Senlin Ascends

Book One of the Books of Babel

paperback

Published April 7, 2018 by orbit uk.

ISBN:
978-0-356-51081-1
Copied ISBN!

View on OpenLibrary

(60 reviews)

"The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel of the Silk Age. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of airships and steam engines, of incredible animals and mysterious machines. While honeymooning in the Tower of Babel, Thomas Senlin loses his wife. A mild-mannered headmaster of a village school, Thomas Senlin is drawn to the Tower by scientific curiosity and the grandiose promises of a guidebook. It seems the perfect destination for a honeymoon. But soon after arriving in the Tower bazar, Senlin loses Marya in the crowd. Before he can find Marya, Senlin must first discover himself. 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. But if …

7 editions

reviewed Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel, #1)

Review of 'Senlin Ascends' on 'Goodreads'

Very unique world, with a compelling plot, and plenty of mystery. It was a bit slow to start, and I had to get used to the narrator's accent, but soon I found myself wanting to listen more. Senlin definitely feels Bilbo-esque in his naivety and how he gets pulled into things without meaning to. I'm excited for the next book!

reviewed Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel, #1)

Review of 'Senlin Ascends' on 'Goodreads'

I loved this. We start with priggish headmaster Thomas Senlin and his young bride going to the center of civilization on their honeymoon, and things start going wrong for Tom quickly. I had entirely forgotten how delicious an unlikeable protagonist is, and Tom is pretty unlikeable!

This book is almost as if Jasper Fforde or Nick Harkaway wrote Piranesi. It's zany, horrifying, sweet, and action-packed.

reviewed Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel, #1)

Review of 'Senlin Ascends' on 'Goodreads'

The good souls don't have the means or mind for it, and the bad souls will only bleed you dry.

Senlin Ascends had such a unique concept, prose and setting that it was easy to get sucked in and want to read more. Like Senlin I was swept up in the whimsy and wonder but also the dark and mysterious nature of the Tower.

Whenever my wife lost track of me at a pub or a party, all she had to do was follow the chimney. I gravitate to fires. People leave you alone if you're stirring a fire.

As Senlin progresses through this labyrinth of a Tower more questions are raised than answered and I was keen to keep on reading and learn more, get some payoff and get that desire to read more.

One has to tell lies that don't hide the truth.

Ultimately Senlin Ascends is all …

reviewed Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel, #1)

Review of 'Senlin Ascends' on 'Goodreads'

More like three and a half stars. I was slow to get going on this one, mostly because, while half my brain was focused on the story, the other half was distracted by the idea of a D&D campaign set entirely in an infinitely tall tower. Once I got going, though, I enjoyed this quite a bit.

Interesting ideas, defeated by the writing style

I can't put the finger on what I didn't like in this book, but it felt too long, the characters didn't feel fleshed out, and the main character doesn't get interesting until about 4/5 through.

Apart from that I liked the setting, this big, enormous tower with a kingdom (or "ringdom") on each storey. Too much is kept from our knowing, which is slightly frustrating but makes me want to keep reading the series. The unreliable guidebook gets tired fast, and I don't miss it. I just hope to see more of the tower, and I hope that the end that's been hinted at during the market scene will happen. I need my Chekhov's unfinished tower summit.

reviewed Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel, #1)

Review of 'Senlin Ascends' on 'Goodreads'

I am somewhat in love with this book. It's not perfect, but I like it's originality. It's set in a mostly non magical world, but it is utterly bizarre all the same. The nearest 'feel' I can think of is the Gormengast books. You can tell that the author has another life as a poet: there are times when I read sentences out loud to myself, just to enjoy the sound of them.

reviewed Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel, #1)

Review of 'Senlin Ascends' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

The endings of books are the hardest things. But for the end, I enjoyed Senlin's ascent.

It's an adventure and it deals with human values and natures, and a bit of steam technology. I like the myth of the tower of babel as it is presented here. The ringdoms we got introduced to were fascinating and cool to learn about.

The culmination at the end felt too cluttered to me. On the one hand I understand that it should feel kind of epic compared to everything that came before. But it can't feel like a proper resolution in any case, since there is a second book, and it feels very different from the rest of the book in what kind of conflict and resolution it has.

And I guess, I preferred the naive Senlin of the beginning of the book to the more scheming one at the end.

reviewed Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel, #1)

Review of 'Senlin Ascends' on 'Goodreads'

This is a very good book. I don't really know what to say about it other than that. I'll probably need to read it several times, and then let it decant for a year or two.

The writing is magnificent. On occasion, there are telling intertextualities: there are long chapters which are redolent of Kafka (the schema of the book is quite similar to 'The Castle'). There are echoes of Gene Wolfe, Samuel Delaney or of Neil Gaiman's Sandman comics. Perhaps Walker Percy. Or Bunyan.

Although the main character is male, as are many of the actants, there are several strong women, including the lost wife who, at first, I feared might be little more than a McGuffin, but who, while she is not seen directly, plays an important role as a character in the story. i suspect she is one aspect of the goddess.

reviewed Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The Books of Babel, #1)

Review of 'Senlin Ascends' on 'Goodreads'

When I first joined Twitter a few months ago, it seemed like this book was all anyone in the fantasy scene was talking about. I now see why.

If you've traveled abroad with friends or family to a place whose language you do not know, the opening of the book will feel very familiar. There's an anxiety to such tourism that can be beaten back with proper planning, but never entirely eliminated. Invariably, there's a moment on such a trip where you look up and can't see your travelling companions. In that moment, there's a flash of terror at being lost, at their being lost, at a separation rendered impassable by a wall of incomprehensible language and custom.

If you're prepared, and a seasoned traveler, then you already have plans in place -- contingencies for exactly that moment, and after an initial flash of anxiety, the joy of exploration returns …

reviewed Senlin ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The books of Babel -- Book 1)

Review of 'Senlin ascends' on 'Goodreads'

Un libro que tiende más a lo steampunk que a la fantasía de siempre, con un protagonista un poco fuera de lo común (¿cuantos directores de escuela has visto salir de aventuras?).
La estructura del libro hace que hayan 3 formatos de historia, uno por cada piso que visita el prota, y cada una rozando otros géneros totalmente distintos.
Me ha encantado, y me ha dejado con unas ganas locas de saber que pasa con Senlin después de ese final.

reviewed Senlin ascends by Josiah Bancroft (The books of Babel -- Book 1)

Review of 'Senlin ascends' on 'Goodreads'

Absolutely superb, a full throated 5 stars.

Shades of a Hitchhiker's Guide acerbic humor, and a Dantean setting and plot. Tonally the book reminds me Titus Groan, that other overlooked gem of hard-to-categorize fantasy. The setting is brilliantly novel, and the story wonderfully unique.

Bancroft has a poetic sensibility, and his passages are as moving as they are gripping. I can't praise this book enough. Easily catapulted to the top my year's reading list, and Bancroft to my authors to watch.

avatar for joka

rated it

avatar for joka

rated it

avatar for buu709

rated it

avatar for princeofspace

rated it

avatar for ntavish

rated it

avatar for Nerses

rated it

avatar for mgiuntoni

rated it

avatar for smoothment

rated it

avatar for kergoth

rated it

avatar for edwardloveall

rated it

avatar for edwardloveall

rated it

avatar for curzon

rated it

avatar for Angrboda

rated it

avatar for jnyrose

rated it

avatar for Stanman

rated it

avatar for ScottSchlueter

rated it

avatar for rgibert

rated it

avatar for Old_Tim

rated it

avatar for xorn

rated it

avatar for CSND

rated it

avatar for satyajit

rated it

avatar for overtsun

rated it

avatar for WarpedReality

rated it

avatar for AwkwardTurtle

rated it

avatar for Hyzie

rated it

avatar for tlj

rated it

avatar for piotr

rated it

avatar for fjordic

rated it

avatar for Shepy

rated it

avatar for curzon

rated it

avatar for BillieCodes

rated it

avatar for brzy

rated it

avatar for inti

rated it

avatar for n0madz

rated it

avatar for Geekess

rated it

avatar for matthewmincher

rated it

avatar for smyth

rated it

avatar for ximtor

rated it

avatar for mad_frisbeterian

rated it

avatar for QuietCat

rated it

avatar for Minnozz

rated it

avatar for Joao-Luis

rated it

avatar for stjep

rated it

avatar for noahrichards

rated it

avatar for chayote

rated it

avatar for AnnaElsecaller

rated it

avatar for esteboix

rated it

avatar for schiaffino

rated it