Book Review: Foundryside

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett, Founders #1 

Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. 

But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic--the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience--have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine. But if they can unlock the artifact’s secrets, they will rewrite the world itself to suit their aims. 

Now someone in those Houses wants Sancia dead, and the artifact for themselves. And in the city of Tevanne, there’s nobody with the power to stop them. 

To have a chance at surviving—and at stopping the deadly transformation that’s under way—Sancia will have to marshal unlikely allies, learn to harness the artifact’s power for herself, and undergo her own transformation, one that will turn her into something she could never have imagined. 

Foundryside is the latest edition to Robert Jackson Bennet's repertoire. A few years ago Robert Jackson Bennet broke through with his The Divine Cities trilogy. Foundryside is the first instalment in the Founders series which already quite frankly starts off with a blast. 

Meet Sancia Grado, one of the best thieves out there. She has an unique ability to sense out inamimate and animate objects. Sancia gets recruited for a special mission, to steal a powerful artifact. Who is better suited that Sancia who is able to get passed any trap laid out for her. And so the story begins. The first few pages have a heavy focus on executing this heist. It was a good decision to start the story like this as Robert Jackson Bennets starts to reveal certain aspects of his created world. But without giving too much elaboration to start with. You will be left wondering for a long time. So during this first heist, some parts of the executing aren't going Sancia's way and well she destroys almost all of the waterfront of Tevanne. This inadvertently draws the attention of some high ranked officials and the Merchant Houses. With all the focus now on Sancia, she quickly has to find a way to make sense of the foreign object she now has and see if she can make "scriving" work in her favor. 

This "scriving" brings me to my next part. Scriving is the magical art of bringing objects to life to a certain degree. Over the course of all the books that I have been able to read I have come across many different magic styles. Creating something fresh and new is difficult but the scriving that Robert Jackson Bennet has devised is something that I have not seen before. So getting back to that. As I mentioned with scriving things can be altered. It can be done lightly but it can also be done to much bigger extremes. Making an object think that it is something completely else. ie. letting a lock only except one specific key or open to a specific something. The artefact that Sancia has stolen plays a powerful part in this. The reason why this is called scriving is because specific runes/glyphs/symbols are written down onto the objects. 

The world in itself feels both rough and majestic at the same time. Robert Jackson Bennet has created a big difference between the rich and the poor. ie. the common citizen and those of the four Merchant Houses. It feels like a medieval italian, renaissance story and the magic part of it livens up by a few ten-fold even more. I loved reading about this world and the way several events were happening made it feel like I was right there. 

After a the first heist thing change in the way that the story is being told. When Cleff is introduced that story switches from a "normal" way into having a lot a unspoken conversations. I know this can be bothersome for some readers but I found it a joy to read. I got really into these parts and even started to whisper it a bit for myself. Furthermore it just adds a ton to the story. 

As for a heroine, I think Robert Jackson Bennet could not have outlined her fate any better. From the beginning of the story you will be rooting for Sancia. She is not a girl who is easily stepped on and she also does not claim that she know everything and in this last part there is a solid growth in her character step by step she comes to understand what power she has and how to control it. 

So for the conclusion: Foundryside is a book that you will enjoy. On the forefront it might look like a classical heist story but Robert Jackson Bennet has elevated it to a different level.