Book Review: Shorefall
Look, I’ve been super excited for Shorefall (as you might have guessed from my Foundryside review), and I’m glad to say that my excitement has not remotely waned after actually reading it. Robert Jackson Bennett’s books are just SO GOOD, y’all.
In the wake of the events of Foundryside, small scriving companies have been thriving in Tevanne. But the brief explosion of free thinking comes to a screeching halt as an ancient being of power returns to the world, ushered in by one of Tevanne’s founders. Unable to stop its return, Sancia and her friends must find a way to prevent this new enemy from irrevocably changing humanity, and to do that they need Valeria, the golden entity which “rewrote” Sancia. But can they trust her? And more importantly, do they have a choice?
There’s not a lot of breathing room at the beginning of this novel. It tosses you into the action as our heroes suffer an almost immediate setback and then have to begin dealing with consequences right away. Much like the first book, it’s a book you want to consume in one sitting even though it’s long, because the chapters move smoothly into each other and the action just keeps hopping. Brief interludes of “downtime” do exist, but even then there is enough character drama to keep you on your toes. It was a wild, wild ride, and I can honestly say I have no complaints about the plot. There was even a twist that I did not expect, a genuine rarity in this day and age, so I have to hand out kudos for that.
Underneath the sweet icing of excellent plotting and pacing, there’s a delicious cake of beautiful character development. The story is still centered on Sancia, but she’s no longer the thief struggling to stay alive. Now, Sancia has to come to terms with how Valeria changed her in Foundryside. She grieves the loss of Clef deeply, determined to live out his parting words to her. And she has to decide what kind of world she wants to live in, based on the conflicting ideologies presented by Valeria but also Crasedes Magnus, the most celebrated of hierophants, now returned to cause trouble. Oh, and did I mention there are other escaped slaves in the story now, attempting to lure her away from her friends and join their cause? Poor woman is being torn in a million directions.
Gregor begins to regain some of his lost memories over the course of the novel and has to come to terms with some disturbing revelations about his family. After the rampage in Foundryside, he’s trying desperately to be a better man, to avoid killing, but it’s a struggle. He’s too good at it, and he’s only been augmented further. On top of that, we learn here just how Gregor became what he is and who made him this way. It’s not a comfortable answer, and it has unpleasant ramifications. Suffice to say, Gregor ends the novel in a very strange place, and I truly do not know what will become of him in the next book.
Orso, meanwhile, is watching all of his grand plans for Foundryside and the Lamplands get torn apart by a zealot hierophant. Orso was always the secret idealist, the one who wanted to see the campo houses challenged and possibly overthrown, and the discovery of Crasedes’ plans upends all of that. As the book wears on, he’s no longer sure it’s possible to build the world he wants, and he suffers as a result. I’ll just be honest and say Orso has always been my favorite, and I cried at some key moments because of him.
Of the main characters, Berenice is the most under-served. She is still just as delightful, and the arc she shares with Sancia about discovering how scriving can connect people is wonderful, but she lacks some of the same inner conflict the others get. That said, she’s very much in the thick of things, and there’s something of a baton-passing happening, as Orso hands off his life’s work, ideals and internal mission to her.
Crasedes is the big new addition (it doesn’t really feel like a spoiler to say, since a) it happens early and b) c’mon, if you read Foundryside, you KNEW this was coming). He’s a trip, and he makes quite the horrifying entrance. His power level matches what had been handed down in myth, and we see scene after scene to demonstrate his terrible power. But overwhelming power aside, the best villains are the ones who believe they’re the heroes. And Crasedes 100% believes he is the hero, that he is doing the right thing, and as the book wears on, he becomes harder and harder to argue against. There are also some revelations here which are just WOOF so brace yourselves.
The worldbuilding keeps getting better and better. This book reaches outside Tevanne for material even more than Foundryside did, providing more snippets and glimpses of the wider world. We also get a boatload of history pertaining to Crasedes and his life. It’s never overbearing or too much, and it always arrives precisely when we need it (just like any good wizard would do).
I didn’t think Bennett’s magic system could get any cooler and yet HERE WE ARE. He doubles down on some basic concepts from the first book to extrapolate exciting applications. The coolest is probably a device that lets Sancia and Berenice use twinning to connect with each other’s minds. It provides another level of intimacy for their relationship, in addition to just being a sweet piece of magic tech. But there are other things too, like the return of the Candiano Mountain and all of Crasedes’ “permissions.” It’s all internally cohesive, and it’s all wonderful.
I don’t always talk about book themes, but it’s important to know that Shorefall is chock-full of some heavy material. Foundryside focused on this to some degree, but in Shorefall Bennett spends a lot more time examining how the powerful exploit the weak, how the rich exploit the poor, and how even the slightest, smallest thing can give someone an unexpected edge in that equation. The theme recurs in multiple places, from the Durazzo slaves that reappear in Tevanne to the struggle between Tevanne’s original families and the new companies to the appearance and motivations of Crasedes himself. It’s a pretty bleak outlook on messy questions that are relevant to our current events, and Bennett doesn’t pretend to have the answers. This is not a fairytale, and there is no black and white, only gray. I’m genuinely curious to see where he takes it in the sequel.
Because yes, you guessed it, this book ends on a whammy of a cliffhanger.
Shorefall was worth every month of waiting; it was everything I wanted it to be, and then some. I laughed, I cried, and it made me think about power dynamics in society. I sound like a broken record, but you ought to check out this series (and then also the Divine Cities series too).
Grade: 5/5 stars
Memorable Quote:
““Oh, no, no, no,” the man in black said gently. “That wouldn’t do at all. It’s so much better when you learn yourself, isn’t it?”
”Learn what?” said Moretti, choking back tears.
”Learn what your city has forgotten,” he said. “What men of power have forgotten time and time again, throughout history—that there is always, always something mightier.””
