Locklands
Ratings57
Average rating4.1
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The jaw-dropping conclusion to the acclaimed Founders Trilogy, from the Hugo–nominated author of Foundryside and Shorefall “Bennett concludes his Founders trilogy . . . with characteristically high-spirited mayhem. Great fun, with nonstop action.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Sancia, Clef, and Berenice have gone up against long odds in the past. But the war they’re fighting now is one even they can’t win. This time, they’re not facing robber-baron elites or even an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe—one that uses the magic of scriving to control not just objects but human minds. To fight it, they’ve used scriving technology to transform themselves and their allies into an army—a society—unlike anything humanity has seen before. With its strength at their backs, they’ve freed a handful of their enemy’s hosts from servitude, and even defeated some of its fearsome, reality-altering dreadnoughts. Yet despite their efforts, their enemy marches on. Implacable. Unstoppable. Now, as their opponent closes in on its true prize—an ancient doorway, long buried, that leads to the chambers at the center of creation itself—Sancia and her friends glimpse a last opportunity to stop this unbeatable foe. To do so, they’ll have to unlock the centuries-old mystery of scriving’s origins, embark on a desperate mission into the heart of their enemy’s power, and pull off the most daring heist they’ve ever attempted. But their adversary might have a spy in their ranks—and a last trick up its sleeve. And to have a chance at victory, Sancia, Clef, and Berenice will have to make a sacrifice beyond anything that’s come before.
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3 primary booksThe Founders Trilogy
The Founders Trilogy is a 3-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2018 with contributions by Robert Jackson Bennett.
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The Founders Trilogy burst onto the scene with Foundryside showing an engaging cast of characters and a very clever magic system. Now we are at the close of the series, the gang of characters is mostly still with us but has expanded to include a whole nation with some intriguing new characters in the form of Aspects. And that expansion of scope is probably the defining feature of this finale. The scope is huge. Whereas the first two novels were largely confined to the city of Tevanne, we are now in a world spanning story. On the whole RJB handles this well, but the sprawl loses some of the intimacy of the earlier novels. The enemy has changed here too. Rather than wealthy elite, or god like Heirophant, they are now facing a world spanning AI entity. In some ways this shows an interesting allegory to modern society.
The story is as action packed as previous ones, the stakes do feel genuine (RJB is not scared of killing off characters). The world building is as fascinating as ever - the ancient city where the door through reality was first opened is an intriguing and vividly realised fever dream. The resolution between Clef, Cresades and Tevanne was well done, giving a satisfying conclusion. However, I miss the heists, the scheming and more intimate feel of the earlier books. This was a good finale, but it is my least favourite book of the series, mostly due to some of my favourite elements of the earlier books getting a bit overwhelmed by the increase in scale.
Requested fro NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Wow that was too much emotion. Standing ovation for the finale. Terrific work.
The first instalment took me by surprise, I instantly took to Sancia and Cleft. The support cast where also very likeable and the bad guys were fleshed out. Now the finale has completed the series and Sancia is a hero that we all need.
There's only a few books that I feel I am competent engrossed in the characters and can visually see them as real people and know what choices they'd make. This is one of them, very well written. I don't want to say too much as it's the final book and most of the story will be spoiler territory.
5/5 stars I encourage fantasy readers to dive into this series.
Come chat with me about books and all things sci-fi fantasy @readsgavin
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