Foundryside
A thief in a city controlled by industrialized magic joins forces with a rare honest police officer to stop an ancient evil ritual that endangers thousands of lives.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
5mentions
5people
2018–2023years
60% recommend40% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Given that these are the five most popular series in modern fantasy, you've certainly got good taste! I'm always on the prowl for new books to read. Do you have any favorite SF/F books that are less well known?
Here's a few dozen or so of my favorites. I'd love to hear what HN thinks is good fantasy!
My recs (in no particular order):
- Foundryside by Robert Jackson Bennett -- heist novel with talking objects!
- Space Opera by Catherynne M. Valente -- David Bowie meets Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy!
- The Sacred Throne series by Myke Cole (book 1: The Armored Saint) - Steampunk armor!
- The Shards of Heaven by Michael Livingston - Great historical fantasy set in the time of Augustus Caesar
- The Red Threads of Fortune / The Black Tides of Heaven by Jy Yang - Two paired novellas!
- The Craft Sequence by Max Gladstone -- Law = Magic! Extremely well written
- Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy) by Robin Hobb -- One of my favorite series of all time.. I cried!
- Amberlough by Lara Elena Donnelly -- A spy thriller set in a Vaudeville-era secondary world. Burlesque! Spies! Politics!
- I Am Not a Serial Killer by Dan Wells -- Title says it all, really...
- The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin -- Fascinating series...
- All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anderson -- A mix of sci-fi/fantasy set in San Francisco, incredible
- The City in the Middle of the Night by Charlie Jane Anderson -- A tidally locked planet! Monsters! Escapes!
- The Paper Magician by Charlie N. Holmberg -- Origami as magic!
- Damselle in Distress by Kiley Kellermeyer -- Fairy tale satire!
- The Thousand Names (The Shadow Campaigns series) by Django Wexler -- Napoleonic era military fantasy!
- The Promise of Blood (The Powder Mage series) by Brian McClellan -- Dudes snort GUNPOWDER and get magic!
- Wool by Hugh Howey -- Post-apocalyptic world where everyone lives in a silo! NUTS.
- Disenchanted by Robert Kroese -- Hilarious fantasy world, several books in this world
- The Lies of Locke Lamora (The Gentlemen Bastards series) by Scott Lynch -- Best heist novel of all time? You decide!
- The Queen's Poisoner by Jeff Wheeler -- Secondary world that feels like King Arthur and the Round Table adventures
- The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet by Becky Chambers -- A space ship with crazy aliens!
- City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett -- The gods are DEAD! ...or are they??!
- Saint's Blood (The Greatcoats series) by Sebastien de Castell -- Snarky adventurers? Yes. Rodents of unusual size? No.
- Kill the Farm Boy by Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne -- Fantasy satire, with a FEARSOME Dark Lord Toby who yells about crackers!
- Spellslinger (Spellslingers series) by Sebastien de Castell -- Snarky magicians? Yes. Talking squirrel cats? ALSO YES.
- Justice Calling (The Twenty-Sided Sorceress) by Annie Bellet -- A lil romance + A lil D&D = fun times!
- Here is my list (from https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/912138-alex-givant?rea...):
Memoirs:
- Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Bourdain, Anthony, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33313.Kitchen_Confidenti...
- Maid: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Land, Stephanie, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39218350-maid
- Medium Raw: A Bloody Valentine to the World of Food and the People Who Cook by Bourdain, Anthony, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40409969-medium-raw
- Confessions of a Tax Collector: One Man's Tour of Duty Inside the IRS by Yancey, Rick, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/196519.Confessions_of_a_...
Politics:
- Evicted: Poverty and Profit in the American City by Desmond, Matthew, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25852784-evicted
- Ghettoside: A True Story of Murder in America by Leovy, Jill, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13153693-ghettoside
- American Prison: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment by Bauer, Shane, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38561954-american-prison
- Bottle of Lies: The Inside Story of the Generic Drug Boom by Eban, Katherine, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42448266-bottle-of-lies
- A False Report: A True Story of Rape in America by Miller, T. Christian, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35805861-a-false-report
- The New Silk Roads by Frankopan, Peter, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40921633-the-new-silk-ro...
History:
- Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe 1944-1956 by Applebaum, Anne, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13531848-iron-curtain
- The Romanovs: 1613-1918 by Montefiore, Simon Sebag, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26109020-the-romanovs
- The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic--and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World by Johnson, Steven, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36086.The_Ghost_Map
- Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel's Targeted Assassinations by Bergman, Ronen, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33598223-rise-and-kill-f...
- Madame Fourcade's Secret War: The Daring Young Woman Who Led France's Largest Spy Network Against Hitler by Olson, Lynne, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41739312-madame-fourcade...
- Argo: How the CIA & Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Méndez, Antonio J., https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13588425-argo
Crime:
- Flawless: Inside the Largest Diamond Heist in History by Selby, Scott Andrew, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/7071759-flawless
- American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Bilton, Nick, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/31920777-american-kingpi...
- Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup by Carreyrou, John, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37976541-bad-blood
- Billion Dollar Whale: The Man Who Fooled Wall Street, Hollywood, and the World by Wright, Tom, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/38743564-billion-dollar-...
- The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. by Ratliff, Evan, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/41181600-the-mastermind
Technology:
- Countdown to Zero Day: Stuxnet and the Launch of the World's First Digital Weapon by Zetter, Kim, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/18465875-countdown-to-ze...
- Coders: The Making of a New Tribe and the Remaking of the World by Thompson, Clive, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40406806-coders
Fiction:
- Vengeful (Villains, #2) by Schwab, V.E., https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26856502-vengeful
- Senlin Ascends (The Books of Babel, #1) by Bancroft, Josiah, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17554595-senlin-ascends
- Arm of the Sphinx (The Books of Babel, #2) by Bancroft, Josiah, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35959733-arm-of-the-sphi...
- The Hod King (The Books of Babel, #3) by Bancroft, Josiah, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32998292-the-hod-king
- Recursion by Crouch, Blake, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42046112-recursion
- Foundryside (Founders, #1) by Bennett, Robert Jackson, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37173847-foundryside
- The Three-Body Problem (Remembrance of Earth’s Past #1) by Liu, Cixin, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/20518872-the-three-body-...
- The Guardians by Grisham, John, https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/43701061-the-guardians
- Foundryside from Robert J. Benett - it's a fantasy novel where magic system is based upon reverse engineering power words and jealusly keeping them secret from other trade organizations. Magic in that world is literally intellectual property and is compiled into huge dictionaries which aren't far from being programs. The whole "feel" of the world is very victorian - something akin to Dishonored if anyone played this.
The prose is very readable, the characters pretty awesome and it's just such a very fresh take on fantasy.
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37173847-foundryside?fro...
And The Verge ("Foundryside is a cyberpunk adventure wrapped in an epic fantasy novel"): https://www.theverge.com/2018/12/23/18148907/foundryside-rob...
- This really reminds me of how one of the protagonists gets past the gates in Foundryside/Shorefall (novel by Robert Jackson Bennett).
- I just learned of Unsong today and will be reading it. The premise though sounds similar to Foundryside, where objects can be “scribed” to change their behavior. A wheel could be told, “the force of gravity is always at a forward angle,” and it would roll forward on its own. It would also pick up speed and momentum and probably break something, so the scribing to get the desired behavior (a self-propelled controllable wheel) quickly becomes more complicated.
That is book one of a trilogy, and the third book is not out yet, so be warned! It’s a great yarn so far though.
