Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Foundryside

Near the end whenever Sancia and her crew are trying to get the imperiat and Clef back, we had a whole section of them just going over scientific and boring shit that could of been easily summarized in a paragraph or just a page.

That was really my only problem. I’m so exited to see how Sancia and Berenice’s relationship grows. I’m so exited for some good sapphic romance!!

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megansreading's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.5

Things I liked:
Worldbuilding - The magic system and political system in this story are masterfully done. I live the idea of scrivings. The characters use the magic in creative, logical ways that are really fun to follow. It is pretty heavy on worldbuilding, though, so that may not be your style.
Main Character - Sancia is blunt, harsh, and has a lot of room for growth. I throughly enjoyed being in her head, and I sympathized with her struggles. She has a great arc but it leaves room for more in the next books.
Side Characters - A character named Clef stole the show for me. He was endearing from the beginning. I also enjoyed Gregor, who gets some great development in this story.
Heists - This story has roughly four heist plans, which is one of my favorite tropes. If you’re wanting an adult version of Six of Crows this might be for you.

Things I didn’t like:
SA Content - This is more of a personal ick, but I do not enjoy reading about sexual assault. There is nothing explicit on page, but our main character does have two men on separate occasions threaten/prepare to r*pe her. I hate it. Didn’t ruin the book for me, but something to be aware of.
Writing Style - The author uses a lot of unnecessary scene breaks for the sake of drama. It makes for good stopping points but broke up my reading flow.
Villains - There are a couple major villains in this book, and one of them definitely stuck out in a good way. However, they both felt like they both needed more rounding out. This wasn’t a story where I was intrigued by the main villains.

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randiriel's review against another edition

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Why, in a fictional world with fictional locations, is a slur etymologically based on a real world location used? He could have said travelers. He could have said nomads. He could have said anything. Instead he chose a slur. I would have DNFed and returned it at that point if it wasn't a library book. Instead, I pressed on, and found lazy and mediocre writing. Phrases are repeated within sentences, worldbuilding is dumped through clumsy character dialogue, the editing is poor, the characters are shallow and not consistent (one claims to be vehemently opposed to killing, but proceeds to have no problems with it minutes later), the worldbuilding and magic system are the only things worth reading this book for. Even the contrived swearing is lazy; swears roll off the tongue, these don't. Not the worst book I've read this year. Not remotely the best. Compared to the other titles I've read this year, I'd call this firmly below average.

I wrote that much partway through reading. I've come to amend.

Spoiler

If you can use anything but rape, DON'T USE RAPE.

This has now passed into bad book territory. 75% through and I'm officially DNFing it. An extremely rare occurrence, which should say something.

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jurizprudence's review

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

3.75

“Reality doesn’t matter. If you can change something’s mind enough, it’ll believe whatever reality you choose.”

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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queenie_ofthe_void'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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rwalker101's review

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adventurous dark hopeful mysterious fast-paced

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

4.5

This book wears its inspirations very boldly on its sleeve, but for someone who enjoys those inspirations (namely Sanderson's Mistborn series), this was a highly enjoyable read! It's fast-paced and action-filled, leading the reader through its mysteries one after the other in quick, bloody succession. The magic system is methodical and built very logically, but also provides a great deal of wiggle room for the bending of rules - something I love to watch authors play with, and something Bennett does with gusto. If you love fast and fun fantasy, this book is definitely for you!

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serafinasmith's review

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adventurous dark fast-paced

Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? N/A
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

The world-building in this book was phenomenal and kept me hooked, but the dialogue was very juvenile and off-putting. If it weren't for the stilted meme-like bad joking between some of the characters, maybe I would have given it five stars.

It was very fast-paced, which I liked, and which kept me going through the first half, even when I wasn't sure if I was interested enough to continue. The second half had me completely hooked, however, and I read most of it in a day. It's a shame that the dialogue and sometimes expository writing was so strange and at times, frankly bad, because the world is so intriguing (based roughly on coding and AI, but in a magical setting) and the plot definitely heats up at the end. That said, I was also disappointed with the end because it didn't really resolve completely. But I guess it's the first installment of a trilogy so that's to be expected.

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