Shorefall

A Novel

By: Robert Jackson Bennett

Narrated by: Tara Sands

Length: 19 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

As a magical revolution remakes a city, an ancient evil is awakened in a brilliant novel from the Hugo-nominated author of Foundryside and the Divine Cities trilogy.

“An absolutely wild ride...Foundryside blew me away, and this is a perfect sequel.” (Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review)

A few years ago, Sancia Grado would’ve happily watched Tevanne burn. Now, she’s hoping to transform her city into something new. Something better. Together with allies Orso, Gregor, and Berenice, she’s about to strike a deadly blow against Tevanne’s cruel robber-baron rulers and wrest power from their hands for the first time in decades.

But then comes a terrifying warning: Crasedes Magnus himself, the first of the legendary hierophants, is about to be reborn. And if he returns, Tevanne will be just the first place to feel his wrath.

Thousands of years ago, Crasedes was an ordinary man who did the impossible: Using the magic of scriving - the art of imbuing objects with sentience - he convinced reality that he was something more than human. Wielding powers beyond comprehension, he strode the world like a god for centuries, meting out justice and razing empires single-handedly, cleansing the world through fire and destruction - and even defeating death itself.

Like it or not, it’s up to Sancia to stop him. But to have a chance in the battle to come, she’ll have to call upon a god of her own - and unlock the door to a scriving technology that could change what it means to be human. And no matter who wins, nothing will ever be the same.

The awe-inspiring second installment of the Founders Trilogy, Shorefall returns us to the world Robert Jackson Bennett created in his acclaimed Foundryside...and forges it anew.

©2020 Robert Jackson Bennett (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The book I’ve most thoroughly and uncomplicatedly enjoyed this year so far. It shocked and delighted and upset me from page to page, managing to thread humor and pathos and intrigue together with the speed and precision of a loom. Its comments on our present moment are so deft and sly that when they turn earnest it’s deeply affecting....[and] sometimes brought me to tears...I’m so excited to see what happens next.” (Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times)

"Bennett’s characterization...strikes a perfect balance between terror and allure. This thrilling installment will leave readers eager for the series finale." (Publishers Weekly) 

"An expertly spun yarn by one of the best fantasy writers on the scene today." (Kirkus Reviews)

The Main Character is a whiney brat!

This book need to be relabled 'Oh, Woe is ME!". Really, between the constant LBGT agenda the author constantly forces his readers to listen to & the mc constantly bitchin' about how terrible & horrible her circumstances are, I almost asked to get my credit back.

The 1st book wasn't so agendized but the author's 2nd book feels like the author decided he'd nothing to lose in forcing his readers to listen to a Very Dysfunctional BRAT! She constantly swings from complaining then "crushing on" her 17 yr old 'companion" she meets from book #1's "Foundryside".

"I'm getting sick & G-D tired"...
"Why did you create a back door to save yourself in MY head?"
There are many more examples for you the lsitener

The sequel is never as good as the original

I Returned for the charterers. The main characters developed in Book 1, Foundryside, did not disappoint. The protagonist are unlikely allies brought together by their idealistic opposition to an seemingly oppressive oligarchical system. I really enjoyed the characters who succeeded so often with a combination of intelligence and dumb luck. Their relationships and goals are complicated and intriguing. However, It's impossible to ignore the political undertones of the book. The protagonist scheme to redistribute wealth is all to overt but the reader is lead to accept this because the major houses, called Campos, deal not only in magical technology but slavery and torture. Instead of our heros attempting to end slave trade and rights violations, something we can all agree with, they are instead relagated to fantasy hackers with an intent to destroy the entire system. Luckily this takes a back seat in act 3 when two new nastier magical opponents appear. One intent on using magic to reshape the world in his image; a plan that is childish and petulant. The other, set on cleansing the world of the magic that makes it.

I enjoyed the book because I enjoyed the characters and frankly I enjoy the escapism of most books but it's not by any means as engrossing as many other constructed world books. You won't find it hard to put down but it won't be a one star disappointment either.

It's just not very good.

I wanted to like this. I read Foundryside, the first book in this series, when it came out. It's been a while, but I had fond memories of it. When Shorefall came out I got both of them on an Audible promotion and was well pleased.

That lasted until about 3/4 of the way through the first book. It ended, I thought, "Okay, maybe that wasn't quite as good as I remembered, but it was decent. Tally-ho," and moved on to Shorefall.

Shorefall seems to have left behind the enjoyable character interplay from book one in exchange for a weaker plot with a number of painful holes and things that just didn't make sense.

I won't continue with this series, and honestly I probably won't get all the way through this audiobook... thirteen hours in and the history of political interference by the KGB is looking way less painful to listen to.

Story is fun, but one character's voice is bad

I am writing mainly because I cannot stand how Tara Sands voices Valeria. I get it - she is like an AI. And she gives it the most static, painful voice possible. She has a not insignificant amount of lines in this book, and hearing the voice for Valeria makes me want to stop listening.

Predictable, weak dialog

The first book was kinda fun, but B grade story telling. This second installment feels like an effort to fill up pages to cash in on a sequel.

The voice acting was a good effort, but I sympathize with anyone attempting to perform the clumsily written dialog.

This falls into the class of books we used to call “pulp fiction”

I will not purchase the third book.

A A part that didn’t match the first in the series

I didn’t like this part the same way I enjoyed the first. No interest in part three

DNF @ chapter 8-- what the hell happened??

Whatever made Foundryside a delight to listen to is completely lacking in this book. The dialogue is absolutely awful, and everytime Orso has a line, I want to scream. His personality has been gutted, and his sole purpose now in the book is to be an exposition robot. So excruciatingly lazy and boring. Did the writer get swapped out???

Much worse than the first book

Tons of exposition, it breaks its own rules seemingly without realizing it, characters routinely don't understand obvious developments (even after a similar thing just happened), and a lack of character development

Just so painful

I suspect the book is actually really good, but here the narration is just so horrendous that you can’t stand listening to this audiobook and therefore you wind up disliking the story. It’s taken me 3 years to finish this audiobook.

Supervillains are for Marvel Movies

Had possibilities, but the introduction of an all powerful supervillain led it into tedium. Could not finish.