Locklands

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.

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This was a sastisfying conclusion to this trilogy and it feels great to finally be done. I've been reading these books as they released and seeing the characters grow and age has been great. I feel like this book got pretty boring about 40% of the way through but the ending definitely saved it






Thank you to Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine, Del Rey, and NetGalley for providing me with an eBook copy to review.

Much appreciation to Netgalley and Random House/Ballantine for giving me a chance to read this early.

Locklands takes an unconventional risk, taking place eight years after the events of Shorefall. It's a trait that really pays off right away, for having not read the second book in The Founder Trilogy for a couple years, I was certain to be lost and unable to gain footing from the start. The pay off is dependent of the elements of the magic system and plot. We have a new perspective of this desolate universe that leads the reader in a new direction that feels invigorating.

The introduction of Locklands has one of the best openings I've seen in the genre and really brings the story into bloom. I felt book 2 was slower pace than 1, so the bridge between book 2 - 3 really kicked the conclusion in full gear. Characters are being fulfilled and the volume is past 11, a perfect recipe for a promising series of cruel events.

Overall, this series kicked ass and always one I will recommend.

This is a sci-fi story made possible with a fantasy magic system. It deals with a lot of heavy topics one might see in science fiction that left me with some existential dread I didn't enjoy. It is wonderfully written, but also painful to read the ending.

Spoilers

Being absorbed into hive minds and leaving the planet nearly abandoned is way too much for me. Talk about a nightmarish future.

Time jump, yes please. High stakes, oh yeah. I was so scared to read this finale of the Founders trilogy because I did not like the middle book, but this was everything I was hoping for and more. As for the time jump, I think it was appropriate and quite cool because it was like the original magic system on steroids and the reimagining of the magic blew me away.