Shorefall - Robert Jackson Bennett

⭐ 9.0/10

(Originally written by Will)

This is the second book in the Founders Trilogy, and the cover art is just as awesome as the first one.

This was an excellent follow-up to Foundryside - it was super fast-paced, and seriously intense throughout. Foundryside was a little dark, but this sequel turned that up several notches, which contributed to how intense it felt at times. It also got pretty... gruesome.. even for me, though it never really felt gratuitous or out of place.

There's also an ongoing exploration here of class warfare and how it's affected by technological innovation and good ol' unfettered capitalism. Here's an interesting quote from one of the baddies for a little teaser of this:

"Every innovation—technological, sociological, or otherwise—begins as a crusade, organizes itself into a practical business, and then, over time, degrades into common exploitation. This is simply the life cycle of how human ingenuity manifests in the material world.

What goes forgotten, though, is that those who partake in this system undergo a similar transformation: people begin as comrades and fellow citizens, then become labor resources and assets, and then, as their utility shifts or degrades, transmute into liabilities, and thus must be appropriately managed."