Robert Jackson Bennett, the second! After being quite frankly blown away by Foundryside could have not been much higher for this one and while I still thought that this was a highly enjoyable book I just didn’t love it as much.

For someone who likes mysteries in his stories, I’ve never been that much into the murder mystery subgenre and that this essentially what this one is. It probably has something to do with the sheer abundance of procedural crime dramas that exist and just lame and same-y cop shows in general. So the term murder mystery certainly comes as a turn off for me and a story like that needs some other hook to make me interested. Luckily I already know that I like the author and he certainly doesn’t disappoint again.

First of all, the worldbuilding in this novel is excellent again. RJB is really creative in how he creates this world and especially the weaving in off all the important nature elements (like walls built from strong plant material, giant mushrooms as air filters…) paints such vivid pictures and they are also super relevant to certain aspects of the plot and that just gets you super engaged into this world. Also the constant threat of being attacked by giant sea creatures gave this one a nice cosmic horror like touch.

In terms of characters I didn’t feel this instant attachment I had with Foundryside. The 2 main characters clearly have these Sherlock/Watson vibes going on with the main character being the 20 something Din who is enhanced to be able to perfectly recall events and as a result does most of the actual investigating and the much older Ana who is the genius crime solver in the background. 
They have a very fun dynamic and their bantering is also where most of the humor comes from but I also felt like we got too little of that and just that they were too often apart from each other. Maybe some wasted potential and I hope we get more of that in future books.
Ana is great though. Love how foul-mouthed she is. Reminds me of Avasarala from The Expanse. Aside from our two protagonists I didn’t find any of the side characters to be particularly interesting. 

For the actual murder mystery: Yes, it was twisty and fun (and the ending was actually great) and it keeps the plot moving at a pretty steady pace but I also wasn't hugely interested in its continuous unraveling. 

Overall this is still another hit in my book and I will continue to explore RJB’s works.