Shorefall, Robert Jackson Bennett’s sophomore outing in the Founders series, and the follow-up to 2018’s phenomenal Foundryside, is a fantastic book which straddles high fantasy and techpunk aesthetics, producing a genuinely unique and engaging universe in the process. I got hold of Foundryside at Worldcon last year as a gift from the publisher and they’ve been kind enough to let me see the sequel ahead of publication as well, and I almost bit their hand off at the chance to get back to Tevanne as soon as I could. You absolutely need to have read Book 1 to keep pace with this second instalment, so I need to be very careful with spoilers here, but shelling out for two books, if you have to, is utterly worth it, because this is a clever and appealing world with characters you will root for and love.

Set three years after the first book, we find master thief Sancia Grado, and her compatriots Berenice, Gregor and Orso, running their own consulting merchant house, Foundryside Ltd. They are pursuing their cause of toppling the monopoly of the great merchant houses, who previously kept scriving for themselves, by sharing the secrets of the art with independent scrivers. Their latest plan is to steal the entire lexicon of one of the remaining great houses, but in doing so they set off a deadly battle, one that threatens thousands, but which could be the undoing of their egalitarian ideals should they try to stop it.

What most people really adored about Foundryside, and I was no different, was the delightful world-building and the ingenuity of Bennett’s magic system: scriving, the act of altering the reality of an object via magical instructions inscribed onto it. What’s so great about this approach is that it interrogates the very idea of magic and the imbalance of power it creates in a novel way. Where other writers have decided to restrict the use of magic - either by limiting who can have it, or exacting so much cost from its use that it can’t be overexploited - as a means of stopping their characters simply magicking threats away, Bennett instead directly tackles the questions of what would happen if we could all have that power and the only restrictions were on how to get hold of it. What threats would that actually create? Foundryside addressed the first part of that concern, how to seize the power for yourself, and was fuelled by all the amazing ways that lead character Sancia Grado, and her companions could think to adapt the magic to suit their needs, making it alive and truly a function of the person who wields it, rather than just a flat external solution. It became a book about human inventiveness and you felt the magic was truly a product of the character and not the other way round. Less Bond, more McGuyver, if you will.

Shorefall moves the focus from ingenuity onto the second - arguably, more interesting- concern; what actually happens to the balance of power once you shift it from the privileged to the disenfranchised? As the major merchant houses that were the main enemy in the first book lose their monopoly, are they just replaced with slightly smaller, but no less self-serving alternatives?

This question is explored as the Foundrysiders are embroiled in a battle between the construct Valeria, who Sancia loosed in the previous book, and another godlike being, Valeria’s creator, Crasedes Magnus. He is said to have destroyed empires and sacrificed thousands in the pursuit of his powers, and is about to be summoned back by unseen forces. Lest Crasedes run amok again, the Foundrysiders are forced to pursue the means to allow Valeria to successfully meet this threat. But, what’s to stop her becoming just another threat of the same kind once he’s defeated, precisely because of the techniques the Foundrysiders have used to make her so powerful?

The characters we love are beautifully handled once more, and the context for the magic system, and how the society of the Founders stories has grown up around it, extends the world-building considerably. Arguably, the escalation of the powers described, when these godlike legends get involved, robs this story of some of the inventiveness of the first, flattening the magic a little by making it too easy to apply, and removing its humanity in the process. Scriving gets replaced by the usual pyrotechnics in their hands. But this is a small gripe.

Overall, Shorefall is a sparkling continuation of Sancia’s story, driven by an ensemble of extraordinarily likeable and relatable characters and focused on very timely themes. This is a hopeful book, despite the hurts that arise in it, and that’s a good contrast to a lot of the grimdark takes on fantasy that have gained dominance recently. I highly recommend this book, but do go back and read Foundryside first to do it justice.

For starters, if you haven’t yet had the pleasure of reading Foundryside, then park Shorefall and dive into the first book in this series, before going any further. I regularly crash midway into series, but this isn’t one where that tactic would end well. This book starts with a bang more or less immediately after Foundryside finishes – and with the complexity of the magic system and the fact it is essentially a continuation of the narrative arc from the first book, you’ll spend far too much time floundering to make such a strategy worth it.

It was a delight to reconnect with Sancia, Berenice, Orso and Gregory, all memorable and likeable protagonists with their own backstories and different voices – which isn’t always the case in an ensemble cast. I immediately reconnected to them all – which was important as things kicked off from the start of this one and didn’t calm down at all. Not even at the end… My favourite character, other than Sancia, was poor Clef, whose fate from the first book still reverberates through this one – and he is also involved in amazing twist at the end that I didn’t see coming. There are some gory scenes, though nothing gratuitous, with quite a lot of dismembering going on – nothing I couldn’t handle, but I did think I’d mention it, in case you find such scenes objectionable.

The action scenes were well written, with plenty going on and a delightfully horrible antagonist I loved to hate. What I also enjoyed, was that we got see why our antagonist was quite so awful and what was driving him – I liked the fact that as far as he was concerned, the end absolutely justified the means. And he also put a strong case for it, too… He is definitely one of the more memorable villains I’ve encountered recently. The pacing issues I’d had with the first book weren’t present – fortunately Bennett took the decision to allow folks to pick up his magic system on the fly, rather than interrupting the adventure to explain it all, which I appreciated.

Overall, an entertaining and well written continuation to this memorable dystopian fantasy adventure and I’m looking forward to the final book in the series. Highly recommended for fans of well-constructed magical systems and engrossing high-octane adventures. The ebook arc copy of Shorefall was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in return for an honest opinion of the book.
9/10

I have been a fan of Robert Jackson Bennet for a while now and can categorically state he only gets better with each book and series, he writes great stories not just great fantasy books, he makes you care about the characters and worry about what will happen to them and how they will develop.

Highly recommended

A good sequel. an author that I heard a lot from on the internet, the first book had a lot of talking about. Entertaining read!

A great continuation in the series - different from the first book (which I loved!) but just as good, captured me and I couldn't put it down!

I was also entertained by Sancia's 'I'm getting old', I have definitely been feeling that recently too. I have no idea what direction the next book will go in, how Bennett will resolve the conflict and how the Foundrysider's will overcome the obstacles they now have, but good luck and I look forward to reading it!

THIS REVIEW WILL BE PUBLISHED ON THE FANTASY HIVE ON 21 APRIL

Shorefall is the much-anticipated second book in the Founders Trilogy by Hugo-nominated author Robert Jackson Bennett, and it might be helpful to familiarise myself with my review of the first book, Foundryside, for context - and to save myself repeating much of it. And if you want to avoid reading the rest of this review, let me just say that Shorefall maintains the all-action, techno-magic-mayhem of the first, while upping the ante on epic stakes, compelling characters, and the mind-bending worldbuilding that is the author’s trademark.

To recap, these books are set in a world where people have learned to control reality by use of a complex language of coded instructions and definition databases. Yes, it’s like they’ve hacked the world, re-writing the very laws of physics in limited, but vastly powerful ways. This is effectively the magic system of the book, and though it can feel a bit cyber-punky at times, it’s otherwise very much fantasy - and epic fantasy at that.

That epic-ness was only hinted at in the first book, in which the scriving system was mainly the backdrop for a variety of action scenes and ambitious heists. The second book, beginning three years later, skips over most of the more mundane consequences of book one and straight into the epic showdown between god-like beings imbued with the reality-bending power of scriving. Which is not to say there aren’t plenty of action scenes and ambitious heists, but this book delves much deeper into the costs of exploiting these powers to their ultimate ends, as well as the history and ambitions of these god-like Makers.

Man vs Gods is a bit of a theme for Robert Jackson Bennett, following on from his brilliant Divine Cities trilogy, and as such this book does recall those a lot more than its predecessor. However, the major difference that remains is that this is an action movie of a book, rather than spy thriller mysteries like Divine Cities. It’s cyber-fantasy Marvel Cinematic Universe type book, with a band of brains-over-brawn, Tony Stark-style superheroes up against a villain of Thanotic ambitions. (And this is just book two!)

The scriving comes thick and fast, as do the stakes, both personal and apocalyptic. Understanding the complex consequences of different scriving ploys, and their world-warping powers, can be a bit dizzying at times. Whereas the first book used scriving to create over-the top action sequences, here we are subjected to a bit more of a metaphysical mind-fuck, as the power goes beyond simply making flying soldiers or super-deadly weapons and into things like resetting time and duplicating space.The author does a skillful job of making it comprehensible, though I think I caught at least one time when even he lost track (it was an ARC, rather than a final copy).

Luckily, and perhaps moreso than I found in Foundryside, the author balances this staggering techno-magic with the humanity of the cast of characters. Now firmly established as anti-establishment social-techno revolutionaries, the main quartet is faced with the advent of a bogeyman only they can hope to combat, and have to put their plans to gently upset their city’s society on hold to face this greater threat. (Some part of me would probably have preferred that other story, but that’s my taste.) The intervening (off-page) years have made them into a comfortable team and found family, supportive, united, and willing to make sacrifices for each other. As I remarked while reviewing the first book, it’s refreshing to read about good people these days.

That’s not to say everyone is nice, especially the main antagonist, who is one of those brilliantly twisted supervillains who have enormous power and are using it to try to do good...in the worst ways imaginable. That he runs amok in a city largely populated by other terrible people makes him no less horrific, really, but the fact he’s not just kicking puppies adds depth to his character and allows the reader to take a bit of perverse pleasure in some of his gruesome activity. He’s a lot of fun, and compellingly flawed - which goes some way to making up for the fact that one of the liveliest characters from book one is largely missing.

The plot has a few more twists than book one, too, which you’d expect in one unravelling the mysteries of these ancient scriving masters, and how to defeat them, as well as the past of one major character in particular. There’s also a bit more emotional heft to the book, which you might expect as characterisation deepens and stakes get higher. So overall, I’d say it’s an improvement on an already-impressive opening, answering some of my reservations about Foundryside and asking a lot of questions about how the third book will wrap all this up - something I look forward to finding out!

Galley provided by publisher.

3.5 stars.

I feel very conflicted about this sequel. Ultimately I enjoyed the read and I was happy to be back in this world with these characters - this is one of the best found families out there - but a very slow first half really made this difficult to pick up and continue reading after I'd set it down. Where Foundryside was all action, humour and grounded antagonists and themes, Shorefall feels a lot more abstract. It's not nearly as humorous and the antagonists this time round are god-like beings so everything felt nebulous. The final act is incredibly moving and the themes of unity, friendship and love had me very emotional and redeemed most of the first half, but I was still left thinking maybe this series is about something I'm not actually that into.

Unfortunately I do have multiple criticisms that will make it seem like I didn't enjoy this at all, but I did. It's good. But Foundryside was a 5 star read for me and completely blew me away with the story it was trying to tell about autonomy and freedom, so in comparison Shorefall does feel like a letdown. Sancia in this sequel doesn't reflect on her trauma at all in this, which I found jarring. It's been 3 years, but she has no remnants of the PTSD implied in the first book and her former slavery only comes up when she's being manipulated into trying to become a symbol for the rebelling plantations. This book is less about Sancia's trauma and more about Gregor's, which I was excited for, but ultimately it just felt bleak and where Sancia was able to find peace and love, Gregor is retraumatised often and I found the conclusion to his arc in this book just... sad rather than moving or powerful.

In terms of writing, I found this to be very info-dumpy and convenient. Valeria is an all-powerful AI to put it simply, so she can reveal large amounts of info at will. Berenice and Orso are scriving prodigies so they are the ones to have the lightbulb moments about what to do. What this means is info and revelations happen in the middle of dialogue rather than action or events and this got incredibly tedious. There are endless scenes where the group is struggling to find a solution to a problem, just for Berenice or Orso to have an "A-ha!" moment and then a paragraph where they explain to Gregor and Sancia what scriving technique they should use. It just added to the pacing issues and made a lot of this book far less dynamic and action-packed than I was hoping. The book begins with a heist and immediately gets going, so for most of this book to be spent in rooms discussing what to do, followed by a mission, then more discussion felt really unsatisfying and uninteresting to read.

Like I said, the third act of this book was the saving grace. The found family we follow in this had really moving, emotional moments in the end which moved me to tears. Some of the revelations I had seen coming from page 50, so I was a little baffled that they were being treated as groundbreaking (I really felt like a lot of these reveals had flashing signs pointing at them throughout) and the conclusion of some of the characters' arcs in this weren't for me, but it's a very satisfying and intense climax for the book. Even though I do believe the book has bad pacing issues, it feels like a slow build to this final showdown and genuinely made me nervous. What this book does better than anything is its villains/antagonists. They exist in perpetual grey area and I was never sure what they were going to do or whether I was supposed to be outright against them or not. They are incredibly sympathetic and three-dimensional and you can tell that the author's talents lie with fleshing out these despicable characters so that as a reader, you do genuinely feel conflicted about their actions.

Unfortunately, this ultimately was a disappointing sequel and it suffers from bad pacing. But even though the villains do feel less grounded than the human ones in the first book, they are just as nerve-wracking and intense. Beings with all-powerful abilities in a less capable author's hands would feel overpowered or unrealistic but they feel scary in this and confined despite their immense power. Most of Shorefall felt forgettable but when the emotion is there, it really packs a punch.

I adored Foundryside, but I've been struggling to get through this book for several days now and each time I pick it up to read I find myself not caring about any of the characters, confused with what's happening or just not really paying attention, so for that reason I'm going to have to put this down (at 31%) for now.
Hopefully in the future I can pick this up again, but it's making me slumpy and confused and the things I loved about Foundryside don't really seem present in this book.

Action packed rollercoaster from beginning to end. I don't even know what to say, where to begin without giving anything away. Because everything, in every single chapter, is essential for the story, everything is part of something bigger. I love how all is connected and we're given clues little by little, clues we don't notice right away until it's too late.

Old characters and new characters, a new very interesting baddie, new mysteries, flashbacks, heists, surprises around every corner: a wholesome plot in full Robert Jackson Bennett style. As complex as it is and sometimes a bit hard to follow, I love the magic system; both that and the world building are so detailed and mind-blowing.

The way the story was written, the plot unfolding, is just as I'm used from this author, and it never ceases to amaze me. There are so many details you can almost see the whole city of Tevanne if you close your eyes. And I think it's refreshing how, even if the romance is not the main theme, the main love story is never questioned, it flows naturally and without drama. It seems the whole Founders world is a world where you can love whoever you like, and I think this gives the story more points in my eyes.

The next and last book can't come soon enough. I need to know how the story is going to end. Every time one of this books gets to the last pages, I know my patience is going to be tested!

In my Foundryside review, I mentioned that the magic system was one of the best and most original I’ve seen. Well, in this one Bennett takes it to the next level, running through all kinds of logical consequences and dazzling implications with glee. It’s typical of a book that builds on its predecessor in all the right ways, raising the stakes, deepening character relationships, developing complicated magical and political ideas, blowing up even more stuff, and one that cements my view that Robert Jackson Bennett is the best fantasist working right now. The concluding part is now officially my most awaited book of the next couple of years.

I have been waiting to read Shorefall for over a year now. I loved almost everything about Foundryside and this books has all of what made that book great but it ups the stakes to a higher level.

The characters you know and love from book one are back and I think I loved them more in Shorefall. Bennett really puts them through the ringer, both physically and emotionally, and I loved every single minute of it. I also loved seeing how the characters grow over the course of the novel. I adore Sancia, she’s strong and capable and I also love her relationships with the other characters.

The story is just as good. It takes the ideas from Foundryside and builds on them to an earth shattering conclusion. There are so many twists and turns throughout the course of the novel and some of them are jaw dropping to say the least. It’s an exciting novel and a lot happens but Bennett gets the balance right between the action and the quieter character moments. It’s all good stuff.

I loved every moment of reading Shorefall. I was gripped from the first page and I am so happy to be transported back to this world. It’s dark and violent and fascinating. I love the concept of scriving and I really enjoyed reading how the characters have developed in regards to how scriving is used. The introduction of the hierophant was excellent and it really felt like the character was a very big threat. I also liked that things were not all that they seemed in that regard as well.

Shorefall manages to be just as good as Foundryside and since I adored that book when I read it, it means that Shorefall is another winner. The story is exciting and I adore reading about the characters and their journeys. The book ends on a nice cliff hanger and I can’t wait to see how it is resolved in the next book.