Rating: 5/5
This is book one in the Founder’s trilogy. I heard about this book from booktok and was not disappointed.
Foundryside crosses many genres like fantasy, cyberpunk and heists to great effect. I found the world building fairly effective though at times the characters were a little too ignorant. It was obvious their internal dialogues were setting up a letter reveal that should have quite obvious to them, but this is a minor gripe.
The backdrop of the modern society is both magical yet industrial/pre-industrial. Seemingly, posing the question of how would industrialization of our 1600-1800s fair if we found a way to convince object’s that their reality differs.
The magic system in which objects can be convinced of their reality is quite fascinating. It’s used in interesting ways, particularly interesting is how they are overridden by Clef and later Sancia by tricking them with abstract concepts. Like tricking a door that’s locked that swinging in the opposite direction doesn’t count as opening.
I’ve seen in more than one place reviewing this book describing it as a commentary on “rampant capitalism” but that doesn’t seem apt to me. It’s not totally obvious from the writer’s tone or character’s dialogue that this is a massive critique of their society though I can see how it might be interpreted this way. Ultimately though their society is quite far from a laissez-faire capitalism. As the characters state there is essentially no rule of law. Without proper enforcement of contracts and human rights all that’s left is exactly what’s presented in the book, anarchy. Read this way I think the book does a fine job illustrating the evils of the corporations in this case which exert force over the labor class and violate their rights. Most damning of all to the anarchy and power structures are final event in which competitors arise. The ultimate feature of an actual capitalistic system market-forces.
Altogether, a fun read and I look forward to the next two.