Locklands

Gods collide in the high octane finale to Bennett’s epic fantasy Founders Trilogy, set eight years after the events of Shorefall. The people of the former city of Tevanne have become a collective intelligence searching for a doorway that will allow it to restart reality. The resurrected hierophant Crasedes Magnus holds out, but barely, against joining this group mind while the scrappy spell designers of the Foundryside search for a haven for their refugee fleet. Wives Sancia and Berenice, senior scrivers, try diplomacy to unite the scattered surviving colonies against the mentally unified horde from their former hometown, even if this entails allying with Crasedes, their former archrival. Meanwhile, Clef, Sancia’s intelligent key, recovers his lost memories of how the world was once shattered by hierophants. Bennett advances the plot precipitously and raises his characters’ power levels to the “nigh-incomprehensible,” but the grounding themes of family and love as Sancia and Berenice risk their happiness to save the world, are what readers will take away. Fans will find this a satisfying end. Agent: Cameron McClure, Donald Maass Literary. (June)