This book was bonkers. Just absolutely insane. Thankfully, it was insane in a (mostly) good way, maybe even a great way. There are moments of pure adrenaline and moments of pure sadness. I shouldn't be surprised by the latter after reading The Divine Cities, but Bennett really knows how to wrench the soul.

In the end, this is a thoroughly fitting and successful conclusion to the Founders Trilogy; it deserves all the attention it gets and more!

Locklands is the thrilling conclusion to the Founders Trilogy. Many years after the end of the second book, Sancia and her friends are still trying to survive in a world devastated by endless war.
Overall the book focuses a lot on the ongoing conflict with Tevanne, who attempts to reshape the world by enslaving humanity and attempting to change the building blocks of the world. Since it is the last book in the trilogy, we also discover background information on Clef, Tevanne, and Crasedes.
Aside from the characters, the scriving element of the series has been pushed to its absolute limit. I genuinely enjoyed its simplicity in the first two books, but I struggled with it in Locklands. It has evolved to such an extent that it felt more like magic than a logical set of instructions to reshape the world.
Nonetheless, Locklands was an enjoyable conclusion with a couple of interesting aspects.

I definitely felt that this third installment was a step up from book two. I found the pacing of book two to be off and it made it difficult to get lost in the story. Locklands had a much better flow to it. My favorite aspect of these books is hands down the magic system - it’s like nothing I’ve read about before and it’s awesomeness was on full display in this book. While I still struggled a bit to connect with the characters, I think that the overall story and interesting conclusion were enough to keep me invested until the very end.

I absolutely adored the first two books of this series. I fell head over heels for the characters and the magic system in these books. Really, really original and very well done. I’ve been looking forward to this final installment!

At the beginning of the book I felt lost. We jump 8 years into the future and there are several new characters and it seems like the entire scape of the planet has been changed. Sancia and the crew have been fighting against Tevanne for the 8 years. They have slowly been rescuing people from Tevanne’s control and have been incorporating them into a new society. But they are still no where close to defeating him. Then Clef has a vision of Cresedes being held in a prison by Tevanne which makes them realize they have to change their tactics and soon.

The first half of this book felt really really long. I wasn’t sure what was going on, there were characters I had little emotional connection with, there was a lot of talking/deciding what to do. But once the action really got going it was a much quicker read. I really enjoyed the flashbacks where Clef was remembering and learning the backstory of how the world got the be where it is at this point in the story. And the ending was, of course, epic.

I feel like there was some charm missing from this third installment vs. the first two. That said, I appreciate the wisdom in this third installment. Sancia and Bernice, and Clef and Cresedes have some wonderful moments of realization that we can all learn from.

First half -3 stars, second half - 5 stars.

Overall 4 stars.

This was so not where I thought the trilogy was going when I first read Foundryside, but holy shit I'm surprised in the best way. The contrast between the Tevanne hivemind and the transhumanist Givan society is so well done.. There's war. There's heists. There's tragic sacrifices and sad backstories, and an ending that made me sob in the best way. Truly a masterful trilogy.

This was a solid 4.5 star read for me until the end, which gave me all the feelings.

Locklands really needs to be read after the previous two in the trilogy. It is darker than the other two - although some of the scenes from the previous books have remained with me - eeek. A lot of time is spent on the magic system, and progress that has been made since the close of the second book. Horribly, the magic that can be used for so many wonderful things can also be used to control peoples' minds and to edit out reality. I really do love this magic that the author uses, which relies on innovation and study and isn't just a "gift".

I received an ARC from Netgalley and it is a book (and series) I'll certainly be recommending to the fantasy lovers I know.

This is the final book in the Founder's Trilogy and it has been a very exiciting fantasy. The world-building is first-rate and immersive. This book starts eight years following the ending of the second book. All the same characters are back and this time Sancia, Berenice, and Clef, are fighting to save their world. The evil characters are extremely powerful and knowledgeable. They are as determined to end the world as those on the "good" side are to save it.

The world is full of scrivings (programs written on objects and embedded in people) that control actions and can be 'twinned' to allow them to work together. Interesting concept. The scrivings make things work they way you want them to much as a computer program would do - only much more advanced.

A great plot and very well-developed characters kept my attention throughout the series. I think I liked the character Clef more than any of them - he's just amazing. Lots of action and all-out warfare in this one. It is a very tense and desperate situation.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine through Netgalley for an advance copy. This book will be published on June 28, 2022.

This was an okay end to the series but the whole thing just got way too big for me personally so I found myself skimming through a lot here. I really loved the first one where it was just a problem on a city-wide scale whereas here we have an eight year time skip and the main characters have basically founded their own nation and are waging a huge war for the fate of the whole world. I guess it makes sense that every successive book would 'need' to have bigger stakes to keep the audience interested but it's just not my particular cup of tea. I did like that we got more background about Clef and ...the villain from the last book whose name I can never spell lol and there was some stuff I liked in here in general but overall I just found it to be a big of a slog unfortunately.

I don't know what to say really. This is the first time I've completed a series and genuinely felt disappointed. The first took books were awesome and I recommended them to other people. This book felt I was missing an entire book while reading it. Even the characters themselves felt like totally different people. I wish there was another book in between this and the second, but unfortunately as it stands right now I wouldn't recommend this.

I've loved this series so much from the very beginning, so I'm a bit biased when it comes to reviewing its ending. As others have pointed out, Locklands thrusts us 8 years into the future and picks up with Sancia, Berenice, Clef, and others and introduces some great new characters as well. There's a war going on and the stakes are higher than ever. I loved the pacing of this, I loved the character development, particularly for Clef, and I absolutely loved loved loved the epilogue. Tore me open and ripped my heart right out in the best possible way.

Robert Jackson Bennett handled so many things about this series with so much love and respect, particularly the relationship between Sancia and Berenice, and that alone makes me a huge fan. It's not often you see relationships like this in books and while it wasn't the central focus of the storyline (part of what made it so affecting), it was incredibly moving and beautiful. I also loved the world-building he did from the very beginning of the series, and while at the end, the logic of the systems he created was somewhat questionable at times, I didn't mind at all and I thought everything that happened was well-earned.

I wouldn't hesitate to read anything he writes again (and City of Stairs is high on my TBR list next!). Thanks to NetGalley as always for the ARC. This one will stay with me for a long time as one of my favorite fantasy series I've ever read.

**I received an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

Robert Jackson Bennett wraps up the Founders Trilogy with the final novel, Locklands. Of course, for the concluding novel, it is difficult to discuss without spoilers. I will do my best to avoid them, but proceed with caution anyhow.

Locklands picks up roughly eight years after Shorefall, which I felt was an interesting choice. Shorefall also had a pretty decent time gap from the events of Foundryside. I felt that it was a clever choice of the author to allow for changes to seep into the world and to establish a new point where a great event might occur. After all, it is not so often that the falling of an empire occurs in back-to-back battles, but more often over a span of years. Jackson Bennett did well both in Shorefall and in Locklands to keep readers up to speed on all of the developments that occurred off page.

As in the rest of the trilogy, the world and the magic system remain strong. However, there was a notable shift from books one and two which seemed to establish the rules of the magic and then established the rules of the hierophants. On entering book three, readers know what can be done, and it seemed more about getting the characters into place in order to achieve a common goal in the plot. If book one was Sancia's book, and book two was Clef's, then book three arguably belongs to Berenice. Of course, the novels are much more complicated than simply that, but I still find that to be a decent manner of classification at its root.

Both Foundryside and Shorefall were five star reads for me, but I think that with the absence of learning the rules and the absence of the group dynamics I loved from the first two books, it was impossible for Locklands to achieve the same level of success for me. The cleverness of Robert Jackson Bennett certainly remains and I still found Locklands to be very accessible and readable for the amount of complexity it holds. However, I lacked some of the emotional connection I had in the first two books.

That being said, I can't think of any other way I might have wanted Locklands to end. The ending seemed, in some ways, inevitable and to have done anything differently about the ending might have been unsatisfying.

I was happy to read Locklands early, and will be more than happy to recommend this trilogy to others in the future.

That ending! This was a solid three star read up until the last 10% when it shifted into high gear. The action packed fight scenes and emotional revelations were spectacular. It could have been better edited because it seemed to lag a bit in the middle, too much filler, hence the 4 not 5 stars. Great ending to a great trilogy.

A great ending to a undervalued trilogy. It is a series I would recommend for beginners trying to get into fantasy. The scriving, magic system, is well thought out and explained but easy to grasp for those who arent interested in the minute detail of it. The ability to watch the magic system grow from the first two books was awesome to see. The scriving system of re-writing the rules to reality is a creative magic systems that is basic on the surface, but is incredibly deep; which is fully on display as the series evolves.

This book caps of the trilogy with a grand epic fantasy war. However, I feel like it got too grand for its own good, and lost some readability and relatability along the way.

Here's a link to my video review: https://youtu.be/bqJ33eMl384?t=8

This book starts 8 years after book 2, Shorefall. Sancia, Berenice, and the team are in the middle of a war they have been fighting for years, one that they are dangerously close to losing.

This 8 year time skip is used extraordinarily well. It breathes new life into the story, and provides a mystery of what happened in those skipped years. The world has changed in the meantime, and it's left to us to adjust to it.

In this book, the antagonist is a hivemind force. The protagonists are building their own kind of hivemind society, through the twinning magic. This provides an interesting thematic contrast in the story, as we see both the good and horrific features of a hivemind setup. I only wish that this had been used more, as it seemed to have so much potential. The characters seem tangentially aware of the fact that they are a reflection of the antagonist, but I wish that this had in some way played a larger part in the ending, where it seems all of the horrors of a hivemind situation are forgotten.

One of the fun parts of a magic system is the feeling of figuring out how it works. However, the magic in this book is so complicated that there are diagrams explaining the connections. After I read the passage three times, I still didn't understand what the diagrams were even trying to convey. At this point, the magic is so complicated that it has lost its fun.

The covers of these book are absolutely gorgeous. I can't stop talking about how perfect they are.

Thanks to Random House Publishing Group (Ballantine) and Netgalley for a copy of this book to review. All opinions are my own.

This is certainly a finale to end all finales, and Robert Jackson Bennett took care to make sure that we didn't end up with any unanswered questions. But with that came more than a few slow bits that made it arduous to read at times. However I love that we get to see more of Berenice, Clef, and even Crasedes throughout as Sancia takes more of a backseat. The fallout from the events of Shorefall is QUITE intense and not anywhere near simple to overcome. But the technical innovation in scriving that we see in Locklands is beyond what we've seen before, just amazing! While it's the weakest of the three books, it's still absolutely worth the read.

*Thank you to Del Rey and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

Locklands by Robert Jackson Bennett- A hard-hitting dark saga unfolds in this third and final installment of Robert Jackson Bennett's Founders Trilogy. The main characters all return, but a bit overwhelmed by the onslaught of a God, who uses scriving to control minds as well as objects. Not as much fun as the first two books, for me, but bold and ambitious fantasy. A little grim, sure, but rewarding. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC!

You can’t dance through a monsoon
Magical epic fantasy without the expected bits, of witches, wizards, religion, or potions. This fantasy is non stop action, based on the mind, reality and changes everything. The characters so unusual, well developed and fascinating have become important to me through the series, Clef is still my favorite. Each character has their own strengths and weaknesses that are played upon perfectly, even with their death. Yes there is death, and it is heart breaking, twisting and revealing.
Man, this was intense, non stop intense. I had to read it in small chunks. So much was happening, changing, life is at its end or not, plans are made/unmade, an unstoppable all powerful dangerous villain is coming. Memories are revealed, to all, we finally find out how this all began, how they each began. (Get out the tissues) The conclusion was perfect for the story, it wrapped up all the loose ends.
I really enjoyed it, not as much as the first two. It’s hard to watch all the characters you’ve watched grow, get smacked around and downed. What an epic ride this has been.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House Publishing for an eARC of Locklands in exchange for an honest review!

I think my reviews of the previous two books have amounted to me yelling incoherently, but I understand that for NetGalley review purposes I need to have coherent thoughts about the book.

Locklands wraps up the Founders trilogy quite nicely, I think, even though there were points wherein the stakes were ratcheted up to the point where I wanted to ask, "how much worse can it get for Sancia, Berenice, and Clef oh my GOD?" but the conclusion was very emotionally satisfying and the epilogue was a nice little study in grief, and it felt very deeply human. Bennett did a very good job at growing his characters throughout the series, and I think that while part of me wishes that certain characters were expanded upon (Gregor, hello), the choices Bennett makes are the right ones for the story and while there are parts of his writing—mostly the dialogue and the overall messaging—that I found to be a bit clunky or awkward or heavy handed, he's pulled off a remarkably cohesive and consistent narrative, and I was delighted at seeing how all the threads came together. I also really appreciated how he handled the consequences of everyone's choices, and I do not remember the last time I read a conclusion to a series that was so hopeful and devastating at the same time.

There is also a movie-like quality to this book, I think, and even though the characters are clearly living in a complete and utter hell world, I could still see it so clearly, and Bennett clearly put a lot of care into the world outside of Tevanne. Foundryside remains my favorite book in the series, but I think Locklands does the series justice and is an excellent conclusion, and following this series has been so, so worth it.

Series Info/Source: This is the third (and final) book in The Founders Trilogy. I got an eGalley of this book through NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: This book starts us off a number of years in the future. Sancia and Berenice have worked to start a new and peaceful community. They are also trying to rescue and protect other parts of the world from Tevanne (a gigantic entity that is taking over human minds).

I am not going to try to explain the plot any more than the above, it is complicated. Needless to say a lot of the plot ends up involving Clef, his son, and his history in general. I continue to enjoy the idea behind scriving but some of the concepts around editing realities gets a bit abstract in this story. The concept of many humans joining into one entity mind is also explored a lot here; mainly from the angle of how much more peaceful this makes society. It is an interesting concept.

I did have some issues with this book though. It is long and it feels really long. I kept falling asleep while reading it and really struggled to read and stay engaged with the story. The characters don’t really grow or change much and aren’t very relatable. There are a lot of characters here and we do engage with Berenice and Sancia quite a bit. Clef continues to be one of my favorite characters but he felt strangely distanced in this book and there was a lot less of his humor to lighten things up. The story also starts to feel repetitive; they hunt down a part of Tevanne, have a lot of trouble, retreat, make a new plan, and do it all over again with various variations to their actions.

I also had an issue with how much page space was given to describing the scrivings. At this point we understand the concept of scriving and we don’t need to read how they are made and used in gritty detail over and over. This drew out an already long story and could have been edited some to make this story tighter and more exciting to read.

I know I am complaining a lot but that’s because the main feeling I felt when I finished reading this was relief to be done with it. It is decently written, there is a cool world here, some neat concepts and I enjoy the action scenes. However, most of these aspects were introduced and described in the first two books. As a result, this book just feels more like a “playing out” of what had to happen to tie up the story. There weren’t any huge surprises and I didn’t really enjoy reading this but I did want to know how everything was going to wrap up. My favorite part of this whole book was the afterward where Bennett talks about writing this book during the pandemic.

My Summary (3/5): Overall this book was disappointing to me. It was decently written and did tie the story up nicely (even if things get a bit abstract and strange at the end). It just felt really long. The characters are somewhat distanced, the plot gets repetitive, and the amount of page space given to covering (and re-covering) scriving techniques was excessive. Was it worth the 8 hours it took me to read? Eh…not really, but if you are engaged in this series you probably want to finish it up. At the beginning of this series I was eager to read Bennett’s other series, after this book…not so much.

While I greatly enjoyed the first two entries in this series, the conclusion to the trilogy fell a little flat for me. It's not that the story was poorly conceived or executed, it just felt like too great a departure from where it started. Understandably so, in-story, as the stakes rose to astronomical heights in the cliffhanger ending of the second book, but all the same, this just didn't feel like it was part of the same series. We lost the familiar setting of Tevanne, which was one of the big draws to the series for me in the first place. We lost the warring, mafia-esque campos, we lost a great deal of the original cast, and we lost everything about the original plot except for the high-stakes endgame stuff.
Again, I want to reiterate that I understand why the story went there, I just didn't enjoy it because it felt like I was reading something else. The series lost its sense of identity with this entry, which was disappointing. So much time passes between the end of the second book and this one and so much about the story and world and characters changes that it almost feels like the first two books were a duology and this one a standalone. I still enjoyed the book, for the most part, and I loved the characters and the themes. But in addition to the identity crisis the book suffered, I also did not like the direction the author took with the ending. I think he was going for an ending that resonated with the theme “A society grows great when old men plant trees in whose shade they shall never sit," but it just felt a little hollow to me, especially considering how... alien the culture felt by the end. This no longer felt like a society of humans when they went full telepathy in the epilogue and went to... space, or something. It didn't feel fair to either Sancia or Berenice, where their stories ended. I just felt sad for them, not satisfied. It was bitter, without any sweet to mitigate it. And I also didn't like the shoehorned-in ending for Gregor. He felt like a tacked-on afterthought in the epilogue, too.
I don't know. I enjoyed reading the book, and I can't say I'm completely dissatisfied with the ending to this series, the first two volumes of which I enjoyed immensely. But I do feel that the author made a handful of very weird choices, and that the book suffered for it.