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A review by opalmars
Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett
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