"Shorefall" by Robert Jackson Bennett

Shorefall is a sequel to Foundryside, an extremely popular fantasy novel that I read last year. Somehow this installment lost its magic for me. I loved Foundryside, and yet Shorefall just dragged. Orso's constant cursing felt repetitive and annoying. If in book 1 he came across as a grumpy genius, in book 2, he pretty much spent most of the time saying "sh*t". Pages and pages of descriptions of how various scrivings worked became tiring as well. Finally, I thought the plot had some holes and the pacing was odd. Right at the point when things should be happening fast, our main characters would slow down and wonder about something irrelevant.

Some things which I felt were clear from the context (e.g., why Crasedes could not see Berenice when she was hiding in the ditch) were explained in a nauseating detail. Yet, other more important points (i.e. how did the new super-being called Tevanne escape in the end) were given no explanation whatsoever. In this particular case, there was simply one line "Tevanne escaped" - what? how?

And then there were moments where the characters could have acted, but didn't simply to suit the plot. For example, when Crasedes comes to Lamplands to attack Valeria and commands Gregor to join him, Gregor was about to shoot a scrived ball at Crasedes which would have incapacitated him. Once the command is issued, Gregor drops the weapon, and no other character picks it up and shoots the bad guy! Why? Instead Berenice and Orso both rush after Gregor. Again, why? This particular point in the story irked me to no end.

Moreover, there did not seem to be a larger moral underpinning to story. We got a bit of Valeria's and Crasedes reasoning for wanting to change humankind, but it seems superfluous and undeveloped. In addition, we still don't have the full origins story of the Clef and Crasedes. I understand the author is probably saving the big reveal for the final book, and perhaps that is why book 2 feels like a filler. Yes, there was a lot of action, but nothing truly decisive occurred. We also did not really have any big aha moments. Anyway, I can't quite pin this down, but I struggled getting through the book and I was underwhelmed overall. At this point, I am not sure if I want to read book 3. I think I'll wait and see what the reviews will be like.