Shorefall
A Novel
-
- $12.99
Publisher Description
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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
The thoughtful second installment to Bennett's Founders fantasy trilogy (after 2018's Foundryside) kicks off as a clever caper but swiftly changes tone, shifting into supernatural horror. Sancia Grado, an ex-thief able to "flex" her mind to see hidden magical inscriptions and commune with enchanted objects, aids her fellow mage-technicians of Foundryside a well-wrought fantasy world that will put readers in mind of Renaissance Venice to infiltrate the grand merchant houses of the city's robber barons and redistribute their powerful "scrived" belongings to the public. But as Sancia's budding revolution celebrates its first success, the resurrection of a legendary wizard, the hierophant Crasedes Magnus, forces Sancia to turn to her own scrived objects to combat him. The ancient magical items she'll need are powerful enough to rewrite reality and sentient enough to have their own agendas, leaving Sancia with an impossible choice between "the unimaginable and the irredeemable." The industrialized magic system is intricate and fascinating (if at times overly detailed), and Bennett's characterization of the unhinged, all-powerful Crasedes strikes a perfect balance between terror and allure. This thrilling installment will leave readers eager for the series finale.