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The Books of Babel - Fanart

Art done by Ian Leino

The Books of Babel - Review

Link to the author's (J. Bancroft) personal website

Book 1: Senlin Ascends

Book 2: Arm of the Sphinx

Book 3: The Hod King

Book 4: The Fall of Babel

Blurb: (From Book 1) The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. 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 unusual animals and mysterious machines.

Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.

Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the long guns of a flying fortress. But if he hopes to find his wife, he will have to do more than just endure.

This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.

Review: The setting of some mega structure that contains a myriad of different societies depending on the level within the structure, might not sound overly original anymore, but I love it and this series pull it off spectacularly. The societies at each level, called ringdoms, are inventive, and how they all serve a larger purpose to support the tower is done brilliantly. The concept of the Everyman's Guide to the Tower pulled me in instantly.

The authors writing style is whimsical, and makes the descriptive heavy text fun to read while making all the creative ringdoms and the creatures / structures within a joy to imagine. Senlin is a great main character, pairing well with the whimsical style of the text as he learns more about the insanity of the tower, and the cast of characters around him are all well fleshed out and important towards the story (Go Byron / Iren!). It's especially interesting seeing how everyone has their own opinion on how best to fix the state of the tower.

I was not that happy with the ending, however, and wished the author had handled some interactions differently and gone in a completely different direction story wise. This only affects the final smidge of the series, but it did slightly sour what was an amazing series to something merely very good. It's still a big recommend from me.

P.S. There's a great write up somewhere about the struggled the author went through to get the first installment published. I found it enlightening and a fun read, so I can also recommend that.