Riveting!

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Foundryside (Founders #1) by Robert Jackson Bennett     
                           

 Enter the tough, tempered world of Tevanne where machines are run by plates scribed by sigils that convince objects of a different reality, which in turn sets them in motion according to the demands inscribed. Scriven humans though are illegal, harmful and an anathema to the original ideas of the inhabitants of this world.
A world where the ruling merchant classes live in order and wealth, where morality is doubtful and integrity a troubling word. Those unfortunates out in Foundryside live in disgusting conditions, reminiscent of industrial English slums à la Oliver Twist, crossed with Jabba the Hutt's abode, where the strong prey on the weak and where all sorts of despicable activities are the norm. Where the price of life is cheap and virtue is a non existent entity.
Sancia Grado is a young woman with a painful past, deep secrets locked away from even herself, an inhabitant of the slums outside the merchant enclaves. She's a gifted thief and those gifts will become beacons for the greedy. Undoing the toughest of locks is her specialty. Her latest assignment is to steal a small box from a warehouse. A task filled with danger. A highly paid job for such a small object. Of course Sancia can't resist opening the box and like Pandora her world shifts!
What she has released is an artifact from the beginning of scrivenings, an artifact that goes back to the time when the godlike ordered the world. It seems someone wants to take up that mantle and Sancia finds herself with allies she'd never have normally considered. She's pursued on every side by those who want to use her and those who want her dead. Friends and enemies blur and scrivening underlies it all.
As the story continues there appears little divides the morality of the Merchant enclaves to Foundryside, except perhaps access to clean water.
A powerful new fantasy with betrayal and death found at every turn, and where the downtrodden still find avenues of hope.

 A NetGalley ARC

*****

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