I already established that I found a new favorite author in Robert Jackson Bennett and well this is the third book by him this month (and there are sure a few more coming next month!).

Foundryside was my first book of his and I just didn’t have any type of special expectations but then I got totally blindsided by how much I enjoyed it. Shorefall was great as well but it did kind of miss that wow-factor that Foundryside gave me.

I thought the plot was the weakest part of Foundryside and that certainly picked up in this one. It’s pretty fast moving, keeps you guessing and it gave us a pretty ridiculous climax that really shook all the power dynamics around and could be a great setup for the final book in the trilogy. Also loved that we got another prolonged, planned and executed heist and just in general this book keeps tension high throughout much of the whole page count. 

On the character front it was a bit hit and miss. I loved that it focused a lot on the MCs romantic relationship because both of those characters are just really fun and they make such a great team. I also really enjoyed the Mystery surrounding the villainous and/or obtuse characters and how it sometimes keeps you guessing about their loyalties. 

However both of the main male characters had more of a questionable path and I’m not sure I like where they ended up at the conclusion of this book. The character dynamic I loved the most in Foundryside (mainly because of the humor) got very little screen time in this one due to one half being absent for huge chunks of the book but I am hopeful that this one gets a lot more attention in book 3. As a result I didn’t nearly laugh as much in this book as I did during Foundryside. 

The fast pacing of this book also kind of left the fun worldbuilding and discovery part of the first book behind. There were so many cool things in discovering how this magic system meets technology meets hacking works in book one and it felt like there wasn’t time for it here because the characters were constantly being rushed.

Still potential to be an all time great trilogy though. I hope the finale knocks it out of the park!