Sections
Shorefall offers a natural thematic progression from the great Foundryside, further expanding the link between technology and oppression while presenting a memorable antagonist that challenges the protagonist’s worldview, daring her to find a better solution for society than his tyrannical nihilism.
When she was a slave in a plantation, doctors experimented on Sancia. Scriving is the skill that alters the properties of an object through a series of written commands, but instead of an object, the doctors were attempting to create a scrived person: a slave with special attributes, extremely powerful but also incapable of disobedience. Sancia, however, was granted the ability to [...]
Foundryside is a great urban fantasy novel set in a world where people can change the properties of matter – an ability held by powerful merchant houses that monopolize knowledge to maximize profit and control the city of Tevanne with an iron fist.
The protagonist is Sancia, a young thief with a very special ability: she can “communicate” with any object she touches with her bare skin, feeling what it feels, seeing its strengths and weakness, and also its history – where it has been, what hands have touched it. Although using it hurts her, it’s still a very useful talent for a thief to possess, as she can sense what any vault contains without opening it, among other [...]
The final chapter of The Divine Cities trilogy, City of Miracles treads a familiar path, putting an old side character, Sigurd je Harkvaldsson, under the spotlight, once more having to deal with a divine threat and humans who yearn for violence. Although it never reaches the same heights as its predecessor, the novel represents a solid conclusion to the series written by Robert Jackson Bennet.
After a dear friend is assassinated, Sigurd goes on a quest for revenge. He thinks of himself as a blunt instrument and now intends to strike hard and true at the killers without caring about his wellbeing. However, he soon uncovers a plot that may threaten his friend’s daughter, [...]
City of Blades – the second book in The Divine Cities trilogy written by Robert Jackson Bennett – manages to easily surpass its already great predecessor. The novel offers a complicated discussion on the problem of soldiering, juxtaposing the idealized purpose of the military with their real one in a narrative tinged with blood and violence, but also deeply melancholic.
The story follows Saypury General Turyin Mulaghesh in her trip to the city of Voortyashtan, in Continental territory, after she’s requested to come back from retirement by her friend, the new prime minister. Her mission is to remain a secret at all costs: Mulaghesh must solve the disappearance of a young female [...]
Written by Robert Jackson Bennett, City of Stairs is a great urban fantasy novel, building its themes around religion, persecution, and war. The novel excels when it’s dealing with its world’s lore, making it thematically important, but falters when it comes to building suspense in certain scenes.
After an important Saypuri historian is found dead in the city of Bulikov, Saypur puts a young female ambassador named Shara at the head of the investigation. Shara, however, soon understands that her task will grow beyond her wildest dreams, as she proceeds to uncover uncomfortable secrets about Bulikov’s history and about her own people.
The setting of the novel is its [...]