Fantastic Drug: White Chrom, colloquially known as Crumb. So named because it "makes the real world seem like the sort of thing a mouse could eat in one bite and still be hungry". Senlin accidentally stumbles into a Crumb den and after partaking, hallucinates a giant version of Marya. You know, this final book had been a tough read for me. It‘s very sort of a hit-and-miss for me, and not only for those reasons, mentioned above. Yes, Senlin gets relegated to a secondary character, but I could have dealt with it no problem. I even can deal no problem with not getting all the answers and even with THAT ending. But what really disappointed me the most, was the loss of narrative and even more – the manipulation by Bancroft. I mean, he created an impressive world with some peculiar, but logical and strict rules and thoroughly held to them, especially during the first two books. And here, in the final book, he started breaking these rules. His characters – both villains and protagonists – are suddenly able to do the things they couldn‘t before. Almost like whenever they want to do something, they are simply able to. Add some illogical action, lots of oddities, ever-changing natural laws and behavior... And I'm a bit unsure about this, but my gut feeling is that it seems at some point Josiah Bancroft decided to turn this book into some sort of psychedelic hallucination, mixed with a travelling freakshow. Why? Because it is The Tower, and in The Tower anything goes and anything is. So... WHY NOT? At least, that‘s my impression – overdoing the writing, oversaturating the colors and, it might be a strange thing to complain about as a reader, but the longer I think about this book, the more a shade of simply generally overtrying looms above it. It's a funny thing to look for realism in a fantasy book, but even fantasy books have to be "real" - have their inner logic, laws and rules. Unless, of course, one's willing to make himself a name in writing psychedelics, where anything can happen haphazardly and without any reason. Alas, we all know that "The books of Babel" is not this case. wow. i cant believe i am here and that the ending of the series has finally arrived. its definitely a lot to process. So much happened. So many changes to the characters. And by the time we get to book 4, having undergone so many massive reveals as to the nature of Babel, the towering tower of a city, its makers, and the people who supported it, it kinda felt like there was nothing else that could have surprised me.

And then: The glimpses into the many of the sixty-four ringdoms, one more preposterous than the other, made me wish we spent ten more volumes gallivanting around. We can cower behind oaths and excuses, but it does not change the fact that many are suffering and dying. Perhaps we are not responsible for the crimes of our fathers, but make no mistake, we are beneficiaries of those crimes, which makes us answerable to its victims.” Things are not so dramatic. In many places, the rot is hidden behind either stone walls or glamour. The fall is less literal and more figurative. Indolent Voleta functions as a figure showing that what keeps us alive also slowly kills us. Adam’s heart gets drafty so that the ultimate conformist can become a revolutionary. Every single character is an epitome of ignorance or privilege that come in many different guises, from loyalty to blind allegiance, from leadership to self-serving exploitation. This way, truly, the only one enemy is the complacency and the piously small desires for a life of certainties that preclude any grand aspirations so inherently endowed with risks. Of course, we need to ask, is Mr Bancroft referring to some imaginary edifice, or is he describing our own world? I have found terrifyingly apt parallels. The Fall of Babel is the final book in The Books of Babel quartet and a great conclusion to the series, though I still consider The Hod King my favourite of the four. It wraps up character arcs and resolves various threads while further expanding on the unique worldbuilding of the Tower. a b "Interview, Josiah Bancroft, The Books of Babel". Reddit. 20 February 2018 . Retrieved 28 January 2020.The first of the series, Senlin Ascends, was followed by The Arm of the Sphinx, published 2014, The Hod King, published in 2019, and finally The Fall of Babel in 2021. I also think Marat killing his crew mercilessly did weaken his ideological clash with the Sphinx. I assume it wasn’t meant to be a clash of ideologies. But his action just gave him less depth. His villain gang was generally unremarkable, and the final combat exchange was just a mess. It was just badly executed, and Marat's demise was very anticlimactic. delighted in the old tales, the epics in which heroes set out on some impossible and noble errand, confronting the dangers in their path with fatalistic bravery.”

Because this is book 4. I know this series is going to be weird. I know the characters are going to be weirdly poetic in situations when they shouldn't. I know there are going to be weird cyborg people. I know there's going to be plot elements that come out of nowhere and that ringdoms are going to be introduced that are too weird to exist. So why did I hate all of it this time?The scope of Senlin's saga and the cast of characters expand in Arm of the Sphinx. Publishers Weekly's starred review claimed that the second installment "not only matches but adds to the notable achievements of the first". [7] A review on Barnes & Noble's Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog compared Bancroft to "a master craftsman building a workshop around himself". [8] He felt uneasy. Ahead of them, acres of stalls cascaded with women’s undergarments. There wasn’t a man in sight. Bancroft, Josiah (3 November 2019). "The State of Book Four". The Books of Babel . Retrieved 29 January 2020. bined into a single, fluid reflex. He’d long suspected that she had been overly hard on him when they’d sparred, but now he knew just how

My expectations for this book were astronomically high, and I'm thrilled to say that nearly all of them were met. Hill, Nicole (13 March 2018). "Arm of the Sphinx Continues a Surreal Climb Up the Tower of Babel". B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog . Retrieved 28 January 2020.Thomas Senlin, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, is drawn to the Tower by scientific curiosity and the grandiose promises of a guidebook. The luxurious Baths of the Tower seem an ideal destination for a honeymoon, but soon after arriving, Senlin loses Marya in the crowd. Senlin’s search for Marya carries him through madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassination, and the long guns of a flying fortress. I really hope this isn’t the last we’ve seen of these characters and this world, because honestly I think this series is too special for this to be the end.

I’m not sure if it’s me - if I waited too long between books to start this last instalment. Or if it’s just because the tone of this one seems so different to the previous books. Senlin Ascends was my favourite but I feel like this series lost its way as it went. I’m sure this review is just an unpopular opinion, I can already feel all the spoon of Bancroft's fans being raised, and I genuinely hope people love this book and series. But in my opinion, The Fall of Babel was utterly disappointing. I wanted to love it. I really do. I mean, I even reread the previous three books just to refresh my memory before I read The Fall of Babel so I can enjoy every detail of it. For those of you who don’t know, this is something that I rarely do due to my mountainous TBR pile, but I did it for The Books of Babel because I highly enjoyed the first three books. I chose this as the last fantasy book I read in 2021, it was one of my most anticipated reads of the year, and unfortunately, it ended up being the disappointment of the year.Fiction Book Review: Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft". Publishers Weekly . Retrieved 28 January 2020. The Tower of Babel is sometimes called the Sink of Humanity. Its immensity, the variety of its ringdoms, its mysterious and luxurious heights are irresistible to all corners. We are drawn to it like water to a drain. This book doesn't have a lot of action compared to most fantasy books, but the action it had was kinda boring.(and the ship vs ship stuff is cool) And then there is the minor issue of a non-decisive ending. It can be a good or bad thing, depending on your take on the whole series. Ultimately, the sequels will tell.