Robert Jackson Bennett

When the key starts talking, I hear a stand-up comedian. Something in between Eddie Murphy and the crustacean in that Disney movie with the Ariel story minus the death and sadness. Keeping in mind that the key in question is an ancient sentient artifact, and that the world in which it exist is a mix between Renaissance Venice and Ayn Rand's idea of heaven with magic, I hope you'll forgive me for putting the book down, kinda forever (no, I am not honest here. If I find a hardcover copy for free, I may use it to prop my tablet.)
I should have seen it coming. The walled, guarded waterfront from where nobody could escape short of a daring, dangerous, ingenious master plan going perfectly... Oh look she threw a magic version of a bomb in the yard and, of course, all the guards including their cunning, famous boss run to the explosion, leaving the entrance, well, unguarded. After the boss himself had heard something suspect in the SAFE vault. Yeah sure, Jane. This was the second scene of the first chapter. I should never have made it to the part with the talking key.
A pity, though. The idea of industrialised magic based on reality overwriting was extremely cool, which is why I kept reading after noticing:
- the juvenile use of language
- the improbable plot-solving mechanisms (see bombs in the yard) already abundant in the first ten pages (whoa)
- the total lack of flesh on the bones of the setting: we are TOLD that the city looks like this and that, never SHOWN
- the Katniss-copycat heroine (aaaargh). Sorry guys, I grew up reading adult literature since I was too young to do a lot of other things, even by problematic teenager standards. No YA in this house.

That key talking like that, though, was too much. I give in. What a waste.… (mere)

This book was so unique. It's set in a fantasy world where humans enhanced with magical gifts ( if they can afford them) live in fear of Leviathans in the sea breaking through boundary walls to destroy their communities. But the core of the story is a murder mystery-- actually multiple grisly murders. The investigators are an appealing Sherlock Holmes-ish older woman and a newly minted recruit who is a young man. They have a quirky relationship and spin out the investigation in a brilliant way. Highly recommend this one!!… (mere)

What I should have done, of course, was to read the conclusion to The Founders’ Trilogy in the autumn of last year, after the first two books. It was a mistake to read The Divine Cities in between… It made me realise what Robert Jackson Bennett is capable of, and this book is not quite it.

Anyway. I couldn’t quite remember what happened at the end of book 2 (a bad sign), but I got my bearings quickly (a good sign). Eight years have passed, the characters are still battling the new enemy from Shorefall. It was cool to see Berenice as a great general – but why on earth does her team keep addressing her as “Capo”? Yes, sure, the word might not mean the same thing in this universe as in ours, but I jumped every time it appeared on the page and I imagined Berenice as a mafia boss, lol. Sorry, I digress.

The mind magic is wondrous, I liked what RJB did here – a new kind of society and a different way of being human. The “cadences” are awesome, and I wish all these ideas had been explored deeper. They got lost in the action and dark places, though.

Naturally, we are on a mission to save the world.

“But there is no dancing through a monsoon, my love.”

Does it make sense when I say that the plot did not bore me, but the endless action did? The book is almost 550 pages long, and I felt like celebrating when I got to page 300. The characters run, hide, shoot at things, use magic, things go awry, things go awry again, someone has a new desperate plan. Repeat. There is lot of screaming as well, I lost count of “oh no no no oh god no no no’s”. I should have had a drinking game with this, really. Also, the dialogues and the characters’ reactions to events seemed very YA. I grew tired of them all.

Crasedes, the villain from book 2, makes things more exciting when he appears. (It’s “the enemy of my enemy” trope.) He is too entertaining at times, so that the I felt guilty about having fun, considering what happened in the previous book. A false note, I’d say.

Clef’s and Crasedes’ backstory, when it was completely revealed, was interesting and emotional. Yet this got lost in the action too, so it wasn’t interesting and emotional enough.

I liked the epilogue!

P.S. I am still looking forward to reading more books by Robert Jackson Bennett :)… (mere)