Ahoy there mateys! This was the last book of a trilogy.  I loved the first book and thought the second book was okay.  I was still excited to see how the series would finish.  I ended up abandoning this at 30%.  This book started out poorly for me with an eight year time jump.  And SO much had happened in that interval that it kinda made me noggin hurt trying to swim through the details.  And then the big bad felt rather boring to me being a kind of hive mind with no other purpose than to destroy the world.  There were some cool concepts here like Greeter and Design and Giva itself.  And Clef being awesome as always.  But overall I just wasn't enjoying meself.  I set it down and never had the urge to pick it back up.  I kinda want a spoiler paragraph of how it ended but not enough to read another 380 or so pages.  Arrr!  Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the review copy.

Robert Jackson Bennet won me over as a teller of unique and unusual stories when I was first introduced to him. That continues as I read more and more of the book from his imagination. Locklands is the conclusion to The Founders Trilogy following a group of characters thrown into new and increasingly dangerous situations in every book. If you’ve read RBJ before, you know that not all the characters you love will make it out alive and sometimes huge sacrifices will be made.

If Foundryside introduced us to scriving (altering reality with a kind of program of sorts on objects i.e. wood made to be as strong as concrete, locks to open only for certain people, bowls to heat contents to a particular temperature etc.) and Shorefall showed us how it changes societies then Locklands shows us how it could be used for good or evil to achieve actual creation or destruction. It has been eight years since the events of Shorefall when Sancia and Berenice’s lives were changed forever and a new enemy was born. Tevanne has had time to spread and take over about half of this world while Sancia and Berenice have fought against him every step of the way and created a strange society of their own, Giva. I really enjoyed seeing how time let some of the scriving abilities we saw through Shorefall develop and evolve into the societal structure of Giva.

Tevanne is scary, his/their goal is to open the door to the heart of creation and reset everything. Go back to a starting point with no humans, no scriving and completely start over wiping out all of current existence. Our team is fighting against a creature willing to sacrifice all of the humans at their disposal to achieve this goal and it is horrific. Sancia and Berenice will need the help of an enemy and the son of Clef if they even have a chance of survival.

Locklands is really a book where Clef shines, which makes sense he is a key to the lock for the center of creation. It really is his origin story and the rise of the Heirophants and how they became so powerful. The story of Clef and his son was one I was really interested in. We the reader learn why scriving can be so dangerous, not that as a reader you are not already seeing that. The magic this time around is immense and fighting with it even more so. But I missed a few of our key characters from the prior books quite a bit so some of the character chemistry felt off.

Locklands was a satisfying conclusion to a trilogy for me. Trilogies are rarely perfect in their wrap ups to stories but, it wraps up our story well with many emotional moments that will stick with me. This is not a ‘and they all lived happily ever after’ book. This is a hard choices and sacrifices made with a hope for the best for the future kind of book. I like those a lot better in fantasy as they feel more real. I will say Foundryside is still my favorite book of the trilogy but the other two are very strong, unique stories that build on the magic I first found in Foundryside.

I am so thankful I got to read this early after receiving an ARC from Netgalley and the publisher. Though this was not my favorite in the series, I felt it wrapped up the story nicely. The world building and character development is excellent in this series and I’m so happy I got more Clef !

Shorefall was such a resounding disappointment that I went into Locklands with negative expectations, and I think that honestly ruined my experience. If Shorefall hadn't happened and we jumped right from Foundryside into Locklands, I would have been all for it. Locklands brings us dire circumstances, an action plan, fresh character dynamics, and new goals without the megalomania and annoying speeches or the blatant despair that suffused Shorefall.

We are, however, expected to hit the ground running with no recap and new characters not even introduced, just thrown in. I know 8 years have passed in the story, but we need some kind of intro okay?

It’s been several years since Shorefall Night, with its devestating losses and the rise of the being Tevanne. Ever since then, Sancia, Berenice, and the others have been on the run, slowly collecting refugees as Tevanne conquers the world one country at a time. But when a former enemy is captured by Tevanne, the group realizes it is only a matter of time before it cracks the secrets of reality itself. The time has come to stop running and take the fight to Tevanne itself, before the entity can find a way to simply turn off reality forever.

LOCKLANDS is a steadily marching dark conclusion to what is one of my favorite series of all times. Whereas SHOREFALL was a pulse-pounding, breakneck tale that took place over two or three days, LOCKLANDS is much more of a journey. There’s still incredible action and the highest of stakes, but the book doesn’t rush its conclusion. It almost gets contemplative as the end of the world draws nearer, and the characters reflect on what they’ve sacrificed so far, and what they’re willing to sacrifice to win.

Bennett has always liked a good time jump in his books, to give societies time to breathe and evolve in reaction to previous events, and that’s absolutely on display here. The gap between SHOREFALL and LOCKLANDS is eight years, and the world has changed considerably since the readers last visited. Without going into too much detail, the concept of twinning discovered in the last book has only developed further since we last saw it, creating interesting new societal premises to contemplate. The tone of the series has also become borderline apocalyptic, with the small community that Berenice and Sancia have gathered one of the last holdouts of free humanity in Tevanne’s world.

Despite the literal end-of-the-world stakes, I found Tevanne a less intimidating villain than Crasedes, possibly because Tevanne is simply too big to comprehend. Crasedes was a person of overwhelming power, but they were still a person, something you could behold before you and who was given to certain human emotions. Tevanne, in contrast, largely works through proxies and remains off-screen for large swaths of the book. Thankfully, its appearance in the ending, as well as its connection to the origins of the hierophants, makes up for its absence. Indeed the ending, despite being slightly predictable once certain things locked into place, ripped through my emotions hard enough to earn an extra quarter star from me.

In an interesting spin, almost the entire book is told from Berenice’s point of view, with a handful of sections given to other characters as necessary. Berenice has risen from the overlooked assistant in FOUNDRYSIDE to the leader of this underdog resistance, and she holds everything together extraordinarily well. Of the remaining characters, Clef gets the most spotlight, as he slowly begins to remember the events that led to the formation of himself and Crasedes.

LOCKLANDS is the satisfying conclusion to an innovative and intense series, one that has managed to deftly balance action with societal musings. In between rooftop chases, fantasy AI, and terrifying villains, there’s time for examining capitalism and how humanity organizes itself. Never fear though, there’s never a dull moment, and you may even find yourself shedding tears as the series draws to a close.

Locklands is the third and final book in the Founders Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett. Released in the US 28th June 2022 by Penguin Random House on their Del Rey Books imprint, it's 560 pages and is available in hardcover, audio, and ebook formats.

This is a sweeping campaign fantasy rich in detail and world building. It provides political action, campaigning, skulduggery, questing, magic, a seriously nasty and powerful antagonist, and everything for the 'doorstop fantasy' fan. I have followed the progress of the series and world building since the beginning, and will say right away that I believe that this final book will suffer greatly by attempting to read it as a standalone. There's way too much backstory and context necessary to be read by itself.

This is such a beautifully written book. The prose flows, the dialogue is realistic and the characters are distinctly individual and despite containing a large cast of secondary characters, I didn't have any troubles keeping them separate. The many disparate plot threads wind together throughout into a satisfying climax, denouement, and conclusion. I gasped out loud at the epilogue.

The unabridged audiobook has a run-time of 21 hours and 35 minutes and is capably narrated by Tara Sands. Sound and production quality are high throughout the read.

Five stars. Perfect for fans of campaign fantasy. It would also be a good choice for library acquisition.

Disclosure: I received an ARC at no cost from the author/publisher for review purposes.

The first part of the book was really great, full of promise, and then it started to go downhill from there.

The story picked up eight years after the events of Shorefall, but that didn't matter because the story felt like a completely different book. Reading this book got me more confused because there were so many new information about the magic system that were introduced, it felt like I was reading a completely different series. The story should build upon the existing magic system that were already explained in Foundryside and Shorefall, but that wasn't really the case. It introduced more innovation and new technologies which required a lot of explaining, which took up probably 70% of the book. It got to the point where I just didn't care and wanted to skip through all the boring parts. Since the story involved bending realities through scriving, it completely removed all the stakes and excitement, which ruined the whole plot for me.

Nothing exciting really happened. Every time the story reached a climax or an action scene, it got ruined with info dumping. The pacing was very slow, and I hoped there were scenes for character development to be excited and worried about, but it was lackluster.

The ending and conclusion was a bit mediocre. Considering I had to suffer 500 pages of this book, any ending was fine. Foundryside and Shorefall were both awesome books, but Locklands was a letdown. Although I did not enjoy the last book, finishing this series is a relief and already a great conclusion for me.

Satisfying finish to Robert Jackson Bennetts Founders trilogy. This book seemed much broader, a larger storyline than the previous two. Eight years have passed and our heroes have moved on from Shorefall night, left their city to create a communal and fair society. Still they fight an endless war with a godlike monster who appears untouchable in his quest to remake the world.
With the help of the immortal hierophants Clef and Crasedes- Sancia and Berenice and the new community of Greeter and Design, they desperately try to outmaneuver this god and save their world. Read this incredible world building from Netgalley and Random House.

Locklands is the conclusion to Robert Jackson Bennett's "The Founders" trilogy, which began in 2018 with "Foundryside" and continued in 2020 with "Shorefall". The trilogy features a world in which technology has evolved based upon a magic known as scriving - in which certain glyphs written on objects will convince an object that reality is not how it really is, causing the object to react differently (so for example, wheels can be scrived to think they're on a downhill, causing them to roll forward). Bennett has used this world and its characters to tremendous effect, telling a story with strong themes of people recognizing they are people instead of mere tools, about inequality of resources and power, and how attempts to universally spread power around may or may not simply result in new people being oppressed rather than a more egalitarian world - and the importance of empathy in ensuring that such a bad outcome doesn't happen. As with RJB's "The Divine Cities", this series has been utterly tremendous through two books and I was incredibly eager to dive in to the finale.

And Locklands remains a fascinating thriller novel, as - eight years after the last book - the protagonists attempt to save the world from the disasters they helped unleash in the last book, and to keep together the new society they've built with their twinning technology in the face of impossible odds. Bennett really takes the (kind of well worn SF/F) trope of "Society would work better if people's thoughts were all connected so that they knew and felt the impact of their actions on others" in interesting directions, really exploring how that might look here rather than simply just assuming the concept. And the main characters remain excellent, between Sancia, Berenice, and Clef, as they try to deal with aging, remedying their own mistakes, and tremendous grief for each other and those they have previously lost. Oh and as usual, this is a hell of a thriller plot along the way too. I'm not sure I'd rank this above The Divine Cities trilogy, but it's certainly close at the very least, and that's saying a lot.

Note: Spoilers for Shorefall and Foundryside are inevitable below:

--------------------------------------------Plot Summary---------------------------------------------------
Eight Years has passed since Sancia, Berenice, Orso, Gregor, and Clef attempted to save all of humanity from the Hierophant Crasedes and his immortal creation Valeria, who each sought to use their unthinkable powers to their own ends: Crasedes to subjugate all humanity, Valeria to send humanity back to the stone age and destroy all human process. But in doing so, they created a new nightmare: Tevanne, a being made of a combination of human and hierophant, who is capable of using the Scriving power of Twinning to enslave humanity like no force ever before, and who is willing to sacrifice its captives to alter reality in horrible horrible ways.

Even within all that, Sancia, Berenice, and Clef have formed something unthinkable - a society of humans using scriving and twinning to share thoughts and feelings in ways like never before, to use power for the benefit of all, in a society that actually helps each other progress and be happy. And they've even managed to rescue thousands from Tevanne's clutches to live with them.

Yet their new society may not last for long, as Tevanne is closing in on something long lost - a doorway to the key to reality itself, from which it can change the world in an instant, wiping away all that progress and humanity's future in and of itself. To stop Tevanne, Sancia and her friends will have to risk everything - including their own futures with each other....and it might not be enough....
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Foundryside used the fascinating mechanic of scriving and its great characters to tell a really strong story about power, about what it means to be a person rather than a tool, no matter what someone else tells you. Shorefall continued that theme to some extent, and tried to go into the theme of whether the use of new technology or powers can ever result in a better society, or if it will only shift the balance of who oppresses whom. It then sort of concluded with an idea that I've seen in more than a few works - that a solution to that problem could be the linking of people's thoughts and feelings through twinning, and that shared empathy could stop the cycle of oppression. That said, it didn't really explore that idea too strongly, and instead got a little bogged down with the magical powers of the antagonists (even as it was still strong)

By contrast, Locklands does try to explore this a bit more in detail, to show how a society built upon that twinning might actually work. And it's fascinating - with some beings finding themselves so alike they actually subsume their individual personalities into a collective of people with the same makeup (so Design is a collective of those designing new technology, Greeter is a collective of people who are dedicated to helping others adapt, etc) and others instead holding on to their individuality while still feeling the feelings of others. You can actually sort of see how the society envisioned by RJB in this book would work - and it's really interesting....even if it may in some ways be horrifying honestly.

Oh and yeah there's also a really well done thriller plot here with excellent characters, as Sancia, Berenice, Clef, and their allies are forced to go into dangerous enemy territory, ally with previously unthinkable enemies, and make use of scriving in new and interesting ways to survive it all. RJB knows how to make an excellent thriller, and this is definitely one, as the characters are forced to react to new discoveries by quickly changing plans to avoid being destroyed. And RJB does an excellent job showing the impact of each success and failure on their quest and how things can go devastatingly wrong. And Sancia and Berenice's romance, and their struggles with Sancia's rapid aging due to the events of the last book (a plot element that I appreciated given how often that trope is used and then ignored in other works) is really really well done and just tugged on my heartstrings so so hard. As a result it's not surprising that Lockland is an incredibly hard book to put down.

Not everything works - the book features flashbacks to the past and features a mystery as to what really happened that feels kind of obvious and kind of like a repeat of a prior plotline in this series, and where that plotline leads - sort of an exploration of grief and how dangerously it can drive a person, among other things - just doesn't quite fit with everything else. But even with these flashbacks taking up major space, everything else works so well, and the other themes about empathy and twinning are so interesting, that it's hard to be too critical.

So yeah, Locklands is a strong finale to the Founders trilogy, even if the trilogy might not quite ever reach the heights of its first installments. Definitely give this a try if you want really fascinating fantasy, just like any of RJB's other works.

I received an ARC of this book from Tor in exchange for an honest review. My review will contain important spoilers for the previous two books in the trilogy, Foundryside and Shorefall, but not for Locklands itself.

In Foundryside, Robert Jackson Bennett unveiled a steampunk-fantasy alt-Venice that ultimately became a story about artificial intelligence. In Shorefall, the links to cyberpunk and computer programming strengthened as Sancia, Berenice, Gregor, and Orso discover the power of cloud computing, extending the idea of magically linking objects together to connect minds. With Locklands, Bennett again takes his half-magic, half-programming to new heights, tacking the idea of reality as a simulation with re-writable laws. Craesedes Magnus had already offered a taste of this power at the end of Shorefall, but the ability to alter the world in even more profound ways than existing scrivings takes center stage, as Sancia and her allies, noworganized into the independent nation of Giva, take on the embodied city of Tevanne, which bears little trace of its former life as Gregor Dandolo. The physics of Locklands is at times strikingly close to that of the modern world, with cleverly used scrivings emulating the roles of ICBMs and hypersonic missiles in the Cold War that opens the novel. These uses of speed and gravity lend power and tension to the book's action sequences and highlight the escalating arms race that was kicked off in Foundryside. Perhaps even more (literally) mind-boggling, though, is the centrality of twinned minds. The Givans have fully embraced twinning, leading to an early-Singularity state in which telepathy is ubiquitous and selfhood is blurred. While most Givans choose to maintain at least some sense of self, others join hivemind-like Cadences, which emphasize one attribute (such as empathy, or scriving talent) and largely subsume the personalities of their members. The Cadences are voluntary, but still somewhat eerie, especially given the observation that few ever choose to leave one after having joined. Bennett tends to emphasize the positive aspects of the Givans' web of mind-to-mind connections and highlights the horror of being cut out of it in order to avoid granting Tevanne indirect access to the minds of all of its enemies at once. I would have liked to see a little more thought given to the downsides of mind-twinning; the spectrum from an un-twinned person, to a normal twinned Givan, to a member of a Cadence, to a mindless drone in Tevanne's army, seems to offer the potential of finer gradations than what the book explores. By the time one of the protagonists begins to grapple with the possibility of being left behind by this psychic arms race, in which only vast multiply-instantiated consciousnesses can truly exist in a world of tremendous technological progress, the book is almost over. Despite this misgiving, I found that the mind-to-mind conversations were well-used and contributed to several well-staged scenes, both in the heat of battle and in quieter and more emotional moments. Locklands's last few chapters and epilogue in particular showed the best that the series has offered, combining mind-bending "how did he come up with that?" technology with an acute awareness of the characters' humanity and the ways in which central tenets of human life--the drive for progress, the fear of being alone--are modified but never erased by the relentless pace of progress. It's the mark of a good series that Bennett is able to stick the landing while still leaving open several philosophical dilemmas in a world that will richly reward return visits.

Four and a half out of five stars. A showcase for more of the author's clever cross-genre ideas with an especially powerful ending.

I forced myself to enjoy the first, hoping it would get better. it didnt. The writing was so clunky and immature at time, which sucks because I was sold for something close to Sanderson and didn't get it. Its an interesting story and the character can be lovable and fun. I just couldn't get past the writing.

Locklands was a great conclusion to a fascinating and complex series! This last book in the series is about 8 years into the future after what goes down in Shorefall.

When I first started Locklands, it took some time to remember all the plot points, characters and occurrences that happened in the first and second book of the series.
I would have rated this a bit higher if I’d read it right after the second book in the series.
It took me some time to remember the world and the magic system of scriving.

If you decide to read this series, my advice is to read all three books right after the next!

The world building for The Founders Trilogy series is vast, complex and makes you feel a bit dumb. The art of scriving still blows me away with how it’s able to take a random object and turn its properties into something completely different.
I loved the whole concept of it and how this affects the main characters, the Hierophants or (Gods), and the world at large in this series.

The characters of Sancia, Berenice, Clef, Greeter, Design and others are all in depth and feel real.
I loved how Robert Jackson Bennett expands on the characters in this last book and keeps adding more interesting layers to the world and to the art of scriving.

The action in Locklands is nonstop and the conclusion was epic. I loved how the series ended, even if it did make me a bit sad.

Definitely check out this series if you love fantasy and sci-fi! This is a series that is blazing the trail on a new magical concept and it’s awesome!

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

Locklands is a truly inventive, emotional, genre-blending, and reality-defying finish to The Founders Trilogy.

“We’re all the result of countless actions and choices made throughout the centuries, and the odds of those actions and choices going the exact same way again are basically nil.”


There is no dancing through a monsoon. The stakes and villains of the series have reached a gigantic proportion, and our main characters will have to unleash everything they have and beyond in this final fight. Robert Jackson Bennett has done it again. Just as a reminder, I’ve been a fan of Bennett’s books since I finished The Divine Cities trilogy a few years ago. And to this day, I think he’s still one of the most (relatively) underrated SFF authors. This isn’t to say that Bennett’s books are generally rated low or something like that, but in the grander scheme of things, I think both The Divine Cities and The Founders trilogy are both series that needs to be talked about more frequently in the SFF community. Even more so now with Locklands being published.

“It’s like old times again... You and me against the whole goddamned world. There’s just a few more people on our side this time.”


The story in Locklands begins eight years after the end of Shorefall. This is a big-time gap, and I'm sure it won't work for plenty of readers, but overall it's a storytelling decision that clicked with me. Our remaining main characters are engaged in a Scriving War with the most powerful enemy they've ever encountered. And I will first note that I wish there was a recap section of what happened at Foundryside and Shorefall at the beginning of the book. Or somewhere, really. It has been two years since I first read Shorefall, and other than seven important characters in the series, I have to admit that it took me a bit of reading to remember who's who. Thankfully, despite the huge time skip and no-refresher, Bennett did a great job in revolving the narrative centered around Sancia, Clef, and Berenice. If it weren't for that, I think I wouldn't have been able to enjoy Locklands as much as I wanted to without rereading the series from the beginning. As it turns out, I ended up loving this one. This was a thoroughly bonkers and epic finishing volume. I wouldn't have been able to predict the scale of the series would ever reach this level of insanity and destruction. And I am incredibly satisfied by the ending.

“There are people in this world who learned the lessons I never did, the lessons that our son has learned all too late— that you are right. There is no magic fix. That a better world can only be bought by what we give to one another, and nothing more.”


You know the saying, the act of giving is better than receiving? This phrase is about to be heavily tested in Locklands. The main characters, Sancia, Berenice, Clef, and more, will have to be willing to sacrifice things precious to them in the war against Tevanne and the deadlamps. I loved how despite the significant increase in stakes and world-building scale, Bennett never sacrificed the characterizations of the main characters in favor of them. New characters like Greeter and Design played a crucial role in the final installment, but it did not feel like Bennett ever needlessly added these characters to complicate things. Never once I feel like Locklands did not deserve its volume. The Founders Trilogy is such a satisfying series, and looking back, I feel rewarded to witness how far Sancia, Clef, and Berenice have come since Foundryside. This last installment also featured a lot of food for thought. I am super limited in what I can say on this review to avoid spoilers. I can, however, say that Bennett dived deep into what it really means to truly know and access another minds and feelings all the time. No separation. No privacy. And the result? It is not all beneficial and positive, even if the person is someone you love.

“You’d swooped into my life like some kind of adventuring hero from a silly play, the woman said, all smiles and swashbuckling. You seemed bigger than anything I’d ever known.”


What the characters have fought in Foundryside and Shorefall were insane already, but they're nothing compared to how crazy the new enemy is in Locklands. For the lack of better comparison, if you have read or watched Dragon Ball Z, the kind of actions and battles there is exactly the kind of over-the-top battles you can expect from Locklands. Giant creatures, immortalities, flying entities, or advanced innovation leading to instant erasure; the reality-bending devastation is reached an unprecedented level in the series. Or plenty of other fantasy series, to be honest. Bennett continuously blends fantasy, horror, and sci-fi in his books, and it is honestly one of the things that made me love his books. It's all absolutely insane, unpredictable, and filled with revelations. I loved how immense the action and world-building get, and I am impressed by how they never felt out of place. I certainly enjoyed reading all the revelations regarding scriving and Clef in this book, and more importantly, I had a blast reading every page in Locklands.

“Yes. We have invented a new way to be human— one could possibly say that, yes. But we are still human. And watching those we love support us in our suffering… That is a trial for anyone, augmented or otherwise.”


I highly highly recommend this series. Locklands is one of my favorite books of the year; it's a bittersweet and satisfying concluding volume to The Founders Trilogy. With stories that circled around hope, cooperation, empathy, sacrifice, love, and innovation, Bennett has once again proved why he's one of the most consistently great authors writing in SFF. Let me repeat this once again. The Divine Cities and The Founders Trilogy are now finished, and I'm inclined to state that both of them are included in my list of favorite trilogies. I will close this review with an excerpt from Bennett himself regarding Locklands and The Founders Trilogy:

“For if the Founders Trilogy is about anything, I suppose, it is that the innovations of our species do not yield dividends on their own. They only bring prosperity when they are paired with a society, a culture, or a people who can use them to their utmost. A road cannot bring travelers if people refuse to let it be built. A printing house cannot bring wisdom if its readers decide they mostly prefer lies. And there is no balm or medicine that can bring health and happiness if the sick refuse to take it. If we find ourselves unable to take advantage of the many gifts that our brilliance has bestowed upon us, then it is my suspicion that there is no tinkering that can make those gifts function as they ought. Rather, it is upon the people to change themselves: to reshape, reconfigure, and rearrange the architectures of our societies— perhaps in small ways, or large— to allow prosperity and abundance for all to flow through. This seems like pithy precept, but it is the natural tension of our species for there to be some gap between our brilliance and our wisdom. The question is how far we should allow them to diverge, and what works can close that gap, and how fast they can close it.”


Series review:
Foundryside: 4.5/5 stars
Shorefall: 5/5 stars
Locklands: 5/5 stars

The Founders Trilogy: 14.5/15 stars

You can order this book from: Blackwells (Free International 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 | I also have a Booktube channel

I love Robert Jackson Bennett. His fantasy (sci-fi?) is unlike any other, as far from cookie-cutter as can be, and his characters are guaranteed to enslave my imagination, even if they don't fit my personal definition of a "perfect" character.

"Locklands" is the conclusion to Bennett’s "The Founders" trilogy, a world in which reality can be literally rewritten by those who posses the skill to "scrive," a wonderful synonym for "magical programming." I enjoyed the first two books of the series tremendously and was looking forward to the conclusion, knowing that, in true Bennett fashion, nothing would be predictable, nor straightforwardly happily-ever-after.

"Locklands" takes place 8 years after the events of "Shorefall" and is a much darker story than what we've read before. The world of "The Founders" has been changed is truly awful ways, Tevanne managing to enslave the majority of helpless humanity. The only ray of hope is the independent nation of Giva, founded by our tireless heroes, Sancia, Berenice, Clef, and some other familiar faces.

But even our heroes cannot hide from Tevanne forever, and have to face the evil it has wrought, and succeed or perish in the effort. The stakes cannot be higher - the fate of the entire world - even reality. Intriguingly, in their efforts they are assisted by the last "person" you could expect it from - the formidable Crasedes Magnus who has managed to defy Tevanne, solely on the strength of his extensive permissions.

Due to the stakes, I would no longer describe our heroes' efforts as a fun heist, although the mission definitely has the mechanics of one. Sneak in undetected... attain a thing (or person). The horror of what Tevanne is capable of (and does) takes the "fun" completely out of it. The urgency is there, the dread, the hope.

"Locklands" does not skimp on character development. This novel focuses mainly on Clef's and Berenice's stories. Clef's backstory is especially expanded on, in directions not necessarily predictable. The character that steals the show, however, is Crasedes Magnus. He was, in fact, my favorite character, and believe you me - these are words I NEVER thought I would utter.

The conclusion is satisfying, albeit bittersweet. But did you really expect anything else?

Foundryside was one of my immediate all time favorites. The beginning of this third book was different from the first two installments. I was a little thrown off in the beginning but as you read through, you see how RJB uses that to fill-in more gaps and make a broader story, I think. I really liked how RJB played with "who is the real villain?" theme that started in the second book. I think that kind of plot that has been done countless times, it's hard to write something that will catch readers off guard.

There were a few moments where the book slowed a little but that is out-competed by the rest of the book. This third book had a lot of questions to answer and I think for the most part, the author did so. Everything was tied together in the end and I really enjoyed the whole book. I had a couple of issues with the book but they were all minor and detract from my overall reading experience. First, the repetitive descriptions of how the deadlamps looked and worked and how they altered reality, the way they keep having to explain scrivings again and again; at some point, I think, you have to trust the readers that they remember details like that. Lastly, I would have liked a more hashed out explanation of how Clef built the door. I felt that was just dumped on me and even though it had enough details to make a cohesive story, it feels very forced and abrupt. Overall, I LOVED this ending, FIVE STARS!

This is the continuing story of Sancia, Clef, Berenice and their friends (and now rather a lot more of their friends than before). I won't spoil the previous books for you, so let's just say that there are considerable shenanigans going down in this one, and the story finds its conclusion.

I liked Locklands, but not as much as the two previous volumes in the series. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first of which being the 8-year time-jump at the beginning of this novel from where I last remember leaving Shorefall. I did eventually find my feet, so to speak, but it was a few chapters of feeling like I had forgotten something important before getting there. 

I still love love love Clef as a character, and so there will always be enjoyment in the series for me. He is still the same snarky key he's always been, even if Sancia and Berenice are older and thus a little different than they were in the previous two volumes. 

The best part of this series to me is the magic system. The art of scriving, or 'coding as magic' is fascinating, and the way that Robert Jackson Bennett uses it in some instances is absolutely fantastic and so interestingly thought out. I absolutely love to see Clef in action trying to convince a scrived object that its rules can actually be bent a little, and thus completely changing how that item works. It's absolutely brilliant. 

So, all told, while I didn't love this one as much as I loved the two before it, I definitely enjoyed myself. I thought Locklands was a little slow at times, but it was a ride all the same.

Book 3 of the Founders Trilogy by Robert Jackson Bennett totally stuck the landing for me.

This world that started out with coding magic and hijinks evolved into so much more. The stakes couldn’t be higher, which is saying something considering I felt there was no going forward from the big bad in Shorefall. It makes for a truly bleak tone when our beloved characters are in the thick of the action.

Mind you, while this is the most action packed of the trilogy, there’s still moments for reflection. This is a perfect display of how to fully realize your fantasy world. If you give your characters a newfound power to play around with, it shouldn’t just be set dressing — it would have greater ramifications, for good and bad. And Locklands illustrates that beautifully, the full extent of this new way of life and how society as a whole would evolve with it.

I loved being back with our characters - Sancia, Berenice, Clef and their found family - even as I feared for them. Seeing how the world has shaped them as they went from young heist planners to middle aged world saviors is quite remarkable. It’s with them you feel the bittersweet elements amid the bleak: Sancia and Berenice dreaming of growing old in peace together, Clef reckoning with a forgotten past, as a world-ending doom plots against them. Not to mention dreading the sacrifices they’ll have to make to stop it.

For sake of preventing spoilers I end with this: What a way to end a series 🌟

I still stand that this is one of the most interesting magic systems I have read. I enjoyed how the magic of “scriving” evolved and became more science-based in Locklands. However, I found scrivings became overdone/overworked in the main story line with plot conflicts being “fixed” with a new scriving technique or device. This lead to the story arc and characters feeling like they weren’t in any real danger and that the stakes were low. Also, the novel is told from a different perspective than Foundryside and Shorefall giving it a softer quality and less the snarky, angry, I’ll do what I want vibes (Sancia you are my girl!). Overall, the characters are where I feel the author had the most success. Each character is well developed, thoughtful, and really added complexity to the overall story. The ending was very well done and managed to provide me with a surprise or two and some lasting emotions. Overall, Locklands was a great conclusion to the Foundryside Trilogy. My biggest struggle with the trilogy and specifically with Locklands, is the pacing. Except for a few chapters at the beginning and end, the main plot is a single quest arc. Over 400 pages are devoted to getting from point A to point B, with some challenges the characters must face along the way. Bring back my earlier point that scrivings can fix almost anything and you see my problem.

Overall, I really felt connected to the characters, the magic, and the world. It’s just the pacing that keeps this book a 3-star read for me. If you didn’t mind the pacing in Foundryside or Shorefall, I think you will find this conclusion to be very satisfying and enjoyable.

Overall thoughts:

Characters Main: 5⭐️
Characters Supporting: 5⭐️
Magic System: 4⭐️
Plot: 3⭐️
World Building: 3⭐️
Pacing: 2⭐️

Who this book is for:
*Readers who like a unique magic system with snarky, sometimes morally grey characters.
*Readers who love when an author slowly develops the plot and always wishes there was more time with the characters/world.
*Readers who enjoyed the plot and pacing of Foundryside and Shorefall.

Who should maybe skip:
*Readers who get bored with drawn out quests and dislike magic of convenience.

Thank you to Random House Publishing Group- Ballantine and NetGalley for this arc in exchange for my honest review.

Firstly, I would like to thank Random House for providing a complementary copy of this novel via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Locklands is the conclusion to the Founders Trilogy. This final novel is action packed from the beginning. At the novel's start, we find our protagonists at war with Tevane. This series did a great job of developing the foes, and setting them up as greater and greater challenges for our protagonists. What I enjoyed about this series is that the villains were not just thrown in. Their stories were equally important to the story. Also, the rest of Clef's story is revealed and it was satisfying to read those details. The scribing details are at their most complex, which is apropos since the author has developed this magic system well over three books. There were some great moments when our protagonists figure out how to solve some very complex, pertinent problems. The ending did the story justice and really capped off well what was an incredible story. I enjoyed the way technology, with its benefits and drawbacks, was explored over three books.

This final installment wasn't what I was expecting. Others may like it, but it just wasn't for me.

The main thing that didn't work for me was that Locklands felt significantly less "fun" than the previous two books. To be fair, Shorefall was a bit more serious and grim than Foundryside. So it makes sense that after the trouble our heroes ended up in at the end of Shorefall, the tone of Locklands would continue to be more serious and grim. But I just found it less enjoyable. I missed the banter and whimsy of the first two books a lot in this installment.

I also wasn't a fan of the massive time jump. The world and characters have changed SO MUCH that I almost felt like I missed a book in between Shorefall and Locklands!

All in all, this book just didn't do it for me. But I appreciate the ARC and this honest review is voluntarily given. If you like books with epic scopes and exciting magic systems, and don't mind a tone shift from fun and whimsical to serious and grim, then you would probably love this!