Reviews with content warning for Injury/injury detail - Foundryside

so the merchant houses and their scrived tools' main thing is that they gaslight gatekeep girlboss their way into altering/manipulating objects and reality. that was interesting.

this book's biggest strengths lie on its magic system and world-building. if it were not for those two, i think i would've not continued reading, because i'm not the biggest fan of the characters (see, a character saying: "With his blood, the damned thing should open for her like a schoolgirl’s legs!" wth was that i seriously wanted to stop reading when i read that) and the writing style. also the middle took forever to read and i almost always found myself bored throughout the entire thing, which is weird, because i do love action and heists and this book has plenty of those—so maybe my problem is in the author's execution of plots and descriptions. i was also debating whether to pick up the next books or not because i really have complicated feelings about this one, but since i kinda liked the second to the last chapter and somehow i got attached to an actual key, i think i'll be continuing with this series. but not so soon, i guess. i might need a palate cleanser first.

i think if you liked six of crows, you might enjoy this, though that was not the case for me so i really don't know lol

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griffinthief's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious 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

4.5

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eegekay's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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planetesastraea's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious reflective 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? No

4.5

I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
I am fond of steampunk universes and this one is no exception: the way technology and magic are intricated builds a fascinating mystery.
The mythology of this world is thought through, clever and refreshing.

The characters are diverse and complex, carrying the weight of their past trauma and current conditions of existence.
Each of them has a pivoting role into the unfolding of events and seeing them work together to achieve something much bigger than themselves is extremely satisfying.

The representation of various ethnic origins, gender and romantic orientations among the main characters made the story even more valuable.

I'll definitely be reading the second installment shortly!

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rinku's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Foundryside was my first five-star read this year because it was such a fun and amazing experience. First, I was not sure if I would enjoy the novel or not. The beginning felt so typical for a high fantasy with a young female protagonist – this doesn’t make it a YA book! – and I wondered if I became tired of the genre. But just a few chapters later, I was highly invested into the story and the characters.

I don’t want to say too much about the plot because it was so full of surprises, twists and made me feel so many different emotions. It begins with the main character Sancia following an order to steal a little box. Instead of returning it to her client, she opens it and finds Cleff, the talking key able to open every keylock. This sets off some unexpecting events spiralling into our protagonists being caught between different fronts of a bigger conflict then they would’ve expected. It should be mentioned that it's quite brutal at some point and has some body horror in it, so please keep this in mind if you want to read it.

The best thing about this novel was the world building and here especially the magic system and the setting. The magic system is one of the greatest I’ve read in a while. In the world of Foundryside, objects are alive and can be commanded through inscribing instructions and properties onto them. It’s furthermore heavily based on physical principles and there are some references to artificial learning. I’m bad at explaining it but Bennett makes it look and work really natural. At many points, it’s integrated so cleverly into the story. I also loved the setting of the story with the different merchant families in an early capitalist era. This is honestly so much better than a fantasy world inspired by the Middle Ages because I’m definitely tired of those. Luckily, this capitalistic world was viewed critically and showed the uneven distribution of wealth vividly – I wonder where the author got the inspiration for this lmao.

As it is usual for high fantasy, we have a main squad made up of different characters and I loved all of them. It was easy to bound with them, especially Sancia, but surprisingly also with characters like Cleff, the key, as well. They all have a great backstories and diverse backgrounds which is nice to see in high fantasy.

All in all, Foundryside was one of my favorite fantasy experiences in a while and I hope that this will continue with its sequels.

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bea_'s review

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adventurous dark emotional funny hopeful mysterious tense fast-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

4.0

I enjoyed it once I got into the plot and the magic system! I think the writing is okay but the author could really use an editor.

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adolin_adonalsium's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-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

4.5

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