Rating: 5/5 stars
Pages: 512
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher: Crown Publishing
Pub Date: August 21, 2018
When Sancia signs up to steal something worth thousands, she has no idea what she's getting into and ends up with way more than she bargained for. She wants nothing more than to escape Tevanne, but the artifact is enough to revolutionize the technology known as scriving, the technology that runs the entire city. And this new development could give the heartless merchants unfathomable power and put thousands of lives at risk.
In order to survive, Sancia must find unlikely allies, muster all of her strength and learn to harness her abilities in ways she never thought possible.
I received this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
This book kicks off a new series with brilliant story-telling and flawless, vivid world-building, sprinkled with an intriguing new twist on an industrialist magic system. The brilliant part of this system is how poorly understood it is, and the stark reality of failed experiments and how the capitalist economy serves to drive forward technology, even with these pitfalls.
One of the best things about this book is the magic system. It’s an interesting combination of technology, logic and magic. The use of a world that brings to mind the gritty capitalism of the industrial revolution, with the addition of technomancy is excellent and the way that the system works is both well-thought out and explained. Though the system was perhaps a little over-explained in places, it is a system that leaves me wondering about the possibilities.
Sancia is an awesome character, a short, scarred female protagonist who is all sorts of resourceful and kicks ass in the best way possible. She’s far from infallible though, and the trouble that she gets into is absolutely page-turning. Overall the characters are created in such a way that subverts expectations and stands to break tropes and stereotypes down.
I’ll stay away from spoilers here, but if you but this book had one of the best conclusions that I’ve read in a long time and I am so excited for the next book in this series.
I would recommend this book whole-heartedly to any fantasy fans who love a little bit of magic sprinkled into their technology.
To pre-order this book and find out more about the author, check out the link below:
http://www.robertjacksonbennett.com/