I loved Foundryside. The world it created was so interesting to me, and I really enjoyed the characters. And let me tell you, this sequel did not disappoint!! So much interesting stuff happens, and I've grown to love the characters even more than I had already loved them before. I highly recommend this book and series. Robert Jackson Bennett is a fantastic author. His way of writing is really intriguing and I look forward to reading more of his works. I didn't want to put it down!

Absolutely phenomenal, and even better than Foundryside, which I didn’t think was possible! This series has easily become one of my favorites.

I received a copy thought NetGalley for review. (Thank you!)


FIVE SCRUMMING STARS.

Seriously. I thought Foundryside was mind blowing, but this levels up entirely, I almost can't even speak about it because I don't want to blow anything for you!
Robert Jackson Bennett you have done it again. You have delivered yet another series that constantly defies my expectations. (I freaking loved City of Stairs, I recommend it to everyone).


It starts off three years from the events Foundryside, Sancia, Orso and Bernice are running their own Forge, they've opened a Scriving Library open to anyone as long as they donate and add to it. Instead of keeping secrets like the noble Campos and merchant houses, they are pooling their resources with others. Hoping to change the way Tevanne works.
But everything goes awol when another hierophant is resurrected.
Able to wield the power of gods, they can change the very fabric of reality.
Everyone has to put their heads together to find a way to stop him before he can destroy everything, using every tool at their disposal.
And the stakes might be much bigger than just saving Tevanne.

I'm still mindblown about the ending. I can barely process it.
Five Scrumming Stars.
It was so good.

Wonderfully imaginative novel that was somehow (shockingly!) even better than the first installment. Can't wait to see where this goes - I wish it would last forever!

Sancia and her girlfriend Bereneice are back, trying to succeed at scriving while bringing down the Great Houses that are the source of so much oppression and suffering. But their plots are complicated by the return of a near-Godlike threat; their own slightly less-Godlike ally can’t really be trusted, either. The book does a good job doing what the middle book of a trilogy should do: advancing plot and throwing bigger challenges at the characters while setting up a final struggle. Also, scriving here works like computer programming, and Bennett does some cute things with back doors/viruses etc.

Prepare to have your mind blown to smithereens. Shorefall, the second book in Bennett's Founders series, takes the story and the ideas first posited in Foundryside and doesn't just build on them, but blasts those ideas to the stratosphere. This is a thrilling, engaging, exciting sequel that takes the reader on a strange journey through one of the most unique fantasy worlds ever created.

“What a critical and crushing thing, perspective is …”

Robert Jackson Bennett is in both an enviable and a difficult situation. He’s one of the most imaginative writers in fantasy today, but that carries a sky-high level of expectation that can be difficult to meet. His latest book, Shorefall, is the second book of the Founders trilogy, and often the middle book of any trilogy is the weakest, so I admit to having some trepidation before starting it. I could not fathom how Bennett could improve upon the unique and deeply-developed groundwork that Foundryside provided while offering deeper dives into the science of scriving, building massive action set pieces, presenting fresh takes on creation and innovation, and stretching the limits of reality without sacrificing character growth, pathos, and heart. Shorefall put my fears to rest in the first three chapters. And then it started to get really good.

"Humankind is most innovative at turning innovation to the cruelest ends."

Three years have passed since Team Foundryside was formed, and Sancia, Gregor, Berenice, and Orso have help shift some of the balance of power outside the merchant campos of Tevanne. The team has been utilizing their mental resources, newfound time, and combined experience to pull off some daring and magnificent feats. But at the conclusion of Foundryside, Valeria warned of a dire threat that is tied to Gregor’s past. This horror starts to rear its ugly head, and a truly, truly terrifying villain is suddenly only moments away from acquiring the means to manipulate reality itself.

What’s even more horrifying, and it is a credit to Bennett for pulling this off, is that this villain makes a pretty-damn good case for the endgame of his acts of terror.

Along the way, we sink into an even deeper dive of intricate and mind-bendingly creative ways to explore scriving, object sentience, reality manipulation, and what can result when each effect starts to stack upon the other. Somehow, all this chaos makes a beautiful sense, as Bennett never loses sight of placing his characters’ relationships at the heart of it all. Although the lines between objects and living things become blurrier over time, the bonds that this team shares becomes clearer and stronger. But love can be exploited, and these relationships never turn out the way that you expected them to, do they?

“When humanity gains a new tool, what will it become?”

To say anymore about the plot of the story would rob the author of his intended delivery. But I will say that nearly every chapter introduces a clever new wrinkle to the equation that challenges the status quo. By the end of the story, Bennett had built a Jenga tower of theories and ideas that could not be toppled.

Shorefall is a slice of genius slathered with unfiltered madness; it is an innovation on invention. I want to scrive in this world, to create and experiment with Berenice and Orso, to scale towers and improvise with Sancia, to fight battles and defend my friends with Gregor. I loved this book. Bennett is one of the brightest talents around. Read the Divine Cities trilogy. Read Foundryside. Read Shorefall. Read whatever comes next.

ARC via NetGalley

Right from the start, the differences between Shorefall and Foundryside are noticable. Instead of
slowly easing into the story, the book throws you right into the middle of an ongoing power struggle between the largest houses of Foundryside. Sancia, together with the other founders of Foundryside, must navigate an increasingly unstable political landscape, which is brought to the brink of collapsing due to the appearance of a hierophant. From start to finish, the book manages really well to keep up the suspense by neatly combining action packed moments with just the right amount of factual background on the magical elements.
Personally, I feel like some of the magical elements are a bit far fetched for the series. However, uit does not hinder the enjoyment of the book one bit and Shorefall is a great sequel and a must read for anyone who enjoyed Foundryside.

Shorefall is the action packed and inventive sequel to Foundryside. Magic is a technology; scrivers write the 'codes' that make things work; our heroes are trying to save their city; the bad guys have what seems to be unlimited power and magic. Robert Jackson Bennet writes with such a great imagination and perfectly plotted storylines. As usual, there is excellent worldbuilding, intriguing characters, and twist upon twist in the story and action. I have absolutely zero interest in the lesbian relationship between two of the main characters, but at least it is not explicit. Still . . . it's absolutely not necessary. I LOVED the Divine Cities trilogy, and this is not quite as good as that (to me) - but if you have any interest in scifi/fantasy, it's still a pretty great story. Many thanks to NetGalley and Random House/Ballantine/Del Rey for the e-arc. 4 stars.

3.5/5

This review is mostly spoiler-free as to this book. Since it’s a sequel, I <i>will</i> discuss spoilers of the first book as it’s hard not to, but I will keep my discussion of specifics for this book confined to the first 20% or so. If you haven’t read the first book, I recommend you stop reading this (and go read it!).

<i>Shorefall</i> picks up three years after the events of <i>Foundryside</i>. Our main characters, Sancia, Gregor, Berenice, and Orso, the “Foundrysiders,” have established their own scriving house with the intent of disrupting the status quo of the merchant houses of Tevanne by revolutionizing how scriving formulae are distributed and shared. As the novel begins, the Foundrysiders are pulling a heist that will make a huge step toward that goal. The party’s plans are soon disrupted by a chilling prophetic vision telling of a new great enemy inbound to Tevanne, the first hierophant, Crasedes. The group is pulled into a conflict with Crasedes and must not only figure out what it is he's planning, but find some way to stop him, despite his godlike powers. Much of the rest of the book focuses on this conflict while exploring the new limits and reaches of scriving technology and the ever-changing landscape of Tevanne in the wake of these events.

Ultimately, <i>Shorefall</i> was a mixed bag. I loved <i>Foundryside</i> and considered it one of my favorite reads of 2018. I found the sequel to fall short (haha, “Shortfall”) of those expectations. That said, there’s still plenty to like here including improvements on book one’s formula as well as new attributes worth appreciating. Given that my primary criticism is that I was disappointed given my hype going in, I still think the book is decently good on an intrinsic level, with some reservations. I’ll start with the things I liked and move to my more ambivalent qualms.

The novel maintains a lot that was good about the heist format of the first book. The action is exciting and includes everything there is to love about the exploration, infiltration, and problem-solving of a good heist story. There are also several such sequences throughout the book with a variety of settings and complications. I especially liked the infiltration of the ship early on which achieves the tense and dangerous exploration tone while managing to be creepy in a way that foreshadows well the villain and antagonistic forces to come.

Characterization I think is greatly improved in this novel from <i>Foundryside</i>. I personally felt character arcs were the first book’s biggest weakness. The arcs were set up well, and end up where they should, but the progression felt unnatural, forced, and told rather than shown. This book has pretty solid arcs for each of the main characters and they feel much smoother in each case. While the weaker arcs didn’t detract from my enjoyment too much in <i>Foundryside</i>, this improvement is noticeable and adds to the book’s formula nicely.

<i>Shorefall</i> also handles its romance very well in my opinion. The first book barely had any real romance with some occasional foreshadowing and a minor pay off with a kiss near the end. Given the three-year gap, I expected development between Sancia and Berenice, but given the tone, flavor, and genre of the first novel, I didn’t expect a huge romance subplot. I think this book delivers on this well by clearly demonstrating their affection through terms of endearment and physical intimacy that is natural and illustrative, without feeling overbearing and like a genre shift. I mainly feel the success here is in subtly painting their relationship as healthy and happy while keeping the romance to a level that supports what the novel is trying to achieve and furthering the characterization. It’s especially nice seeing this casually-healthy relationship for a wlw pairing, so this book has my kudos on that.

I wasn’t crazy about the villains in <i>Shorefall</i>. Crasedes seemed interesting at first following a couple bad guy speeches that showed the unique way he views the world, his intentions, and the consequences of his actions. You’re not made to sympathize with his motives in any way, but it did at least feel like an intriguing worldview that was born more of his unique perspective than simply a general sociopathy. I ultimately felt like this fell by the wayside as he commits atrocity after atrocity with little more than a shrug. I further typically don’t like villains that are seemingly invincible. For me, it takes a lot of the intrigue away from early encounters when I feel like the heroes are just completely at the villain’s mercy and there’s no way they can win. I know on a meta level that they won’t win at the beginning anyway, but when there’s no chance of winning, it’s a less satisfying build-up compared to early failures being due to things going wrong or simply being outwitted. I feel like this trope also tends to lead to less satisfying resolutions that employing <i>deus ex machina</i> or loopholes that essentially can’t be foreshadowed when the whole book is talking about how unstoppable the villain is. There is another villain I won’t say much on to avoid spoilers, but they were to be more of a surprise villain following a twist. However, the foreshadowing for this twist was so thick that even the characters seemed to be aware of it and ignore it, which not only was frustrating to follow, but made me think less of the characters’ intelligence. I’ve seen far worse villains and there were some interesting parts with Crasedes’ characterization and powers, but ultimately I consider the villains to be a weakness in this novel.

<i>Shorefall</i> delivers less on setting than the first book. <i>Foundryside</i> focused a lot on discussing the different intrigues and political structures within Tevanne with feuding merchant houses, outsourced slavery, and citizens in a city just trying to survive the highly-industrialized world around them. A lot of that setup feels very tangential in <i>Shorefall</i>. The book does feature a new faction that is a sort of underground resistance, but even this is very lightly explored and mostly used as a plot device for the primary conflict between the Foundrysiders and Crasedes. In fact, much of the setting feels this way. Tevanne feels more like a battleground for the main conflict than the living, breathing, independently-dangerous city it was in the first book. Crasedes is a serious and daunting threat, so it makes some sense that conflict would be the spotlight. And some of this shift is foreshadowed in <i>Foundryside</i> when Sancia speaks with Valeria, but it still feels too drastic and I’m left feeling like I’m missing out on so much of the potential the setting held.

A related issue is that scriving as a magic system feels much less intriguing with this installment. The basic mechanisms of it are still there and it’s far from irrelevant, though it seems the narrative has shifted how it’s described subtly. I might be misremembering, but I believe in <i>Foundryside</i>, scriving was primarily described as “convincing object X that it is property Y” and the like. In <i>Shorefall</i>, the language is more akin to “convincing reality around object X to be more property Y.” While this difference is subtle, it does shift away from some prior metaphysical implications like the panpsychism we still get when Sancia communicates with scrived objects. But that’s an aside that wasn't a huge deal. More troubling, I felt like scriving and the way it functions in the plot isn’t up to the bar set by the first book. I think this is due primarily to a major power creep issue. Sancia’s becoming an editor at the end of <i>Foundryside</i> was a really cool development that burst the doors open wide on her potential even beyond her already-unique scriving perception. Unfortunately, it seems it’s hard to move from there with that big of a power-boost in book one. With it in place, the possibilities of the magic feel very lackluster or plain in comparison. Unlike with the first book, I never found myself really pondering what they could or couldn’t do using the magic and how it might be used to solve their problems or create new ones. This is mainly because the universe of options Sancia already had at the beginning of <i>Shorefall</i> felt so broad that the only things she can’t do tend to be things I’m simply not sure are possible in-world. So instead, limits feel based only on what the author thought to do at the time and accordingly, problems solved with scriving techniques often felt like <i>deus ex machina</i> on a resolution level, even if some of the mechanics and applications were enjoyable in their own right. This made the world and magic less interesting on a plot level, something I thought the first book did very well. While this issue doesn’t ruin the magic system for me, it does render a lot of the plot movement of this book less impactful to me.

Perhaps the biggest issue to me was the narrative and stylistic issues. It wasn’t that long ago that I read <i>Foundryside</i>, but I don’t remember the prose especially well and therefore could be imagining it, but I felt like it had much cleaner and more immersive prose than this book. I thought I recalled the first book being third-person limited, and this book is third-person omniscient, which was not only jarring, but, I felt, robbed the story of a lot of emotional force. Not only this, but the omniscient narrator has a voice of their own in places, making them feel like a much more present individual and making for more awkward phrasing with this disembodied voice phrasing things in a humorous or ironic tone that feels like a narrator is jumping in out of nowhere and trying to be entertaining. Along with this style is a slew of telling about things that would be much better shown, most especially character emotion and reaction. So many scenes, even ones with a lot of emotional themes, read like “A felt like X about that. ‘[A says something about that feeling].’ It made B feel like Y.” Despite my typically enjoying scenes like this of character interaction during intermittent downtime, I found myself bored with a lot of these conversations. An important caveat is that this problem was only prevalent in the middle third or so of the novel and less so with the rest. I also found that the omniscient narrator seemed much more present and head-jumpy around this part as well. The beginning and ending of the novel didn’t really suffer from these prose issues, but that big chunk in the middle was enough to greatly affect my enjoyment. As a quick disclaimer, I realize ARCs aren’t finalized text, but to my knowledge, the changes to come are mostly proofreading and that sort of clean-up, so I don’t expect this sort of thing to change. I have not quoted any of the text herein given its unfinished status, but still think it’s a fair criticism given that the final version will likely be the same on these qualms. If it weren’t for these issues, I think I would’ve given the book a solid 4-4.5 rating, so this was pretty drastic to me, especially given that, if I recall correctly, I found the prose in <i>Foundryside</i> above average.

Ultimately I had pretty mixed feelings about this book. I still mostly enjoyed it and thus gave it a positive rating, but I expected more after the first book. Since some of it felt like unpolished prose and a lack of rewriting, I would guess these issues were due to a rushed manuscript/publishing schedule. That said, I plan to keep up with this series and am still very much interested in this author’s other works. Given my ambivalence with <i>Shorefall</i>, I’d be hesitant to recommend it to someone who didn’t like or was on the fence about <i>Foundryside</i>, but if you liked the first book a good deal, it’s worth checking out. I will also make the disclaimer that I can be a stickler for prose and if you care a bit less about style, the issues remaining might not bother you so much. I still enjoyed the read overall and look forward to book three!

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley. All opinions herein are my own.

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett is the second book in The Founders Trilogy. It combines fantasy, magical realism, revolutions and friendship into an amazing roller coaster of a story that grabs you from the beginning and leaves you breathless for more when it ends. Thankfully there will be another book in this series which I am absolutely in love with!
This story picks up three years after the first book, Foundryside, ends. Sancia, Orso, Gregor and Beatrice have freely given the magical technology known as scriving to fellow scrivers to create their own businesses. This has allowed them to flourish on their own. Now the "Houses" that used to control all the scriving technology can no longer enslave as many people. But the slavery is far from being over with.
When they found out that Crasedes Magnus himself, the first of the legendary hierophants, is about to be reborn they must take drastic measures to save everything and everyone they hold dear.
This book, just as the first one in the series, has the most amazing world building I have ever experienced. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys a deeply crafted well written story. Thank you so much to NetGalley for letting me continue this magical journey in this fantastical world that Robert Jackson Bennett has created.

Not as good as the first two. Have to read it because it's an integral part of the series but it was a struggle to finish it.

An immediately gripping sequel to Foundry side. Shorefall takes the charming characters from the original and brings into a vivid new adventure full of details that expand on the magical workings of the Foundryside universe. A must read for any true nerd.

This book is a great continuation of the Founders trilogy. The book is (unsurprisingly) very well written and interesting to read. Definitely read book #1 first or you'll have a hard time understanding what's happening. These books remind me of Brandon Sanderson's Steelheart series. Aside from one or two crude comments, these could be YA. The story follows a small team of likable good guys, each bringing a certain skill to the table as they battle a super bad guy with godlike powers. There isn't much that changes to the characters or the relationships between these people, it's more about the mechanics of the magic system and how to use it cleverly to defeat a more powerful foe. A basic theme is that people inevitably become evil once they have power, and there is little evidence to the contrary. All the powerful foundry organizations are hopelessly corrupt and self serving. There's an underlying anti-slavery message as well. Overall, it's pretty grim. No winning scenario is clear to me. The good guys do not prevail, we're left in more dire straights than when we began, and clearly we need to see how this terrible situation is resolved in book #3!

Robert Jackson Bennett has crafted an engrossing page turner of a read in Shorefall. Well worth the read!

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

Foundryside was the first book by this author I had read. I was hooked. The cast of characters and a magic system I'd never seen before pulled me in hard and fast. So when I found out there were going to be more books I was excited. It's actually the reason I made a Netgalley account.

Then I read one of his older books which left a bad taste in my mouth due to the use of the bury your gay trope. After that, I wasn't sure I'd actually read more by this author. And in Foundryside the romance between two of the female characters felt rushed and almost shoved in at the end. I went into this book apprehensively.

I'm happy to say that this book restored my faith in this author. Just like in Foundryside, Shorefall pulled me. The book is fast-paced and picks up three years after the end of the first with the characters in a far better state than when we left them.

It doesn't last long. Things go haywire fairly quickly and the pace never slows. It all builds smoothly, nothing feels out of place and the decisions the characters make feel genuine and make sense.

There were parts that had me holding my breath out of fear for them all and my jaw dropped at revelations. A big mystery from the first book is answered and it only makes it that much more emotional. I can't wait to read the third book.

This is what I was hoping for in the next book. And I got exactly what I wanted. Robert Jackson Bennett has skill in not only world building but also making his characters distinct and real. I need to know how it all ends.

I would absolutely recommend this book. Especially because, like the first, it isn't written to sound like it's being described by some wizened old narrator like most fantasies do. It sounds fresh and new and it's something that been needed for a long time in the fantasy genre.

A good follow up to the first in the series "Foundryside" It's nice to spend time with the characters again as they are entertaining and witty. There does seem to be a lot of frantic running from plot point to plot point, however, and that can become tiring for the reader. While the magic system was pretty well described in the first book, some of the key points that the plot turned on in the second book felt a little "deus ex machina" They were logical at first but maybe didn't want to be stared at too deeply?

Overall, still a fun read though. I'll probably check out the 3rd one when it's out so I can see how it all wraps up.

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett- Well, pretty much all the hype you read about this book comes to pass in a scary adventure written large by the demonic god-like players involved. The nail biting action and well devised set pieces are nonstop throughout. Sancia, Bernice, Gregor, and Orso are back and Foundryside is working on a new method of outfoxing the staid merchant houses, when they hear of a terrible thing that's about to happen out at sea. Off they go and are dropped into a battle with one of the legendary Hierophants, once ancient rulers with God-like powers, who has returned to change mankind forever. Things go from bad to worse quickly and they find themselves fighting not just for themselves but for everyone. It's amazing how Robert Jackson Bennett pulls this all together and makes it plausible and intense. I loved the Divine Cities trilogy and this one is shaping up to be even better.

Shorefall is an exciting sequel. Be prepared for a rollercoaster ride of a story with all sorts of surprises.

Shorefall by Robert Jackson Bennett
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is AWESOME!

No spoilers, no matter how much I want to go on and on about all the great things in this sequel, but I can say a few things.

If you loved how so many wonderful magical goodnesses came out of the magic system in Foundryside, how they could all argue reality out of commission, find new loopholes, reprogram it again, and do it all while being one of the biggest magical heists in modern fantasy, you will totally FREAK OUT when you see Shorefall.

Foundryside was all kinds of awesome and I just re-read it with great joy before picking up this ARC, but I have to admit that Shorefall totally runs with all the implications built up there and gives us DREAD and eventually FIREWORKS that put all that happened in Foundryside to shame.

The big boys (and girls) are back in town. No one is safe.

This book, for all its steampunk feels, is a programmer's dream. The rules make everything shine. But you know what is brighter than this?

The characters.

What a fantastic book! I'm giving it all the praise! :)