Locklands (The Founders Trilogy #3) by Robert Jackson Bennett was hands down one of my highly anticipated reads of this summer. Somehow I was lucky enough to get approved on NetGalley for an ARC - I might have shrieked at my screen when I read that email! It's tough knowing that it's the finale novel in the series because I just didn't want to say goodbye to this world or these characters yet. I don't think I was quite as enamored with it as I was with the first two books. It took a bit longer to get into this one as well. That said this was still a great read, and I loved seeing the cast of characters again. I especially appreciated that we got to see a little more of Clef's back story. Overall, I'm really going to miss this series. I really have to get caught up on Robert Jackson Bennett's work and I'm looking forward to whatever he does in the future.

This was a sastisfying conclusion to this trilogy and it feels great to finally be done. I've been reading these books as they released and seeing the characters grow and age has been great. I feel like this book got pretty boring about 40% of the way through but the ending definitely saved it.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book! I didn't realize that it was out already, or I definitely would have pushed this one to the top of my TBR pile.

I don't know what to say about this. Do I really think it's a three star book? I don't know. Not with that ending. But the beginning and A LOT of the action scenes in the middle left a lot to be desired.

Let me explain.

This book starts eight years from where Shorefall left off or something like that. It is FAR in the future and basically everything about the characters that we have fallen in love with has changed. Their lives have gone on and without spoiling anything, the world is not the same way we saw it last. And, maybe it's my fault for leaving such a gap of time between reading the second and third book in this series, but my break in between novels, plus the huge jump in time from the start of this book, made it rather confusing.

Also, maybe I am misremembering though I don't think I am, this book had A LOT more action scenes. And typically I love those, but the magic system just seemed to get more and more outlandish and left me more and more confused. I mean, I think I followed what was going on fairly well, I just also felt like it became less and less believable and strayed from what was so unique and interesting in the first book to just be complex and HUGE and intense just for the sake of being that way.

So while I flew through the first two books in this series, this one was just harder for me to get through. I would say that I was almost bored until slightly past the halfway point. From there however, that is where things took a turn, for me at least, for the better.

While the fight scenes got more and more ridiculous towards the end, I think it became more about the characters than the first half, and that was what I loved so much in the other books in this series. I wanted more time with them, and their feelings and to experience the things that they were going through to make the devastation of their choices feel more impactful. And in the last half of this book, that it was I got. And let me tell you, the last ten or so chapters felt so high stakes and made me forget why I wasn't enjoying this book so much in the beginning. It just brought me back to where I started with Sancia and Berenice and their relationship and hopes and dreams. As well as that found family aspect being EVEN BETTER in the ending with a few characters than I would have hoped for. It truly felt like the only way this book could end, and while I was expecting some of it, in a way, I was pleasantly and happily surprised with the ending. It just feels right.

I hate giving three stars because though the journey was a bit rough, I feel like the last half of this book made up for that. I'd say it is more of a 3.75 or 4 star book!

This was a fantastic conclusion to a fun, epic series! I loved the action from beginning to end and watching the stakes rise. I adored the character relationships in this one and how they were affected by what was going on in the world. The characters are vibrant and so much fun to follow. I loved the exploration of family and human connection. Robert Jackson Bennett stuck the landing on this one, and I am already excited to reread this series!

A really phenomenal trilogy with totally original elements. I enjoyed the first two books, and reading this last one was definitely bittersweet. Characters are forced to make hard, but situationally appropriate, choices, and some we have to say goodbye to. I do wish we got more from Gregor's end of things, since he was such an integral part of the series and then basically disappeared for book 3 because of his circumstances, but in the end we didn't get his POV or a sense of where he was at mentally. The ending was a bit sad but also a perfect fit for a story like this one.

4.5⭐️ The third book in the trilogy concluded with an emotional bang. I enjoyed this series and this installment immensely, not wanting to put it down once I got to the half way point. I really appreciated the characters and found family this story delivered and enjoyed seeing many facets to each character. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a little sci-fantasy crossover!

I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

I really enjoyed the first two books of this series so it was a no-brainer that I would read the final installment. This last installment shows Berenice and Sancia after the fall of Tevanne.

The first half of this book really did move slow for me. I feel like I went through the second half much faster. I understand that there was a lot to get through but some of the first half could have been sped up. I was happy where the characters ended up at the end. I was a bit happy and depressed at the same time with the ending but I really enjoy when a book makes me feel something.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.

In Locklands, Robert Jackson Bennett closes out his FOUNDERS TRILOGY in epic style, raising the stakes to literally “all of creation” and upping his characters’ (some of them) power levels to god-like heights, all while managing to keep the story grounded in the personal thanks to Jackson’s typically sharp characterization. Being the concluding novel, two things should be obvious: one, you need to have read the prior ones and two, there will be inevitable spoilers for those prior books.

Eight years have passed since the events of Shorefall, and they haven’t been good ones for our characters. The sort of collective-AI intelligence Tevanne, thanks to its forcible “twinning” of minds (basically taking its “host” over and making them extensions of its own mind), has been steadily extending it dominion, taking over nation after nation until only two pockets of resistance remain: the free state of Giva, created by our main protagonists from the earlier books (Sancia, Berenice, Clef, etc.); and an area controlled by their enemy, the uber-powerful hierophant, Crasedes Magnus. Early on though, the Givan group learns that Tevanne has captured Crasedes. Bad enough that Tevanne is now free to bend the full enormity of its power toward them, but even more catastrophic is that Crasedes holds the knowledge of a doorway into “the other side”, a place where one can rewrite, edit, or simply erase all of known creation. Aware of the apocalyptic nature of the threat, Sancia, Clef, and Berenice are forced into ever more desperate ploys to try and defeat their seemingly undefeatable foe.

Plot-wise, as noted, the stakes are raised about as high as is literally possible here. And some of the action mirrors that epic scale, reminding me in an odd way of the old-time Skylark of Space/Lensman space operas where planets were casually hurled about as weapons of war. We’re not quite at that level here but we’re also not that far off. As one might expect, though, we don’t start at that level. in a well-orchestrated bit of plotting, we begin with a bang and events gradually step up from there via one major scene/section to the next until they’ve fully escalated to “battle of gods” level. I wouldn’t call the pacing frenetic, but it definitely steadily ramps up (OK, maybe I’d all the latter part of the novel frenetic). Puzzles also become more difficult (and the consequences more severe) as our resistance group is faced with one seemingly unsolvable problem after another).

The grandiose scale of action is nicely counter balanced by Bennett’s close focus on a small group of characters, not only as individuals but as friends, lovers, parents, and more (more on the “more” later). All that epic battling could have distanced readers from the story, but Bennett keeps us carefully grounded thanks to the vivid characterization. Berenice and Sancia’s love story is the most powerful aspect of this, and it would take a heart of stone to not be moved by several of their scenes, particularly, well, one that I won’t detail so as to avoid spoilers, but you’ll know the killer pages when you get to them. But beyond those two we also have the relationship (such as it is) between Clef and Crasedes — filled in and deepened by a series of flashback interludes which again, I won’t say more on so as to avoid spoilers — and several other relationships that receive fewer words but still have some emotional impact.

Intertwined with plot and character are a number of thought-provoking themes/subjects, something I’ve come to expect from Bennett’s novels. The FOUNDERS TRILOGY has always been a “big idea” kind of series, exploring a host of societal questions involving power, capitalism, slavery, the cruelty of humanity, inequality, etc. Here, one of the more fascinating elements is the idea of “twinning minds,” set up as a stark contrast between Tevanne, who forcibly takes over its hosts and the Givans, who freely choose to share thoughts and feelings with each other. Or not. Some stay closed off to others, some share with a small number of people, and others do a kind of mind-melding in larger numbers, forming groups called “cadences,” described as “many twinned people of similar temperament who had grown so close together that they’d aligned into what was, in essence, a singular identity.”

The issue of choice/consent is made explicit several times as we’re introduced to the concept: “No one was forced or compelled to join a cadence . . . People could … break their connection with the cadence and walk away a singular person again … It was quite rare — and those who did walk away often missed the experience and returned.” The benefits are practical and tactical — soldiers who can act as a truly cohesive unit knowing what each other is up to at all times instantaneously — but go beyond that, creating as it’s said a greater sense of empathy, of compassion, and seemingly doing away (or at least greatly reducing) issues of tribalism. Sancia, for instance, notes how the ship housing Greeter (one of the Cadences), “was always full of people … Tremendous throngs of people. People from all races, all nations, all cultures … The sheer variety of hair alone — in color, in length, in style — was astonishing, let alone the manners of clothing, language, diet, and more.” Later she muses on how it reminds her of “a cathedral . . . brimming with people … always there was the sound of whispering, and confession, and forgiveness, and understanding.” As Greeter succinctly puts it: “We have invented a new way to be human.” Here again, Bennett offers up both a searingly intimate perspective from within the minds of the main characters as well as a grander societal perspective as he zooms out to show the impact such a willing, intentional, purposeful setting aside of individuality might have.

The concept also allows for an interesting juxtaposition in that their twinning, and particularly the super-normal abilities of the Cadences, is what has kept Giva in the fight and allowed for great advances, but this melded-mind power is complemented by the individual decisions and personal attributes of the main characters, and both these aspects involve a willingness to sacrifice, to submerge one’s own singular desires (even for life) for a greater whole. Equally interesting is how much of what has created many of the current problems were born out of individual choices, though I won’t say more on that so as not to give to much away.

Another subject is the use of and reliance on technology (in this case, scriving). Early on Sancia tells Berenice, “One day we will invent a way out of this. We’ll find some key, or tool, or trick … Won’t we?” (Climate change, anyone?). But toward the end, it is Sancia who tells her council: “There is no inventing our way out of this! … We can’t hope to just, just scrive our enemies away! There is no magic fix …” This last line is echoed by several others in the novel: “We thought we could strive our way into liberation … into salvation … trying to follow in the footsteps of clever men with clever fixes” and “It’ll just go on. More fixes gone awry. The mad pride of men who think themselves engineers of all creation.” It doesn’t require much insight to see how this translates into our own world, with our clever technological solutions that breed further problems and prompt more tech to solve those problems, thus creating, well, you know the story.

Here, technology isn’t good or bad in and of itself — it can be a tool for either — but what it is not the solution. Technology in an immature society, or one governed by tribalism of whatever sort (race, class, gender, etc.), or one where oppression is the rule rather than the exception, will always, will inevitably it seems create as many problems as it solves. If you don’t work on the people, the tools aren’t going to do much good and may do harm. One of the benefits of the mind-meld, then, is the way shared feelings/thoughts create a true empathy that makes it difficult to mistreat or harm or oppress others. And, as one character says, it’s a lot harder to “abhor someone else’s behavior when you also instantly understood why that gone about that behavior to begin with.”

As with the other elements discussed, while the technology or societal themes are large concept, Bennett never lets his novels spin away into the abstract. What drives this novel as much as the technology or the societal ills is the singularly human and oh so individualistic experience of grief and its possibly shattering impact. Though yet again, I’ll leave the details to be discovered by the reader.

My one complaint about Locklands is that it felt too short (believe me, a rare complaint from me). Not that the ending was abrupt (the ending ending in fact was nigh on perfect), but that I wanted more time for some of the characters’ changing relationships and altered view of themselves to be fully explored, and more time for some of the high concepts and their ramification to be considered. But if the biggest complaint is wanting more, that’s a pretty good affirmation of just how excellent this book is, and really the series as a whole, which has its long arcs and continuing thread lines but also feels nicely varied book to book in style, focus, and theme. Given that this trilogy and Bennett’s DIVINE CITIES trilogy are two of my favorite series in the past decade, I can’t wait until the next first book of the next trio . . .

Locklands is the last in the Founders trilogy.

I’ve read his work before and when it came to City of Stairs I had a huge issue with his use of the bury your gays trope and swore I’d never read another one of his books. I’m glad I gave him another chance with when I saw Foundryside because his use of that trope was gone, it’s nowhere to be seen in any of these three books.

The scope of the story felt huge so after Shorefall I had no clue how it could be wrapped up, I as a reader, could not envision and ending to such a big story. But he managed one.

This story is incredibly well paced and it feels like something is always happening. It’s always going, always pulling you along and I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what happened.

We follow Berniece instead of Sancia as the main identity of the story although Sancia is by no means a side character. They’re married now which made me happy but I can’t lie, I remembered City of Stairs and even though she’d been safe from the trope for two fat books, there were things that made me worry. I shouldn’t have.

The way the characters have found to function in this story with the use of scrivings and how they tied their society to it in order to survive was some of the most interesting worldbuilding to me. I’ve never read anything like it and this was incredible. And it just got better. IT became integral to them and their world.

The way certain characters were handled, their storylines, made me sad. Let’s face it, it’s a trilogy. I didn’t want anything to happen to the characters I’d come to love over the course of the other two books. but they way they wrapped up was logical and it was also what they needed. It was really well done.

It’s a book about giving. One of the characters basically says it. It’s out in the open. In order to survive, you have to give at least a little of yourself to make the world a better place. And you have to love if you want to keep the world going.

Read the acknowledgement, it’s there too.

I think this was a good end to the story as a whole. It ends things nicely, not abruptly, it makes sense. And when I was done, I was satisfied.

I give Locklands a five (5) out of five (5) stars. Pacing, character, everything was on point.

This is a book and a trilogy I will absolutely be recommending to people.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Brilliant! I can’t say enough good things about this series; it’s so complex and clever. And this final book truly cements it as one of my favorite book series of all time. This series is nearly impossible to describe accurately without giving too much away, and I think it’s best to go into it without knowing too much.

Locklands picks up eight years after the end of Shorefall and our characters are engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world. There was a lot to wrap up in this last book, and maybe I’m still riding the high of having just finished it, but I thought this conclusion was damn near perfect. I’m sad that it’s over, but so glad to have discovered this series. I love these characters and this world so much. I can’t wait to read it again sometime, as well as everything else Robert Jackson Bennet writes. Highly recommend!

Thank you to Del Ray and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a wild ride this book was. To be honest, it took me so long to read this because I was studying for and taking my surgery boards; I could have easily torn through this book in a day or two in a different setting.

This book is such a great end to an amazing trilogy. So much action and backstory and heart. I loved it. I was nervous for the characters the whole time. Right from the first chapter, the stakes feel real. The setting as always was magnificent as well. Really, could not recommend this and the whole series enough.

Wow, what a ride. I'm so sad this series is over but what an incredible journey it has been. While it wasn't my favorite book in the series, Locklands is a fitting finale and I think fans are really going to enjoy it.

I will say that the heist element and the found family were two of my favorite features of the first two books so it was a little bittersweet to have some "family" members missing and no heist in this final book, but Bennett more than makes up for that with the action-packed storyline. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was watching my favorite characters battle the villain of all villains and I truly feared for their lives the entire time. It was a wild ride from start to finish!

And speaking of characters, even though some were no longer with us, I loved that this final book had Sancia, Berenice, and Clef, three of my favorite characters, leading the charge. Bennett gives us an incredible backstory for Clef and after having been underused in Book 2, he really takes center stage in this book.

I always find it hard to write reviews for books that occur later in a series for fear of spoilers, so I mainly just want to say that Locklands is a satisfying end to what has been an incredible trilogy. I look forward to reading more from Robert Jackson Bennett.

Locklands was a satisfying ending to a unique trilogy.

If I’m honest, I had a weird reading experience with this series. I read the first book, Foundryside, on a complete whim and absolutely loved it. Within days of finishing, an eARC of Locklands became available and I pounced on it without a second thought.

And then I read Shorefall (book 2) and did not enjoy my experience with it at all (in hindsight I’m thinking it was at least partially due to the lack of voice variation in the audio – everything was delivered in full voice and I felt like the book was screaming at me the whole time).

So there I was, clutching my ereader loaded with the final book in the trilogy and feeling absolutely no motivation to pick it up. But I’d committed. So I read it. And I’m happy to report that I enjoyed my experience with it a lot more than I thought I would.

I don’t normally preface my reviews with so much backstory, but it’s important to note that I went into Locklands almost begrudgingly, so my experience was skewed right from the beginning. In evaluating all three books as objectively as I can, I think Locklands will provide a better than 3-star rating for most readers who have loved the series up to this point. I, however, thought it was a good installment, but not quite on the same wow-scale as the first book.

Locklands brought back more of that awesome magic system involving infusing objects with predetermined commands. It’s such a cool combination of magic systems and I think what I liked most about this final book was seeing how all of the technology evolved over the series and the types of things the characters are able to do with it now by contrast. It’s a very satisfying growth arc, and readers who eat up books where smart characters get more adept at cool systems as the story progresses will likely enjoy this series too.

The book was also a great mix of high and low moments, with a culminating arc at the end which was a complete snowball of events. The book had more dynamics than the second one, and I appreciated that it at least gave me a few moments to breathe between hitting me over the head with action scenes.

Another thing I loved about the first book was finding out more about the lore of the world and all of the magic predecessors. Locklands did a great job answering some burning questions and giving more depth to characters we’ve been curious about since the beginning.

It also avoided excessive evil monologuing, which I appreciate tremendously.

So, while reading this when I wasn’t in the mood was a weird experience, one I’ll take more care to avoid in the future when ARC requesting, ultimately I’m glad I got to see how the trilogy ended. I think readers who are less cranky than me about the whole thing will enjoy it immensely.

Recommendations: if you like cheeky characters, cool & intricate magic systems, and loads of action and excitement, this series is a great pick. The audio worked well for the first book but I’d skip it on the second two.

Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller

I think it’s probably time to call it quits on Robert Jackson Bennett series.

I loved the first book in the Foundryside series, thought the second book was ok, and was hugely disappointed in the third. This is the exact same thing that happened with the City of Stairs series.

The initial plot is always good, and then it devolves into something incomprehensible by the series conclusion. A lot of the issue in both series has to do with who the villains are. Any time you use a god like being that isn’t subject to any sort of rules, their actions tend to be frustrating to the reader because their limits always shift to drive the plot rather than in any logical way relative to the rules of the universe.

The world building in this series has always been a bit of a yawn, but in this installment it largely ceases to exist at all. Much of the book is pure action, which would be fine if it were more exciting and less repetitive.

But what really disappointed me with this book was the way the sense of humor that so wonderfully fed the series in the first two novels essentially disappeared here, replaced by attempts at snappy banter between the female protagonists and a lot of attempts to diversify the parts of speech of the author’s irritating fake curse words. (PSA for authors: Use the real words or simply don’t have characters curse at all. I blame Battlestar Galactica for this . Frakking! Just STOP!)

In the end, the problem is that these series really go downhill in their final installment, which is when series would, ideally, be at their best. It’s disappointing, because the author has shown plenty of capability as a writer in the early going of both series.

Amazing! Amazing! This has always been one of my favorite series, and this ending did not disappoint. I appreciate getting more of the backstory (finally) on Clef. I really appreciated the creativity of this book, and some of the more interesting choices the author made.
Everyone should read this series.

What a great end for this series!

We return to Sancia (who is dealing with increased aging due to all the scrivings), Bernice (trying to rebuild society), and Clef (trying to retain his humanity while physically being a key), all of whom are trying to save the world!

The world-building in this book continued to be phenomenal. The gap in time between books allows Bennett to grow the world in ways that wouldn't make sense in shorter time spans. The way that the technology (aka scrivings) continue to grow and adapt is consistently fascinating while also seeming like a natural progression.

This series also does a wonderful job of humanizing evil actions with the oh-so human intentions behind them. While this book in particular has a "big bad" who feels incredibly alien, the interplay of characters and history does some wonderful things.

My only complaint about the book was that the epilogue made the book feel a little too clean. Which in the end, is such a minor complaint that it barely deserves to be noticed!

Locklands, the final piece of the Founders trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett, is a story both worthy of discussion and hard to talk about. It is the last step in an increasingly complicated dance that Bennett has been leading and it ends with a beautiful flourish. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about the plot of this book. Even vague gestures to what is going on can spoil the spectacular ending of book two, Shorefall. So as usual in these instances, I will instead talk about the book’s strengths and weaknesses and what you can expect.

To start, the book is mostly all strengths all the time—some of which set new records in my various review categories. Let’s start with the titan in the room, the magic system and the world. Locklands is the end result of an increasingly impressive magic system called Scrivening. I go over it in depth in earlier reviews, but the general gist is it’s essentially using magical computer coding to convince the laws of physics to bend slightly to influence the world. Bennett has spent the last three novels carving out elegant pieces of building materials with his magic system and stacking them up for assembly. Locklands is when it all comes together to create a spectacular masterpiece. Looking back at what the characters started with, and looking forward to where they end, I can barely contain my sense of wonder at all that Bennett has accomplished in getting from point A to B.

The story is great. It combines amazing set pieces, answers to mysteries that have been percolating since book one, and one of the best fight scenes in any fantasy book I have ever read. Bennett is a king of raising the stakes the perfect amount to keep you forever on the edge of your seat. Thematically and narratively the ending is perfect. That might seem like a small thing but endings are often the hardest thing to land in a story like this, and I would give Bennett 10 points.

The characters are an interesting situation. There are five core protagonists of the Founders series, and I like them all. However, Locklands focuses on the one that I was the least attached to, so it didn’t evoke quite the same cult-like fervor of character love the other two books did. Yet, I still adore the main lead of this book, and there is an introduction/exploration of a side character I am crazy about. In the end, I think the characters still remain one of the book’s strengths.

Yet, despite Locklands’ numerous strengths, I wouldn’t entirely give it a perfect score. The book has the same issue as its predecessor; its pacing feels too fast to process everything that is happening. Part of this is by design, as Bennett clearly wanted to set a scene of frantic scrambling to give a sense of panic to the entire story. But at the end of Shorefall, which was starting to show signs of this, there was a lot of information to digest that I was hoping would be explored in the trilogy’s finale. Instead, we get deaths that are unmourning, relationships that are unspoken, memories that are unexamined, and character growth that is unseen. The result is a book that feels truly fantastic, but a keen sense of “it could have been even better.” Yet, don’t let my critical eye distract you, this is still easily one of the best books of the year and a wonderful ending to what has been one of the best stories I have read in the last few years.

Locklands is a triumph and brings the Founders series home to an explosive end. With its unparalleled magic creativity, heartbreaking character stories, heartwarming messages, and satisfying ending, the book locks up another win for Bennett. The entire series is an easy recommendation and has deeply and profoundly influenced the Dungeons & Dragons campaign I am running because I can’t help but steal all the incredible ideas Bennett has stuffed in here. Almost every reviewer at The Quill to Live loves this series at this point, you should definitely check it out.

Rating: Locklands – 9.0/10
-Andrew

I stuck with this trilogy only because of how much I loved the author’s The Divine Cities trilogy. I liked “Shorefall” more than I liked “Foundryside”, but I didn’t enjoy “Locklands” at all. I kept hoping that this would get better, but it didn’t. This book is just one long tedious battle, or preparation for battle, or the aftermath of battle. It was exhausting to read and really not the sort of thing that interests me. I starting skimming just to find out how the trilogy ends. 2.5 stars, rounded down for the way the ending dragged on. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This was so good! I have been such a fan if this series and I am so sad and glad to see how it ends! The magic, suspense and stakes have never been higher

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Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett is the third, and final, installment in science fiction/fantasy series The Founders Trilogy. Mr. Bennett is an award winning author including the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award and a Philip K Dick Award Citation of Excellence.

Eight years after we last saw them, Sancia, Clef, as well as Berenice face a different challenge. This is not a heist, but war to save reality itself.

The team and their allies are looking for an ancient doorway, leading to the center of creation. If they reach the door first, there’s a chance to stop the disaster awaiting.

For me, the trilogy seemed to mimic the way the information superhighway was developed. In Foundryside, the sigils, scrives, and scrived objects were still a step below pure magic, acting much like mainframe computers. In the second book, Shorefall, scrived objects were already in every home, not just the rich – like the PC Revolution. In Locklands, author Robert Jackson Bennett takes it a step further and connects people and scrived objects in a wide web, worldwide.

The book was different than the previous two, which I certainly enjoyed as well. This isn’t a heist book, but it does provide a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Even though, I have to say I do enjoy the books with plots which do not have the future of the world in the balance. I simply feel that there’s more at stake, from the view of the characters. After all, we all know the world’s going to be saved.

In Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett we learn more about Clef, a favorite of mine. We learn more about his past, and he really grows as a character, revealing crucial elements which shaped him.

Mr. Bennett goes a step further in this book when it comes to communication. talking is no longer needed, people are connected by the thousands working as one entity for one goal. I can only assume the pandemic has influenced this aspect of the story. after all, many of us can spend days, weeks, or even months working with our co-workers without exchanging one word in between us.