From its beginnings, literature has been preoccupied with the unusual, the remarkable, and the intriguing. It has depicted great feelings, great deeds and great characters, probably in the belief that the works of writers should go beyond the everyday, the ordinary, the obvious. Yet, there is no shortage of writers who have had the courage to go against this model. It was not so much a question of a rebellion as of recognising that the everyday, the ordinary and the obvious can be fascinating, that the apotheosis of the average can be delightful. In the third book, The Hod King, Senlin carries out a mission for the enigmatic Sphinx while he and his friends continue the search for Marya. The Los Angeles Times praised the book as "an easy, joyful read; the author's vibrant prose, simply incredible". [9] The truth is, that the effort of giving endings to all these people, plots, and mysteries, places an extra burden on the story. And the fact that it carries on at a jaunty pace beneath all that is highly commendable. Senlin Ascends and its sequels, the Books of Babel series, deal with the adventures of the schoolteacher Thomas Senlin, who is separated from his wife Marya at the foot of the immense Tower of Babel, and spends the rest of the narrative searching for her. The novel was uncommonly successful for a self-published work, due in large part to notice gained during the 2016 SPFBO competition, praise on social media from author Mark Lawrence, and a positive review by Emily May, a popular reviewer on Goodreads. As a result, it was republished, together with the sequel Arm of the Sphinx, by Orbit Books in 2018. The third book in the series, The Hod King, came out in 2019. The finale of the series, The Fall of Babel, was published in 2021. Bancroft's inspirations for the story are numerous and include Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, The Castle by Franz Kafka, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams. [1] The Tower of Babel in the books is not intended to be the tower of biblical fame. Bancroft has explained that the setting is "more of an alternate universe than an alternate history. The Tower is not part of our timeline or this reality". [1] Bancroft took the name Senlin from the 1920 poem "Morning Song of Senlin" by Conrad Aiken. [2] The cover art for the three published books was created by Ian Leino, a childhood friend of Bancroft.

I will read everything that Bancroft puts out in the future, make no mistake. I genuinely think he is the best author I’ve ever had the pleasure to read. Without sounding cliché – these are my classics. I’ve never wanted to annotate a book before, there’s nothing that I’ve read before that has made me go “that’s profound, I want to save and remember that” – but there was SO MUCH in this series where I just had to read a line over and over again because it was so beautifully crafted. I now understand how people feel when they quote lines from a book because I want to do that too! But only with this series.Artificial Limbs: An unknown inventor replaces missing limbs through mysterious, highly advanced science, powered by a glass vial filled with a glowing red substance. Today, Marya wore her traveling clothes: a knee-length khaki skirt and plain white blouse with a somewhat eccentric pith helmet covering her rolling auburn hair. She had dyed the helmet red, which Senlin didn’t particularly like, but she’d sold him on the fashion by saying it would make her easier to spot in a crowd. Senlin wore a gray suit of thin corduroy which he felt was too casual, even for traveling, but which she had said was fashionable and a little frolicsome, and wasn’t that the whole point of a honeymoon after all? By the end of this first book, Senlin had gained a few possible allies and many, many enemies, and has gotten himself embroiled in some as yet unexplained grander plot regarding even more powerful forces further up the tower. The ending is climactic, but perhaps a bit abrupt.

Endings are difficult. In the midst of a story you can toss out new characters and twists and worldbuilding with scarcely a care (GRRM). At the end there is an accounting to be had. Many great authors stumble at the last hurdle. I'm not sure I've ever read a great ending to a Stephen King book, but that didn't stop me hugely enjoying the beginning and the middle, and even the book as a whole. It is a classic biblical motif indicating, on the one hand, the attitude of human rebellion against the power of God (the tower itself was supposed to encroach on the divine realm with its immensity), and, on the other hand, a reminder that all of mankind’s ‘sky-high’ endeavours are doomed to inevitable failure (through the inability of all men to communicate - the confusion of languages - their common deed is thwarted). First, and most of all, I enjoyed Edith. Remember me writing that this series is not about Senlin? That’s because this final book proves it. Edith is the main protagonist of the series, not Senlin. It had been Senlin’s quest from the very beginning till the very end, but it was only Edith and due to Edith that they succeeded in that quest and, arguably, it was Edith who grew and rose the most during the series. Senlin's and Edith's brief romance also left a bitter feeling for me. She's been used and thrown out like rubbish for whatever mediocre reasons. Meh! I’m going to feel very weak, and you’re going to feel very dumb. But that’s how it always is in the beginning. Learning starts with failure.”’ Here’s the thing, I’m invested in Senlin’s journey to be reunited with Marya; this has been the case since Senlin Ascends, and this remains the main focus of the previous three books. Even in The Hod King where other characters like Edith and Voleta take the central stage, Senlin remains the main character of the series. But not in this final book; Senlin is put in a secondary role. The “From the Belly of the Beast” chapters I mentioned were the only Senlin chapters we get, and they’re amazing. That’s it, though. Honestly, this book reminded me of reading The Queen of Fire by Anthony Ryan; Vaelin was the focus in Blood Song, but he has become a side character in the final book. This is what happened with Senlin, and other than him, Marya, and Byron, none of the characters captivated me anymore.gingerly she had handled him. He’d been a cub in the mouth of a lion. She was a master of violence. She was indomitable, and she was Indentured Servitude: The punishment for failing to pay one's debts is being caught, shaved, collared and put to work as a hod, essentially slaves forced to carry goods and do other maintenance throughout the Tower. It's John Tarrou's eventual fate, when he's caught redhanded aiding Senlin for the theft of a painting, and the authorities stop ignoring his outstanding debts as a result.

The plot progression and the conclusion I thought was satisfying, both in the way the story played out and the interspersing of the PoV sections. It was steadily paced with a constant sense of story movement, though some of the action scenes I thought extended a tad too long. There are mysteries slowly being unravelled about the nature and function of the Tower after getting bits and pieces peppered throughout the previous books. One of my favourite aspects of any fantastical world is getting to know the lore, figuring out how all of it fits together logically. This series mostly delivers on that front, as there are awaited revelations about the various ringdoms and the Tower, as well as a deeper exploration of the workings of the mysterious red substance. The scene seemed almost comical from the ground, but Senlin’s stomach churned when he thought of how the youth must feel flying on the strength of his grip high over the sprawling mob. Indeed, the entire brief scene had been so bizarre that he decided to simply put it out of his mind. The Guide had called the Market a raucous place. It seemed, perhaps, an understatement. Special thanks to my Patrons on Patreon for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!It was all so overwhelming, and for a moment Senlin stiffened like a corpse. The bark of vendors, the snap of tarps, the jangle of harnesses, and the dither of ten-thousand alien voices set a baseline of noise which could only be yelled over. Marya took hold of her husband’s belt just at his spine, startling him from his daze and goading him onward. He knew they couldn’t very well just stand there. He gathered a breath and took the first step. A gap in the awnings above them exposed the sky, and there, like a pillar holding up the heavens, stood the Tower of Babel.