Shorefall
Robert Jackson Bennett
Hacking the universe
Robert Jackson Bennett's Founder's Trilogy is a fantasy series about software engineering. In Foundryside we were introduced to the magic system of this world, in which reality is programmable. Programming is done by inscribing "sigils" on objects be influenced -- this is called "scriving". (In a blog post, Bennett confirmed that The Founders Trilogy is about software.) The first two novels (I haven't yet read the third) take place in the city of Tevanne, whose operation depends on these scrivings, much as our modern cities depend on computers and software to function.
The ordinary scriving of Tevanne operates on the physics of material objects. Because of dire past experiences, the scriving of humans is forbidden. Nevertheless, in Foundryside we met two people who had been illicitly augmented by scriving, Gregor Dandolo and our hero Sancia Grado, from whose point of view the story is told. Sancia and Gregor, together with friends Orso and Berenice effectively destroyed one of Tevanne's four power families and drastically upset the economy and governance of Tevanne.
Three years have passed since then. Gregor's mother Ofelia Dandolo, who heads one of the remaining power families, seeks to resurrect a figure out of legend, a heirophant, who acquired god-like powers. (This is all in the publisher's blurb, so I don't count it as a spoiler.) Sancia et al find themselves mostly on the defensive against a being who understands the underpinnings of this world far better than they (or you) do. If you have read a lot of science fiction and fantasy or even some modern philosophical debate, you will recognize the explanation.
“You are likely familiar with the belief that reality is a device, built by the Creator—a complicated artifice with countless facets and features and structures and substructures, all powered by commands. By sigils.”
“The world as a scrived rig,” murmured Berenice.
The heirophants, it transpires, were hackers who found exploits that allow them to hack the operating system of the universe.
It's a cool idea for a magic system, one that puts the very integrity of the universe in play. I have seen hints of these ideas in other speculative fiction, but none that did it with this thoroughness and imagination. And these are not just books of ideas! The characters, Sancia, Gregor, Orso, and Bernice, along with the mysterious Clef (who we met in Foundryside) and a new one whom I will not name are appealing.
I don't think you need to be a software professional to enjoy the series, but if you are, you will recognize things that others might not. For instance, a "lexicon" is a software library. And the word "permission" is used much as it is in modern operating system theory, and its use will give you a more exact understanding of the nature of the magic.
This was a lot of fun, and I look forward to the final novel, Locklands, for a resolution of the remaining mysteries.