Senlin Ascends: Book One of the Books of Babel

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This book has more action than the first three. I don't think Josiah Bancroft is good at writing action. And I think he is good at writing basically everything that isn't action, so there is going to be a strong negative correlation in this series between quantity of action, and how much I like it. He goes very detailed, and blow by blow, but it just doesn't feel intense, or engaging. I almost wish Bancroft just cut his losses, and decided to just write action like Tolkien did, and just summarize it. The Fall of Babel is a freight train of story threads finally coming to a head, but it is also a love letter, saying goodbye to this weird and endearing group of adventurers and castoffs, far removed from where they all started, now so much further along the journeys of their lives. 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. Everywhere he looked now he saw groups of people roped together. Any movement through the crowd was made more difficult by the web of leashes. Why had the Guide neglected to mention that little nugget of wisdom? Bring a good rope. I have never been lonely in my life, but you have made me lonely. When you are gone, I am a moping ruin. I thought I understood the world fairly well. But you have made it all mysterious again. And it's unnerving and frightening and wonderful, and I want it to continue. I want all your mysteries."

A tightly wound caseworker is pushed out of his comfort zone when he’s sent to observe a remote orphanage for magical children. 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 But I Read a Book About It: Senlin and Marya are lured to the Tower by the Everyman's Guide to the Tower of Babel.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. Look, I didn’t get the ending I wanted lol and I’m bitter and disappointed, but this shall pass. I’m a reader who loves seeing the puzzle pieces come together and with some of these puzzles I’ve waited a long time and I didn’t get my answers. I also really didn't love that the story ended up veering more into sci fi - just really not a direction I enjoyed unfortunately (despite the fact I love sci fi, but I just don't think this series needed it or that it fit with the previous books). Again, this is a personal feeling and doesn’t mean the book isn’t objectively good – because it is! 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. 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 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 was also discovering a more efficient means of advancing through the crowds. If he stopped, he found, it was difficult to start again, but progress could be made if one was a little more firm and determined. After a few minutes of following, Marya felt comfortable enough to release his belt, which made walking much easier for them both.For years I had pondered the mystery behind Adam's disappearance and what the surrounding clues meant. Bancroft wrote an original and immensely satisfying explanation that sated my curiosity. The Edith & Marya conundrum was one of the biggest plot points to the story, and its resolution was one of the most heart-wrenching and ultimately human conclusions I could have asked for. And the story ends just as it began: full of mystery, wonder, excitement, and promise. I spent a long time reading this one. It's a long book and I was in no hurry to finish since it marks the end of a truly excellent quadrillogy. And, finally, we have undoubtedly learned that this whole quadrilogy had really been all about Senlin... NOT. The "Books of Babel" are something you hope to see perhaps once a decade — future classics, which may be remembered long after the series concludes." -- (Los Angeles Times) Because, see, by the time they get this deep into the Tower, most have had the character beaten out of them. They are willing to say anything to get what they want. You can't reason with them or trust them. To know a person, to understand their character, you must know who they were before the Tower shook them to their roots. If you do not know how they changed, you do not know who they became. The very fact that you are resistant to me now is a sign that you are the man for the job."