I really enjoyed the first two books of this series so it was a no-brainer that I would read the final installment. This last installment shows Berenice and Sancia after the fall of Tevanne.

The first half of this book really did move slow for me. I feel like I went through the second half much faster. I understand that there was a lot to get through but some of the first half could have been sped up. I was happy where the characters ended up at the end. I was a bit happy and depressed at the same time with the ending but I really enjoy when a book makes me feel something.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the galley.

In Locklands, Robert Jackson Bennett closes out his FOUNDERS TRILOGY in epic style, raising the stakes to literally “all of creation” and upping his characters’ (some of them) power levels to god-like heights, all while managing to keep the story grounded in the personal thanks to Jackson’s typically sharp characterization. Being the concluding novel, two things should be obvious: one, you need to have read the prior ones and two, there will be inevitable spoilers for those prior books.

Eight years have passed since the events of Shorefall, and they haven’t been good ones for our characters. The sort of collective-AI intelligence Tevanne, thanks to its forcible “twinning” of minds (basically taking its “host” over and making them extensions of its own mind), has been steadily extending it dominion, taking over nation after nation until only two pockets of resistance remain: the free state of Giva, created by our main protagonists from the earlier books (Sancia, Berenice, Clef, etc.); and an area controlled by their enemy, the uber-powerful hierophant, Crasedes Magnus. Early on though, the Givan group learns that Tevanne has captured Crasedes. Bad enough that Tevanne is now free to bend the full enormity of its power toward them, but even more catastrophic is that Crasedes holds the knowledge of a doorway into “the other side”, a place where one can rewrite, edit, or simply erase all of known creation. Aware of the apocalyptic nature of the threat, Sancia, Clef, and Berenice are forced into ever more desperate ploys to try and defeat their seemingly undefeatable foe.

Plot-wise, as noted, the stakes are raised about as high as is literally possible here. And some of the action mirrors that epic scale, reminding me in an odd way of the old-time Skylark of Space/Lensman space operas where planets were casually hurled about as weapons of war. We’re not quite at that level here but we’re also not that far off. As one might expect, though, we don’t start at that level. in a well-orchestrated bit of plotting, we begin with a bang and events gradually step up from there via one major scene/section to the next until they’ve fully escalated to “battle of gods” level. I wouldn’t call the pacing frenetic, but it definitely steadily ramps up (OK, maybe I’d all the latter part of the novel frenetic). Puzzles also become more difficult (and the consequences more severe) as our resistance group is faced with one seemingly unsolvable problem after another).

The grandiose scale of action is nicely counter balanced by Bennett’s close focus on a small group of characters, not only as individuals but as friends, lovers, parents, and more (more on the “more” later). All that epic battling could have distanced readers from the story, but Bennett keeps us carefully grounded thanks to the vivid characterization. Berenice and Sancia’s love story is the most powerful aspect of this, and it would take a heart of stone to not be moved by several of their scenes, particularly, well, one that I won’t detail so as to avoid spoilers, but you’ll know the killer pages when you get to them. But beyond those two we also have the relationship (such as it is) between Clef and Crasedes — filled in and deepened by a series of flashback interludes which again, I won’t say more on so as to avoid spoilers — and several other relationships that receive fewer words but still have some emotional impact.

Intertwined with plot and character are a number of thought-provoking themes/subjects, something I’ve come to expect from Bennett’s novels. The FOUNDERS TRILOGY has always been a “big idea” kind of series, exploring a host of societal questions involving power, capitalism, slavery, the cruelty of humanity, inequality, etc. Here, one of the more fascinating elements is the idea of “twinning minds,” set up as a stark contrast between Tevanne, who forcibly takes over its hosts and the Givans, who freely choose to share thoughts and feelings with each other. Or not. Some stay closed off to others, some share with a small number of people, and others do a kind of mind-melding in larger numbers, forming groups called “cadences,” described as “many twinned people of similar temperament who had grown so close together that they’d aligned into what was, in essence, a singular identity.”

The issue of choice/consent is made explicit several times as we’re introduced to the concept: “No one was forced or compelled to join a cadence . . . People could … break their connection with the cadence and walk away a singular person again … It was quite rare — and those who did walk away often missed the experience and returned.” The benefits are practical and tactical — soldiers who can act as a truly cohesive unit knowing what each other is up to at all times instantaneously — but go beyond that, creating as it’s said a greater sense of empathy, of compassion, and seemingly doing away (or at least greatly reducing) issues of tribalism. Sancia, for instance, notes how the ship housing Greeter (one of the Cadences), “was always full of people … Tremendous throngs of people. People from all races, all nations, all cultures … The sheer variety of hair alone — in color, in length, in style — was astonishing, let alone the manners of clothing, language, diet, and more.” Later she muses on how it reminds her of “a cathedral . . . brimming with people … always there was the sound of whispering, and confession, and forgiveness, and understanding.” As Greeter succinctly puts it: “We have invented a new way to be human.” Here again, Bennett offers up both a searingly intimate perspective from within the minds of the main characters as well as a grander societal perspective as he zooms out to show the impact such a willing, intentional, purposeful setting aside of individuality might have.

The concept also allows for an interesting juxtaposition in that their twinning, and particularly the super-normal abilities of the Cadences, is what has kept Giva in the fight and allowed for great advances, but this melded-mind power is complemented by the individual decisions and personal attributes of the main characters, and both these aspects involve a willingness to sacrifice, to submerge one’s own singular desires (even for life) for a greater whole. Equally interesting is how much of what has created many of the current problems were born out of individual choices, though I won’t say more on that so as not to give to much away.

Another subject is the use of and reliance on technology (in this case, scriving). Early on Sancia tells Berenice, “One day we will invent a way out of this. We’ll find some key, or tool, or trick … Won’t we?” (Climate change, anyone?). But toward the end, it is Sancia who tells her council: “There is no inventing our way out of this! … We can’t hope to just, just scrive our enemies away! There is no magic fix …” This last line is echoed by several others in the novel: “We thought we could strive our way into liberation … into salvation … trying to follow in the footsteps of clever men with clever fixes” and “It’ll just go on. More fixes gone awry. The mad pride of men who think themselves engineers of all creation.” It doesn’t require much insight to see how this translates into our own world, with our clever technological solutions that breed further problems and prompt more tech to solve those problems, thus creating, well, you know the story.

Here, technology isn’t good or bad in and of itself — it can be a tool for either — but what it is not the solution. Technology in an immature society, or one governed by tribalism of whatever sort (race, class, gender, etc.), or one where oppression is the rule rather than the exception, will always, will inevitably it seems create as many problems as it solves. If you don’t work on the people, the tools aren’t going to do much good and may do harm. One of the benefits of the mind-meld, then, is the way shared feelings/thoughts create a true empathy that makes it difficult to mistreat or harm or oppress others. And, as one character says, it’s a lot harder to “abhor someone else’s behavior when you also instantly understood why that gone about that behavior to begin with.”

As with the other elements discussed, while the technology or societal themes are large concept, Bennett never lets his novels spin away into the abstract. What drives this novel as much as the technology or the societal ills is the singularly human and oh so individualistic experience of grief and its possibly shattering impact. Though yet again, I’ll leave the details to be discovered by the reader.

My one complaint about Locklands is that it felt too short (believe me, a rare complaint from me). Not that the ending was abrupt (the ending ending in fact was nigh on perfect), but that I wanted more time for some of the characters’ changing relationships and altered view of themselves to be fully explored, and more time for some of the high concepts and their ramification to be considered. But if the biggest complaint is wanting more, that’s a pretty good affirmation of just how excellent this book is, and really the series as a whole, which has its long arcs and continuing thread lines but also feels nicely varied book to book in style, focus, and theme. Given that this trilogy and Bennett’s DIVINE CITIES trilogy are two of my favorite series in the past decade, I can’t wait until the next first book of the next trio . . .

Locklands is the last in the Founders trilogy.

I’ve read his work before and when it came to City of Stairs I had a huge issue with his use of the bury your gays trope and swore I’d never read another one of his books. I’m glad I gave him another chance with when I saw Foundryside because his use of that trope was gone, it’s nowhere to be seen in any of these three books.

The scope of the story felt huge so after Shorefall I had no clue how it could be wrapped up, I as a reader, could not envision and ending to such a big story. But he managed one.

This story is incredibly well paced and it feels like something is always happening. It’s always going, always pulling you along and I couldn’t put it down. I needed to know what happened.

We follow Berniece instead of Sancia as the main identity of the story although Sancia is by no means a side character. They’re married now which made me happy but I can’t lie, I remembered City of Stairs and even though she’d been safe from the trope for two fat books, there were things that made me worry. I shouldn’t have.

The way the characters have found to function in this story with the use of scrivings and how they tied their society to it in order to survive was some of the most interesting worldbuilding to me. I’ve never read anything like it and this was incredible. And it just got better. IT became integral to them and their world.

The way certain characters were handled, their storylines, made me sad. Let’s face it, it’s a trilogy. I didn’t want anything to happen to the characters I’d come to love over the course of the other two books. but they way they wrapped up was logical and it was also what they needed. It was really well done.

It’s a book about giving. One of the characters basically says it. It’s out in the open. In order to survive, you have to give at least a little of yourself to make the world a better place. And you have to love if you want to keep the world going.

Read the acknowledgement, it’s there too.

I think this was a good end to the story as a whole. It ends things nicely, not abruptly, it makes sense. And when I was done, I was satisfied.

I give Locklands a five (5) out of five (5) stars. Pacing, character, everything was on point.

This is a book and a trilogy I will absolutely be recommending to people.

I received this eARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Brilliant! I can’t say enough good things about this series; it’s so complex and clever. And this final book truly cements it as one of my favorite book series of all time. This series is nearly impossible to describe accurately without giving too much away, and I think it’s best to go into it without knowing too much.

Locklands picks up eight years after the end of Shorefall and our characters are engaged in a battle that will determine the fate of the world. There was a lot to wrap up in this last book, and maybe I’m still riding the high of having just finished it, but I thought this conclusion was damn near perfect. I’m sad that it’s over, but so glad to have discovered this series. I love these characters and this world so much. I can’t wait to read it again sometime, as well as everything else Robert Jackson Bennet writes. Highly recommend!

Thank you to Del Ray and Netgalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

What a wild ride this book was. To be honest, it took me so long to read this because I was studying for and taking my surgery boards; I could have easily torn through this book in a day or two in a different setting.

This book is such a great end to an amazing trilogy. So much action and backstory and heart. I loved it. I was nervous for the characters the whole time. Right from the first chapter, the stakes feel real. The setting as always was magnificent as well. Really, could not recommend this and the whole series enough.

Wow, what a ride. I'm so sad this series is over but what an incredible journey it has been. While it wasn't my favorite book in the series, Locklands is a fitting finale and I think fans are really going to enjoy it.

I will say that the heist element and the found family were two of my favorite features of the first two books so it was a little bittersweet to have some "family" members missing and no heist in this final book, but Bennett more than makes up for that with the action-packed storyline. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time I was watching my favorite characters battle the villain of all villains and I truly feared for their lives the entire time. It was a wild ride from start to finish!

And speaking of characters, even though some were no longer with us, I loved that this final book had Sancia, Berenice, and Clef, three of my favorite characters, leading the charge. Bennett gives us an incredible backstory for Clef and after having been underused in Book 2, he really takes center stage in this book.

I always find it hard to write reviews for books that occur later in a series for fear of spoilers, so I mainly just want to say that Locklands is a satisfying end to what has been an incredible trilogy. I look forward to reading more from Robert Jackson Bennett.

Locklands was a satisfying ending to a unique trilogy.

If I’m honest, I had a weird reading experience with this series. I read the first book, Foundryside, on a complete whim and absolutely loved it. Within days of finishing, an eARC of Locklands became available and I pounced on it without a second thought.

And then I read Shorefall (book 2) and did not enjoy my experience with it at all (in hindsight I’m thinking it was at least partially due to the lack of voice variation in the audio – everything was delivered in full voice and I felt like the book was screaming at me the whole time).

So there I was, clutching my ereader loaded with the final book in the trilogy and feeling absolutely no motivation to pick it up. But I’d committed. So I read it. And I’m happy to report that I enjoyed my experience with it a lot more than I thought I would.

I don’t normally preface my reviews with so much backstory, but it’s important to note that I went into Locklands almost begrudgingly, so my experience was skewed right from the beginning. In evaluating all three books as objectively as I can, I think Locklands will provide a better than 3-star rating for most readers who have loved the series up to this point. I, however, thought it was a good installment, but not quite on the same wow-scale as the first book.

Locklands brought back more of that awesome magic system involving infusing objects with predetermined commands. It’s such a cool combination of magic systems and I think what I liked most about this final book was seeing how all of the technology evolved over the series and the types of things the characters are able to do with it now by contrast. It’s a very satisfying growth arc, and readers who eat up books where smart characters get more adept at cool systems as the story progresses will likely enjoy this series too.

The book was also a great mix of high and low moments, with a culminating arc at the end which was a complete snowball of events. The book had more dynamics than the second one, and I appreciated that it at least gave me a few moments to breathe between hitting me over the head with action scenes.

Another thing I loved about the first book was finding out more about the lore of the world and all of the magic predecessors. Locklands did a great job answering some burning questions and giving more depth to characters we’ve been curious about since the beginning.

It also avoided excessive evil monologuing, which I appreciate tremendously.

So, while reading this when I wasn’t in the mood was a weird experience, one I’ll take more care to avoid in the future when ARC requesting, ultimately I’m glad I got to see how the trilogy ended. I think readers who are less cranky than me about the whole thing will enjoy it immensely.

Recommendations: if you like cheeky characters, cool & intricate magic systems, and loads of action and excitement, this series is a great pick. The audio worked well for the first book but I’d skip it on the second two.

Niki Hawkes - The Obsessive Bookseller

I think it’s probably time to call it quits on Robert Jackson Bennett series.

I loved the first book in the Foundryside series, thought the second book was ok, and was hugely disappointed in the third. This is the exact same thing that happened with the City of Stairs series.

The initial plot is always good, and then it devolves into something incomprehensible by the series conclusion. A lot of the issue in both series has to do with who the villains are. Any time you use a god like being that isn’t subject to any sort of rules, their actions tend to be frustrating to the reader because their limits always shift to drive the plot rather than in any logical way relative to the rules of the universe.

The world building in this series has always been a bit of a yawn, but in this installment it largely ceases to exist at all. Much of the book is pure action, which would be fine if it were more exciting and less repetitive.

But what really disappointed me with this book was the way the sense of humor that so wonderfully fed the series in the first two novels essentially disappeared here, replaced by attempts at snappy banter between the female protagonists and a lot of attempts to diversify the parts of speech of the author’s irritating fake curse words. (PSA for authors: Use the real words or simply don’t have characters curse at all. I blame Battlestar Galactica for this . Frakking! Just STOP!)

In the end, the problem is that these series really go downhill in their final installment, which is when series would, ideally, be at their best. It’s disappointing, because the author has shown plenty of capability as a writer in the early going of both series.

Amazing! Amazing! This has always been one of my favorite series, and this ending did not disappoint. I appreciate getting more of the backstory (finally) on Clef. I really appreciated the creativity of this book, and some of the more interesting choices the author made.
Everyone should read this series.

What a great end for this series!

We return to Sancia (who is dealing with increased aging due to all the scrivings), Bernice (trying to rebuild society), and Clef (trying to retain his humanity while physically being a key), all of whom are trying to save the world!

The world-building in this book continued to be phenomenal. The gap in time between books allows Bennett to grow the world in ways that wouldn't make sense in shorter time spans. The way that the technology (aka scrivings) continue to grow and adapt is consistently fascinating while also seeming like a natural progression.

This series also does a wonderful job of humanizing evil actions with the oh-so human intentions behind them. While this book in particular has a "big bad" who feels incredibly alien, the interplay of characters and history does some wonderful things.

My only complaint about the book was that the epilogue made the book feel a little too clean. Which in the end, is such a minor complaint that it barely deserves to be noticed!

Locklands, the final piece of the Founders trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett, is a story both worthy of discussion and hard to talk about. It is the last step in an increasingly complicated dance that Bennett has been leading and it ends with a beautiful flourish. Unfortunately, I can’t talk about the plot of this book. Even vague gestures to what is going on can spoil the spectacular ending of book two, Shorefall. So as usual in these instances, I will instead talk about the book’s strengths and weaknesses and what you can expect.

To start, the book is mostly all strengths all the time—some of which set new records in my various review categories. Let’s start with the titan in the room, the magic system and the world. Locklands is the end result of an increasingly impressive magic system called Scrivening. I go over it in depth in earlier reviews, but the general gist is it’s essentially using magical computer coding to convince the laws of physics to bend slightly to influence the world. Bennett has spent the last three novels carving out elegant pieces of building materials with his magic system and stacking them up for assembly. Locklands is when it all comes together to create a spectacular masterpiece. Looking back at what the characters started with, and looking forward to where they end, I can barely contain my sense of wonder at all that Bennett has accomplished in getting from point A to B.

The story is great. It combines amazing set pieces, answers to mysteries that have been percolating since book one, and one of the best fight scenes in any fantasy book I have ever read. Bennett is a king of raising the stakes the perfect amount to keep you forever on the edge of your seat. Thematically and narratively the ending is perfect. That might seem like a small thing but endings are often the hardest thing to land in a story like this, and I would give Bennett 10 points.

The characters are an interesting situation. There are five core protagonists of the Founders series, and I like them all. However, Locklands focuses on the one that I was the least attached to, so it didn’t evoke quite the same cult-like fervor of character love the other two books did. Yet, I still adore the main lead of this book, and there is an introduction/exploration of a side character I am crazy about. In the end, I think the characters still remain one of the book’s strengths.

Yet, despite Locklands’ numerous strengths, I wouldn’t entirely give it a perfect score. The book has the same issue as its predecessor; its pacing feels too fast to process everything that is happening. Part of this is by design, as Bennett clearly wanted to set a scene of frantic scrambling to give a sense of panic to the entire story. But at the end of Shorefall, which was starting to show signs of this, there was a lot of information to digest that I was hoping would be explored in the trilogy’s finale. Instead, we get deaths that are unmourning, relationships that are unspoken, memories that are unexamined, and character growth that is unseen. The result is a book that feels truly fantastic, but a keen sense of “it could have been even better.” Yet, don’t let my critical eye distract you, this is still easily one of the best books of the year and a wonderful ending to what has been one of the best stories I have read in the last few years.

Locklands is a triumph and brings the Founders series home to an explosive end. With its unparalleled magic creativity, heartbreaking character stories, heartwarming messages, and satisfying ending, the book locks up another win for Bennett. The entire series is an easy recommendation and has deeply and profoundly influenced the Dungeons & Dragons campaign I am running because I can’t help but steal all the incredible ideas Bennett has stuffed in here. Almost every reviewer at The Quill to Live loves this series at this point, you should definitely check it out.

Rating: Locklands – 9.0/10
-Andrew

I stuck with this trilogy only because of how much I loved the author’s The Divine Cities trilogy. I liked “Shorefall” more than I liked “Foundryside”, but I didn’t enjoy “Locklands” at all. I kept hoping that this would get better, but it didn’t. This book is just one long tedious battle, or preparation for battle, or the aftermath of battle. It was exhausting to read and really not the sort of thing that interests me. I starting skimming just to find out how the trilogy ends. 2.5 stars, rounded down for the way the ending dragged on. I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

This was so good! I have been such a fan if this series and I am so sad and glad to see how it ends! The magic, suspense and stakes have never been higher

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Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett is the third, and final, installment in science fiction/fantasy series The Founders Trilogy. Mr. Bennett is an award winning author including the Edgar Award, the Shirley Jackson Award and a Philip K Dick Award Citation of Excellence.

Eight years after we last saw them, Sancia, Clef, as well as Berenice face a different challenge. This is not a heist, but war to save reality itself.

The team and their allies are looking for an ancient doorway, leading to the center of creation. If they reach the door first, there’s a chance to stop the disaster awaiting.

For me, the trilogy seemed to mimic the way the information superhighway was developed. In Foundryside, the sigils, scrives, and scrived objects were still a step below pure magic, acting much like mainframe computers. In the second book, Shorefall, scrived objects were already in every home, not just the rich – like the PC Revolution. In Locklands, author Robert Jackson Bennett takes it a step further and connects people and scrived objects in a wide web, worldwide.

The book was different than the previous two, which I certainly enjoyed as well. This isn’t a heist book, but it does provide a satisfying conclusion to the trilogy. Even though, I have to say I do enjoy the books with plots which do not have the future of the world in the balance. I simply feel that there’s more at stake, from the view of the characters. After all, we all know the world’s going to be saved.

In Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett we learn more about Clef, a favorite of mine. We learn more about his past, and he really grows as a character, revealing crucial elements which shaped him.

Mr. Bennett goes a step further in this book when it comes to communication. talking is no longer needed, people are connected by the thousands working as one entity for one goal. I can only assume the pandemic has influenced this aspect of the story. after all, many of us can spend days, weeks, or even months working with our co-workers without exchanging one word in between us.

This is so disappointing to review.

This book feels like to me that Foundryside should have been a standalone book. Everything I enjoyed in the first book slowly disappeared in the following books. The world and the sciencey magic system was what I wanted in fantasy because it made it unique from what was being published at the time. I mentioned in my review of the second book, I felt that too much was left wide open to finish everything in this one book and after reading this, I predicted that correctly.

The book starts off years later after the main characters have built their own society and slowly started fighting back to the main antagonist. This pushes the story in a different direction and leads to many questions I had to never be answered when it came to the world.

My biggest gripe I had in both books one and two is that the worldbuilding was used as a plot device. Items and history were thrown in at the last possible second only to further the plot instead of make a more well rounded world that I wanted to immerse myself in.

The magic system went from a hard magic system to having random abilities built off of the basic framework of book one but really started feeling like a soft magic system. It also felt like this was for the convenience of the author or because he realized there could only be so many pages to finish a plot that didn't start until the last 10% of the second book.

The characters in this book also have huge personality changes that made them less recognizable to me. This can be explained by the massive time jump, but this felt like a point of convenience to change the series in a completely different direction and change the tone.

Overall, I am disappointed that the story went this way. I wish I quit reading after book one.

2/5

Locklands begins eight years after the events of Shorefall. Tevanne has become an entity that captures objects and minds. It only wants to reshape reality and fix mistakes made in the past. Sancia, Berenice, and Clef have banded together to reshape society in a new way, one that helps people understand each other better and free those from Tevanne's grasp. But Tevanne is close to reaching its final goal. It wants to open an ancient doorway to start the world anew. It's up to Sancia and friends to stop that from happening.

I have to admit that I was mildly disappointed by Shorefall when I read it last year. I still enjoyed it, but some of the magic from Foundryside just wasn't there. I think part of that is because Clef was gone for a large part of the book, so it felt like an integral part was missing. I went in to Locklands not fully knowing what to expect or where the story could go, but I still hoped for a strong conclusion. And I have to say that Robert Jackson Bennett knows how to end a story. Locklands was a delight to read from beginning to end. Although the ending itself was bittersweet, it was ultimately satisfying. The stakes were high, there were plenty of ups and downs for the characters, and readers will learn about Clef's past.

I recommend the Founders Trilogy for anyone who wants to get into fantasy or anyone who wants a genre-bending fantasy story. This series is especially great for anyone who wants to fall in love with the characters, as they are all the real soul of the story.

I'll end my review with this: there is no dancing through a monsoon.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for providing me an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was amazing, heartbreaking and fully satisfying. I loved absolutely everything about this conclusion to The Founders Trilogy. The impact and heartbreak this novel evoked in me while playing out the events that led these characters to where they were and how they would fix their past mistakes was absolutely astounding. I could so easily go on and on picking apart all of the things and emotions that are explored in this series, but I would literally never stop typing.

This series as a whole is action packed from beginning to end, even the slower bits are full of tension because the stakes just keep getting higher for these characters. But even within all of that action and plot movement, Bennett manages to explore human emotions such as love, grief and empathy in a powerful way.

Overall, this was fantastic and is going to be living rent free in my head for years I am sure!

This was an amazing culmination of a great series. I really enjoyed this book and could not put it down!

I received a copy of this story from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

3.5 stars if I could.

I adored the first book in this series and I thought the second was a very well-done continuation. And while this final installment was solid, I can't help but feel a little let down. A lot of the elements I love are obviously still there: strong, flawed female leads, weird/intriguing magic, otherworldly consciousness, and diversity. It didn't end without its share of pain, which I truly appreciate.

It was easier to follow than the other books in a way I didn't like. I figured out a lot of the questions surrounding Clef well ahead of time. The storylines around Clef and Crasedes seemed to blossom almost out of nowhere. It streamlined everything; there didn't appear to be twists that I couldn't catch like there were in the others.

What I really loved is how this story, particularly this installment, plays with the concept of a villain. Yes, Crasedes is a villain and Tevanne is a villain but Clef is also a villain, as are all the Givans. It's simply a matter of perspective. After all, we are all villains in someone else's story.

I still wholeheartedly recommend this series. It's very unique and incredible and compelling!

The ending to this excellent trilogy does not disappoint!

It’s hard to beat the quality of the first two books in this series, but this third volume does that in spades. The characters we have come to love have aged, grown and evolved far past where we left them last at the end of book 2. I love that while we started with the usual young fantasy book protagonists, these people have really changed. They have aches and pains, a different, more mature way of viewing the world, but at heart are still the people we have become attached to. They are complex characters with complicated motivations.

The worldbuilding is truly stellar in this series

book 1 – build a complex world

book 2 – completely (and I mean completely) tear the world down

book 3 – build it all back but in new and completely surprising ways

I really can’t recommend this series enough. The way the world has changed after facing the dangers that of the Founders war is surprising but oddly inspires hope. Now if only our heroes can get things under control enough to allow society to continue to survive and hopefully thrive.

If you haven’t read this yet, you absolutely have to start with book 1. There is no way to enter through this third book. In fact, I re-read the first two before starting Locklands just to be sure I didn’t miss out on anything. This is truly epic fantasy. Do yourself a favor and get started.