Shorefall

Sancia Grado once watched Tevanne with the cold satisfaction of someone who would not mind seeing it burn. Now she wants to rebuild it. With her allies Orso, Gregor and Berenice, she plans to break the grip of the robber-baron houses, which have ruled the city for decades, by teaching scriving to ordinary people. Scriving is the craft of rewriting the rules that objects obey.

A warning cuts the plan short. Crasedes Magnus, the first of the legendary hierophants, used scriving to make himself close to a god, and he is about to be reborn. His return pushes Tevanne into crisis.

Sancia's crew has to work out the principles behind his power before the city falls. Stopping him depends on opening up a scriving technology that could alter what it means to be human, which raises the cost of getting it wrong.

This is fantasy with a heist flavour, fast-moving, built on an inventive system of magic. It is the second book of the Founders Trilogy and follows Foundryside directly, leaning heavily on that book's events, so it should be read after it. The trilogy concludes with Locklands.