Shorefall

A Novel

By: Robert Jackson Bennett

Narrated by: Tara Sands

As a magical revolution remakes a city, an ancient evil is awakened in a brilliant novel from the Hugo-nominated author of Foundryside and the Divine Cities trilogy.

“An absolutely wild ride...Foundryside blew me away, and this is a perfect sequel.” (Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times Book Review)

A few years ago, Sancia Grado would’ve happily watched Tevanne burn. Now, she’s hoping to transform her city into something new. Something better. Together with allies Orso, Gregor, and Berenice, she’s about to strike a deadly blow against Tevanne’s cruel robber-baron rulers and wrest power from their hands for the first time in decades.

But then comes a terrifying warning: Crasedes Magnus himself, the first of the legendary hierophants, is about to be reborn. And if he returns, Tevanne will be just the first place to feel his wrath.

Thousands of years ago, Crasedes was an ordinary man who did the impossible: Using the magic of scriving - the art of imbuing objects with sentience - he convinced reality that he was something more than human. Wielding powers beyond comprehension, he strode the world like a god for centuries, meting out justice and razing empires single-handedly, cleansing the world through fire and destruction - and even defeating death itself.

Like it or not, it’s up to Sancia to stop him. But to have a chance in the battle to come, she’ll have to call upon a god of her own - and unlock the door to a scriving technology that could change what it means to be human. And no matter who wins, nothing will ever be the same.

The awe-inspiring second installment of the Founders Trilogy, Shorefall returns us to the world Robert Jackson Bennett created in his acclaimed Foundryside...and forges it anew.

©2020 Robert Jackson Bennett (P)2020 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“The book I’ve most thoroughly and uncomplicatedly enjoyed this year so far. It shocked and delighted and upset me from page to page, managing to thread humor and pathos and intrigue together with the speed and precision of a loom. Its comments on our present moment are so deft and sly that when they turn earnest it’s deeply affecting....[and] sometimes brought me to tears...I’m so excited to see what happens next.” (Amal El-Mohtar, The New York Times)

"Bennett’s characterization...strikes a perfect balance between terror and allure. This thrilling installment will leave readers eager for the series finale." (Publishers Weekly)

"An expertly spun yarn by one of the best fantasy writers on the scene today." (Kirkus Reviews)

The intricate magic system!

I love the tenacity of the characters and how there’s never a dull moment in these books.
I would like a little more world building though

fuckin good

hell yes
review requires at least 15 words . . . . . . .

Really good but some things annoy me

If you like the first book you'll like this one. And if you like fantasy you'll probably like the first one.

*Spoilers below*

Sancia is very smart when the author needs her to be, most of the time really. I assume she in fact is fairly intelligent. Yet she occasionally does completely idiotic things presumably to advance the plot. Just one huge and obvious example

When Sancia meets the heirophant villain the first time, he insistently asks her repeatedly, where is the key, where is the key, it what like 80% of his side of the conversation and she (smartly) resists telling him.

Fast forward a while later when heirophant villain's plots have advanced and he is looking for Valeria. Sancia and co. go to great lengths to protect Valeria. When the villain shows up outside their shop after murdering half the city, Sancia decides to go talk to him to delay him while *Gregor* lines up a shot with a magic scrived bullet to kill the heirophant. With *Clef* on her.

A) Gregor was previously controlled by said heirophant. Granted Sancia wasn't present but she and her team are all aware he can control Gregor since he and his mom put in his resurrection plate. It occurs to *no one* that Gregor might not be able to shoot the godlike heirophant who basically made him. In fact that is their whole plan that he can.

B) For some reason never given, Sancia takes Clef (the key) out of the zone of protection under Valeria's influence when she talks to the heirophant Presides. She *knows* he is desperately looking for the key, and that it gives him massive powers like the ability to cross barriers in reality, which among other things allows him to teleport.

Very predictably, Gregor can't shoot Presides and instead gets controlled by him, and Sancia basically just gives Presides the key after getting knocked around by Gregor.

This whole plan seemed out of character for the group who stormed the Mountain in Foundryside. Like they suddenly dropped from tactical geniuses to complete dumbasses because it advanced the plot for the villain.

Also, right after this, Baronese suddenly realizes her twinned plate with Sancia gives her all of her abilities, which she masters in about 10 seconds, because it's necessary for the plot for someone left to come save Sancia.

Like 80% of the book is good but there are these spots where all logic disappears just to advance the plot and it really annoys me.

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Narrator is pretty good. Some of her voices are kinda cartoonish (Clef especially, but also Orso) or overly emotional, but she's ahead of the curve on audible.

Solid Sequel

Was a little unsure of how this would stack up given the end of the last book it just was clear where things might go but it stood its ground. Quite the cliffhanger on the end but that’s to be expected.

good second book great performance

thanks once again to Tara for bringing this book to life. cool story, grrat concept, fun and geeky and fantastical.

this author is my favorite by far fiction writer

I can't say I love this one in fact I kind of struggled to finish it. Foundryside the first book in the series was absolutely one of the greatest books ever written in as far as fantasy goes in my opinion Im a member of the Robert Jackson patronage I follow him on Twitter. I like a lot of people contacted him via Twitter to congratulate him on the release of this book. I am a huge fan I do feel like this book missed the mark slightly yet it is definitely worth reading but not a Worthy successor to Foundryside. best of luck to all Robert Jackson followers and readers hopefully that's the next book will be a homerun and please remember not everyone picthes a shutout every night and I still love Robert Jackson Bennett. he will remain as always remember of my Mount Rushmore all fiction writers

Amazing ramping of dread, but unused in the end.

Felt like the plot got too big for its own world by the end.

Fantastic!

This was fantastic! This book picks up just a few years after the events of the first book. Sancia, Orso, Gregor, and Berenice are still working together and I thought that they made a great team. The story was incredibly exciting since it seemed that Sancia and the rest of the group faced one impossible situation after another. There were more than a few surprises that kept the story very interesting. I was really worried about how things would work out for our crew and had a really hard time setting the book aside. I listened to the audiobook and thought that Tara Sands did a wonderful job in bringing this story to life.

I received a digital review copy of this book from Del Rey and purchased a copy of the audiobook.

amazing story

cant wait for the next in the series. the pacing and action always keep you wanting more.

Lost the Plot

The first book, while containing some common fantasy tropes and predictable outcomes, was at least interesting in that it had some well written characters and a degree of mystery. This book feels like the author lost the plot of where he wanted to go with it all, and needed to drag it out into a trilogy.

The main characters are moving from catastrophe to catastrophe in a state of constant anxiety. The reader could have done a better job of mitigating that - she’s very expressive, which is usually a good choice - but in this case I found that I didn’t like the choice (I realise this is personal, but isn’t that always the case with readers?).

Finally, I believe there were some plot holes, or at least inconsistency in the way some key plot devices were used. I won’t spoil them here, but they really made me go “hmmm” and wrecked the immersion for me.