Foundryside: the heart-pounding first book in the Founders Trilogy

With this newest fantasy series, Robert J. Bennett has become one of my top ten favorite writers. „Foundryside“ has it all: a wonderful main character, Sancia, who reminded me a bit of Vin in Sanderson‘s „Mistborn“, very believably drawn secondary characters, a cool and gritty fantasy world and finally a plot with twists and turns that give you whiplash. Of the good kind.Sancia is a former slave, turned thief, working a heist that has her steal a unique artifact. Problem is that her unknown client seems not to want any witnesses and right after the theft, Sancia’s life is turned totally upside down. Added to the hassle is the upstanding chief of the waterfront, who took exception to her blowing up his workplace and is also after her. But the best thing about this story is that it starts out as solitary Sancia’s and adds people to it with each turn of events. In the end, it’s a cool band of misfits working together. And each of them is truly a product of their lives and their environments, so no clear cut good and bad and even better: who is what and who has which agenda isn’t shown until the very end. I loved how it all turned out.I also loved the world and the way the information about it was shared organically through the events of the story. No info-dump, yet I got it, even if the world is full of inventive and unusual concepts. Magic is available through „scriving“, using old sigils (invented and used by some ancient god-like entities some time long ago) that „convince“ things that they are something else. Believe me, it’s an awesome concept. Bennett shows a gritty world, where four merchant houses have all the power and the money and people either work for one of them or try hard to just scrape by. Especially Sancia’s backstory is appalling, and her personality fits her past experiences to a t. I’m thrilled to see how this all pans out in the next installment.