For sci-fi/fantasy fans, Robert Jackson Bennett is a rising star in world building and magic systems. Set in a city that runs on industrialized magic, “Foundryside” follows Sancia Grado, a young thief whose latest target is a heavily guarded warehouse.

Her unique abilities make her successful, but what she did not bargain for was the item she stole, an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving.

In the words of my favorite sci-fi/fantasy author Brandon Sanderson, [Foundryside] is “the exciting beginning of a promising new epic fantasy series. Prepare for ancient mysteries, innovative magic, and heart-pounding heists.”

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
Bennett has crafted his own planet with new rules. An exceptional job, he has created a whole different way of impacting the world. Sancia, a street urchin and thief, is the focus of the plot which involves world wide war.
Bennett ascribes personality in surprising places. I particularly enjoy the anthropomorphizing of some of the scrived objects. I have to wonder if some of the social imbalance and societal woes weren’t plucked from today’s news and skewed to fit the story line. Haves and have nots are always going to lead to conflict, particularly when the imbalance is dramatic. As I write this, the scandal of the moment is the recognition that the haves are using their wealth and influence to secure admission to prestigious colleges for their progeny. One wonders what rock you live under if you didn’t already realize that scruples and immense wealth seldom go hand in hand.
As much as digression is my hallmark, I have to say I really enjoyed Bennett’s book and hope to read the ensuing novels to see what will happen next.

Foundryside is an addictive, action-packed, fast-paced epic fantasy, the first in Bennett's new series. It opens with a heist - not a particularly unique beginning as far as epic fantasy novels go, but it got me to immediately like the main character, scrappy thief Sancia Grado. The world of Tevanne is well thought out and the plot centers around the Merchant Houses which control the city, with plenty of subtle (and sometimes not-so-subtle) commentary on the trappings of capitalism. Overall, a solid read and worth continuing for the 2020 sequel.

On one level Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett is a fun caper novel with dual protagonists and a lot of humor, including a sentient key. However, there is a deeper level delving into questions of identity, slavery, and humanity.

In the world of Robert Jackson Bennett's Foundryside magical scrivings (or signs) are "instructions written upon mindless objects that convinced them to disobey reality in select ways". So, for instance, scrived carriages move by having signs that tell the wheels that they are rolling downhill even when there is no hill. Bennett has thought deeply about this magical system and invents endless variations and delves into the implications of how it works. Fans of Brandon Sanderson will appreciate this attention to developing the logic behind the magic.

The book opens with Sancia Grado, a thief, breaking into the waterfront to steal a wooden box in exchange for an inconceivable 20,000 duvots. Sancia has the special talent of communicating with inanimate objects by touch, learning their nature, shape, history, and magic. This also gives her near-perfect spatial awareness, making it easy for her to climb walls by knowing its weak points or pick a lock by following its instructions for opening--very useful for a thief. But her talent forces her to avoid skin contact and shun people who might expose her, isolating her from others. One character calls her "bloodlessly practical".

In the process of stealing the box, she winds up setting most of the waterfront on fire, bringing her into conflict with the other protagonist--Captain Gregor Dandolo. Captain Dandolo, the son of the head of a major merchant house, had gone off to war and returned determined to reform the local law enforcement starting with the Waterwatch, hiring professional guards, installing security wards, and running security. He is determined to find the thief, even single-handily fighting the local crime boss and his entire gang to get information. While at first, he seems out-of-place as a law and order type in a city where everything else is for sale (or stealing), he has his own hidden side.

Although she is not supposed to open the box, Sancia does, discovering a key with its own intelligence that speaks to her mentally. The key, calling itself Clef, claims to be able to open any and everything. Clef can not only tell what scrivings were written to do, but he also can talk them into creatively interpreting their instructions. Clef is a fully developed character in his own right and his frequently humorous interactions with Sancia is one of the best elements of the book. But Clef has no clear memories of his own origin which may date to the time of the hierophants, the long-dead ultra-powerful magic users whose half-understood symbols form the basis of the scrivings system.

Sancia needs to draw on Clef's abilities to escape both those who originally hired her as well as Captain Gregor Dandolo, creating a super-powered version of The Fugitive. Eventually Sancia teams up with Gregor to uncover a dangerous plot that could lead to war within and between the merchant houses. The only solution is for Sancia and Gregor and their friends to launch an even biggest caper than the one at the start of the book.

Foundryside is a fast-paced exciting novel that reads like a summer action movie. Both Sancia and Gregor are interesting characters with their own morality which they learn to expand into caring about others and what they think is right too. Both characters have secrets in their background that force them to examine what it means to be human and free. This gives the book a bit more depth than your typical caper novel. And the book avoids the obvious romance between Sancia and Gregor as Sancia is attracted to women.

Overall, Foundryside is a fun, exhilarating adventure. The tone is definitely lighter than the author's Divine Cities series and there is much more focus on the logic of the magic. I look forward to reading the other books in this series.

Fell slightly flat for me compared to Bennett's City of Stairs series but I'm not sure why. Something about the dialog made it feel like a YA book, even though it very much was not. Still overall quite enjoyable though.

What seems like a slightly complicated snatch and grab could turn her entire life upside down. Accomplished thief, Sancia Grado, hopes that it will turn her life upside down for the better. She lives in the Commons, the part of Tervanne where the outcasts and rejects live. For this simple job, however, she was promised enough money to seek our a doctor who could fix her - a doctor who would not ask questions about her shady past. She would have enough money left to get out of Tervanne and away to someplace better. However, when it live ever simple? After she barely escapes, she opens the box and the object -- Clev, a key --speaks to her; she is drawn deeper into intrigue and danger.

Captain Gregor Dandolo is the heir of one of the four mighty houses of Tevanne. He is also a war hero. The four great houses of Tervanne control the process of scriving - writing codes into objects that give these objects special abilities - like wheels that will move on level ground. Dandolo doesn't want to be involved in the business of his house. He'd rather set the world to rights, starting with bring order and justice to the wharf district. When a mysterious object is stolen when under his watch, Dandolo goes searching for the thief. What he finds, however, is much, much more. Forced to work together, Sancia and Dandolo must work together to protect Clev and enlist the help of some unlikely people to solve a problem that is much bigger than either one of them imagined.

This is my first Robert Jackson Bennett book, and I enjoyed it! I was a little uncertain when I first started out and Clev started talking. The way the dialogue flowed seemed a little disjointed to begin with. It didn't take me long to adjust to the style and fall in love with the characters. After that, I was hooked. The rule of scriving were complex, and the characters needed to pull this caper off kept growing. I was only disappointed when the story suddenly stopped, and I found that the book was over.

Tervanne is a dysfunctional broken city - a place where money is the only thing that matters and those with money and power can do whatever they want. This is a place that needs fixed, and I'm rooting for the main characters. I need to put a PG13 warning in though. I'm not a huge fan of the cussing of the characters or the sexual comments or the described sex scene. The book could be strong without them. I don't recommend Foundryside for younger or less mature readers.

I just loved this fantasy adventure, with its compelling heroine and system of “industrialized magic.” The world is an oppressive portrayal of social inequality of the Industrial Revolution. Great families wall themselves up in “campos” and live lives of luxury while the rest of the city suffers pollution and dire poverty. Myths from the past provide tantalizing, terrifying hints of how the entire system of magic came into being.

Young Sancia managed to escape the slave plantations to eke out a living as a thief in the less savory neighborhoods of a great city. She’s able to “listen” to physical materials: “The wall spoke to her. The wall told her of foundry smoke, of hot rains, of creeping moss, of the tiny footfalls of the thousands of ants…” Sancia’s magic aids her in her marginal living, but is dwarfed by the real magic of the city: sigils that are “instructions written upon mindless objects that convinced them to disobey reality in select ways,” such as altering their gravity or adhesion to other objects.

Then Sancia opens a box she has been sent to steal and discovers a sentient key, “Clef,” who can persuade any lock to open, and her world changes forever. She’s not the only one after Clef – her employer will stop at nothing to gain control over the key. But who is her employer and what is that person’s greater plan? Mystery piles on action and personal growth, not only of Sancia herself but other characters. The world and its people are in precarious flux, inwardly and outwardly.

This is not a world in which I would like to live, yet almost from the beginning, I cared about Sancia and the people she encounters, especially Clef, who realizes that he more he uses his power to help his only friend, Sancia, the less of his personality survives. The story built as stakes were raised higher and higher. The magic was an intrinsic part of the world-building, with its own logically consistent rules and its own cost. Highly recommended.

The usual disclaimer: I received a review copy of this book, but no one bribed me to say anything about it. Although chocolates might be nice.

This was a fun, fast-paced adventure! I loved Sancia! She was strong, smart, and brave! The writing was strong and it seemed to be a great start to an excellent series! The only thing I did not like about this book is that the world-building was a bit confusing. I also did not like the cliffhanger in the end because it seemed like an easy way to end the novel. Still, Foundryside is gauranteed to please fantasy lovers.

I enjoyed this book far more than I expected to. I had never read anything by Robert Jackson Bennett before but now I will be on the lookout for sure. The characters in this magically universe are super appealing especially the main character, Sancia. I did run into a few spots where the dialogue lagged a bit or was just plan uninteresting. Overall this is a solid science fiction/fantasy story with a pretty original plot.

Fantastic. Unique. Compelling. [Other words meaning ‘really fricking good!’]

For a long time, every fantasy book on the shelves felt like another story taking place in Tolkein’s world. Not entirely a bad thing, but in need of some freshening. Books like Mistborn and The Name of the Wind came along and showed us that fantasy can be done without subscribing to all the tired and heated tropes.

Foundryside is the latest book to take everything we thought we knew about fantasy and flip it on its head. And to do it exceptionally well.

If anything, this is one of the freshest takes yet. That may my opinion at the moment with the book so fresh in memory, but maybe not.

Jackson Bennett presents us with a world where there’s actually no magic. No wands, no potions. But items can be imbued with an accent writing to give it new and fantastic abilities. This writing actually affect physics more than magic. It can ‘trick’ an object into thinking it’s heavier than it really is, or bigger, and made of a different material.

Wheels can be ‘programmed’ in a way to turn all by themselves. Doors can be set to only open for certain people. And amor can be altered to do far more than basic leather and metal ever could on its own.

On top of this fantastic and fresh premise is a story filled with characters that jump right off the page. Most of them, you aren’t sure if you should cheer for and wish harm upon. Even as it gets later into the story, you’re never quite sure. Even once you think you, you still don’t know.

Which is how most of the plot points were handled as well. I thought I knew where things were going, and then they went the other way. Over and over again.

So if you want a thrill-ride of a fantasy with fantastic characters that keeps you guessing and gives you such a spin on magic that it borders on science-fiction, this is for you. If you don’t… then I’m sure there’s a magazine or an encyclopedia around here somewhere…

Sancia Grado is a thief. She lives in Foundryside, a slum which is home to all those considered not worthy of living in the gated merchant enclaves that make up most of the city Tevanne. Sancia wasn't always a thief, although she has a hard time remembering her life before being one. She knows that she was a slave on one of the plantations and she remembers pain and fire.

Sancia has talents that the average person does not. She can touch things like walls and receive data, knowing where the weak spots and footballs are. This ability is the reason she is known in Tevanne as the master thief to hire if the job is difficult. Sancia is hired to steal a small box for an enormous sum. She accomplishes the task and that is where her life change begins.

What she has stolen is an artifact of the old masters. It is a key and it begins to talk to her, introducing itself as Clef and telling her about its ability. Clef can open any door. Most doors are sealed by magic as magic is the ingredient on which all the great merchant houses are built. The houses employ scrivers who have the ability to program inanimate objects and change their properties. Clef can talk to the object and find the weakness in its program that allows him to change its function.

Sancia soon realizes that she has an object that is in high demand, one that others will kill to obtain. Clef is the necessary piece that will allow the unlocking of all the knowledge of the old masters, and the ability to force every individual to the powerholder's will. She must form an alliance with unlikely allies such as Gregor, a soldier born to the elite class who wants to bring justice to Trevanne, and Orso and Berenice, scrivers employed by the house Gregor comes from. Can this group thwart the plans of those who want to enslave humanity?

Robert Jackson Bennett is considered one of the best young fantasy writers. He has twice won the Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel. He has won an Edgar for Best Paperback Original and a Philip K. Dick Citation Of Excellence. This novel is the beginning of a new trilogy. The plot is intriguing but the main interest comes from the characters who populate his world. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

A fantastic new fantasy by Robert Bennett. I thought this book was great and will definitely be recommending it to my customers.

What an absolutely incredible adventure! Hands down, one of my favorite fantasies of 2018!

Foundryside has basically all of my favorite aspects of a fantasy story: a resourceful protagonist, strong world building, a unique magic system, and adventure, all wrapped up in an engaging writing style that pulls you in and doesn't let go. I seriously can't wait to dive back into Sancia's world!

**Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! All opinions are my own.**

I want to start this by clearly stating Foundryside was a very enjoyable read. I was pulled into the story within the first page because it starts strong and I was immediately curious and captivated by Sancia, a thief in the middle of a complicated job.

The strengths of this book get ramped up more as we learn about what she stole, and get to know not just more about it, but to know it as well. It turns out the item she was sent to steal not only puts a price on her head, but it becomes a bit sentient, as well as and has quite an amusing personality. She takes to calling it Clef, because if you exchange words/thoughts with a thing, it makes sense it should have a name.

As much as I really did enjoy this book, I feel like I am forever destined to just not love books by Robert Jackson Bennett quite as much as everyone else. My reading experience with him seems to be that I can without a doubt recognize the books are well written and understand why people love them the way they do. But there always seems to be one hang up for me. With City of Stairs is was ultimately just personal preference and not doing as well with crime mysteries. That aspect of the story is what help me back.

Foundryside is considerably different from his previous trilogy, and it while there’s a bit of mystery in the plot (I mean what book doesn’t have a bit of mystery), I could immediately tell that my concerns with the last book would absolutely not be an issue with this one.

Where the book failed to quite live up to the hype for me was with the magic system. As Sancia and Clef interact more, we start to learn more about scrivings and how they work. The scrivings function by “convincing” an object to behave a certain way, suggesting it is something other than what it is until the object believes it. The closer an object actually is to what the scriving is trying to accomplish, the easier it works. It makes sense, and the logical part of me feels like I should appreciate this, but for some reason the more this system was used and explained, and the more powerful the scrivings became, the more my willing suspension of disbelief crept away. I think I would handle a simple magical fairy dust better than this attempt at a rational explanation of magic for some reason. I know this is completely silly on my part, that my hang up seemed to be the system seems so logical that I have a hard time accepting it, especially as it becomes more powerful. I think perhaps I wanted stronger restraint on the capability of it? I’m not sure. But I feel like while this one thing didn’t work as well for me as I hoped, I did still enjoy the book and I expect most readers will enjoy it without concern about the magic system.

I still highly recommend this book. I feel like this is likely a personal hang up for me, because without a doubt, the book is well written. The characters were fun and the pace was good and the story was intriguing. It’s hard to argue against a book that accomplishes those three things.

"Any given innovation that empowers the individual will inevitably come to empower the powerful much, much more."

This book was whole lot of fun. If you’re looking to have a good time reading a fantasy in a universe unlike any you have ever read before, then look no further, this is your book.

The universe is, without a doubt, my favorite thing about this book. The magic system is based on scrivings or magical runes that convince the object they are attached to that they no longer obey the laws of physics or that they are something else entirely. These scrivings are a tricky business and while amazing for creating super structures that never age or weapons that always hit with the force of gravity they can wreak equal devastation on those that don’t get them right. And the drop is, Sancia, our unlikely but likeable main character can hear the scrivings talk. If that isn’t a compelling premise for a fantasy, I don’t know what is. With the incredible universe also comes an equally unique and unusual cast of rag tag characters that come from all ends of the complex class system in this world. I absolutely loved reading about these characters with their humor and ingenuity and immensely enjoyed them as the vehicle for the adventure.

I do have a couple bones to pick with the story however, but the first might have been a result of my own expectations. I felt that the book was trying to straddle it’s way into the grimdark genre but was undermining itself with things like PG curses that took my out of the story entirely. After reading for a while and giving up my expectation of a dark fantasy I was able to embrace the Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-style ridiculousness of the characters and writing and that’s when it really hit it’s stride for me.

My other small complaint was the method used to explain the universe to the reader. One of the characters is new to the city and rather than use this character as an easy way to explain the intricacies of the world the author instead used characters that had no business not already knowing the answers to the questions they were asking. Ultimately it felt a bit forced to me and was a real missed opportunity at creating a more natural introduction for the reader.

In the end, and after letting go of my own expectations going in, I had a blast with this book and I will definitely be picking up the next books in the series!

Loved this book. Sancia is a complex but fun character to follow. The way magic works is interesting and unique and the worldbuilding is pretty good too. The book has some serious, emotional moments but remains fun with lots of action, intrigue, and surprise twists. Will definitely be recommending this one to my sci-fi/fantasy book club.

I haven’t heard of Robert Jackson Bennett before this book but you’ll definitely start hearing about him from me. Bennett’s style of fantasy is exactly what I needed after experiencing a bit of a slump with SFF books lately. He crafts a world that’s so rich and vivid you could feel it forming before you. It was easy to love and get lost in, and I like that he throws you into it without the info dump and it still clicks. You know when a place feels like its own character? Yeah, it was like that and I loved it.

Then we get to the characters and it gets even better. The story starts off with Sancia, a thief hired to steal a mysterious artifact that lands her in trouble with people who want her dead. Sancia reminds me of characters like Brandon Sanderson’s Vin from the Mistborn trilogy or even Disney’s Aladdin. She’s had a rough life and has been scarred by it, but she does what she can to survive. Sancia also has a unique ability that I loved seeing at work in the story, and it hints at a past that continues to haunt her. I found it so easy to relate and root for her, and I loved watching her interact and grow with the other characters. What won me over was what Bennett did with his character Clef. I won’t say much about this character but he definitely played a key role to my enjoyment and was my absolute favourite.

And THEN there’s my other favourite thing: the magic system, Scriving.

That’s what Scriving is. Reality doesn’t matter. If you can change something’s mind enough, it’ll believe whatever reality you choose.

Imagine being able to persuade an object to act or move differently, a way to reprogram its reality… I mean come on that’s brilliant! Think of convincing a lock or a door to open and Scriving becomes the perfect blend of magic and whimsy that calls to me.

If it isn’t obvious yet, I absolutely loved this book. Foundryside is an entertaining mix of heists, clever magic, and snarky characters in world you’ll fall in love with. It’s a strong start to a trilogy I can see myself reading and loving for a very long time, with Bennett’s name mentioned with the likes of Scott Lynch and Brandon Sanderson.

Honestly, just GD read this - it's so, so good! Jemison, Bennett, Mieville are out here changing the game with not a elf or orc in sight. Bennett definitely picks up on some of the themes of the Divine Cities trilogy (What is God? What is faith and service to a belief? How and why does an inherently unequal society work?) and peppers in some wonderful humor (per usual) and wrenching sadness. And, if you don't see Alan Rickman as Orso I don't know what to tell you. Fantastic!!

I really enjoyed this new fantasy book that made its way into my hands. I really hope this will continue as again I really enjoyed it.

I think this is a series that will vastly improve as it goes on. Though I enjoyed his book, the world and the magic system is very complicated, and as a result there is soooo much exposition in this book. I really like the characters and the world and am super interested in where this is going, just the initial work that needed to go in to get there was really labored.