Foundryside

the heart-pounding first book in the Founders Trilogy

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Foundryside

By: Robert Jackson Bennett

Narrated by: Tara Sands

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About this listen

'The exciting beginning of a promising new epic fantasy series. Prepare for ancient mysteries, innovative magic, and heart-pounding heists' Brandon Sanderson, New York Times bestselling author of Oathbringer

She thought it was just another job. But her discovery could bring the city to its knees . . .

The city of Tevanne runs on scrivings, industrialised magical inscriptions that make inanimate objects sentient; they power everything, from walls to wheels to weapons. Scrivings have brought enormous progress and enormous wealth - but only to the four merchant Houses who control them. Everyone else is a servant or slave, or they eke a precarious living in the hellhole called the Commons.

There's not much in the way of work for an escaped slave like Sancia Grado, but she has an unnatural talent that makes her one of the best thieves in the city. When she's offered a lucrative job to steal an ancient artefact from a heavily guarded warehouse, Sancia agrees, dreaming of leaving the Commons - but instead, she finds herself the target of a murderous conspiracy. Someone powerful in Tevanne wants the artefact, and Sancia dead - and whoever it is already wields power beyond imagining.

Sancia will need every ally, and every ounce of wits at her disposal, if she is to survive - because if her enemy gets the artefact and unlocks its secrets, thousands will die, and, even worse, it will allow ancient evils back into the world and turn their city into a devastated battleground.

'Robert Jackson Bennett deserves a huge audience' Brent Weeks

'An altogether terrific read' Sebastien de Castell

'Intricate worldbuilding, fascinating magic, and engaging characters. More please!' Felicia Day

'Inventive, immersive, and thrilling . . . Do yourself a favor and pick this up!' Kevin Hearne©2018 Robert Jackson Bennett

Epic

Epic Fantasy

Fantasy

Fiction

Paranormal

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Critic reviews

The exciting beginning of a promising new epic fantasy series. Prepare for ancient mysteries, innovative magic, and heart-pounding heists

In Foundryside, scriving magic is the cheat code to reality, and Bennett is a master gamer. A refreshing look at magic - featuring a heroine every reader will root for - from one of the smartest writers I know

Complex characters, magic that is tech and vice versa, a world bound by warring trade dynasties: Bennett will leave you in awe once you remember to breathe!

A compelling treatise on power and its misuse (Eric Brown)

An absolutely riveting secondary world fantasy that grounds its magic in industrialized processes, heavy machinery and capitalist dystopia . . . When I say I couldn't put "Foundryside" down, what I mean is this: I felt fully, utterly engaged by the ideas, actually in love with the core characters for their differences and the immensely generative friction between them, and in awe of Bennett's craft. I went to bed late reading it and woke up early to finish it . . . A magnificent, mind-blowing start to a series I'm hungry for (Amal El-Mohtar)

Funny, exciting, pacy and gory, this terrific debut promises greater things to come

Inventive, immersive, and thrilling, Foundryside is a fascinating look at how our best intentions can be corrupted - and how wickedly awesome and terrifying gravity belts can be. Do yourself a favor and pick this up

Robert Jackson Bennett deserves a huge audience

An absolutely riveting secondary world fantasy . . . I felt fully, utterly engaged by the ideas, actually in love with the core characters for their differences and the immensely generative friction between them, and in awe of Bennett's craft . . . A magnificent, mind-blowing start to a series I'm hungry for (Amar El-Mohtar)

Intricate worldbuilding, fascinating magic, and engaging characters. More please!

Foundryside will not disappoint. It's a world like no other, a concept like no other and a read like no other

An irresistible, fast-paced adventure that welcomes even non-fantasy fans into its pages, unveiling a remarkable and sophisticated world of magic and intrigue. With non-stop twists, a compelling cast of characters, and an innovative magic system, Foundryside is an altogether terrific read

Fast-paced, intelligent, and fun with a fantastically cool magic system. I can't wait to read the next one

The best epic fantasy of the year is also the best cyberpunk of the year. How often do you get to say that?

Foundryside pulls you in with fast-paced heists, then knocks you down with its innovative magic system. Fun, thoughtful, and thrilling from cover to cover, it's sword-and-sorcery meets computer programming - a must for fans of Scott Lynch and Brandon Sanderson

Most relevant

I bought this because I really wanted the book but the Kindle version had dramatic flaws.

Narration: the voice is a tad annoying. It shakes like due to nervousness and it's too high pitched.

Story: good story. Somehow it feels less original than the Divine Cities but after having some time to internalize it, I came to appreciate it more. I guess it might have been a problem of expectations than the story actually not being good. Good foreshadowing, good plot twists, original world, good characters, solid 4.5/5. There's a lot of world with rich history, interesting artifacts, and a cool physical magic system. It's excellent that they need to make an artificial intelligence by actually incorporating a human one in an object.

The magic system is new, interesting, rule-based, inspired from physics, and has limitations just like it's supposed to. The plot is interesting, fast paced, and full of heists. There are lots of sexy ancient artefacts that do all sorts of cool stuff and sexy new artefacts that do other cool stuff. There's engineering, reverse-engineering, and magical artificial intelligence. The characters are likable. I confess to having liked that big dumb lawful good Gregor right since when Sancia broke into his waterfront fortress and it was suggested he's the enemy. It's new, fresh, interesting, makes sense, is unpredictable, and original.

I mostly disliked motivations and character building. How can Sancia befriend Clef so quickly? Why are all the main characters so open to befriending each other? There should be tons of mistrust, even disgust between the main characters but everyone is jolly good friends and ready to take a stroll together through the park very quickly. Which is terribly convenient for advancing the plot. Why does Sancia start out as a strong cold-eyed professional only to become insecure and dismayed by everything she sees? What makes Gregor such an ethical character? He's like a silly cross between Jordan's Galad and Pratchett's Captain Carrot. It was predictable that he was the one to convince Sancia to break into the Mountain but in a 5-minute dialogue?! There's just too much that doesn't make sense about character motivations.

The love story: somehow even great writers like RJB fumble to get a same gender love story right. In heteromance, authors create a visceral feel. The protagonists meet and first glance at each other from the corner of the eye, then laugh awkwardly at each other etc. You know there's a romance brewing and you feel for them. Same gender love stories not so much. It's a bit of hinting and then you are told how they feel. Like the whole affair is a distasteful happenstance that needs to be handled very discreetly. Well that's not good enough. It's not convincing. Convince me, RJB, that they are falling for each other and that they have good reason to do so. Show me more than just their skills or that they make a good team. We're talking romance here, not coworkers.