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sarkbordark's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I did not expect this book to be so gruesome. While the magic system was pretty thought out, there were times it used elementary science that didn't need so much explanation. It had a weird mix of YA and grimdark. Also the romance was just kinda thrown in, like the author felt the need for a live interest, but there was very little connection between the reo characters. I am tempted to continue, bur it's not at the top of my list. Also the rape threat was thrown around a lot, I get tired of that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Blood, and Cannibalism
stick2theplan's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
I enjoyed this book and will probably read the sequel, but it’s not without its flaws. Foundryside required me to actively suspend my disbelief and hold it at bay. My foes in this task included an ancient, sentient key , whose anachronistic manner of speaking most closely resembled the “hello, fellow kids” meme, and a magic system that made less sense the more it was explained. And it was explained a lot.
Once I forced myself not to think too hard about it, I did enjoy Foundryside for what it is: a heist novel. The plot itself was solid and the pacing was good, though the ending felt a little abrupt. The book was laden with twists and reveals, some of which were very well executed. I also found the lore interesting. Because none of the POV characters understood the lore, it didn’t suffer from the over-explaining that hindered the magic/technology of the present.
As for the characters, they were mostly likable but satisfyingly complex. There was appreciable, earned growth from all the secondary characters. I think I was most underwhelmed with the main character’s arc. I’d like to have seen more of her development manifest throughout the novel; it was sort of spelled out for her by a literal deus ex machina. So much telling, not enough showing in this book. Still, the characters did feel fleshed out. The tropey stock characters were few and far between. That said, Bennet uses the antagonist-to-ally bait and switch one time too many for the eventual antagonist reveal to have much shock value.
At the end of the day, this is still a novel I’ll recommend to my friends.
Once I forced myself not to think too hard about it, I did enjoy Foundryside for what it is: a heist novel. The plot itself was solid and the pacing was good, though the ending felt a little abrupt. The book was laden with twists and reveals, some of which were very well executed. I also found the lore interesting. Because none of the POV characters understood the lore, it didn’t suffer from the over-explaining that hindered the magic/technology of the present.
As for the characters, they were mostly likable but satisfyingly complex. There was appreciable, earned growth from all the secondary characters. I think I was most underwhelmed with the main character’s arc. I’d like to have seen more of her development manifest throughout the novel; it was sort of spelled out for her by a literal deus ex machina. So much telling, not enough showing in this book. Still, the characters did feel fleshed out. The tropey stock characters were few and far between. That said, Bennet uses the antagonist-to-ally bait and switch one time too many for the eventual antagonist reveal to have much shock value.
At the end of the day, this is still a novel I’ll recommend to my friends.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical trauma, Murder, Colonisation, and War
Moderate: Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Torture, Vomit, Trafficking, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Minor: Emotional abuse, Pedophilia, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Cannibalism, and Car accident
esknight89's review against another edition
I loved the author's most recent novel "The Tainted Cup" so I picked this up. I craved the compelling writing I found in that book, but I didn't find it here. The way that all the characters talk is very juvenile, even the centuries old "key" and the old scriver. Lots of describing things as "insane" and "crazy".
One thing I couldn't get out of my head was the concept of the formerly enslaved heroine knowing how to read. Did someone teach her how to read inbetween a mad-scientist's experimentation and doing contractual theiving?
I tried to give it a chance, but it started to feel like a slog at 58%.
One thing I couldn't get out of my head was the concept of the formerly enslaved heroine knowing how to read. Did someone teach her how to read inbetween a mad-scientist's experimentation and doing contractual theiving?
I tried to give it a chance, but it started to feel like a slog at 58%.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical trauma, and Fire/Fire injury
opalmars's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Oh, this was FUN!!!!!!!!!!! It’s been a while since I’ve been this enthralled by a book series, especially a high fantasy one. Interesting magic system, great characters, a HEIST??!?!? What more could you ask for? 🤩🤩🤩
The world building was extremely easy to understand. The magic system consists of scriving – writing specific codes into objects to make them do things that would normally be impossible. It’s a surprisingly simple magic system, but it has so many possibilities! I really enjoyed the way the author utilized this simple concept, and how he managed to do so much with it. I also love how academic and intellectual it all felt; it’s interesting to see a magic system that isn’t really about magic at all, but about studying and comprehending codes and ancient alphabets; anyone can do “magic” in this world, they just have to study enough.
The MC, Sancia, is a thief, and a damn good one, because she has the unique ability to touch objects and fully understand what they’re scrived to do; she can basically hear the objects “thoughts”. Sancia’s powers were extremely interesting, and finding out where they came from was… a lot. 😨 I especially appreciated seeing her internal struggle with her freedom. I reeeeally liked following Sancia, and I think she was a great MC! She’s so strong and cunning, but also fun and empathetic. Her desire for companionship felt so real, and I loved seeing her grow closer with Clef. 🥺
Sancia gets caught up in a bunch of problems, and long story short, she ends up having to pull off a VERY DANGEROUS heist, that is also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, because the whole city (or maybe the whole world) could be affected if she can’t pull it off. 🫣
This heist was SUUUPER intense, and I loved every little step of this adventure, especially how Sancia ended up teaming up with all of the other characters in the book! This was kind of found-family, except it was more like… *forced*-family, because none of them really wanted to work together, but they kind of had to lmfao 💀. Seeing them bickering, hiding secrets, and then, slowly, starting to trust each other, was really nice. I also liked how bizarre this group was lol. Sometimes, a found family is a classist mad scholar, his brilliant (lesbian) apprentice, an overtly moral veteran from a noble house with a hero complex, a thief with impossible powers, and a talking key, and I think that’s beautiful. 🫶🏻
Gregor (the noble veteran) was a really interesting character, too. I enjoyed seeing the duality between his moral integrity and his privilege; I think it was all really well explored (and I appreciated whenever Sancia called him out on his privilege).Finding out that Ofelia had scrived Gregor, and that Sancia was actually NOT the 1st scrived human, was WILD!!! 😨😨 😨 I really enjoyed seeing Gregor fight against her orders, and seeing his morality and empathy “win” in the end.
The villains were also extremely well written! I didn’t really see them coming, though there were definitely clues and foreshadowing! These villains didn’t come out of nowhere, and they had such good motives!Tomas just wanted more power and money, which isn’t unheard of. Ofelia also testing on humans wasn’t entirely surprising, but hearing she did the same to her SON??? 😰 It made sense, though, given her backstory! And Estelle?! She was definitely a bit crazy, but honestly?? I could sympathize with her! All of these villains felt SO REALISTIC! Their actions, while reprehensible, made so much sense, and you could even sympathize with some of their motives! They were very well-developed!
As the story progressed, we learned more and more about this world’s lore, which was *really* interesting. This book has a full, satisfying arc, but definitely leaves the story open for continuation, especially now that we have more mysteries to solve, so I’m really excited about the sequels!
I think my only negative point would be the romance. I don’t think it was very well developed, and I wish the characters had interacted more before showing attraction to each other. The romance was a minimal point in the story, so it didn’t really affect much of it, but I wish it’d been better built up.
But, overall, I think this book was great! It was action-packed and fast-paced, and the characters, magic system and world were great! I also really loved the audiobook, and the different voices the narrator did for each character definitely elevated the story, for me! If you enjoy heist stories, I definitely recommend this one!
I’m lowkey sad that this series doesn’t have any fandom 😭. There’s like… 3 pieces of fanart and 10 tumblr text posts about it… I’m SAD! This book desserves MORE ATTENTION!!! It deserves memes! Official character cards! Fanart! A beautiful map! PLEASE! 😭🙏🏻
The world building was extremely easy to understand. The magic system consists of scriving – writing specific codes into objects to make them do things that would normally be impossible. It’s a surprisingly simple magic system, but it has so many possibilities! I really enjoyed the way the author utilized this simple concept, and how he managed to do so much with it. I also love how academic and intellectual it all felt; it’s interesting to see a magic system that isn’t really about magic at all, but about studying and comprehending codes and ancient alphabets; anyone can do “magic” in this world, they just have to study enough.
The MC, Sancia, is a thief, and a damn good one, because she has the unique ability to touch objects and fully understand what they’re scrived to do; she can basically hear the objects “thoughts”. Sancia’s powers were extremely interesting, and finding out where they came from was… a lot. 😨 I especially appreciated seeing her internal struggle with her freedom. I reeeeally liked following Sancia, and I think she was a great MC! She’s so strong and cunning, but also fun and empathetic. Her desire for companionship felt so real, and I loved seeing her grow closer with Clef. 🥺
Sancia gets caught up in a bunch of problems, and long story short, she ends up having to pull off a VERY DANGEROUS heist, that is also EXTREMELY IMPORTANT, because the whole city (or maybe the whole world) could be affected if she can’t pull it off. 🫣
This heist was SUUUPER intense, and I loved every little step of this adventure, especially how Sancia ended up teaming up with all of the other characters in the book! This was kind of found-family, except it was more like… *forced*-family, because none of them really wanted to work together, but they kind of had to lmfao 💀. Seeing them bickering, hiding secrets, and then, slowly, starting to trust each other, was really nice. I also liked how bizarre this group was lol. Sometimes, a found family is a classist mad scholar, his brilliant (lesbian) apprentice, an overtly moral veteran from a noble house with a hero complex, a thief with impossible powers, and a talking key, and I think that’s beautiful. 🫶🏻
Gregor (the noble veteran) was a really interesting character, too. I enjoyed seeing the duality between his moral integrity and his privilege; I think it was all really well explored (and I appreciated whenever Sancia called him out on his privilege).
The villains were also extremely well written! I didn’t really see them coming, though there were definitely clues and foreshadowing! These villains didn’t come out of nowhere, and they had such good motives!
As the story progressed, we learned more and more about this world’s lore, which was *really* interesting. This book has a full, satisfying arc, but definitely leaves the story open for continuation, especially now that we have more mysteries to solve, so I’m really excited about the sequels!
I think my only negative point would be the romance. I don’t think it was very well developed, and I wish the characters had interacted more before showing attraction to each other. The romance was a minimal point in the story, so it didn’t really affect much of it, but I wish it’d been better built up.
But, overall, I think this book was great! It was action-packed and fast-paced, and the characters, magic system and world were great! I also really loved the audiobook, and the different voices the narrator did for each character definitely elevated the story, for me! If you enjoy heist stories, I definitely recommend this one!
I’m lowkey sad that this series doesn’t have any fandom 😭. There’s like… 3 pieces of fanart and 10 tumblr text posts about it… I’m SAD! This book desserves MORE ATTENTION!!! It deserves memes! Official character cards! Fanart! A beautiful map! PLEASE! 😭🙏🏻
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Physical abuse, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Torture, Vomit, and Classism
Minor: Domestic abuse, Sexual harassment, and War
mandyjedi's review against another edition
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Torture, and Blood
sersi's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Slavery, Blood, Excrement, Medical trauma, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Sexual violence
courtmckenz's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, and Blood
mlatts's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, and Colonisation
Moderate: Body horror and Blood
raneyak's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Really enjoyed it! Good world building and an interesting magic system. Points docked for the lackluster romance buildup and overuse of the word “scrumming”.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Murder, Alcohol, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Trafficking, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Pedophilia, Sexual content, Vomit, and War
nokvi's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
I contemplated a lot about how to effectively rate this book. Beautiful magic system and lovable characters, Foundryside was one of my more enjoyable reads. Bennett does his best to ease you into the world of Foundryside and the fact that our MC Sancia is just as confused about the magic system as we are is the cherry on top. We navigate the world with Sancia as Bennett, explains the magic system to us over...
and over
and over
okay Robert I understand the basics now I promise
The man can write an action scene because trust there are some gory points in this book. Other than Robert's tendency to tell instead of show sometimes and his over explaining (which I can understand why people DNF this book)
Foundryside is wonderful critique of human greed, capitalism and hard limits. It begs us to ask just how much are we willing to do in the name of advancement? At what point does righteous anger become needless slaughter? We meet men and women willing to bend the very fabric of our world to ensure that they get what they want. Tevanne is a city filled with so much woes and those with the ability to assist can't be bothered thus leaving thousands without. Foundryside examines how history is twisted and lost thus influencing the world to repeat or get trapped in a similar cycle. It ask us to look within as we try to understand world as our characters do
We follow three characters as they interact with the environment and circumstances around them and in a limited third person POV, Bennett produces exceptional world building (other than when he info dumps), which is an experience when 1 member of your cast is as lost as the reader, the other is been blindsided and is naive to just how corrupt the system he is trying to fix is (Gregor my baby) and the last one is so deep within the magical system and power structure that his morals tend to be more self serving before reaching for the better.
Foundryside definitely made it's impact and I do so look forward to what is done in book 2
and over
and over
okay Robert I understand the basics now I promise
The man can write an action scene because trust there are some gory points in this book. Other than Robert's tendency to tell instead of show sometimes and his over explaining (which I can understand why people DNF this book)
Foundryside is wonderful critique of human greed, capitalism and hard limits. It begs us to ask just how much are we willing to do in the name of advancement? At what point does righteous anger become needless slaughter? We meet men and women willing to bend the very fabric of our world to ensure that they get what they want. Tevanne is a city filled with so much woes and those with the ability to assist can't be bothered thus leaving thousands without. Foundryside examines how history is twisted and lost thus influencing the world to repeat or get trapped in a similar cycle. It ask us to look within as we try to understand world as our characters do
We follow three characters as they interact with the environment and circumstances around them and in a limited third person POV, Bennett produces exceptional world building (other than when he info dumps), which is an experience when 1 member of your cast is as lost as the reader, the other is been blindsided and is naive to just how corrupt the system he is trying to fix is (Gregor my baby) and the last one is so deep within the magical system and power structure that his morals tend to be more self serving before reaching for the better.
Foundryside definitely made it's impact and I do so look forward to what is done in book 2
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Classism
Moderate: Body horror, Fatphobia, Gore, Slavery, Violence, and War