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4.17 AVERAGE
4.17 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
funny
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
The only reason this isn't categorised as Young Adult is Bennett's seemingly random tendency for gore. Otherwise this could be a textbook example of (everything I hate about) Young Adult fiction: obsessed with an overly mechanical magic system, characters are clichés straight out of central casting, all dialogue is anachronistic to the point it would be annoying even in Urban Fantasy, there's no world-building to speak of, the setting reeks of sci-fi lightly re-skinned into fantasy, there's a token gay romance clearly there only to score points, and it regurgitates the most simplistic version imaginable of topics hot in current culture wars in the US.
It even has the obligatory dumb (oh oh so dumb) invented replacement for the f-bomb to make it palatable to the "Oh, the profanity!" crowd. In fact, given how crassly commercial, written-by-ticking-off-checkboxes, this seems I am amazed Bennett's editor couldn't convince him to drop the gore so it could actually be marketed as YA (and I wouldn't stumble across it thinking it was actually worth trying).
I hate-listened to the whole trilogy (on 2x, really wishing Apple Books offered 3x) and it gets no better, just more pretentious and long-winded. Not to mention Bennett clearly had no strong conception of the story beyond the heist thing he starts the first book with, so as you go along the world, the plot, and the characters bear little resemblance to where we started for no discernible reason.
I'm reading Bennett in reverse, starting with The Tainted Cup (2024), which I really liked, so my disappointment with the Founders trilogy is profound. Now I'm hesitant to try The City of Stairs for fear it'll be more of this untagged-YA drivel and I've given Bennett far far more hours worth of chances than this stuff merited.
But, hey, if you're into YA of this sort and go into it expecting YA, then I suppose it's a competent enough showing.
It even has the obligatory dumb (oh oh so dumb) invented replacement for the f-bomb to make it palatable to the "Oh, the profanity!" crowd. In fact, given how crassly commercial, written-by-ticking-off-checkboxes, this seems I am amazed Bennett's editor couldn't convince him to drop the gore so it could actually be marketed as YA (and I wouldn't stumble across it thinking it was actually worth trying).
I hate-listened to the whole trilogy (on 2x, really wishing Apple Books offered 3x) and it gets no better, just more pretentious and long-winded. Not to mention Bennett clearly had no strong conception of the story beyond the heist thing he starts the first book with, so as you go along the world, the plot, and the characters bear little resemblance to where we started for no discernible reason.
I'm reading Bennett in reverse, starting with The Tainted Cup (2024), which I really liked, so my disappointment with the Founders trilogy is profound. Now I'm hesitant to try The City of Stairs for fear it'll be more of this untagged-YA drivel and I've given Bennett far far more hours worth of chances than this stuff merited.
But, hey, if you're into YA of this sort and go into it expecting YA, then I suppose it's a competent enough showing.
This book is a fantasy heist of epic proportions, and I loved every second of it.
The character building in this book is phenomenal. The main character, Sancia, has so much depth and reacts in ways that are expected of a thief who is just trying to survive. Her character arc in this book was well developed and beautiful in a healing sort of way. I also have to mention probably my favorite character which is Clef. Clef is a key. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to emotionally attach to an object in a fantasy novel, well this is the book for you. Clef's character is interesting and left me wondering more about his history.
The other cast of characters were also beautiful and unique in their own way. Gregor is a soldier who just wants to make the world a better place. His story is heartbreaking and his story is only partially fleshed out in this first book. Berenice is smart, witty, and able to think on her feet. She is essentially the one who can quickly pull scrivings (this worlds magic) together and save everyone's tails. Then there is Orso, the mastermind genius who is always trying to think 10 steps ahead of everything and everyone. All wonderful, all unique, all heartbreakingly beautiful characters.
The setting for me felt like a master class on how to write a world without having lengthy pages of info dumping. While the world is vast, it also has so much depth and nuance to why things are the way they are. The reader isn't bogged down with too much information, and given time to process how everything works. The history of the world draws you deeper into itself and invites you into the secrets of this world.
I highly recommend this book. It is heist fueled fantasy with political intrigue and spying. If you are looking for a book that is similar to Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, this is the next series for you to devour.
The character building in this book is phenomenal. The main character, Sancia, has so much depth and reacts in ways that are expected of a thief who is just trying to survive. Her character arc in this book was well developed and beautiful in a healing sort of way. I also have to mention probably my favorite character which is Clef. Clef is a key. If you have ever wondered what it would be like to emotionally attach to an object in a fantasy novel, well this is the book for you. Clef's character is interesting and left me wondering more about his history.
The other cast of characters were also beautiful and unique in their own way. Gregor is a soldier who just wants to make the world a better place. His story is heartbreaking and his story is only partially fleshed out in this first book. Berenice is smart, witty, and able to think on her feet. She is essentially the one who can quickly pull scrivings (this worlds magic) together and save everyone's tails. Then there is Orso, the mastermind genius who is always trying to think 10 steps ahead of everything and everyone. All wonderful, all unique, all heartbreakingly beautiful characters.
The setting for me felt like a master class on how to write a world without having lengthy pages of info dumping. While the world is vast, it also has so much depth and nuance to why things are the way they are. The reader isn't bogged down with too much information, and given time to process how everything works. The history of the world draws you deeper into itself and invites you into the secrets of this world.
I highly recommend this book. It is heist fueled fantasy with political intrigue and spying. If you are looking for a book that is similar to Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson, this is the next series for you to devour.
Loved this so much. Not a frantic, all-consuming love, but a solidly built, enduring love. The characters, world, and especially the 'magic' system are well-crafted in a way that it makes you think the author devoted a part of his soul to create them. This took me a few months to read as I was reading three or four other books at the same time with numerous other distractions to boot. Also, I knew pretty early on that I wouldn't want the book to end. About halfway through I couldn't help myself and finished reading it in a few days. Though I put it down for long periods in the beginning I never had a problem jumping right back in and knowing exactly what was going on. I'm already looking forward to reading it again.
adventurous
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The world was so much fun, only reason it’s not 5 out of 5 is because sometimes the explanations of tech was way too long and complicated. Absolutely adored the characters
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This was one of those books where I finished and I was a little mad at myself for having taken so long to get to it because there was so much about this book that worked so well for me! Ironically, I think the characters were a little bit of a let down, as I wish I would have fallen in love with them more, been really invested in everything about them. That didn’t quite happen, but even still, I did like what we saw of everyone in the crew, I liked the dynamics that developed between them and how those shifted as the story continued. Even the little dash of romance was intriguing and I’m hopeful maybe there will be more of it in the next novel.
It’s rare, but sometimes worldbuilding and a cool magic system will really win me over and that definitely happened here. This magic system just seemed so original and unique in how it was presented. I loved that each new element that was explained both built on the prior bits, but also slowly started to unravel their society’s utilization of the magic. Because of the magic, I loved Clef and how Sancia’s ability allowed these two to communicate, plus the mad scientist we get in Orso was also a lot of fun.
I’m a heist fan and this was set up in a great way where you get a small heist in the beginning and then watch the fallout of it before seeing a new heist set up throughout the rest of the book. Adored that Bennett included some required scenes of every heist story like gathering the crew, finding a secret hide out and then unveiling the cool gadgets created just for this occasion.
The bits of bigger plot revealed throughout this has me itching for the next book. I’m excited to continue!
adventurous
tense
medium-paced