Shorefall was a James Bond film, set in the Foundryside universe. Start with a caper, introduce a cookie-cutter villain, then spend the next few days going from one exotic locale to the next, blowing everything up in the process. In this installment, we find the old gods, who are coming back and are angry, and then spend the rest of the book fearing their wrath. Our heroes never really have time to catch their breath, and Bennett is deliberate with the chaos.
In a motif repeated throughout the book:
“If the drunk isn’t coordinated enough to make good choices, then he just tosses his ball into the clusters of his opponents and sends them rocketing all over the place. Not strategic throws with specific ends, but a play at scrambling the whole court, and ruining everyone else’s game.”
Reality is at play in this book, and Bennet folds and warps the rules of engagement many times before the book is through. At many points Shorefall may have benefitted from a little less action, and given a chance to enjoy the world and the scenery that had been built up. The universe of scriving, where objects can be written with commands that act something akin to computer code, was still excellent. Indeed, the author did a good job introducing a second level to the lexicon without overloading complexity. Yet between the action and technology, the characters felt squeezed out of the prose. The second half of the book presents some amazing opportunities for character studies, but they seem forgotten in the mad rush to save the world.
By the end, my favorite setting turned into a character, and I’m waiting for somehow my favorite character to turn into a setting. I can say that I’m excited to read the sequel, even if I felt this one didn’t follow up on the promise of Foundryside as much as I would have hoped.