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Foundryside (The Founders Trilogy, #1)

Robert Jackson Bennett

Start date: June 27, 2020

Finish date: July 14, 2020

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Jul 14, 2020 Alexandra Wilson rated it did not like it

I actually checked out the book for it's beautiful cover and the good ratings it received. Unfortunately, it was not a book I was enjoying, so I didn't finish it. I can tell that Robert Jackson Bennett put a lot of effort into his writing. When I was reading it, it gave off a sense similar to the Victorian writing style. The writing is complex, and Bennett deeply describes the setting so the readers can clearly visualize it and pick up on the current mood. That is where I had a problem. Although I actually checked out the book for it's beautiful cover and the good ratings it received. Unfortunately, it was not a book I was enjoying, so I didn't finish it. I can tell that Robert Jackson Bennett put a lot of effort into his writing. When I was reading it, it gave off a sense similar to the Victorian writing style. The writing is complex, and Bennett deeply describes the setting so the readers can clearly visualize it and pick up on the current mood. That is where I had a problem. Although Bennett tries to create a complex setting and help the readers understand the character Sancia, the story moves extremely slow.
Unlike Charles Dickens, who writes the setting as if the imaginary camera is moving forward, Bennett makes an effort to describe everything Sancia is thinking all the way down to how she moved. Sancia grabbed the bricks to climb, she searched for footholds, she grabbed onto the ledge, and pulled herself up. He also makes a point of describing how the actions feel. It's like going on a date at a museum and your date has you looking at one painting, and when you think you're finished admiring it to move onto another part of the museum, they tell you to look closer and to take in each brush stroke. Then they proceed to tell you to look at another corner of the painting. You really want to move forward, but you don't know when. It causes the prose to be very choppy and clunky, so trying to get into the steady flow of the story was excruciatingly difficult.
At first, I thought I was simply not in the reading mood and I was being overly critical of the book. I had a couple close friends give reading it a shot, but they had the same feeling as well. So it made me feel a little less like a jerk to put it down. Again, I can tell Robert Jackson Bennett put a lot of time into this book and that he wants the readers to be immersed in visualizing the story and I give him credit for that, but sometimes it's just too much for a person to handle. There are many who enjoy Foundryside, but it just wasn't for me. ...more

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