Like the parties in my youth: overstimulated misfit, possessed key and neurotic appliances

 

Just chilling English edition.

Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett.

I was curious about Robert Jackson Bennett´s books for a while after seeing very good reviews around. I expected some fancy fantasy and sure I found it, although I got some silly fixations that bugged me constantly.

First of all, the book has some fine worldbuilding, a unique feel and intriguing concepts for the magic system. The place is gritty, brutal, you get some tough living and shady characters searching for the leftovers of a brilliantly insatiable civilization that, of course, ended itself and with the scraps of that forgotten language they can program everyday objects to do certain things, to behave in certain ways, adding and modifying attributes to these objects by carving little pieces of code, like telling a stone that gravity is the other way and… up it goes. Neat, huh? You don’t have to dig deep to find the concept of language and meaning as a constructive and destructive power, its use to modify reality and surroundings, to accommodate needs and desires; but that doesn’t mean it isn’t rich and ponders with good points about the value of life, determination and will.

Random mumbling.

I loved the concept of the lexicon, the magic dictionary/artifact that expands the attributes and meaning of reality. But it is in the central part of the magic system that an evil loop got me bad and couldn’t shake it… like that annoying coworker we all have that ruins the joke every time. You see, by carving the ancient words on little plates and sticking them into things, a kind of conscious process begins of believing the new meaning or behavior quite literally. Take the rock, it starts thinking that because gravity is in the other direction, then it must go there, it convinces itself and wants to do those things and… that! right there! It made me nuts: the objects having a conscience now and wanting to do things, that sentient characteristic is a huge deal (for my feverish mind at least) to just brush it over… whoa! why? how? I stumbled with that loop all through the book, prickling the fun. What did I miss? I am beginning to think that I am the annoying coworker… hum. The dialogues also bothered me, I found them stiff and underwhelming, funny because everything else had a nice fluidity.

And then... 

Lovely coworker aside, the worldbuilding is brilliant and the story, characters and narration too. It has a very good pace, lots of action and development.