Thank you so much to Del Rey and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of this book in exchange for my honest review!

Okay, so this was one of my most anticipated reads for the year. I wanted this book SO BADLY because of how much I loved book one and then enjoyed book two. Sadly, for me, it was a bit of a disappointment.

Honestly, I can't even explain to you why. For a book in which so much happens, I felt fairly bored through a large majority of it. The best part was that, unlike the second book, we got significantly more of Clef in this one.

I don't know. Maybe it was the large time skip that occurred between books two and three, maybe the magic system got so complicated that I no longer had any concept of what was actually happening anymore because it all felt so convoluted. All I know is that this book lacked the feel of the previous two and took the magic system from something that was concrete and felt like a hard magic system unlike any other I had seen to being one that was used to explain away all the things needed to happen for the plot. It felt less like a science I wasn't yet aware of and more like a soft magic system that could do anything the characters needed to progress the story further.

This got three stars from me because I still enjoyed the characters, but I can't say I was sad for it to come to an end, because even the very end of the book felt like a bit of a disappointment.

This series was a rollercoaster for me. I adored Foundryside, but then really did not like Shorefall, so I was pretty nervous going into Locklands. That being said, I think this was a really solid conclusion to the series, it just wasn't the series I was expecting to get.

Foundryside was a fast-paced heist story that kept a lot of heart from it's character interactions, but there is a time jump in Shorefall and then Locklands starts several years after the end of Shorefall and it's much more plot forward. There is still sort of a heist element like in the previous two books, but for the majority of the book our "found family" is separated.

Locklands itself was a little too long for my taste or maybe it was pacing issues that made it feel longer than it was, but as I said I think it was a solid conclusion. I liked a lot of the explanation we got for the world building and while our "found family" from the first book was mostly nonexistent we got a lot of touching moments of what it means to be family and community in this book. And the ending! It was so bittersweet!

As a whole, I think this was a really inventive and genre blending series with excellent world building and super high stakes throughout each book. I think if I reread the series, knowing the direction Bennett was going to take it, I would have a much better time with it.

Much appreciation to Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine for giving me a chance to read this early.

Locklands takes an unconventional risk, taking place eight years after the events of Shorefall. It’s a trait that really pays off right away, for having not read the second book in The Founder Trilogy for a couple years, I was certain to be lost and unable to gain footing from the start. The pay off is dependent of the elements of the magic system and plot. We have a new perspective of this desolate universe that leads the reader in a new direction that feels invigorating.

The introduction of Locklands has one of the best openings I’ve seen in the genre and really brings the story into bloom. I felt book 2 was slower pace than 1, so the bridge between book 2 - 3 really kicked the conclusion in full gear. Characters are being fulfilled and the volume is past 11, a perfect recipe for a promising series of cruel events.

Overall, this series kicked ass and always one I will recommend.

An amazing end to the perfect trilogy. The book is set 8 years after the end of Shorefall and My heart breaks for everyone involved. Can’t recommend this book enough it is genius.

Scumming awesome!

An epic end to an amazing trilogy; the Founders trilogy will always have a special place in my heart. I have truly treasured the world Bennett created; it is so original and complex that it feels unlike any other place I've ventured in my fantasy reads.

The writing and pacing is superb. I was always kept engaged and the stakes of each book only grew larger and larger. The characters developed and flourished; by the end feeling close like family. I loved the twinning minds and the ability to feel close to characters and see their relationships - a very unique approach due to the world of scriving that did not feel forced but natural.

The darkness and grim of the books grew more complex and this was the ultimate book where we get to experience the power of evil and how the wrong hands can change this world. Also, the heartbreaking ways our characters are impacted.

I feel very fortunate to have gotten a review copy from NetGalley and the publisher. A huge thank you to the author for making these stories come to life and letting us share in the amazing experience!

I requested the ARC not realized I had read the first book in this series. I read the entire trilogy in three days and holy shit.

The journey the characters take, the stakes, the escalation. I'm not even sure what to say, I've been crying so much. I think, fundamentally, this story is about sacrifice and hope. I love it.

If you enjoyed the first two books in this series you will love the conclusion! This book was non-stop action from the very start!
Apparently several years have passed since the last book and they are about to go after Tevanne's forces and hopefully put an end to his reign of terror as he enslaves human minds to do his bidding.
The scriving that was done in the first two books is much more advances and beneficial to the human race in ways that bind the population of Giva (a floating city of sorts) together through a collective "hive" mind that allows free will to anyone that wants it. There are greeters that act as caregivers, designers that create scrived devices and builders that obviously build. Though through their "twinning" these various groups work in harmony for the benefit of their society.
Sancia and Berenice have been married for several years but the tolls of Sancia's scrived plates that were imbedded in her skull are starting to take its toll. Aging her physically beyond her years.
Anyways, the book felt like one huge battle, but did not feel tedious as that may seem. The characters were wonderfully fleshed out and the history of Clef and Crasedes goes into much more detail giving the reader a much better feel for the paths that they chose.
A beautiful conclusion to a fantastic trilogy. Highly recommend!

I have loved this series from the beginning and I was so pleased to be approved for an #ARC of the final book of the trilogy.

This world is so unique and immersive that I could spend forever in it and never get bored. Bennett has delivered the perfect ending to this tale, and as I read the last page I teared up because the book had exceeded my expectations.

War has been ravaging the lands for eight long years when we start this last installment, and our merry band of heroes is determined to find a way to make things right again.

The magic, the world-building, the characters, and even the fight scenes are brilliantly done and just beautiful to read. I went on a bit of an emotional roller coaster as the action unfolded in this one wondering where things would end.

This is an excellent fantasy series that is unlike anything else I've ever read!

I wanted so badly to love this book because I loved the first so much, but after the second book it became a little obvious where this book would go and I’m not really a fan. I did not like that everyone is basically of one mind. I feel like it takes a lot of people’s originality away, but it was talked about so much in Shorefall that it was inevitable. I hated that Gregor just kept being used over and over again basically for a false greater good, and even by the end it didn’t feel like he got much of a satisfying ending. The only endings I enjoyed were Berenice and Sancia’s (and even that was a little so so), and Clef’s. I had seriously missed Clef in Shorefall and it was great to have him back as a main plot for this book, but again his ending felt really predictable. All in all, others might enjoy this, but it didn’t do it for me.

This one starts with an 8 year time jump from the last one. I can’t say I loved it. Getting info from the 8 years we missed felt a little info dumpy. Also it was so plot driven. It felt like every scene was a climax scene but the thing I really liked about the first book in this series was the slow pace and getting to know Sancia and Clef and their interactions. I mean overall it was good it just didn’t have some of the things that made me like the series in the first place 🤷🏽‍♀️

Thank you to NetGalley and Random House for this ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I am so sad this series is over! The Founders Trilogy has been one of my favorite fantasy series since I discovered it and I also recommend it to friends, family, and customers. This end was truly satisfying and I was not disappointed at all.

One of my favorite things about this series is the magic system. It is amazing and creative! So different of other magic systems that I have read before. There is so much action as well, that was well written, that every book felt like a full blockbuster movie in my head. I can't say much good things about this series. Any fantasy fan needs to read this.

Published by ‎ Del Rey on June 28, 2022

Locklands is the concluding novel of the Founders trilogy, following Foundryside and Shorefall. The central characters have established a new settlement called Giva that they enshroud in fog as they advance their war with Tevanne, trying to save as many people from conquest and slavery as they can. None of this will make much sense to readers who jump into Locklands without reading the first two novels.

Using the magic/technology of scriving, key characters are “twinned” with each other, sharing their thoughts as if they were inhabiting the same body. The same scriving allows multiple characters to join in something like a group chat. This might be the only way that people can truly understand each other and thus the only way to overcome mindless hate. Unfortunately, scriving only exists in fantasy.

We learn more in Locklands about the relationship between Clef and his son Crasedes, a father-son tragedy that departs from literary tradition by basin gtheir conflict on the desire to alter reality (although, in a less literal sense, that might be something that underlies most parental-child conflicts). Building on that foundation, Tevanne now wants to open a door into the substructure of reality, the boiler room holding the machinery that defines the reality we perceive. Tevanne’s plan is to force a reboot with the expectation that God will do it right the second time. Wiping out reality as a solution to humanity’s problems seems extreme, but Tevanne is one of the hierophants who shaped the current reality with scriving so he has a bit of a god complex.

The plot is an action/quest story that has central characters (led by Sancia, the first significant character we meet in the trilogy) venturing into battle to thwart Tevanne’s plan. The novel ends with an epic battle between Clef, Crasedes, and Tevanne. Other characters step into the battle as needed to secure a victory. Despite bogging down from time to time, the story reaches a satisfying conclusion.

Most central characters undergo a transformation over the course of the trilogy. Crasedes, who starts as more of a legend than an actual character, is given a meaningful role in Locklands, a role that has him seeking atonement. Clef starts the trilogy as a sentient but sleeping key, turns into a more substantial character who can’t remember much of his past, and regains those memories (for better or worse) in Locklands. Clef’s story is also one of atonement.

The need to sacrifice for the greater good is a constant theme in the trilogy. Several characters make sacrifices in Locklands: Beatrice, Sancia’s lover and partner, sacrifices the architecture of her relationship with Sancia; Sancia, who sacrificed some years from her life in the last novel, joins Clef in making a life-altering sacrifice that seems to have been destined since the first novel.

The grand lesson of this trilogy is that love conquers all — or more specifically, that we can’t fix the world by meddling with reality because “a better world can only be brought by what we give to one another, and nothing more.” A debatable proposition, but it’s fair to say that destroying reality and hoping God will build a better one isn’t a smart solution to humanity’s problems.

Characters have an annoying tendency to say “Oh no. Oh, no, no, no” every time they face adversity. The novel has too many hokey moments as characters embrace and profess their love before stepping into danger. The book is needlessly wordy, perhaps a hundred pages longer than it needs to be, but it does bring the trilogy to an exciting conclusion.

RECOMMENDED

I’m going to start this review with a bold statement: Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Founders Trilogy is one of the best modern fantasy series. Period. From the opening chapter of Foundryside to the closing paragraph of Locklands, the trilogy astounds with its rich history, evocative worldbuilding, complex magic and fearless character development. Out of every book I have read this year, Locklands hit me the hardest. It rocked me to my core, in the best possible way, and that tangle of emotions has lingered with me ever since.

There is something special about a fictional world that can grab you so intensely, and then hold on without remorse, chapter after chapter, book after book. That’s how I feel with this series, having fallen deeply in love with its protagonist Sancia, the city of Tevanne and the Italian Renaissance-inspired world surrounding them.

Front and center is the strange paradox that Sancia, this grime-covered thief in a grime-covered setting, shouldn’t be likeable, but somehow she is. She is a selfish lowlife, but continuously shows through her actions that she has heart and a desire for a better world. As she meets other characters across her story arc, I could see that her actions and thoughts spoke louder than her outward personality. And once those other characters—Berenice, Orso, Gregor, Clef—became intertwined with Sancia, they all played off each other so well that I adored them as a group.

It’s quite a magical thing when you can invest in a whole cast of characters, see them take on unimaginable conflict, and root for each one in their own way. Foundryside fostered my empathy for Sancia, and Shorefall and Locklands cemented my deep care for the entire crew. (Side note: they are also so funny together, bouncing jokes and quippy dialogue that land perfectly at a given moment.)

What was especially incredible was how their actions as a group, their love for each other and the city they call home, fed so well into the core systems of Bennett’s world. The magic, an awesome play on hacking/coding called scriving, required them to solve brain-twisting logic puzzles every time the characters needed or had to use it. They would manipulate the environment around them to pull off devious heists, fight foes and even go about daily life in an “enhanced” sort of way, scriving the world around them as a convenient analog to our modern technological lives.

Beyond that, there is a wealth of lore to the world, its history and its mythology. From the mysterious origins of scriving and its creators, to the eventual rise of powerful antagonists, it all serves as intricate foils for Sancia and the gang, as well as a reflection on modernization and industrial revolution in cities like Tevanne. There is so much thoughtful commentary on our reality in these books, from technology and politics, to religion and history—from the perspective of both its victors and losers. Who should be in charge of society? Can those who afford power actually wield it for the good of humankind?

These are all questions that are pondered throughout the series, and Bennett uses purposeful time jumps between each book to give a logical boost to characters’ knowledge and abilities, environmental and societal changes, as well as relationship development. This decision made me so happy, as I felt the ante was upped between each book, bringing new, monumental stakes to the table—it elevated the tension in a way that kept me hooked.

Locklands is where that pays off the most though. There is a confidence in Bennett’s approach to book three, with strong writing, engaging character interactions and an advancement to the world that feels natural and refreshingly cool. There are so many ways Bennett has thought to use his scriving magic system and I was endlessly blown away by its implementations.

The book also features more POV chapters from various characters that I have become so invested in, especially Berenice and Clef. There is a level of character development on display here that I cannot help but applaud, and all of it directly connects to the web of history and magic and mythology built up across three novels. Plus, the various new locations are mind-blowingly fascinating, action scenes are explosive, tense and epic in scale, and the pacing is near-perfect.

Most surprising of all is how Bennett ab-so-lute-ly stuck the landing. The ending to this book, let alone this series, was a heart-wrenching, bittersweet reflection on everything it has constructed up to this point. Loose ends are tied up in spectacular fashion, mysteries are unveiled in sumptuous, powerful moments, characters die and others live, but somehow the world goes on—despite the unbelievable odds they all faced. And the way the world goes on, after the sheer devastation wrought upon it, is just captivating. As I write this on the verge of tears, I cannot, will not, spoil anything, so please, please, please read this series!

From top to bottom, The Founders Trilogy has buried itself in my heart, torn me asunder and stitched me back together again. Robert Jackson Bennett has crafted something truly special with this series, delivering a lush tapestry of a world, one soaked in magic and history, blood and suffering—but also love, community and hope. This is intelligent, brutal, thoughtful and fun fantasy, with every word, sentence, paragraph and page wrought with passion.

Foundryside started a revolution, Shorefall burned it all down, and Locklands gave this trilogy the ending it deserves.

Wow! What an incredible conclusion to this amazing trilogy! I love these characters so much and will miss them! I already can’t wait to reread the series.

Locklands (The Founders Trilogy #3) by Robert Jackson Bennett was hands down one of my highly anticipated reads of this summer. Somehow I was lucky enough to get approved on NetGalley for an ARC - I might have shrieked at my screen when I read that email! It's tough knowing that it's the finale novel in the series because I just didn't want to say goodbye to this world or these characters yet. I don't think I was quite as enamored with it as I was with the first two books. It took a bit longer to get into this one as well. That said this was still a great read, and I loved seeing the cast of characters again. I especially appreciated that we got to see a little more of Clef's back story. Overall, I'm really going to miss this series. I really have to get caught up on Robert Jackson Bennett's work and I'm looking forward to whatever he does in the future.

This was a sastisfying conclusion to this trilogy and it feels great to finally be done. I've been reading these books as they released and seeing the characters grow and age has been great. I feel like this book got pretty boring about 40% of the way through but the ending definitely saved it.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me an ARC of this book! I didn't realize that it was out already, or I definitely would have pushed this one to the top of my TBR pile.

I don't know what to say about this. Do I really think it's a three star book? I don't know. Not with that ending. But the beginning and A LOT of the action scenes in the middle left a lot to be desired.

Let me explain.

This book starts eight years from where Shorefall left off or something like that. It is FAR in the future and basically everything about the characters that we have fallen in love with has changed. Their lives have gone on and without spoiling anything, the world is not the same way we saw it last. And, maybe it's my fault for leaving such a gap of time between reading the second and third book in this series, but my break in between novels, plus the huge jump in time from the start of this book, made it rather confusing.

Also, maybe I am misremembering though I don't think I am, this book had A LOT more action scenes. And typically I love those, but the magic system just seemed to get more and more outlandish and left me more and more confused. I mean, I think I followed what was going on fairly well, I just also felt like it became less and less believable and strayed from what was so unique and interesting in the first book to just be complex and HUGE and intense just for the sake of being that way.

So while I flew through the first two books in this series, this one was just harder for me to get through. I would say that I was almost bored until slightly past the halfway point. From there however, that is where things took a turn, for me at least, for the better.

While the fight scenes got more and more ridiculous towards the end, I think it became more about the characters than the first half, and that was what I loved so much in the other books in this series. I wanted more time with them, and their feelings and to experience the things that they were going through to make the devastation of their choices feel more impactful. And in the last half of this book, that it was I got. And let me tell you, the last ten or so chapters felt so high stakes and made me forget why I wasn't enjoying this book so much in the beginning. It just brought me back to where I started with Sancia and Berenice and their relationship and hopes and dreams. As well as that found family aspect being EVEN BETTER in the ending with a few characters than I would have hoped for. It truly felt like the only way this book could end, and while I was expecting some of it, in a way, I was pleasantly and happily surprised with the ending. It just feels right.

I hate giving three stars because though the journey was a bit rough, I feel like the last half of this book made up for that. I'd say it is more of a 3.75 or 4 star book!

This was a fantastic conclusion to a fun, epic series! I loved the action from beginning to end and watching the stakes rise. I adored the character relationships in this one and how they were affected by what was going on in the world. The characters are vibrant and so much fun to follow. I loved the exploration of family and human connection. Robert Jackson Bennett stuck the landing on this one, and I am already excited to reread this series!

A really phenomenal trilogy with totally original elements. I enjoyed the first two books, and reading this last one was definitely bittersweet. Characters are forced to make hard, but situationally appropriate, choices, and some we have to say goodbye to. I do wish we got more from Gregor's end of things, since he was such an integral part of the series and then basically disappeared for book 3 because of his circumstances, but in the end we didn't get his POV or a sense of where he was at mentally. The ending was a bit sad but also a perfect fit for a story like this one.

4.5⭐️ The third book in the trilogy concluded with an emotional bang. I enjoyed this series and this installment immensely, not wanting to put it down once I got to the half way point. I really appreciated the characters and found family this story delivered and enjoyed seeing many facets to each character. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who enjoys a little sci-fantasy crossover!

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