This has been one of my more recent favorite trilogies and so when the last volume arrived in my inbox I couldn’t help myself!
So thanks to the author, as well as Del Rey for the review copy!
A god wages war—using all of humanity as its pawns—in the unforgettable conclusion to the Founders trilogy.
Sancia, Clef, and Berenice have gone up against plenty of long odds in the past. But the war they’re fighting now is one even they can’t win.
This time, they’re not facing robber-baron elites, or even an immortal hierophant, but an entity whose intelligence is spread over half the globe—a ghost in the machine that uses the magic of scriving to possess and control not just objects, but human minds.
To fight it, they’ve used scriving technology to transform themselves and their allies into an army—a society—that’s like nothing humanity has seen before. With its strength at their backs, they’ve freed a handful of their enemy’s hosts from servitude, even brought down some of its fearsome, reality-altering dreadnaughts. Yet despite their efforts, their enemy marches on—implacable. Unstoppable.
Now, as their opponent closes in on its true prize—an ancient doorway, long buried, that leads to the chambers at the center of creation itself—Sancia and her friends glimpse a chance at reaching it first, and with it, a last desperate opportunity to stop this unbeatable foe. But to do so, they’ll have to unlock the centuries-old mystery of scriving’s origins, embark on a desperate mission into the heart of their enemy’s power, and pull off the most daring heist they’ve ever attempted.
And as if that weren’t enough, their adversary might just have a spy in their ranks—and a last trick up its sleeve.
This is the continuing story of Sancia, Clef, Berenice and their friends (and now rather a lot more of their friends than before). I won’t spoil the previous books for you, so let’s just say that there are considerable shenanigans going down in this one, and the story finds its conclusion.
I liked Locklands, but not as much as the two previous volumes in the series. There are a couple of reasons for this, the first of which being the 8-year time-jump at the beginning of this novel from where I last remember leaving Shorefall. I did eventually find my feet, so to speak, but it was a few chapters of feeling like I had forgotten something important before getting there.
I still love love love Clef as a character, and so there will always be enjoyment in the series for me. He is still the same snarky key he’s always been, even if Sancia and Berenice are older and thus a little different than they were in the previous two volumes.
The best part of this series to me is the magic system. The art of scriving, or ‘coding as magic’ is fascinating, and the way that Robert Jackson Bennett uses it in some instances is absolutely fantastic and so interestingly thought out. I absolutely love to see Clef in action trying to convince a scrived object that its rules can actually be bent a little, and thus completely changing how that item works. It’s absolutely brilliant.
So, all told, while I didn’t love this one as much as I loved the two before it, I definitely enjoyed myself. I thought Locklands was a little slow at times, but it was a ride all the same. 4/5 stars!~
superstardrifter 
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