Shorefall

Shorefall is the second book in the Founders trilogy. What's fun about this book is that it's about being trapped between two warring gods, neither of which can be trusted and seems to be working against the interests of humanity, each rationalizing their own horrors because of the horrors the other might inflict. The protagonists are forced to carefully work with one of them to have any chance of stopping the other.

“If everyone can make scrivings, then everyone’s empowered.”

“And do you believe that if everyone could make spears,” said Valeria, “that they would all use them to fish, and there would be no more warfare?”

Here we finally get to the heart of the series, in terms of various competing strategies to """save""" humanity. It's a continuation of the conversation that Bennett ends his previous series with—that an answer can't just be to distribute power; that ultimately technology isn't going to save us; that we need new ways of connecting and relating to each other.

The first book introduces the idea of twinning, the magical scriving idea where you convince two things that they are actually the same thing. But here it takes that idea and runs with it, in terms of the first heist, in terms of the plans of Crasedes, but also in the way it impacts all of the characters in different ways. It's not just a fun magical world building idea, but it's one that fundamentally changes every character's relationship with each other and themselves. And even more, the twinning in this book runs so that it can fly in book three.

Also, the Sancia and Berenice romance also feels a lot more tangible in this book, and I love love love the plot elements that enable them to become even closer.

“You don’t understand what we’re doing here!” snapped Orso.

“I understand perfectly. You wished to take an innovation and use it to foment revolution to fashion a more peaceful, equitable nation-state.”

Minorly, this book also introduces Polina who is working to foment rebellions on slave plantations and tries to recruit various folks into what she's doing. I think it's fun for a book to have a side character asking what the heck the main cast is doing with their time and why they aren't focusing on the real problems. It's a fun parallel to the same way that Crasedes and Valeria also dismiss these efforts for different reasons. I wish we got more grumpy Polina, but I'm not sure where it would fit in any of these books.

Like the first book, this one also ends with the immediate threat(s) resolved for the moment, but many complications left for the future. A lot happens, but this story also has a bit of the second book syndrome where it feels like character development and plot setup for the final book. This is less of a direct indictment and more an observation about how much it it is greatly overshadowed in retrospect by its accompanying bookends.