It is surprisingly difficult to find a fantasy heist novel. While specifically looking for good books in this subgenre, the first I came across was Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennet. The jacket blurb was intriguing, and the rating good, so I gave it a shot. I can say it was not at all what I expected, but surprises in fantasy are always welcome! Foundryside offered a high level of intellectual entertainment, while maintaining a unique tone and diverse set of characters.
Foundryside was published in August 2018 by Robert Jackson Bennet. I would call it ‘high fantasy’ in that it takes place in its own world, but it is almost as much science fiction as it is fantasy. So I suppose it is a high fantasy science fiction heist novel – phew! Ok, now on to the actual story.
The novel is set in Tevanne – an industrial port city with powerful Merchant Houses and a rigid caste system based upon wealth, opportunity, and resources. The basis of Tevanne’s society is a magic technology called scriving. The entire story centers around this complex and well-developed scientific magic system, and the concept behind it is quite fascinating.
Scrivers use coded text on objects to give the object sentience and instruction. For example, a scrived piece of wood may bear the instructions that it is, in fact, more akin to stone. The wood will hold on to this mantra so hard, that it becomes more stonelike – stronger and harder than normal wood. A scrived lock may only open for a specific key, a specific word, or under certain circumstances that it recognizes. The possibilities are vast, and Bennet explains the system’s intricacies throughout the novel in great detail.
The story’s primary protagonist is a girl named Sancia – a homosexual, short, black girl who curses like a sailor (though everyone in the novel curses like a sailor, really). Sancia is a hired thief with special abilities forced upon her – a past slowly revealed throughout the book. At the outset of the novel, she is tasked to steal a powerful artifact – one that could completely change the nature of scriving and the society built upon it, giving the already tyrannical Merchant Houses inconceivable power over the world. But Sancia is not supposed to know what she has stolen, and her knowledge puts her in mortal danger of powerful enemies within the city.
If you’re looking for a diverse cast of characters, this is the book for you. In typical heist fashion, Sancia teams up with an eclectic group of people thrown together by circumstance to accomplish a seemingly impossible goal. In this case, it is to stop the Merchant Houses from accessing the power Santia inadvertently snatched from under their noses. The main set of characters includes people of different gender, color, age, and class. The book is in third-person limited with multiple perspectives, giving the reader an in-depth understanding of the motives and background of each character.
Recommendation:
I recommend this book to readers who enjoy both fantasy and science fiction. The characters of Foundryside are diverse, the action engaging, and the stakes high. It is quite unique within its genre, and offers a refreshing change of scenery and style.
A good bit of the novel centers around understanding a highly scientific magic, and there are quite lengthy bits of explanation that may bore readers who are not inherently interested in these kinds of things. The language flips between intellectual and very casual, will lots of profanity (though no F word – they have their own made-up word in its place) and ‘yeah’s.’ In other words, if fancy and beautiful prose is your thing, this may not be the book for you.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book, just be ready for some science, and ‘different’ language.
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