ARC provided by the publisher—Del Rey—in exchange for an honest review.

Shorefall is mind-bending great; Robert Jackson Bennett once again proved himself that he is a precious gift for the SFF genre.

I feel like there needs to be a new genre classification for Robert Jackson Bennett’s books, an urban fantasy? Check. High fantasy? Check. Sci-fi? Check. Urban high SFF it is. Yes, it is always a safe bet to read Bennett’s books when you’re in need of a refreshing, fabulous, and incredible read that brims with fascinating ideas and concepts. Having read The Divine Cities Trilogy and Foundryside in 2018, I can’t believe that I made it through 2019 without reading any books written by Bennett. Both The Divine Cities trilogy and Foundryside was enough to establish Bennett as one of my favorite authors, and Shorefall—one of my most anticipated books of the year—continue to amplify that notion.

“If there be a person alive with more power than myself, then over time circumstances shall eventually degrade until, inevitably, I am their slave. And if our situations were to be reversed, then they shall inevitably become mine.”—Crasedes Magnus


Shorefall is the second book in The Founders trilogy, and the story starts almost three years after the end of Foundryside. Still taking place in the city of Tevanne, Bennett takes everything good about Foundryside and expand upon them tremendously. In my review of Foundryside, I mentioned that a lot of aspects in the book reminded me of reading Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, Shorefall, in many ways, feels more original and unique. Bennett writes a stupefying engaging story that includes power, slavery, freedom, oppression, social structure, and the dangers that come with each new invention as the main themes. Most importantly, Bennett also made sure that the characters and their developments are still the main driving force of his narrative.

“Humankind is the most innovative at turning innovation to the cruelest ends. Power alters the soul far more than any innovation I could imagine, even at the height of my privileges.”


Sancia Grado and the members of the Foundrysiders are great characters with a distinct personality that became easier and easier to root for as the story progressed. To narrow it down collectively, they are kind-hearted people genuinely trying their best to change the city of Tevanne for the better. I loved reading about them, and if I may be frank, I didn’t expect that I would be emotionally attached to each one of them as much as I did for the characters in The Divine Cities trilogy; clearly, I was wrong. Sancia and the Foundrysiders have to learn a lot about hardship, invention, love, friendship, camaraderie, freedom, and sacrifices through insane adversities here. Plus, Bennett writes an LGBT relationship superbly well. Additionally, what impressed me even further, though, was the fact that the on-point characterizations don’t apply exclusively to the protagonists. It just astounded me how careful and effective was the humanization Bennett imbued into the antagonist’s vision and reasoning, making me feel invested in knowing more about the villain’s motivation and their unflinching brutality.

“Learn what your city has forgotten,” he said. “What men of power have forgotten time and time again, throughout history—that there is always, always something mightier.”


Bennett is so damn good at writing terrifying mythical or powerful figures with awesome abilities. He has demonstrated this in The Divine Cities trilogy, and he remind us how good he is at it in Shorefall. The dreadful feelings and fear caused by the encounter with these avatars of menace simply burst to life palpably. I truly felt the character’s fear and their struggle as they unleashed everything in their arsenal to augment their hope of overcoming impossible odds. Shorefall is most likely the most action-packed book that Bennett has written so far. It is fast-paced, thoroughly breathtaking, and filled with well-written out-of-this-world action sequences that combine fantasy, innovations, and technology into one destructive package. I mean, I’m talking about a myriad of stones flying through the air like a shooting star of death here; the sky is the color of doom, the threat of a wave of blood flooding the Tevanne is real. The stakes exceeded every conflict bestowed in Foundryside, and my god, I was completely enthralled by every page of this marvel.

“But it is a regrettable thing that in order to fix a monstrous world, one must become a little monstrous in one’s own right.”


Scriving—the magic of giving commands/sentience to an everyday object—is a fascinating and intricate hard magic system redolent of Sanderson’s specialty, Bennett’s achievement with pulling off the expansion of Scriving in Shorefall is nothing short of outstanding, reaching vast scope that I never would’ve expected. Bennett has successfully created a world-building that put the history of the world into account for the present predicament. Readers get to learn more about the origin and inconceivable capabilities of scriving—a titanic power capable of governing the very nature of the world, and also at the same time, altering the kindest of souls towards a darker path due to its limitless possibility.

“Maybe you, like so many of this city, believe that all the world should be your servant because you haven’t ever learned what it’s like to be powerless.”


I’ll stop my review here, I wish I can speak more about the brilliance that occurred in this book in much more detail, but I don’t want to spoil your reading experience; I’ve said more than enough anyway. Shorefall is definitely one of Bennett’s best work so far, it’s as least as good as City of Miracles, and I’m not saying that lightly. Shorefall is an absolutely spellbinding sequel that blew my mind with its compelling plot progression, sympathizing characters, thrilling actions, and clever inventiveness in its manipulation of reality, time, and souls. Overflowing with originality and maximum wow factors, Bennett blends sci-fi and fantasy organically, creating a sequel on a magnitude and imagination that can only be executed expertly by the most gifted of authors. And fortunately, Robert Jackson Bennett—without a doubt—belongs in that group of SFF authors.

Official release date: 21st April 2020

You can order the book from: Amazon UK | Amazon US | Book Depository (Free shipping)

The quotes in this review were taken from an ARC and are subject to change upon publication.

You can find this and the rest of my reviews at Novel Notions

Firstly, thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for sending me an eARC of this! I was so surprised to see that I’d been approved, haha.

This was another fun installment of the Founders Trilogy! Like the first book, Shorefall is more like a series of heists with a loose overarching plotline. In this installment, the main bad guy to defeat is Crasedes Magnus, the first of the hierophants. It picks up 3 years after the events of Foundryside , after our characters have settled into a new way of life running their own scriving firm.

I think Shorefall had a lot of the same issues for me that Foundryside did, in that each heist was one after the other without a lot of breathing room in between. As soon as one problem was fixed, another, bigger problem would present itself, and the cycle would start over again, and the characters, and the reader, didn’t have a lot of time to digest the past events before moving on to the next. As a result, I read this book very slowly—I started this book towards the end of January, and didn’t finish until mid-March! Part of that was my busy schedule, of course, and the fact that I’ve been enjoying physical books more than ebooks recently, but it was also that I needed to take a lot of breaks from this book in order to move forward with it. This is definitely not a book where you can sit down and read it in 2 or 3 sittings.

That’s not to say that I didn’t think that this was a really fun book, or that I didn’t like it, or that I’m not super excited for the last book of the trilogy—I do, I did, and I am! I love the characters and find them all to be really compelling, and one thing that Shorefall did much better than Foundryside was introduce some ethical and moral questions, big questions about whether our main characters are doing the “right thing” and about the nature of humanity. I even think we could have focused more on that, but I think these questions will come up in the final book. I can’t wait to find out what happens.

Another awesome thing about the Founders Trilogy is the worldbuilding and the magic system. It’s so unique and it’s a delight to read about! However, there were times when I really could have used a reference guide at the back of the book, with terms that Bennett invents, places, people, things, etc., as well as a map at the beginning. There is a lot to keep track of in this world and it doesn’t help when one has to read it so slowly. In this book, of course, Shorefall itself is a big one. Shorefall Night is the end of a Mardi Gras-like festival where the people of Tevanne remember a monsoon season that wiped out the city, as explained in Chapter 11 (around the 25% mark), and becomes significant later in the book but I couldn’t remember what the significance was because it was difficult to go back and look that up while I was reading. It’d be really nice if there was an easy reference guide at the back of the book. A map of the city would also be really useful for when they are going from one campio to another.

Altogether, I really enjoyed Shorefall! I think I liked this installment even better than the first, but overall this has been a really fun series and I can’t wait to pick up the last book. Shorefall introduced a series of new twists and turns and was more compelling with every page, making it a fun and very satisfying read.

There is a lot I found fascinating about Bennett's prose from reading the first book in this series, Foundryside. He created a hard magic system that was inspiring to me as a writer, in turn I found insanely inspiring this time around with Shorefall.

This was a book series I have been etching to read more in and I was fortunate enough to read this before it's release, which at this point I'd say didn't disappoint or whatever people say nowadays in reviews. Whatever the case, the book was pretty damn awesome.

In between the pouring of guts and steam-powered machinery in this story, there was only one moment where the pacing felt low and relaxed. Honestly, I expect a few slow downs with info dumps through an epic fantasy, and with Shorefall I felt it necessary to give a single moment to pause and look around at the alluring world. There is something particularly beautiful about ravaging politics and people who are on the edge of their demise.

So, yes, I think people should buy this book, place it on their bookshelves, point at it and say, "wow, look at it,” to nobody in particular.

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett
This is a sequel to Foundryside. Sancia, who has an embedded plate in her head which allows her to see scribing which could be defined as magical writing, is the main character. She and her band of misfits are faced with an extremely powerful villain, who may be the originator of scribing.
The story is colorful with a wealth of interesting characters. There is plenty of action but perhaps the more interesting aspect of the story is the ability of the people to form a collective mind and what that would mean to social issues. The story sets up for the next in the series. It does have somewhat of a conclusion which really doesn’t satisfy any of the protagonists.
I really enjoyed the book and I highly recommend the series.

This it the work of a master. It is a poignant, beautiful work. Every now and then you come across something that is remarkable because it is new. The world the RJB built is new. The world building and character development is so complete that I feel if I have lived with Sanica, Gregor, Berenice, and Orso. RJB is a story teller and I cannot wait to hear more from him

In book 1 of this series, the magic in this world caught my attention. The ability to scrive and re-write reality is interesting, as is Sancia's ability to convince objects that reality is different than their original design. That book left a lot of these concepts to explore, and that exploration was the center of this story. I thought it was well done, although a bit mind-bending :).

For me though the best part of the book is the friendship between the main characters. There are fun heists and neat creations, and the way they work together is what makes these interesting. And the evil they need to fight is confusing and overwhelming (note - at times this book is pretty brutal).

I thought the end was satisfying, although there is clearly more to come. Also, I strongly recommend starting with book 1 of the series - I don't think I would have enjoyed this one much without having read that one first.

Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC !

I was pretty pumped when I got the email from Del Ray/Random House asking if I wanted to review Shorefall. I had loved Foundryside and was wondering when the next book was going to be published. So, it was a no brainer what my answer was going to be.

Shorefall is the 2nd book in the Founders trilogy. I would highly recommend reading Foundryside first. You would better understand the world, the houses, Sanica, and everything else in the book.

Shorefall takes place three years after the events of Foundryside, and Orso, Sanica, Berenice, and Gregor have founded their scriving business. They have become a sort of Robin Hood to the poor but they give out scrives instead of money. After an excursion to steal one of the remaining Houses lexicons, Sanica is contacted by Valeria. Valeria has a warning. Her Maker is coming, and he is getting ready to destroy Tevanne. Sanica and her crew must prepare to fight Valeria’s Maker. But are they prepared for the toll it will take upon the group? And with the lines between good and evil blurred, will Sanica make the right choice?

Shorefall’s plotline was fast-paced. Seeing that this book takes place within a week or so of Valeria’s Maker arriving in Tevanne, there were no dropped plotlines or characters. The writing flowed beautifully when the book had to change from Sanica. There was no awkwardness either. That alone made me love the book.

It did take me some time to read Shorefall. But, and I want to stress this, it wasn’t because the book was awful and I was putting it off. Nope, it was the complete opposite. I slowed down my reading pace so I could savor this book. The writing, the language, the characters were beautifully written.

I can’t get much into the storyline or characters of Shorefall without giving away spoilers. I will say this; the characters blossomed in this book. And the storyline was fantastic. The details that the author thought to include was terrific.

I will touch upon Clef, Valeria, and Valeria’s Maker. There is a massive twist in the plot that I didn’t see coming that involves them. Looking back, it makes total sense. But when I was reading it, I was shocked. I ended up putting my Kindle down and saying, “No freaking way.”

The end of Shorefall made me cry. Again, I can’t say why, but it does involve Orso and Gregor. My heart broke into smithereens during those scenes. With the way the book ended, I am not sure what is going to happen and now will be impatiently waiting for the final book!!

I dunno. I can't really say I enjoyed this one nearly as much as I enjoyed the first one. It was poorly paced, and we spent more time being thrown from one wild action scene to the next instead of enjoying any kind of character development or plot nuance. Our characters seem to solve insurmountable problems in the space of two minutes time, and then put together their solutions in the space of an hour or two. It all requires quite a bit of suspension of disbelief.

Anyway, by the end of the book, it feels like this was all just a mediocre effort to move our characters from book #1 to book #3. Two stars.

Wow!! 5 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book was epic and mind boggling.

Shorefall is the second book in the Founders series and it’s just as good as the 1st book! Not only is the writing amazing, but the characterization in this book is fantastic.

Shorefall starts off 2-3 years after Foundryside.
Sancia, Berenice, Orso and Gregory have founded their own scriving business. They're using the technology to better serve the poor and needy while giving competition to the merchant houses.

But while the group is giving hope and power back to the people, there’s a powerful entity heading towards the city of Tevanne. The gang must drastically change directions and focus on this new threat to save not only the city but themselves!

Shorefall takes all the great concepts of scriving and turns up the volume. Not just a little bit of volume but enough to blast your eardrums!

Seriously you guys, I felt stupid most of the time while I was reading this. I was just blown away by the concept of reality, how reality would work when changing it or making an object do something completely different.

I don't know where Robert Jackson Bennett gets his plot ideas, but they are deep and fantastic. Bennett has given us an intriguing and fantastic series that takes the fantasy genre in a whole new area. The Founders series is part fantasy, part steampunk and a whole lot of awesomeness.

When Shorefall is over, you’ll realize that Bennett has not only created a new concept such as scriving, but he’s opened up a whole new world of reality and dimensions. Buckle up boys and girls because this will make your mind explode!

And on that thought, I am excited for fans to read this new addition to the series. You will not be disappointed!!

Thank you thank you so much #NetGalley for letting me read #Shorefall in exchange for a review.

First, let me say that Foundryside is one of my favorite books ever. Such an amazing mix of heady ideas and edge of your seat adventure, of intelligent thriller and fun strong characters, of complicated industrial magic and its mythology. I had forgotten it a bit so I had to re-read it, and you should too before starting Shorefall, because even though the second book starts three years later than the events in the first, it feels like a very immediate continuation.

Shorefall is much darker. Much less witty banter and more pain, violence, and sacrifice. It also has just a touch too much unnecessary dialogue. But once it catches you, it doesn’t let go. Sancia, Berenice, Orso and Gregor face a much greater threat - the hugely powerful Crasedes Magnus - and while they are seemingly helped by the “intelligence” Valeria, they don’t trust her either. An exchange from towards the end of the book says it all (and, I believe, with no spoilers): Orso wonders “Have we won? I can’t tell.” And Sancia replies “Me neither.”

I think this book deserves all kinds of awards. The writing is amazing, the tension never stops, you care deeply for each character and understand their choices (or lack thereof.) They are small but brave people caught between forces that no one should have to face. But they face them together (in more ways than one 🙂.)

Oh, and one final point. Some other reviewer pointed out that the magical scriving feels very programmatic. I couldn’t agree more. All these definitions and rules to obey.

I picked up Shorefall after reading Foundryside more than a year ago. In other words, I didn't remember much of the first volume but I still enjoyed the hell out of this sequel. The absolutely fantastic magic system, the complex relationships between characters, a mysterious and powerful ancient society that continues to haunt the present day... these are just a few of my favorite things.

Shorefall starts with a magical heist where we get to see Sancia, Berenice, Gregor, and Orso functioning as an elite team, stretching the boundaries of magical possibility. Everything quickly goes south though, and the stakes are huge — Crasedes Magnus, the most powerful of the outworldly magicians who transformed the rules of the world — is being resurrected. Despite the action and mayhem, there are moments for some really interesting character development, especially for Sancia, Berenice, and Gregor.

I eagerly await a future volume, but I'll definitely reread Foundryside and Shorefall first!

When I started reading this book I wasn’t sure if I was going to like it. It started off slow and boring. The author jumped around from subject to subject and person to person so much I had a hard time following the story. In some places it didn’t seem like there was even a story line just a lot of talking about nothing. I didn’t really start seeing a story line until I was about halfway through the book. This is when the book started to get interesting. I still had a hard time following some of the language. I think the author needs to have a glossary of terms at the beginning or end of the book, so that the reader can reference some of the words or phrases that are made up in this book.

Following the events of Foundryside, lots of small, independent scriving firms have opened in competition with the established houses, the first of which is the one Sancia and her friends started. It's a bold new era, and in the spirit of collaboration and freedom of ideas, Sancia and her friends have set up their firm as a repository of scrivings and consulting firm where scrivers can seek help with their design problems on the condition that they will deposit a copy in the repository for others to freely use if they deposit their designs as well. Sancia and her firm, in their quest to break the established merchant houses, are also not above outright, extravagant theft of their intellectual property, as the opening heist reveals.

Bigger problems quickly develop, though, when the magical construct Valeria warns Sancia that the Dandolos are trying to resurrect her maker, Crasedes Magnus, an ancient and legendary scriver with godlike powers due to his mastery of scriving knowledge and theory--much of which was lost long ago--and willingness to commit atrocious acts of human sacrifice to attain such power. If Sancia and her friends cannot stop the resurrection of Crasedes Magnus, the hierophant who obliterated whole civilizations with a snap of his fingers, he could destroy everything they know and love.

This is turning out to be one of my favorite series to come out within the last few years. The world building is fascinating and novel; at the moment, I can't think of any other fantasies I've read that explore a magic system as a science in an industrialized era, with magic-driven technologies that make sense in that space. The technologies Bennett describes are delightfully fantastic and yet so thoughtfully incorporated into everyday life in the city-state of Tevanne, making it feel like a richly developed world.

I won't spoil the ending, but I certainly can't wait until book 3 comes out. While the first book was a fully contained story, this exists to set up the conflict for book 3. At the same time, Shorefall manages to avoid the middle book syndrome that plagues so many trilogies. The pacing is fast-paced and action-filled, while making room to explore important character relationships. The central conflict is also surprisingly complex for one in which the villain has the powers of a god and a reputation for cataclysmic levels of destruction.

I cannot recommend this series highly enough. You should check it out if you enjoy elaborate heists, found family, f/f romance (I love Sancia and Berenice together in this novel!), and cool but logical magic systems.

Awesome ... a modern-day classic! Elegantly written prose that ensnares the reader in a whirl wind adventure brimming with intrigue and tension. Although this is Book 2 of The Founders Trilogy, this gem can be throughly enjoyed as a standalone. Bennett seamlessly provides backstory to allow the narrative to propulsively advance unimpeded. Our main protagonist again is Sancia Grado, an accomplished thief with mysterious origins who is a master at "scriving". This is the magical technology that allows alteration of reality to objects. The methodology and and application of this art is extensively elucidated throughout the book. The setting takes place in the medieval city state of Tevanne, where four merchant houses dominate, control and rule society ... with total disregard for the outsiders living in the surrounding slum of The Commons.
Sancia and her motley band of friends ....Berenice, Orso, and Gregory. .... taken from the various strata of society are plotting to take-down one of the most powerful of houses, in the hopes of altering the hopes, and dreams of freedom for all in The Commons. Their plans are severely complicated when a plot is discovered to return to reality one of the ancient Hierophants. These ancient god-like creatures laid the foundation for the present day society and technology ... however their return and nefarious motivations bodes poorly for the goal of freedom.
Bennett weaves a masterful world building experience that is unveiled in a complex, twisted plot, aided by lush characterization that not only explores the many layers of reality but more importantly trust, friendship and love. Although this culminates in a satisfying explosive denouement , there are obviously unanswered dilemmas to be explored.
Thanks to NetGalley and Ballantine - Del Rey for providing an electronic proof in exchange for an honest review.
( at readersremains.com )

An incredibly imaginative and dramatic tale of fantasy, turmoil and magic like you have never seen, SHOREFALL by Robert Jackson Bennett is chaos at its fiercest.

It will be up to one small time thief and a group of unlikely heroes to save the town, the people and the lives they live as one deadly and menacing evil returns on a mission of inhalation.

Magic like you have never seen, no simple whip of a wand, no wiggle of a nose, this tale is brilliantly intricate, richly detailed and riveting from start to finish in a dark and taut way. The magic is its own special technology and the processes are amazing, yet so logical.

Not sure about trying a fantasy drama. Go for it, start with book one and see how quickly you become hooked on Robert Jackson Bennett’s unique style!

I received a complimentary ARC edition from Delray/Random House Publishing Group. This is my honest and voluntary review.

I have so, so many complicated thoughts on this book and I'm honestly shocked?? Like I expected my feelings to be pretty cut and dry love, love, love but that was not the case and I'm sad and distraught and confused.

Everyone here, we all loved Foundryside right? That book is something so special. The magic system, the characters, the break-neck speed at which the story is told. It's very much the type of book you cannot put down. And I expected much of the same from Shorefall, but that is not what I got.

Everything about this book felt so different than the first, down to the writing ~itself~ (if you know, you know). I only read Foundryside at the start of the year, and going from that to this was a jarring experience.

The best way I can describe it is, this felt like a draft, and not in the sense of like I was reading an arc and it was rough in a few places. This felt like an early draft that was nowhere near ready for publication. It was just really, really rough. I don't know if Bennet was rushed into finishing Shorefall or what but it was so starkly different from Foundryside it's crazy.

From the perspective of a fellow writer it kind of seemed to me like the story on Foundryside was something Bennet had been thinking up for a while and once he got to writing it he was just SO excited about the story it poured out of him but then he got to Shorefall and was kind of like "okay...now what?" and I think it really comes across to the reader.

I mean don't get me wrong, it's not a bad book. It's really not. I enjoyed it, and liked returning to the world and thought the story was intriguing, I just found it a bit lacking and that honestly makes me sad because I was so excited for this read. My four star rating was generous, if I'm being perfectly honest, but three stars just felt too cruel.

Truly though, it isn't a bad book, and if you read Foundryside and were really looking forward to Shorefall I still recommend picking it up. It's still a good read, just not quite as special as the first book and that's okay!

<i>With thanks to Netgalley for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.</i>

I am a big fan of Robert Jackson Bennett. I've considered him one of the most imaginative writers in modern fantasy ever since I devoured his "Divine Cities" trilogy. "Divine Cities" set the bar very high, and it was quite a head-scratcher to admit when I read "Foundryside" that I found it lacking, although the majority of my complaints had to do with the characters' language.

Because of that lingering disappointment with "Foundryside," and because the middle book of any trilogy is often the weakest, I admit to having some trepidation before starting "Shorefall". Within the first three chapters, however, I breathed a sigh of relief - this installment is MUCH improved over the first book in the trilogy.

Three years have passed since Team Foundryside was formed in the city of Teavanne, in which time our characters inched ever so closer to accomplishing their goal and making the magical technology of scriving available and open to everyone, not just grasping elites. This technology was first discovered by the ancient Hierophants, who lived thousands of years ago and wielded unimaginable powers. Something from that mysterious past has been awakened from its forced slumber and it's coming to impose its will on the world. The villain is dreadfully spine-chilling, and it is a true credit to the author that this villain makes a very believable case for the necessity of his acts of terror.

The mind-blowingly unique, complex, and intricately thought-through magic system has always been one of the strongest points in this series. The sequel offers a much deeper dive into the technology and science of scriving, and just how far it is capable of stretching and manipulating reality. This exploration is not done is stuffy laboratories, but against a frantic backdrop of action, which starts literally with page one and never slows down; if anything, it becomes more frantic. The reader goes on this thrilling journey alongside characters who grow with every page, deeply experience a gamut of emotions, and emerge new versions of themselves in ways you would never predict.

"Shorefall," is brimming with thrills, engagement, and *heart*. It is a breathless read I would recommend to any fan of good fantasy.

This was an amazing sequel to Foundaryside. It had fantastic plot twist and kept me wanting to read more even though I should have been sleeping. I was on the edge of my seat throughout the book. Looking forward to the next book

Shorefall is the latest novel by SF/F author Robert Jackson Bennett (The Divine Cities) and the second book in his Founders Trilogy, which began in 2018 with Foundryside. Foundryside was easily one of my books of last year, with strong characters, a mechanic of the setting in Scriving that was really clever and allowed for some very tricky plot turns, and some strong themes of Power, Privilege, and Oppression that may be familiar to readers of RJB's Divine Cities trilogy, but were explored in some different and fascinating ways. So it wasn't a surprise that I managed to finish my prerelease copy (eARC) of this book within a single day, despite it not being a short book at all.

Shorefall is a pretty good follow up, although it has some of the typical issues with second novels in trilogies which tell a single overarching story (in contrast to how The Divine Cities essentially told three stand alone stories which built upon each other). The story remains clever, with some great characters, higher stakes, and some absolutely fantastic dialogue and plot developments, which continue telling a story with similar themes to its predecessor. On the other hand, the wonder of some of the mechanics of this world are a bit lost in the process, as the story moves on from being a battle of mortals trying to shape reality to a battle of god-like beings. It may be the weakest of the 5 RJB novels that I've read as a result, but it's still a strong work and I will be eagerly anticipating the conclusion.

Note: Spoilers for Foundryside are inevitable below, but I'll try not to go overboard on them.
------------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
3 Years have passed since the events of Foundryside, and in those 3 years, the efforts of Sancia, Gregor, Orso, and Berenice have changed Tevanne dramatically. Now, operating their own consulting merchant house, Foundryside Ltd., the group uses Sancia's gifts and their own skills to help other independent scrivers create new techniques and build upon the knowledge of how to alter reality, with the aim of undercutting the remaining major merchant houses that once unquestionably ruled the city. And using Orso's twinning technique, they're about to conduct a heist of one of the Merchant House's most valuable properties - its entire lexicon - right under its nose.

But in doing so, Sancia is delivered a warning from Valeria, the god-like contruct she unleashed 3 years prior, that someone - most likely Gregor's mother Ofelia Dandolo - is about to bring back Valeria's maker, Crasedes Magnus, the ancient legend who once sacrificed thousands of humans in order to attain godlike powers of his own. Crasedes legendarily destroyed countless empires and peoples in the past, and the group knows that his return would only end in more atrocities....if they're not able to stop it.

But as Sancia and the rest get involved in this conflict between gods, they find themselves forced to themselves go to the boundaries between life and death in search of the techniques needed to possibly stop Crasedes. And even if they succeed in helping Valeria stop Crasedes, what will Valeria do with no one left to stop her? In this battle of beings and people trying to alter the definitions of reality, nothing will ever be the same again....for the city, or themselves.....
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After a quick heist moment to get back into the scheme of things, Shorefall picks up right from where the cliffhanger of Foundryside left off (despite the 3 year time jump). Things have happened to our major characters in the interim, but nothing super unexpected from where we saw them last (the two independent scrivers have moved on to other things, but that's about it). And so Shorefall tells the story from their perspectives - mostly through Sancia's again, but sometimes through the perspectives of Gregor, Orso, and Berenice as well.



And these characters are still absolutely tremendous, from Orso's idealistic quest to ruin the merchant houses by sharing knowledge to Berenice's brilliance to Sancia's scrappy thinking and yet despair at being unable to fix Clef to Gregor's need to do good but fear that he cannot control himself due to what he is....all of the major characters are tremendous on their own. And of course they're not on their own and the relationships between them - Sancia/Berenice's love, Orso's Mentorship of Berenice, Sancia's guilt over not fixing Gregor, etc. - are still extremely well done, making me care so much about all of them and their individual and collective fates. And the book further develops minor characters from the last book - Valeria, Ofelia, for example - as well as newer characters introduced in this book, particularly, Polina Carbonari, an ex-slave (like Sancia) who woud rather fight more overtly for bringing the whole system down, since a system that enslaves people for work on the plantations should not be allowed to exist.

All of this is done in service of a plot that winds through twists and turns, from beginning to end, though nearly all of the twists are foreshadowed subtly beforehand so hey never seem like deus ex machinas. It's incredibly thrilling to read, and all in service of a plot that furthers the last book's themes of Power and what people do with it. Both of the antagonists of this story maintain the belief that power in all forms - greater technology, resources, allies, etc. - always leads to the strong oppressing the weak...they just differ in what they feel should be done about it.*

*Minor Spoiler in Rot13 of the Antagonists' motives: Bar nagntbavfg srryf gung nf n erfhyg, ur cynaf gb hfr nofbyhgr cbjre gb pbageby rirelobql vagb pbzcyvnapr jvgu uvf bja ehyrf ol erfuncvat gur ernyvgl bs rirelbar'f zvaqf. Gur bgure srryf vafgrnq gung jvgu cbjre pnhfvat fb zhpu ubeebe va guvf jbeyq, gur orfg guvat gb qb jbhyq or gb gnxr vg nyy njnl, qrfgeblvat nyy vaxyvatf bs grpuabybtl fb nf gb fraq uhznavgl vagb n arj qnex ntr gb yvzvg gurve bja unez.

Sancia and the group struggle with this issue as well, as hey have been proceeding from the idea that by giving scriving definitions to EVERYBODY and taking away the monopolies of the Merchant Houses, they are equalizing the playing field and abating the potential abuses, but as the story progresses, they begin to seriously wonder if their actions are really doing any long term good at all, if shifting power only shifts who does the oppressing and who is the oppressed. A large focus of the novel is of the protagonists wrestling with this dilemma as they discover more and more terrible powers, despite them seemingly being unable to do anything other than follow the course they're already going. As this is a second novel, we don't get any clear answers to this question, but we do get an inkling in a suggestive use of power to counter this cycle of pain, which I won't spoil too much except as to say it's an idea that's certainly been done before in SciFi in noticeable forms, but executed extremely well in his novel. Still, I remain hardpressed to believe the overall extension of that idea is where RJB is going after the explosive end of this novel, which naturally ends in a hell of a cliffhanger.

Unfortunately, Shorefall suffers from some typical second installment issues. In particular, the wonder of what ingenius tricks can be put together with scriving has kind of faded, with the character's leaning extremely heavily on one technique - twinning - which with one exception - doesn't really provide anything new. And the conflict between Crasedes and Valeria that forms the heart of this book doesn't quite provide that same wonder, since the two beings' godlike power is so ridiculous as to basically be magic, which feels a bit like a cheat compared to the logic of the rest of how scriving works. The characters and plot arc and themes are well strong enough to carry this novel despite the above, but it does drop this novel quite a bit.

Despite that, Shorefall is an incredibly satisfying novel to read, with characters who are so easy to care for, great dialogue and a number of moments of great humor (despite this being not a comedy), as well as a plot that deals with some damn interesting themes. I can't wait for the conclusion.

Fantastic follow-up to Foundaryside. Very dramatic and some interesting plot twists I didn't see coming. Already excited for the next book, please and thank you!