The city of Tevanne runs on scrivings, industrialised magical inscriptions that make inanimate objects sentient; they power everything, from walls to wheels and weapons. Scrivings have brought enormous progress and enormous wealth – but only to the four merchant Houses who control them. Everyone else is a servant or a slave, or they eke out a precarious living in the hellhole known as the Commons.

There’s not much in the way of work for an escaped slave like Sancia Grado, but she has an unnatural talent that makes her one of the best thieves in the city. When she’s offered a lucrative job to steal an ancient artefact from a heavily guarded warehouse, Sancia agrees, dreaming of leaving the Commons – but instead, she finds herself the target of a murderous conspiracy. Someone powerful in Tevanne wants the artefact and wants Sancia dead – and whoever it is already wields power beyond imagining.

Sancia will need every ally, and every ounce of wits at her disposal, if she is to survive – because if her enemy gets the artefact and unlocks its secrets, thousands will die, and, even worse, it will allow ancient evils back into the world and turn their city into a devastated battleground.

When we first meet Sancia Grado, she is lying face down in a puddle of mud. Her career as a thief is far less glamorous than she ever hoped it might be. Constantly on the run and always looking over her shoulder, Sancia is used to being alone. She has a unique condition that makes it difficult for her to fit in with the rest of society, but ideally suited to a career in crime. It’s easy to empathise with our young heroine’s predicament. Sancia is painfully lonely and all she really craves is some compassion and a little peace. The problem is she is too good at her chosen profession. Being a good thief is always going to attract attention.

Hot on Sancia’s trail is Captain Gregor Dandolo, the only honest watchman in all of Tevanne. He is one of those horribly stoic, determined types that won’t ever stop until a criminal is caught. Unfortunately for Sancia, she is the criminal in question. Events take an unexpected turn however and the phrase “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” suddenly becomes hugely appropriate.

The other standout character is Clef. After much pondering, I’ve made a conscious decision that I am not going to discuss him in any great depth. To do so would be a major spoiler. Suffice to say, Clef’s relationship with Sancia is integral to the plot and contains someone brilliant back and forth banter between the two. Their interactions form one of the novel’s many highlights.

Elsewhere there are a whole host of mildly insane scriveners, violent criminals, homicidal politicos and pushy bureaucrats who make Sancia’s story come to life. All these characters manage to feel familiar but never clichéd. I love it when a writer manages to pull that particular feat off.

The merchant Houses control the city with an iron fist. Little happens without their direct say so. There is a truce between the Houses but in reality, this is more like a cold war. For someone like Sancia all this economic uncertainty fits neatly with her skill set. An accomplished thief is always going to be able to find work when big businesses are at one another’s throats. The political machinations that drive the city provide the ideal backdrop to the main plot. Fantasy heist novels have become more and more popular over the last couple of years, I’ve certainly read a fair few. Turns out fantasy and crime make ideal bedfellows. What sets Foundryside apart from the majority of others is how flawlessly it is executed.

I really liked the premise of the magic system in this novel. Scriving is part art form and part alchemy. There are some wonderfully inventive applications to this pseudo-science. Not only that, there is a huge potential to explore further uses for scriving in future novels. The possibilities seem endless. All manner of objects and artefacts could be repurposed when you are able to rewrite the rules on how they behave. The results of scriving lead to many glorious moments in the plot. Scrivend doors, for example, appear to be a particularly chatty bunch

Bennett has a keen eye when it comes to his world building. The Commons, and the rest of Tevanne, are so well realised. The streets are evocative, they pulse with the ebb and flow of life. Visually I found myself imagining Tevanne as something akin to Katsuhiro Otomo’s classic vision of London in Steamboy.

As a counterpoint to all the action and adventure, there are some brilliant little gems of Pratchett-esque humour dotted through the narrative. They caught me unaware more than once. As an aside, there is little better than a loud guffaw while travelling on public transport. Any novel that causes me to disturb fellow passengers is a winner as far as I am concerned.

Every so often I read a novel that I’d love to see make the jump from page to screen, Foundryside is exactly that. Everything from the characters and the locations to the smallest details would work on screen. Even something as simple as how horseless carriages have developed could look great. I shall start my dream cast list immediately.

I have an admission to make, I’ve not read any of Robert Jackson Bennett’s other novels so Foundryside completely blindsided me. It is delightful steampunky goodness that is hugely entertaining from beginning to end. If, like me, you enjoy your escapism in the purest, most undiluted form then you need to give Foundryside a try. The best thing is that it feels like we are just getting started. I have no doubt that there are more stories about Tevanne and its inhabitants still left to tell. In the meantime, I think I’ll investigate Mr Bennett’s back catalogue. That should keep me going while I wait for the second book in The Founders series.

My musical recommendation to accompany Foundryside is a game soundtrack by one of my favourite composers, Chris Tilton. Divide (Deluxe Edition) feels like a perfect fit with the novel. The music captures the sense of urgency, tension and danger that follow Sancia everywhere. Blending together elements of classical and contemporary music it screams Foundryside to me.

Foundryside is published by Jo Fletcher Books and is available now. Highly recommended.

A talking key and objects, what’s not to love. Sancia is a thief working for Sark. Curiosity starts off a chain of mystery, bonds and betrayal. Favourite character in this one was Orso, clever, sarcastic and blunt. Felt sorry for Mountain. Smooth flowing, the story just sucks you in. Been hooked since Sancia first touched Clef. Looking forward to the next one.

Since reading Robert Jackson Bennett's Divine Cities trilogy I'd been waiting eagerly to see what he would write next - and Foundryside didn't disappoint. It is a chewy, absorbing story of rebellion and identity set in a grim manufacturing city where a form of "magic" has been industrialised.

It's clearly an otherworld fantasy, but I wouldn't try to pigeonhole it further than that. Especially, don't let anyone try and tell you that just because the book focusses on industry and the commercialisation of this world's form of "magic" it must be "steampunk". There is very little steam here, and indeed referring to scriving as "magic" isn't quite right, although it definitely isn't science either.

Imagine, rather, you could somehow hack into the code that runs the world, and alter the nature of things - or what they believe about their nature - with strings of written commands. That's the basis for the economy of Tevanne, where powerful merchant houses employ legions of scrivers to design the products which they then stamp out and sell. These may be carriage wheels which are tricked into thinking themselves running downhill so they turn endlessly, structures which are commanded to act as if they are ten or a hundred times stronger than they "really" are or weapons of incredible, unnatural power. There are limits to scriving, based on how far or for how long you can push reality, and on how those commands ("sigils") can be combined and modified to express more complicated ideas.

The culture behind all this is a bit tech (with an emphasis on coding), a bit esoteric (much of the language of the sigils is lost so there's a kind of Indiana Jones element to seeking out and reconstructing it) and a lot capitalist, with huge profits to be made (and even a reference to the "move fast and break things" arrogance of the tech business). For all that, life in the enclaves of the four Houses is good for the best workers with plenty of food, clean water and low crime.

Outside - in Foundryside and the other districts of Taverre - it's almost a hell on earth. There is no government, no law, and precious little to live off. People do the best they can amongst filth and squalor, living in in overcrowded, decaying slums. This is where we meet Sancia Grado, escaped slave and possessor of strange talents, who's surviving as a thief. She's engaged on a job, and the description of this sets the tone for much of the book which from one perspective is a series of audacious heists.

Grado is the central character of this book and indeed carries almost all the narrative, with others - such as irritable scriver genius Orso or law and order crusader Captain Gregor Dandolo of the Waterwatch - very much acting as foils to her, at least until late in the book when Bennett gives them more depth. Sancia is though a magnificent creation, well able to bear that focus: maimed by her history, in many ways afflicted by a "talent" that she is, nonetheless, able to turn to some advantage, and fiercely, fiercely devoted to survival.

When she is drawn into the wider plot, concerning existential threats to the city and indeed the world itself, Sancia very sensibly asks why she should risk everything when she's been dealt such a shitty hand in life. Hasn't she suffered enough? Isn't she actually owed? The cruel surgery that gave her her talent - and which is related to that threat - pales, she argues, beside the evil of slavery which is something that was and is accepted by all its beneficiaries, including Dandle who present as being od so moral.

That question is at the heart of the book, also arising in connection with Clef, another character I loved and who Sancia comes to know well. The revelation of his true nature came as a real shock, but did explain the bond that formed between the two. (The scenes between Sancia and Clef are one of the best things in the book - both funny and increasingly sad, the relationship between the two depicted sensitively and with a lot of emotional truth).

Foundryside has deep resonances with our world, from colonialism and the exploitation of slaves to the impact on workers of unrestricted capitalism and the treatment of women (women scrivers are being eased out of the profession; other women are treated as counters in the dynastic games of Taverre). Bennett integrates these well with the fantasy plot, maintaining a real sense of mystery as to what is really going - at certain points it seems straightforward but then he turns things on a sixpence and all seems up in the air again.

I think there is a bit of homage to Sir Terry Pratchett: most obviously, the industrialising society somewhat resembles Pratchett's "technology" novels, and Gregor has a bit of Carrot, a bit of Vimes about him (he's trying to introduce the rule of law in a chaotic city-state). More subtly, there is that moral heart I mentioned above, which in various different ways (negative as well as positive, the pursuit of power as well as the desire for freedom and survival) motivates nearly everyone in this book.

It's a riveting book, an example of what fantasy can be, and like the best fantasy, poses hard questions about us and our own society.

Strongly recommended.

I have a confession to make, Foundryside is the first book I've read by Robert Jackson Bennett and that's something I definitely need to change because it was absolutely awesome! When I was offered a review copy of Foundryside and invited to take part in the UK blog tour I spotted that three of my friends on Goodreads had already read and loved it so I couldn't pass up the change to see exactly what they were all raving about. I'm so glad I did because this is one of the best fantasy books I've read in AGES and I can already tell you it makes it onto my top books of 2018 list.

Robert Jackson Bennett has created a world where people have industrialised magic, they can inscribe symbols on any kind of object that will affect the way that object interacts with reality. Lets say you have something really heavy that you need to ship somewhere, well just inscribe it with symbols to make it believe that its only quarter of its actual weight and away you go. Or how about telling a door that it is only allowed to open under very specific circumstances or for people who are holding a certain object. Want to fly? Well, that one is so complicated that it's actually illegal but it is technically possible if you manage to convince an item that gravity's direction is up not down. You just have to be very, very careful that you don't go too far and end up floating right off the planet and out into space! This world is absolutely fascinating, incredibly well thought out and a joy to spend time exploring.

Of course world building doesn't matter unless you have great characters and a strong plot and Foundryside has all of that and then some. Our main character is Sancia, an ex-slave who now lives in poverty in the Commons and steals from the wealthy Merchant Houses to survive. She has some very special skills (you'll have to read the book for yourself to find out what they are) that make her an excellent thief so when she is offered a ridiculous amount of money to break into an extremely secure warehouse and steal an ancient magical artefact she knows this is her chance to earn enough to completely start over. Of course nothing is ever quite that simple and when she realises what the artefact is capable of there is no way she can just hand it over to her client with a clean conscience.

Along with a ragtag team of unlikely heroes it is up to Sancia to stop an evil plot that could lead to the death of thousands of people. I'm not going to go into more detail than that but what follows is a non stop thrill ride of daring heists, dangerous missions, clever use of magic and fantastic plot twists. Sancia is just one of a multitude of brilliant characters, one of whom isn't even an actual person, and they're all well fleshed out people with their own strengths, weaknesses and motives. I loved every minute of this book and even though it comes in at just over 500 pages this is a story I could have easily devoured in one sitting if I'd had a day free to do nothing but read. As it was I was constantly wishing real life away so that I could get back to my book.

Foundryside is a fantastic start to this series and I'm already desperately waiting for the next instalment but while I wait I'm definitely going to get started on Robert Jackson Bennett's backlist because I have a very strong feeling I've just discovered a new favourite author!

I haven't read anything by Robert Jackson Bennett before, but I thought the blurb sounded interesting, so I was excited to give Foundryside a go. It starts with a young woman called Sancia stealing a mysterious object for her unnamed client. She wouldn't normally take a job this big and complex, because the consequences if she gets caught could be death or the painful loss of a limb, but this time the money was so good she couldn't say no. She duly gets hold of the box, but she can't resist the urge to look inside - despite having been told specifically not to by the client - and see what someone would go to all this trouble for. It turns out to be a magical object that's totally different from anything else, and Sancia realises her client wont let her live with any knowledge of it.

The book hooked me quickly, with Sancia's street-smart attitude and a lot of action that painted a good picture of the city and how the magic in this world works. Be warned, it's not a short book. I found the 10-20% section dragged a bit, but then things picked up again and I got sucked right back in. The last 30% flew by, and where part way through there had been moments where I wasn't sure if I'd continue with the series after Foundryside, by the time I finished reading it last night I knew I need to read the next book!

The majority of the book is focussed on Sancia, but there are occasional short paragraphs from some of the other key characters. There are a variety of narrators, and I think Robert Jackson Bennett did a really good job at giving the main characters distinct personalities and motivations. I liked the character development of all the key players over the course of the book, and I'm interested to see what happens to them in the sequel.

With Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett has created an exciting, believable world and a plot full of twists. It picks up momentum as it goes along, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the second book in the series has in store for readers. Overall, I'm giving Foundryside 7 out of 10.

https://lynns-books.com/2018/08/23/foundryside-founders-1-by-robert-jackson-bennett/
Robert Jackson Bennett is without doubt one of my favourite authors and so as you may imagine I had very high expectations picking up Foundryside – I’m not sure if being such a staunch fan of an author makes you more or less difficult to please but at the risk of sounding like a pushover I think RJB has again managed to create a series that will surely win hearts and readers alike.

As first in series go Foundryside lays a strong foundation. It has characters that you can adore and equally characters that you can really dislike. The magic system is absolutely wonderful and probably made even more so by the fact that the people of Tevanne are still learning about it themselves just like the readers and on top of that it has a great heist/caper feel. I did have a few reservations but more of that below. Firstly, more of what to expect.

The book gets off to a fairly gripping start as we meet Sancia. Sancia is a thief with a difference that puts her above your normal ‘run of the mill’ thieves. Of course, you’ve no doubt heard that before but in this case, seriously, Sancia has a strange ability that is at once both a gift and a curse. As the book begins Sancia is on a dangerous job, probably the most dangerous, and lucrative that she’s ever undertaken. She took the job thinking it would be her last one, the biggie that she can retire on the back of, little understanding that the nature of the artefact she’s about to steal could change not only her life but could also have a serious impact on the world in which she lives. Ultimately, what began as ‘one last job’ turns into a fight for survival and a forming of friendships where least expected. For me, this story takes a good look at power and the lengths and abuse that people will commit in order to attain it. Taking the easiest path is not always the right choice and Sancia will be forced to decide whether to look after number one or take a course of action that will undoubtedly put her in danger but be for the greater good.

The main characters of the story are Sancia – who has a fascinating and really quite horrible back story that is slowly revealed as the plot moves forward. I think she’s a fantastic character, her condition makes her a natural loner and an instinctive survivor, she’s a tough nut and yet at the same time her natural disposition is good. Gregor is the sole surviving son of one of the four ruling merchant houses, although you wouldn’t think that to read about him as he certainly doesn’t use or abuse his family name to open doors or curry favour. Gregor is all about justice. He’s started a project on the warehouses to try and bring and maintain law and order and obviously this eventually means he crosses paths with Sancia. Like Sancia, Gregor has a fascinating backstory, he’s seen war and his ability to cheat death has earned him a few less than savoury titles. Then we have Clef – who is quite literally a key – in the physical sense of being a key – which makes his name clever too. Clef is a character – he’s sentient – I love him and I want to know more. That is all – well, except there are some nasty buggers herein as well as the ones named above but I’ll leave you to discover those for yourselves.

The world building is subtle. You will get a feel for the place as the action takes place and what a strange place this is. It certainly makes you take a look at the discrepancies between the haves and the have nots. Here is a world of either great privilege where water is used purely for decorative purposes with water features tinkling day and night, whilst not more than a few steps beyond walls and gates, people are dying of thirst. This is a world that has resolved itself into four ruling merchant houses, each of which have walled in their own realms creating a city that is divided and leaving only those parts unwanted to the great unwashed masses.

And so to the magic – which is absolutely great and yet is the one area that also gave me pause. The magic system here is one of sigils. If scribed onto items of any nature they change the make up of the object they’re scribed upon. A wall made of wood can believe it is stone, A door can be told only to open to a certain person – there are so many uses for this magic and yet the thing about this is it’s a whole world of people using borrowed power. This is a system that was created many, many years ago by people who invented the sigils. Most of what the people of Tevanne use is a roughly ‘cut and paste’ version of the original. They didn’t create the sigils and basically don’t really understand it, the language that they recreate is basic and crude in terms of the original use, they take snippets from here and there putting them together and hoping for the best. It feels like a recipe for disaster somehow.

Now, this is where I get a few niggles or criticisms.. The story suffers a little bit from an influx of information in the early chapters which tends to take you out of the story a bit and slow the pace. I felt like I got off to an excellent start but then things started to meander. The whole magical system here is fascinating, make no doubt about it, and yet, it’s over explained and definitely becomes a little repetitive which jars for me somewhat because I felt like I’d grasped it. I do understand the desire to explain and more than that the love of an author sharing his world he’s created but it just began to feel like I’d heard it already. And, to a certain extent, it felt like the story was a little conflicted about it’s target audience in that there are imagined ‘curse’ words but then some quite bloody scenes. I won’t say that any of this spoiled the read for me but I did feel it slowed me down at the start.

Small criticisms apart, this is a wonderful start to a series and in fact a book that, given the revelations towards the end of the story, feels like it contains fantastic teasers of what is yet to come. I feel like the story told in Foundryside has barely scratched the surface and I can’t wait to see what comes next. I anticipate much excitement about the next book in the series.

Yet again, Mr Bennett delivers.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks the Above is my own opinion.

Foundryside's blend of adventure, intrigue and interrogation of the human cost of industrialisation gave me everything I wanted from it.







Rarely does a book instil such a sense of excitement in me as the first ten percent of Foundryside, the first in a new trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett. The book wastes no time throwing us right into the action with Sancia, a mysterious thief in the middle of a job that appears to be going terribly wrong. Sure enough, within pages, Sancia has accidentally burned down the docks of Tevanne and has most of the city's authorities out looking for her. More importantly, however, she has discovered that the mysterious object she has been asked to locate is a magical key that can open any lock, and which she is able to have direct conversations with thanks to her own mysterious and unique abilities. By the time Sancia and her buddy Clef (who is a boy key, a fact which is actually questioned and has an in-universe justification beyond "of course this inanimate object is of the default gender!") are making their way through magical doors that <SPEAK IN OSTENTATIOUS CAPITALS ABOUT THEIR LIFE MISSIONS>, I was absolutely hooked, and while Foundryside certainly gets darker from this point, I never lost sight of that initial hit of wonder from the world Bennett has developed.



If magical talking keys sound a bit too whimsical for your tastes, I encourage you to stick with Foundryside anyway, because this is not a world that runs on fairytale logic. Instead, we are shown a magic system whose rules work basically like a programming language, in which objects can be "convinced" to bend or alter the rules of reality -- gravity being the most common example, though there are plenty of others. The developers of this system are basically inventors and coders, sponsored by the city's handful of powerful merchant families to conduct R&D and help them maintain technological advantages, and this reliance on centrally-controlled innovation has led to the concentration of wealth and power within these families, who run "campos" where those who work for them live and work in relative comfort while the rest of the city is left to fend for itself. The technology levels in Foundryside encourage historical comparison, bringing to my mind both Industrial Age a more Renaissance element of "rediscovering" technology from a far removed foreign age. In terms of political dynamics, however, there's just as much here that is relevant to the modern day, where public welfare is increasingly at the mercy of extraordinarily wealthy innovators. The city of Tevanne, where the action happens, doesn't appear to have any concept of charitable giving whatsoever, and the Commons are shown as dangerous and lawless slums which families ignore unless absolutely necessary, while those inside the campos are still dependent on the success and whims of their employers for all their needs. It's a system utterly rife with exploitation, inefficiency and a complete lack of interest in human wellbeing, and it's this background obviously has a huge impact on how the main story of Foundryside plays out.



Like the Divine Cities, Bennett's previous trilogy (which was nominated for and should totally have won a Best Series Hugo this year), Foundryside grapples primarily with the human costs of industrialisation and (to a lesser degree) colonialism through the lens of a magic-driven secondary world. The difference here is that in the Divine Cities, this often comes across as an intellectual exercise: the main cast of that trilogy are all elite outsiders to the culture they are interacting with, and their main concerns are far more about top-down conflict reconstruction than any emotionally driven response to the impact of their colonial occupation. There's simply nobody in the narrative positioned to have that response, which for me was an enormous disappointment in what was otherwise a highly accomplished series.



I therefore can't say how happy I am to have Sancia front and centre of Foundryside. Without spoiling anything, Sancia has firsthand experience of the most violent, exploitative elements driving Tevanne's success, having been a tool for achieving the technological objectives of elites who were utterly indifferent to her value as a human being. One scene that particularly struck me is a pivotal conversation on Sancia's experiences, in which the elite characters she is working with express disapproval at a specific "illegal" thing that was done to her. Sancia throws this back in their faces, pointing out that this single illegal thing was no worse than the years of legal exploitation and abuse she was subjected to, and calling out the privilege of those who accept that that any level of exploitation is acceptable for progress because they don't believe it could be them under the wheel. Foundryside centres the political elements of its plot in the narrative of its most marginalised main character, and that makes an enormous difference to how these are handled. It's not all-encompassing (what novel could ever be?) and there notably seems to be no racial component to Sancia's experiences, which means her experience of "escaping" discrimination and othering is quite different to a lot of real world examples. However, the elements it does include worked wonderfully for me, and I can't convey how happy I am that I am finally getting what I've always wanted from Bennett's writing. Dreams do come true, kids.



It goes without saying that the most impressive thing about Foundryside is the author's ability to psychically predict and incorporate my previously unwritten plot recommendations. Luckily for everyone who isn't me, this is backed up by plenty of technical excellence and a satisfyingly twisty, fast-paced plot. Although this is billed from the start as a trilogy, everything within this book does largely wrap up in a satisfying way, although the last couple of pages are dedicated to a slightly unnecessary cliffhanger; there's also plenty to be explored with these particular characters, which suggests that unlike the Divine Cities, the next book is likely to be a continuation of the same story rather than a branching narrative. The characters are another highlight: obviously, Sancia is great, but her allies and enemies are equally compelling, combining the best elements of "satisfyingly tropey" and "interestingly original" from stoic, honour-driven Gregor Dandolo to grumbly inventor Orso Ignacio and his long-suffering colleague Berenice. As an aside, while characters have little time or emotional energy for romantic attachments, queer identities are represented and form part of the book's relationship building, in an understated but unmistakable way.



In short, Foundryside is the work of an author at the top of his game, and I highly recommend it to anyone interested in smart, politically relevant fantasy. With it, Bennett secures his place in my list of favourite authors, and gives me a book that I not only enjoyed reading, but am going to be able to recommend to people without the slightest hesitation.



The Math

Base Score: 8/10.



Bonuses: +1 An opening that made me feel like a kid meeting Aslan for the first time; +1 political dynamics where it's finally the marginalised who get to



Penalties: -1 A book this good doesn't need a cliffhanger ending to get me to buy the sequel!



Nerd Coefficient: 9/10: "very high quality/standout in its category."

Back at the height of a lost civilisation, the ancients were able to wield magic to do unimaginable things and it is the discovery of some of their magical objects that has allowed the brightest minds to work out how to rekindle magical power, albeit in a bastardised form. It is the discovery of this magic powering the rise of the four merchanting families, who have a stranglehold on Tevanne. Furthermore, those who are not born into the service of these houses, or are thrown away after they have outlived their usefulness, scrabble for survival in the Commons. And there’s Sancia, whose backstory is different again…

I loved the premise and the world. It seems entirely plausible that a capitalist system would reward those with the magical skills and artefacts, while neglecting those who aren’t so fortunate. Sancia is a brilliant protagonist – one of the best I have read this year. Gritted, determined and focused on surviving, with a special ability that she would love to lose, she is a thief. Bennett writes her ability brilliantly and I found myself engrossed in her plight.

So I was more than a tad fed up when the action scenes come to a juddering halt by chunks of explanation of how the magic works in omniscient point of view. The most egregious example occurs about halfway through the book during a fight – where the courageous hero is left hanging in mid-realisation that his attackers are flying, while we break off for a detailed explanation as to why flying is technically a really tricky business and therefore illegal... It was only sheer quality of the writing and characters saved the book from flying across the room at this point. I would prefer an appendix where the magic system is explained in detail for those who like drilling into such details of the worldbuilding, rather than crashing across the story so intrusively.

Rant aside, this book is a joy. Fortunately the info-dumps decrease significantly in the second half of the book, allowing the pace to pick up. The world is well described and the characters gripped me – I like the fact that despite the patriarchy running Tevanne, there are plenty of strong, not necessarily likeable female characters who punch through the institutional obstacles in their path. But the character who shines through all of this is Sancia – I dreamt of her… Damaged, scarred and struggling with mental issues, she is still battling to move forward and strive for something better. The climax works brilliantly and I liked the ending, which nicely sets this one up for the sequel, which I look forward to reading.

Highly recommended for those who enjoy detailed, urban fantasy tales peopled with awesome characters – if that appendix was in place this book would have scored a 10. While I obtained an arc of Foundryside from the publisher via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
8/10

Foundryside is, and I want to get this out of the way now, a great book. It’s by Robert Jackson Bennett, whose “Divine Cities” trilogy has been one of the highlights of fantasy narrative for the last few years. Foundryside is something new. It’s a heist story, yes. A tense race of exquisite planning against the clock, one which kept me turning the pages to see if, or how, anyone was going to walk away from the job. But it’s also a nuanced character piece, looking at the ways we limit ourselves, and at how we have the ability to recognise and exceed our potential. It’s a social parable, with interesting things to say about the concentration of economic power into the hands of oligarchs, and the effects this has on social cohesion. Foundryside has a lot going on. It wants to tell a good story, and it succeeds at that, in part because it wants you to care about its characters (and it succeeds at that too). But behind the fast-paced narrative, the emotional depth and the snappy one-liners are the edges of themes, surfacing implicitly in the text, inviting the reader to embrace them, or at least argue with them. This is a book which will give you a rip-roaring story, no doubt. But there’s a lot to think about, too.

The pivot of the novel is Sancia. A pragmatic young woman who lives in one of the less salubrious parts of town, Sancia has made a career out of extracting hard-to-reach property from difficult locations. That the property belongs to someone other than her client, or that the location is a vault or fortified home is incidental. Sancia is smart, and Sancia is driven. She’s determined to get out of the poverty which surrounds her, and that energy is paired with a steely resolve which gives her real bite. That said, Sancia carries her youth not in her naivety, but perhaps in her willingness to take risks. Some of that is because Sancia is also rather trauamatised. This is a convincing, detailed portrayal of a young woman who has been through a lot, who has the grit and determination to bounce back and make something of herself. Quite what that something is, that’s a different question. Still, Sancia’s pain is paired well with her fire and energy; she’s a sympathetic protagonist, with deep roots, conflicting issues, and a rich emotional life. Sancia also kicks serious arse, moving from meticulously planning a heist to being the driving force in carrying it out, to making gut decisions in milliseconds when it all goes wrong. Smart, funny, driven, with the emotional scars that help make us all human, and with so much potential – she’s an absolute force, and a delight on the page, and I always wanted to see where she would take us next.

Though the wolrd turns on Sancia, she’s not the only person in the book. There’s down-at-hells magic engineers trying to make enough to get by. There’s the captain of a new watch force, back from a war, more than a little traumatised himself, and trying to do some good. There’s bevvies of thugs, swindlers and assorted troublemakers. There’s heads of merchant houses, as close as you can get to rulers with a vault full of money, shark-like ruthlessness and more than a little insanity. There’s old loves and hidden histories waiting to unfurl in the substrata of the story. What there is, then, is a vibrant, colourful world, with all its delights and horrors, which Sancia walks through with us.

Speaking of the world – it’s really rather interesting. There are notes of the Renaissance here, in the concentration of political power to those with money, rather than a hereditary aristocracy. The merchant houses of this world are the true powers in their city, and their city is one of the great powers in the world. Those who rule the houses live in light, with clean water and elaborate labour saving devices. Those who serve the houses live comfortably. Everyone else, those without the skills required, or too broken to be useful any longer, live in the mud and squalor between the fortified compounds of the houses. This is a society dominated by oligarchs, one where anyone can succeed, but those who start out holding all the cards have rather a lot of advantages. It’s enchantment which makes the houses so powerful – their craftsmen can convince inanimate objects to act differently.

Carts can have their wheels run forever. Lights can burn in perpetuity. Items can be crafted to do almost anything. Of course there are risks; craftsmanship comes with the exciting opportunity to blow off a limb, or have your face melt off when a sigil you’ve carved does something you weren’t expecting. But these enchantments sit at the heart of the power of the establishment, and if much of their knowledge is pulled from the remains of an older, vanished civilisation, people are too busy getting rich or starving to death to care. This is laissez-faire capitalism with magic, and it has an eye on inequalities and injustices. The book approaches these unflinchingly, examines the reasons they exist, the systems which allow inequality to survive and thrive – and does so while giving you an absolutely storming story to go with it, as you explore the city alongside Sancia.

Speaking of the plot – well, no spoilers. But it starts out with a heist, with tension ratcheting up page-by-page-by-page. With a massive risk counterbalanced by the opportunity for a great reward. That’s not where it ends though. As the story drives forward, the stakes get higher. It’s always on the boil, and I was always waiting, on each turn of the page, for the other paradigm-shattering shoe to drop. The colloquial style makes for a compelling read, and the emotional heart of the text means that you feel each victory and defeat as your own. It’s a story whose tensions are manifold and manifest, and they’re played against each other masterfully to provide an action-packed yarn which also has the emotional resonance of a kick in the gut. I laughed, often (Sancia has rather a line in banter). I gasped, more than once. As often, I fought back tears. The prose wants to get into your head, and make you feel, and think about the way you feel – and think about why you don’t.

Is this a good book? No. It’s a great book. It delves into complex issues with eyes wide-open and no apologies, but gives you a cracking story and a kick-arse heroine to go with it. It’s not just the Divine Cities over again – this is something new, but it has the quality, the impact of those books, even as it builds something new. Pick it up. Read it. It’s worth your time.

Oh. My. God, and I don't say that lightly. 'Foundryside' is the first book in the Founders series by multiple award winning writer Robert Jackson Bennett. Having read all of his previous books and absolutely loving them, I literally jumped for joy when I saw this would be out soon and part of a series. It exceeds all of my expectations, and is the best book RJB has penned so far. Simply incredible. Sancia Grado is a smart, tenacious and brave protagonist who excels in thieving, I truly loved accompanying her on her journey. The descriptive narrative really exported me to the scene where I was stood right beside Sancia as she travelled on her adventure.

As with all of Bennett's work this is an original and unique idea, which when put in writing is well executed. The writing flows effortlessly the whole way through the book. The magic and the world of scriving is so intriguing, and there is always something exciting going on in the story. His worldbuilding is exquisite with so many interesting aspects to it. There is so, so much to appreciate in 'Foundryside', I cannot wait for the sequel and to hear of the adventures of Sancia and the city of Tevanne. I hope I don't have to wait too long. This is a masterpiece if ever there was one! Bravo! This immersive, thrilling, authentic, intricately plotted and magical tale is one that all lovers of fantasy must have on their to-be-read list. Do it now!

Many thanks to Jo Fletcher Books for an ARC. I was not required to post a review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

A great new start, showing an intriguing new world. If you have read any of Bennett's books before, this will not be a surprise, as I have always found his ideas to be quite unique.

The book was well-written with good pacing throughout. I enjoyed the characters, especially Dandolo and Sancia, but I did feel that, at times, the conversation was a bit stilted and forced. I also felt that the side romance was forced into the book, and whilst a very minor focus, it could have been left out.

I liked some of the plot twists and turns quite a bit, and the last part of the book was very interesting.

Overall, it's definitely an enjoyable read, and I look forward to the next.

Living in Tevanne was hard, unless you belonged to one of the four houses who ran the city. Sancia Grado was an escaped slave having a special talent, she was an exceptional thief. But when she was hired to steal a plain wooden box, from a heavily guarded warehouse, she got herself embroiled in something that could change Tevanne for good and endanger her life.
Even though Sancia was a thief, she had honour. There was reason behind why she was taking on this big dangerous job and as the story progresses you find out just what a hard life she suffered as a slave and after her escape. She found it hard to trust and when her life was in danger she had very few friends to call on for help. Her two best friends Claudia and Giovanni worked as Scrappers, illegal scrivers, and even though they knew Sancia’s secret they tried to not get involved in case of capture.
Captain Gregor Dandolo was a man of principals, not one to flaunt his family name. He took it as a personal insult when the warehouse was robbed. However, he did not expect his hunt for thief would put him in danger and unearth a deadly plot against Tevanne.
I loved this book, there was always something interesting going on whether it was Sancia running for her life or a horseless carriage. Items that were scrived had a different way of working, and whilst it was illegal to scrive a human and defy the laws of gravity, certain people had a way of bending the rules. The story flowed smoothly, and you are taken on an exciting adventure. When Orso the hypatus of Candiano got involved in the investigation, it added to the story as more complicated scribed items were used. He did remind me of a modern-day Merlin, there to help the family but liked to experiment. I do not want to say much about the artefact as I do not want to give anything away, but what I will say was he had a way with words and a few comedy moments.
I got so into the story that I did not want it to end. I do not get many book hangovers, but I got one from this story. I kept reading into the middle of the night as I wanted to find out more about Sancia. When I did finish this story, I struggled to find another book that thrilled me as much. This is the first story that I have read by this author, but I will look out for more. I hope I do not have to wait long for more of Sancia‘s adventures

I am such a huge fan of Robert Jackson Bennett's style of fantasy, I practically jumped when I realized he has a new series starting this year. This book featured prominently on my most anticipated releases list and I am happy to report that I enjoyed it a whole lot, for the most part. I have spent the better part of two weeks trying to come up with a way to review this book. I am such a huge fan of Bennett's work and his ideas and there is in fact a lot to adore here, but I also need to be honest. It took me more than half of this book to really find my groove. It's not like the first have is bad but my expectations were so very high. And if I didn't have this much trust in his imagination I might have given up. I am glad I persevered because the pay off really is worth it.

What Bennett does best is creating these really unique worlds that feel lived in and plausible and very very well thought out. Here he gives us a spin on industrialized (and monopolized) magic with just the right amount of mysticism to be exciting and new. He does set up his world a little too well though in the beginning, the info-dump did start to grate and I am not sure I need to be reminded of the magic system's rules as often as I was here (this is something that bores me in a lot of very descriptive high fantasy though, so you probably should take my opinion with a grain of salt). When everything came together though, I was very glad for him to have taken his time establishing the world because those last 50 pages? They were pure perfection. I cannot wait where this goes next.

Another thing I appreciate about Bennett's writing is the way his female character feel properly realized and wonderfully easy to root for. I wanted Sancia to be happy so bad and I love how authentic she felt. I like that she her behaviour always made sense in relation to what we as readers know of her. Gregor on the other hand did feel for too long like a cartoon character but again, the pay off here was really worth it in the end. Bennett has really interesting things to say about agency and fate and I am so here for this.

This one the best book I read this year and a great fantasy book. The world building is astounding, so original with a very special type of technological magic.
I loved everything, from the plot to the cast of characters, Clef above all. The book is well written, full of humor and attention to the details.
This’s a real page turner and it’s impossible to put it down.
It was a pleasure to read this book.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to Quercus Books and Netgalley for this arc.

What a genuinely brilliant book, i read it until my eyes were burning as i couldnt put it down.

Sancia is a thief, she lives in the commons which is a slum, whilst the wealthy live in walled garden cities. Sancia is a thief and a clever one at that, she works for a man called Sark who gives her jobs and pays her in divots. He offers her a job, steal a box from a safe guarded at the Waterfront. Not only does she manage to steal the box, she looks inside and finds an object, that starts speaking to her.

The world is run by sigils and magic and Sancia possesses the ability to touch something and have it speak to her, whether it is the floor, or a wall, or a statue. and Sania will need help from enemies and allies and new friends to destroy something and someone that will change the world forever.

It was absorbing, thrilling, easy to read, great world building, not overly complicated, had a strong female lead and this really is suitable for all ages from about 13 up because there is zero sex in it, nothing. So refreshing to read pure fantasy that was solely about the story and not having to rely on steamy sex scenes to fill chapters.

A solid 5 stars. Would also make a really compelling movie. Genuinely brilliant.

I haven't read a great deal of so-called 'industrial fantasy' (in fact, the only other one I've read was Gilded Cage by Vic James) nevertheless, I felt this was an excellent example of this sub-genre! The author is incredibly sophisticated in his world-building, avoiding info-dumps, despite the need to explain the 'world' to a character who has no experience of it. Usually, authors use this kind of character to explain the society and world to the reader, but Jackson Bennett only explains a couple of curse words in this way and instead uses far more subtle strategies to explain and build the world for the reader.
I loved the almost scientific basis for the magic-system used in this novel, it felt very different and refreshing to have some kind of 'sensible' basis for the magic, based on & restricted by physics and the nature of the world.
I also love fantasies which have a real kick-ass heroine and this one does not disappoint in this regard. Sanchia is a great flawed MC, a Byronic hero if you will, a thief who ends up attempting to save the world & everyone's way of life although not necessarily by choice! One of my favourite types of protagonists! And Jackson Bennett does such a fantastic job of creating 3 dimensional characters, even non-human ones! And now I've realised that I've started developing exclamationitis, a condition which occurs when a reviewer is particularly excited by a book, so I had better bring this review to a close!
Overall, this is a fantastic example of not just industrial fantasy, but fantasy in general & I thoroughly enjoyed it & highly, highly recommend.

I received a free e-arc in return for an honest review.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free.

I ended up enjoying Foundryside, despite being a little cautious initially -- it’s so hard to dive into a new series when the author’s previous books are your absolute favourites. The world building and magic systems in Foundryside are both well done, however they take a little while to develop. In terms of the world, it is hugely different from Divine Cities. In Divine Cities, there is very obvious equality between male and female characters, and his female characters were truly powerful and outstanding. The world of Foundryside has a lot of sexism and some threats of sexual assault and hints of sexual coercion, something that is pretty much completely missing from his other series. However, these instances do drive the story forward and work well within the world he has established. My obvious bias leans toward the world of Divine Cities -- who doesn’t love equality? -- so it was a little bit of a struggle for me to fully immerse myself in the world of Foundryside. I do think that he set up the world to become really fascinating in future books, so I’m looking forward to exploring more in later books.

The magic system is particularly important to the plot of the book, and it took awhile for me to fully realise just how incredible it was. Scriving seems to begin simply enough, however you begin to realise its earth-shattering potential. The way that he sets out this fascinating system, which initially seems so straightforward, and slowly allows the reader to uncover its complexities was just fantastic. It took some time for me to really understand the potential of scriving, but I am all on board with this interesting and intricate system.
Foundryside, like his other novels, has a core cast of interesting characters. There weren’t any standout favourites for me, however I think they have a lot of potential to become fantastic and fascinating as the series progresses. Separately, the main cast of characters are fine to read about, but they’re truly at their best when they are all together. Their chemistry is off the charts and I’d love to see more interaction between them in the future.

The three who stood out most to me are Sancia, Gregor, and Orso. Sancia, the thief, is definitely our main character. I really enjoyed uncovering her background, as depressing as it is, and discovering how her talents aid her career as a thief. She has a great character arc -- she undergoes a ton of growth over the course of the novel -- and really loved her interaction with other characters, particularly Clef. She has so much potential that I don’t think has been fully tapped into yet.

Gregor is a character I really wish we got more of in the book. He’s the son of one of the Founders, however he has rejected his privilege in order to do good in the city of Tevanne. I absolutely love this type of character, and I wish we got to see more of him throughout the story. Of everyone in the book, I think my favourite character was Orso. He’s another type of character I love -- he’s older than the rest, foul-mouthed, and so annoyingly talented that no one can get rid of him. He’s the Hypatus of House Dandolo, meaning he is a master of scriving, and comes up with so many incredibly interesting ways of manipulating the magic system. I absolutely loved every time he was on the page.

The key word for Foundryside is ‘potential’. I think there’s so much potential here -- this has the makings of a great series. It definitely had its ups and downs for me -- there were parts that I thought were brilliant and others that didn’t work well for me. While I don’t love it as much as I love the Divine Cities books I am definitely going to keep up with this series, particularly after reading the fantastic ending. I’d highly recommend Foundryside if you enjoy heist novels like Mistborn, or want to read a fast-paced fantasy novel with a great magic system.

From the first chapter I knew I was going to love this book. The cast of characters were amazing and the magic system was both weird and cool. So much is packed into this book and there wasn't a moment where I was bored - every time I picked it up to read I'd be instantly sucked into the story.

Admittedly I got a little confused near the end when a lot of...things happened, but this was such an entertaining read that I'll happily re-read it in the future when I get my hands on a finished copy.

This basically had everything I love in a fantasy novel and I loved every minute of it. Now I can't wait for the next in the series.

You know that feeling you get? The excitement and high from reading a stunning story? Yeah- that.
A phenomenal piece of fantasy and feat of imagination! A complex world of mechanics, sigils, scriving is brought to life by Bennet with a wonderful cast of characters. The pacing was fantastic, never a dull moment and very hard to put down (not that I wanted to!). I can’t wait for the next one. I loved City of Stairs, but for some reason, never went back and finished the trilogy despite all the rave reviews. This is now directly where I am heading, while I wait for the next instalment of Foundryside.
Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book. All opinions are my own.

This was bloody BRILLIANT!
I think this a book people are going to be raving about .

It's so well written that the pages seems to just melt away.

The universe of this novel was nothing short of amazing. Imagine a world where you can transform and program pretty much anything by writing magic "scrivings" on them. This was just so refreshingly cool!

While all the characters in the book are well defined and feels real, it's the main character - Sancia who really defines it. She's a young thief and former slave, with some unusual magic abilities which makes her able to do things no ordinary thief can do.

If you, like me, dig this kind of stories, I can’t recommend it enough.