Foundryside

a dazzling new series from the author of The Divine Cities

By: Robert Jackson Bennett

Narrated by: Tara Sands

Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's Summary

She thought it was just another job. But her discovery could bring the city to its knees....

The city of Tevanne runs on scrivings, industrialised magical inscriptions that make inanimate objects sentient; they power everything, from walls to wheels to 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 slave, or they eke a precarious living in the hellhole called 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 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. 

©2018 Robert Jackson Bennett (P)2018 Quercus Editions Limited

Critic Reviews

"The exciting beginning of a promising new epic fantasy series. Prepare for ancient mysteries, innovative magic, and heart-pounding heists." (Brandon Sanderson, New York Times best-selling author of Oathbringer) 

"Robert Jackson Bennett deserves a huge audience." (Brent Weeks) 

"Intricate worldbuilding, fascinating magic, and engaging characters. More please!" (Felicia Day) 

Annoyingly boring

I really could not get into this audio book. Unfortunately I did not like Tara Sands voice. I found her shrill American accent annoying and her reading style fell short on dialogue. The voices sounded forced and oddly pitched.

The story was just another average fantasy and not up to Bennett's usual style.

Spoilers

I bought this because I really wanted the book but the Kindle version had dramatic flaws.

Narration: the voice is a tad annoying. It shakes like due to nervousness and it's too high pitched.

Story: good story. Somehow it feels less original than the Divine Cities but after having some time to internalize it, I came to appreciate it more. I guess it might have been a problem of expectations than the story actually not being good. Good foreshadowing, good plot twists, original world, good characters, solid 4.5/5. There's a lot of world with rich history, interesting artifacts, and a cool physical magic system. It's excellent that they need to make an artificial intelligence by actually incorporating a human one in an object.

The magic system is new, interesting, rule-based, inspired from physics, and has limitations just like it's supposed to. The plot is interesting, fast paced, and full of heists. There are lots of sexy ancient artefacts that do all sorts of cool stuff and sexy new artefacts that do other cool stuff. There's engineering, reverse-engineering, and magical artificial intelligence. The characters are likable. I confess to having liked that big dumb lawful good Gregor right since when Sancia broke into his waterfront fortress and it was suggested he's the enemy. It's new, fresh, interesting, makes sense, is unpredictable, and original.

I mostly disliked motivations and character building. How can Sancia befriend Clef so quickly? Why are all the main characters so open to befriending each other? There should be tons of mistrust, even disgust between the main characters but everyone is jolly good friends and ready to take a stroll together through the park very quickly. Which is terribly convenient for advancing the plot. Why does Sancia start out as a strong cold-eyed professional only to become insecure and dismayed by everything she sees? What makes Gregor such an ethical character? He's like a silly cross between Jordan's Galad and Pratchett's Captain Carrot. It was predictable that he was the one to convince Sancia to break into the Mountain but in a 5-minute dialogue?! There's just too much that doesn't make sense about character motivations.

The love story: somehow even great writers like RJB fumble to get a same gender love story right. In heteromance, authors create a visceral feel. The protagonists meet and first glance at each other from the corner of the eye, then laugh awkwardly at each other etc. You know there's a romance brewing and you feel for them. Same gender love stories not so much. It's a bit of hinting and then you are told how they feel. Like the whole affair is a distasteful happenstance that needs to be handled very discreetly. Well that's not good enough. It's not convincing. Convince me, RJB, that they are falling for each other and that they have good reason to do so. Show me more than just their skills or that they make a good team. We're talking romance here, not coworkers.

incredible

I loved every moment of this book. I read some complaints about the narrator but personally I liked her. its definitely worth a read

Only made it to chapter 2 before I had to return

I only made it to the end of the second chapter before having to give up on it and return it. The narration is very over-dramatic which I personally don't like. So much of the story so far has used characters and forced dialogue to provide backstory, which again I'm really not keen on. It had great reviews so I may persist with the kindle version.

Fast moving fantasy cyberpunk heist adventure

This story is well written, well read and full of big ideas and high speed action. Worth reading for anyone who enjoys genre fiction, might particularly appeal to people who like Brandon Sanderson or Neal Stephenson - it is in no way derivative but the attention to careful, detailed world building as a core element of the story puts them in a similar space.

Teen fiction

It’s ok if you’re into young adult / teen fiction but if not then don’t bother

Ok

The narrator had quite an annoying voice when she tried to do the male characters. Story-wise the magic system was inventive but the characters were very similar - the swearing always irritated type. I nearly returned the book after two hours but by ten was enjoying it.

Very cool magic system

Loved it
Honestly the reviews put me off this book for a while and it’s great.
Very cool, story, lore, representation, and magic. Great story, highly recommend

2/3rds of a good story

First thing's first, it's too long. Secondly, the third act is bad. Finally, the world and the characters are mostly great. This is an enjoyable listen with a good flow and interesting language, if the author could rein it in a bit with the waffle and pace the story better this would be excellent.

An interesting read.

It wasn't amazing but a solid read. Interested to see where it goes next. I think it's a little over hyped, I've read a lot of fantasy that is a great deal better but I did enjoy it overall.