Founders

The city of Tevanne runs on scrivings, industrialised magical inscriptions that make inanimate objects sentient; they power everything, from walls to wheels to weapons. Scrivings have brought enormous progress and enormous wealth - but only to the four merchant Houses who control them. Everyone else is a servant or slave

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.

Once, Sancia Grado was just a thief with a grudge and a rare talent. Then she learned how to use that talent, and beat the great merchant houses of Tevanne at their own game. With Clef and Berenice, she even saw off an immortal hierophant - but the war they're fighting now is one they know they can't win. 'Absolutely riveting... A magnificent, mind-blowing start to a series I'm hungry for' - Amal El-Mohtar, co-author of This is How You Lose the Time War, in the New York Times on Foundryside This time, they're not facing robber-baron elites or an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe: a ghost in the machine using the magic of scriving to possess and control not just objects, but human minds. Despite all their efforts their enemy marches on, implacable, unstoppable - and it's closing in on its true prize: an ancient doorway that leads to the centre of creation itself. 'One of the best fantasy writers on the scene today' says Kirkus Reviews Sancia and her friends glimpse a last desperate opportunity to stop this unbeatable foe - but to do so, they'll have to unlock the centuries-old mystery of scriving's origins and pull off the most daring heist they've ever attempted. And as if that weren't enough, their adversary might just have a spy in their ranks - and a last trick up its sleeve...