magical technology that empowers that infrastructure - scrivings, commands written upon the mindless objects, convincing them to disobey reality in select ways. Thus, carriage wheels can be convinced to roll uphill, doors to be locked or unlocked, brooms to fly, etc.

An interesting city, no doubt, but one where the ruling families have become greedy and fearful, looking for ways not only to control technology but also people (hence the slavery and brutality.) But any large-scale economy also supports a black market and that is where Sancia finds help for her thieving exploits and, when paired up with the sentient magic item, to face the powers that be in Tevanne.

Foundryside is an easy and fun novel that expertly melds politics, economics, magic and deftly limned characters in an intriguing situation - a sentient magic item with a purpose and an enhanced thief with a major grudge.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

*4.5 stars rounded up. One of the most inventive fantasy books I've read this year! A rip-roaring great adventure that keeps the reader riveted from page one-- the story is filled with intrigue, evil-doers, mystery, magic and even some laugh-out-loud humor.

Four merchant houses control most of life in Tevanne and their founders have built elaborate walled enclaves where scrivers work in enchantments called sigils that run most everything. The common people live outside those walls in great poverty, desperation and filth. On her own, poor little Sancia Grado survives as a very clever thief but as the story begins, she steals something way too valuable to go unnoticed. She soon realizes that the item is sentient and can communicate with her. Is this some ancient magic? The hunt to get the item back.. She is brave and clever but who can she trust? And can she unravel the mysteries of the past?

Great characterizations and elaborate fantasy world descriptions really bring this story to life. Buckle in for a wild ride! I thoroughly enjoyed this book and eagerly await the next installment!

I received an arc from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

***I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review***

Oh my word, Robert Jackson Bennett has done it again! With this new endeavour, Foundryside, he graciously allowed us a glimpse of the genius behind the curtain inside his highly unconventional brain. This novel has unbelievably intricate World development, an imaginatively complex magic system and beautifully written characters. It is a high octane, extremely well developed Adult Fantasy that gives us bizarre creations such as people who can Code objects to believe/behave in any manner they so choose.... there are materials that are "scrived" to believe they are bigger, stronger, lighter, faster or just "other" than their true nature. Then there are characters that can alter said devices to make them act however they so choose by questioning and redefining their core directives. There are also weird and wonderful, synapse stretching contraptions aplenty.

The first quarter of the book was captivating. I really felt like I couldn't look away. The middle of the book unfortunately felt a bit sluggish. It mostly seemed bogged down with bland/flat character interactions.

What it had in spades were moral and social injustices abound. Morality and the very nature of Reality were questioned repeatedly and the results were unique and captivating. Other common motifs included: What does it take to do what's right even if it is in direct opposition with our "true" nature? What about in the face of incredible injustice? What does it mean to have Power and what does it do to the person who wields it? Are we doomed to repeat the mistakes of our predecessors? What happens when the Powerless are suddenly given some power? Will it corrupt? Will it finally be used to benefit the downtrodden? What does it mean to be free? Can you feel free even if you are hardwired for mindless servitude?... and more...

The ending was bittersweet and left me with nearly as many questions as it answered. Over all this was an interesting, gripping and extremely unique read. It is definitely worth the time!!

This book was just alright for me. I felt a large disconnect with the what was going on for a good portion of the book. There was a lot of info dumping early on that kept me from engaging with the what was going on. Too much telling, not enough showing.

The concept was really interesting, info dumping aside. The characters were also just fine. But this goes with the telling rather than showing for me. I had a hard time engaging with any of the characters, and some of the dialog was just 'meh' for me as well.

Yet even with all the info-dumping, the world felt flat. I believe had the world been better woven into story-telling, that showing I mentioned, the world wouldn't feel flat.
I struggled with envisioning the setting, not sure what era the world was based on as elements from multiple were mentioned in what seemed like plot convenience rather than something that was fleshed out and planned from the start.

This book just fell flat for me, flat world building, flat magic system, mediocre characters and bland dialog.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett

An epic fantasy read. Gritty with a sliver of hope and smidge of Save the World begrudgingly. An unlikely savior in an industrialized magical world.
It’s a world where inanimate objects are given intelligence and specific tasks to perform. It’s a world divided between the haves and have nots. Lots of poverty and lawlessness. Greed and godly ambitions.

First in a series. Read as a complete book with only the last paragraph hinting there is more to come.
It was an engrossing read throughout and was quite gripping in the last third.
Why not the full 5? There were a few discordant notes with characters swearing that fit today’s world rather than this fantasy world. Enough so that as I read them it pushed me out of the story in that moment.

I received a copy of the book from NetGalley and BOA.

Loved it! Sancia, a thief with magical abilities, is hired to steal an important artifact. When she finds out what it really is, she decides not to turn it over to her client, to keep it from being used against the world. Gregor, a Founder's son and former soldier, wants to do the right thing always. Their paths collide in this excellent story of intrigue, magic, technology and moral questions of intent, among other things. Robert Jackson Bennett is a master at world building, and writes with great depth and perception. His stories start a little slow, because of all that world building, etc, but in my opinion are pretty much perfect after that. I am hopeful this trilogy will be as wonderful as the Divine Cities trilogy - it's definitely off to a strong start. My ONLY quibble is that he felt compelled to include a flash of same-sex romance, however brief. It's not daring or different and does nothing to further the plot, and I just find it extremely annoying. Sorry, I can't be PC about that. But other than that, his writing is exceptional - plot, characters, world, themes - and I can't wait until the next volume comes out. Many thanks to NetGalley and Crown Publishing for the e-arc. Strong 4.5 stars rounded up to 5 because of the exceptionally good writing.

This was my first time reading anything by Robert Jackson Bennett. I didn't know what to expect from Foundryside. So wasn't I surprised when I realized I was reading a fantasy with steampunk elements in it. I don't know if I had mentioned it on this blog before, but I am a huge steampunk fan. I love it. I rarely read it. Even more rarely do I review those books. So yeah, I was a pretty happy person.

What I also liked about Foundryside was the place that Tevanne was modeled after. Foundryside was set in a jungle on an unnamed continent. The book is set in the city. I say almost because Sanica's memories take us back to the plantation that she was a slave at. That was on an island, which was owned by one of the Houses. Other than that, it was pretty much well contained. I liked it because I had to only remember the name of the city and the houses it was carved into. The houses in the city reminded me of Italian cities. Italian cities that have fallen onto bad times but the likeness was there.

Foundryside starts off slow. While it doesn't creep like some books, it also doesn't gain momentum until the middle of the book. I would be complaining about it but it worked in this case. In doing this, the author allowed me to get to know the main characters and the city. Everything was explained, which I liked too. In my experience with books this size, there are plotlines that are dropped or holes in the plot. Not in this case. 

Going with what I said above, the characters were filled out. What I liked is that they weren't all likable. That they all had their flaws and that the author didn't try to hide those flaws. Instead, he took them and made those flaws a part of each character's personality. 

I also liked how the author explained scrivings. Scrivings are industrial made magic that is used in everything in this society. Foundations, carriages, wheels...etc, they were all scrived. The only thing that couldn't scrived is humans. It was forbidden. Until Sanica. Sanica is the only scrived human in Tevanne. Or so she thought. There is another scrived human and it blew my mind because of who it was. 

I want to get into what Clef was but it is almost too hard to explain. A key that talks only to Sanica don't even begin to touch the surface with him. He was one of my favorite characters.

While Foundryside was a bloody mess in the 2nd half of the book. While I was expecting a little death, I wasn't expecting how many people died. It did turn me off the book a bit. But I do think that the book couldn't be written any other way. People had to die for Sanica to have her transformation. They also had to die to expose Estelle as the insane woman that she was.

I loved the end of Foundryside. I loved Orso giving Ofelia Dandolo what amounted to the middle finger. I also liked what Orso sprang on Sanica. But my favorite was the very ending of the book with the meeting between Ofelia and her prophet. It gave an interesting twist on things as well as opening things up for a 2nd book.

What I liked about Foundryside:

A) fantasy/steampunk combination

B) filled out characters

C) How the author explained what scrivings were.

What I disliked about Foundryside:
A) How slow the book was at first

B) How the book was a bloody mess during the 2nd half of the book

C) What happened to Sanica at the plantation

I gave Foundryside a 4-star rating. This was a well-written book with fleshed out characters. The book is slow to start and it does get bloody the 2nd half of the book. But I liked it. It was a good read.

I would give Foundryside an Adult rating. There is sex. There is language. There is graphic violence. I would recommend that no one under the age of 21 read this book.

I would reread Foundryside. I would also recommend this book to family and friends.

I would like to thank Crown Publishing for allowing me to read and review Foundryside.

All opinions stated in this review of Foundryside are mine.

**I chose to leave this review after reading an advance reader copy**

The city of Tevanne is divided into Merchant Houses. They hold the cities magic, wealth, and power. If you don't belong to one of these Houses, chances are you are probably poor.
The magic is called scriving. Scriving is using codes to make an object sentient. Only the Houses are allowed scrived objects. If the poor have these objects, they probably stole them, or made them illegally.
Sancia is a thief. She has taken a very dangerous job, but the money is worth it. At least she thinks it is. She is sent to steal an artifact from a safe on the waterfront. She has no idea what she's stealing or what she's gotten herself into until numerous parties try to kill her. She has a lot of questions, but the first one is who hired her. If she can figure that one out, that will be a good starting point to figuring out what the hell is going on.
I really enjoyed this story. I loved Sancia and Clef. I thought it was a very unique and fun read.

A rare book that not only deserves the hype but actually deserves more than it has received. Let’s start with the book description…

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.

Sancia is sent to steal a box … of course she opens it! Like Pandora’s box there is no coming back from this decision. What follows is an exploration into a densely layered world and magic system. Scriving is not simply magic for magic’s sake as there are well defined rules about how and why a person can perform magical acts. Granted, not all of those rules are fully understood by the people performing them. Earlier generations hid the understanding of this system and used it to victimize the poorer classes among them and this new generation is no better. Sancia’s life experience, as one of the lower class, allows the reader to examine how being forced into a life of extreme poverty, slavery, and degradation limits a person’s potential and ability to function. When life is just a fight for survival, can you even call it living?

Don’t worry though, this book is not a complete downer. A character named Clef (no spoilers here!) is a delight and his interactions with Sancia are hilarious. In addition, an unlikely team of characters is formed around Sancia & Clef to (hopefully!) pull of the greatest heist in the history of Tevanne. In this way, the book reminded me a lot of the first Mistborn book. As a matter of fact, Foundryside has been compared by quite a few reviewers to Brandon Sanderson’s novels, and I can understand why people come to those conclusions as excellent world building, characterization and exciting, cinematic action scenes abound.

I can’t recommend this book enough to fantasy lovers. It is also LGBTQ inclusive and that’s always exciting to see in new fiction! Get in on the ground level on this series. I think it’s going places.

Song for this book: Hurt by Johnny Cash (Nine Inch Nails cover)

One of the hardest parts of good science fiction or fantasy is world building. In Foundry Side, Robert Jackson Bennett has built one of the most original worlds I have read about in years.

This story centers around a thief named Sancia. She lives in a city-state that runs on industrialized magic. Spells in this world are not cast. Magic flows from written words. There are no machines or electricity. Just devices that work via the spells placed on them.

Only a select few know the art of writing magic. So companies producing objects are family run merchant houses. Each merchant house is in a walled compound protecting the family and all their employees from slums.

At the start of the story, Sancia is on a mission to steal an item. Her ability as a thief is enhanced because she has a metal plate in her head with a magic spell on it. Not many people can survive being written on, so she hides the fact she has her abilities.

Soon she finds herself in the middle of a conspiracy between two of the most powerful merchant houses. Sancia has to figure out who she can trust and unravel the conspiracy.

As someone who loves both crime fiction and fantasy, a book like Foundry Side is perfect. There is the action of Sancia planning and pulling a few burglaries during the story. There is also the magic setting and the lore of lost magical artifacts.

This is the first book in what is being called The Founders Trilogy. The ending is not a cliffhanger but it leaves the door open what will happen next. I would highly recommend this to anyone looking for something new and different to read.

Foundry Side will release on August 21, 2018.

Foundryside is a great book, in what promises to be an Epic Fantasy Series, almost up to the standards or Brian McClellan or Brandon Sanderson. What processes can be achieved when one can rewrite the laws of physics or the realities of an object? And what people are taking advantage of this to the detriment of others? Don't miss out on this book!

I can’t even begin to describe how excited I was for Foundryside. I read Bennett’s The Divine Cities trilogy and really loved those books for the intricate world building, characters, and story. However, I ended up DNFing Foundryside. The first couple of chapters were great. The heist elements were cool, and I was initially interested in seeing what consequences would come from early revelations made by the characters. Also, a lot of world building took place, but I didn’t mind it since the magic system was intricate and required some context to properly understand how it worked. I thought it was also cool. However, later on, I just didn’t get far in the story for several reasons. There were some scenes that had a lot to do with why I couldn’t connect with the story. It’s ultimately why I didn’t finish Foundryside despite the cool magic system, among other things. Since I didn’t get very far, I encourage you to seek out other reviews and form your own opinion about Foundryside.

This copy of the book was provided by Crown via Netgalley for this review, thank you!

The worldbuilding here is rich and masterful and it comes alive in the skilled hands of RJB. Tevanne is a city divided between the four merchant house compounds who are law unto themselves. Anyone who can’t afford to live in the campos has to make do living in the slums between the compounds called The Commons where there is hardly any food or work and every day is a struggle to survive. The merchant houses have become all powerful and rich using the magic system called “scriving”, which is a way of writing sigils on objects that make them slightly sentient and change their reality – like making a carriage believe it’s always going downhill so that it goes faster and without a driver (or) making an arrow believe it has been falling down from a much longer distance so that it hits with a very high velocity. As the story progresses, we get to know about more complicated scrivings, the scrivers who are responsible for imagining new possibilities while keeping ahead of the rival merchant houses and the washed out scrappers who work the underground market to provide some comfort to the poor people living in the Commons.
Sancia is an excellent protagonist. She is fiery, angry and pragmatic, her survival skills are top notch and she is extremely brave. Her past as a tortured slave still haunts her, leaving her with some form of PTSD. Her special talents also make her a unique being in the city, someone who could be used for nefarious purposes but the way her character is written is very realistic and likable and she never falls into the “special snowflake” trope. Gregor starts off as the stereotype of a soldier – proper, polite, righteous, thinks he can bring about a chance by just instituting laws – but he quickly sees through the rampant corruption of the merchant houses, especially by listening to Sancia’s history and resolves that the city needs a revolution. Orso is the master scriver of Dandolo house and comes across as a pretentious academic, but he is ultimately just a seeker of knowledge and has his heart in the right place. His assistant Berenice is talented and confident and can think on her feet even in dire situations rigging up scrived objects to get them out. Claudia and Gio are scrappers but are quick to help Sancia not just for the money, but also the opportunity to do more with their scriving talents. And most important and my favorite is Clef, the artifact that Sancia initially stole who is so much more than just a key and the one around whom much of the story revolves.
The story is full of action packed heists and chases, planning daring adventures and figuring out the history of the ancient hierophants, who did much more than just bending the reality of objects. The world and magic system is very original and unique and thoroughly detailed and I loved getting to know more about it. The writing is also very easy to read and not as intimidating or dense as other adult fantasies and I couldn’t put it down once I started. Between all the life and death stakes that the characters are fighting, we also get some wit and humor – I especially enjoyed the conversations that Sancia and Clef had with scrived objects to make them do things they didn’t want to.
I’m so much in love with this book and it’s characters and I’m definitely looking forward to reading it again. This would be a delight for all Robert Jackson Bennett’s fans and anyone who enjoys reading about well developed fantasy worlds with unique scientific magic systems.

This book kicks off a new series with brilliant story-telling and flawless, vivid world-building, sprinkled with an intriguing new twist on an industrialist magic system. The brilliant part of this system is how poorly understood it is, and the stark reality of failed experiments and how the capitalist economy serves to drive forward technology, even with these pitfalls.

One of the best things about this book is the magic system. It’s an interesting combination of technology, logic and magic. The use of a world that brings to mind the gritty capitalism of the industrial revolution, with the addition of technomancy is excellent and the way that the system works is both well-thought out and explained. Though the system was perhaps a little over-explained in places, it is a system that leaves me wondering about the possibilities.

Sancia is an awesome character, a short, heavily scarred female protagonist who is all sorts of resourceful and kicks ass in the best way possible. She’s far from infallible though, and the trouble that she gets into is absolutely page-turning. Overall the characters are created in such a way that subverts expectations and stands to break tropes and stereotypes down.

I’ll stay away from spoilers here, but if you but this book had one of the best conclusions that I’ve read in a long time and I am so excited for the next book in this series.

I would recommend this book whole-heartedly to any fantasy fans who love a little bit of magic sprinkled into their technology.

Foundryside is a riveting new fantasy novel with a female thief in a world of industrialized magic, economic disparity, and plenty of intrigue. It has vaguely steampunk vibes, but has an interesting, well-constructed world, complex characters, and a compelling plot. I wasn't sure how I would feel about it at first but I really ended up loving it! It was also a refreshing piece of adult fantasy where there is not a strong romantic element, but there is the beginnings of a f/f romance that we might see more of in later books.

Sancia is a thief with unusual abilities living in a dystopian world where merchant houses are at the top of the food chain and everyone else struggles to survive, living in an anarchic system. When she takes an unusally high-paying job, she is caught in a web of corporate espionage, dangerous magic, and a conflict that is far bigger than she realizes. Sanchia is an unusual and compelling character who has been through hell. I enjoyed following her story arc as it develops. I do have one critique that I will put below because it contains spoilers, but I thoroughly enjoyed this story and this world. It also touches on interesting questions about humanity, consciousness, slavery, and economic inequality.


***Spoiler Warning***


The one critique I thing people might have with this has to do with the sort of disability that comes with Sanchia's scrived nature. We see her struggle with being unable to touch things and becoming overloaded with sensation. I thought that seeing her find ways to cope with that was powerful, so it felt like a bit of a copout when there was an easy magical fix for it at the end of the story. I think that is problematic for people who actually do deal with sensory issues and I think it could have been handled in a more subtle or nuanced way. Regardless, I did really love the book and look forward to reading on in the series! I received an advance copy for review from NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

This one was very confusing at the beginning and weighted down with extra detail trying to explain the premise of this complicated book. It takes a while before you are invested in it.

I received an advance reader copy in exchange for a fair review.

I have a lot of thoughts about Foundryside. Some are good, some are not good. The gist is this: Foundryside is truly a fantastic feat of world-building and complex magic system, but the story was exhausting and there was far too much action to keep my attention at all points.

I started this book and thought it was awesome. Then my interest flagged and I started questioning whether I even wanted to finish it. I was about 70% through when I decided that I would put it down, pick up another book, and then after I finished that book see if I still wanted to finish Foundryside. My evil plan worked! I was halfway through the book I picked up instead when I kept hearing my brain go, 'you know, I kind of still would like to know what's going to happen?' so I went back and finished it. All that aside, I've decided to try to organize this review a bit to cover each area, so let's dive in!

The magic system is incredible. I think that creating magic systems should be Bennett's full-time job (which I guess it sort of is) because wow was this fascinating. There was a lot of info-dumping (which will be discussed), but it was also incredible how in-depth and fascinating everything was. I truly am floored by how fascinating everything was and how much there was to the concept of scriving. I think what I liked the most about this system was how it really did work around a general idea of logic. It's one of those things that seems incredibly complex and impossible, but when it's explained to you, you think "huh, yeah, that makes perfect sense." It's crazy, and I loved it.

Info-dumping. As I mentioned, there is quite a bit of info-dumping and I had mixed feelings on this as well (as with most things in this book, you'll find). I didn't always hate it. I actually found a lot of the informational bits pretty interesting and I appreciated how much detail and effort Bennett put into everything. The problem, however, arose with the prevalence amount of info-dumping and how it often interrupted the flow of the story. I felt that there were too many times in which Bennett sort of interrupted everything to launch into his huge explanation that made me forget what was going on outside of the explanation. This frustrated me. I also felt like if I forgot any of the information he gave that I would be completely lost, so it felt frustrating to have to keep going through this information. I liked the information, it just felt like too much most of the time. Also, I felt like a lot of information was repetitive. Not necessarily the info dumps, but the same ideas were repeated, such as how dangerous it was to do a certain thing with scrivings or the extreme consequences--I've heard it four times already, I get it.

Near-constant action and/or chases. I don't mind some high-action books, but this book was exhausting and honestly, I got bored with how high-action everything was. It was sort of a constant cat-and-mouse situation, which one group always running from another or fighting another or pulling something, etc. etc. It gets old for me. I completely understand why other people love this and find it exciting, but it personally just is not for me. I like some moments of calm, not constant action.

The Characters. Half of the time I liked most of the characters... and half of the time I didn't. So many of them felt a bit... flat? I didn't really care much for anyone and they all sort of felt like stereotypes at times, while also being a bit inconsistent. Sancia is an awesome character that takes no bullshit, which I appreciated, but there were times when she just felt a bit over the top and frustrating. I wanted her to be just a bit more mature? I understand that as a character she doesn't have to be exactly what I want (I'm good with unlikable characters or ones that are different from me), but there were just a few things that didn't match up with her skills and experiences in relation to how she acted at times. Gregor was a pretty interesting character most of the time as well, but his espousing of moral ideals just became so tiresome. Orso was like a character that I sort of feel like I've read a thousand times before, but I did appreciate his bluntness and general rudeness. Berenice was one of the better characters, but we didn't get as much focus or information on her as I would have liked. (As a side note--I would have liked to know more about Sark)

Plot. I think I liked the plot, but at the same time it felt like it sort of got... lost amidst everything else. There is a lot going on in this book in regards to the scrivings and fine details. I think this book was about 100-200 pages too long, however, and there was a lot that could have been removed. The overarching story is really engaging, but there were just so many obstacles and extra things that I just felt could have been removed.

Overall, I've given Foundryside 3.75 stars. I completely understand why this is possible and why people love it, but this is just a case of it not quite being for me in the end. I'm still glad that I picked it up, though! If this is one you're excited about, I still absolutely recommend it. I will more than likely pick up the next book as well because I am intrigued to find out what will happen.

You know what more books need…More sentient inanimate objects.

Some of my favorite things in some of the other fantasies I’ve read have been things like Nightblood, the sentient sword in the Cosmere series of Brandon Sanderson. Beauty and the Beast had an entire castle full of sentient everyday items - that was awesome. So I was really excited to find a new fantasy world where there is a very sentient Key and other items which are less sentient but seem to have a purpose all their own written into their very being.

Foundryside is a new series by Robert Jackson where the fabric of reality can be tweaked and you can convince doors to stay locked against anyone unless they have the right token on them, or wood to be as strong as stone or possibly you could even convince items that the laws of gravity don’t really apply to them. This is a very interesting world where if you know the right language you can rewrite the entire world around you.

”The foundries did that first," said Sancia. "Apparently that was where they first experimented with gravity, just so they could get all their machines to move around and work better."
"Clever stuff."
"Kind of. I hear it didn’t go totally flawlessly at the start, and a few scrivers accidentally quintupled their gravity or something."
"Meaning? "
"Meaning they got crushed into a vaguely flesh-like object about as thick as an iron pan."
"Okay, maybe not so clever.”

Sancia used to be a slave on a plantation but that was before the entire thing burned. Now she is a thief and a damn good one. It helps that she has a special talent and can sense things she touches. When her skin contacts a wall for instance, she can sense who has been by recently, where the weak spots arewhich she can use to her advantage and the best place to climb. It is a great talent, but it would be better if she could also turn it off. Every time her skin contacts anything she attunes to it. So when she finds a key that can talk in her head, she is more than a little freaked out.

Clef is the said key and he is awesome. Nightblood (mentioned above) is one of my favorite talking items ever and Clef might give it a run for its money in the favorite department. He is funny, witty and has a very interesting past. Plus he seems to be able to trick other inanimate objects into going against their programing in some interesting ways. I love the friendship that builds between him and Sancia. As they become closer, we find out more about the past and the people who created this language which can literally rewrite reality.

This is mostly Sancia and Clef’s story but there are also some other key players introduced. Gregor is a former soldier trying to bring justice to a city that is divided into house sections in which the houses rule, there are no official laws and you are at the mercy of the ruling house if they take offense to something you are doing. He is a good guy but has absolutely no support in trying to bring law and order to even a small area of this city.

"...And I have come home to bring to this city the very thing I am delivering you to."
"And what is that?"
"Justice," he said simply.
Her mouth fell open. "What? Are you serious?"
"As serious," he said as the carriage turned, "as the grave."
Sancia laughed, incredulous. "Oh, as simple as that? Just like dropping off a package? 'Here, friends--have some Justice! That's the dumbest damned thing I've ever heard!"

Orso is a master of his craft. He is the best at putting abstract concepts together and convincing reality to do new and interesting things. He also is obsessed with artifacts of old rumored to have more of the language he’s pieced together over his lifetime that converts reality. Clef might be a key to that in more ways than just one.

And whoever made that thing is . . . good.”
“Damned good,” said Orso. “Amazingly good. That’s top-rate work, there! I feel sure if someone was that good in this city, we’d all know about it. Everyone would be lining up to lick his candle, I’ve no doubt!”

This was a tale with unexpected twists, great characters with complicated pasts and a threat that could literally rewrite the world the characters live in. I’m really excited to see how the next book builds into the overall arc of the story because this world and the way the magic/science works in it was refreshing and a new great twist. Oh the fun we shall have seeing how much reality can be changed without destroying everything we know.

What is your favorite talking inanimate object?

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

In a dystopian world where only the strong survive by any means necessary, Sancia Grado is a thief extraordinaire, thanks to her unique, magical abilities. Welcome to FOUNDRYSIDE by Robert Jackson Bennett, where magic is controlled by the powerful few and its technology can change the world.

When Sancia discovers she is being used as a disposable pawn hired to steal an artifact of immense power, she will gather the most unlikely allies to harness the powers for herself, forever changing her into a being unlike any known before.

Adult epic fantasy has arrived with characters that literally jump off the page with their amazing personalities, daring and resolve to do the right thing for all. Fabulous world-building, high octane action and “scriving,” magic that is coded!

Will Sancia be corrupted by the potential power at her fingertips? Will she become obsessed with power and money? Has technology reached a new low with no consideration for the masses? Danger lurks around every corner and only the strong can survive. Fascinating reading that will appeal to all!

Robert Jackson Bennett is now on my authors-to-read radar!

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Crown Publishing!

Series: Foundryside - Book 1
Publisher: Crown (August 21, 2018)
Publication Date: August 21, 2018
Genre: Dark Epic Fantasy
Print Length: 512 pages
Available from: Amazon | Barnes & Noble
For Reviews, Giveaways, Fabulous Book News, follow: http://tometender.blogspot.com

Thank you to NetGalley! This will be my first book from them and I’m very happy to have had the opportunity to read the newest book by Robert Jackson Bennett. His Divine Cities series are filled will interesting characters and mysterious cities and is a real favorite of mine.

Bennett builds a new city this time, made up of 4 powerful Campos run as corporations that manufacture items called ‘rigs.’ Rigs run on a sort of magic based on fooling materials to disregard reality. So a door made of wood, for instance, would be tricked into believing it was made of stone or metal and thus stronger than wood. Between the Campos are dirty canals and the rundown shacks of the less fortunate, and this is where we meet the main character who has a special talent she uses for thievery.

As in Bennett’s other books the characters feel real and some are much more likable than others. These make up a band of misfits, a trope that surprised me as the roles were a bit stereotypical. My favorite was Clef, a key that communicates with Sancia (this happens early on in the story so not really a spoiler.) I couldn’t help but imagine his voice as Dora in Finding Nemo ;-)

While not a stand alone book, it does end in a satisfactory way. It also has an underlying theme that speaks to people being misused as tools by the powerful. There were several surprises along the way that described the painful loss of autonomy experienced by the characters.

My favorite quote: The worse part, is that it tricks you....It makes you think you’re a thing. It makes you resign yourself to becoming a crude good.

I’ll definitely be reading the next book in the series.