Senlin Ascends: Book One of the Books of Babel

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That being said: This series is more than a mere reference to the Tower of Babel; it is a reinvention of a story featuring a great, magnificent and proud building whose creators, in their hubris, were so much convinced of its magnificence that they ultimately allowed its demise. 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. Isaugh was the only real home she’d known, apart from the young women’s musical conservatory she’d attended for four years.

It had nothing to do with steampunk or urban fantasy – two of the genres one would probably associate the series with. As Marat's siege engine bores through the Tower, erupting inside ringdoms and leaving chaos in its wake, Senlin can do nothing but observe the mayhem from inside the belly of the beast. It's a long book and I was in no hurry to finish since it marks the end of a truly excellent quadrillogy. I don’t know about you, but often I can measure how invested and enamored I am by a book through how fast—not intentionally, but I always feel like I WANT to continue reading—I can read through it. Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he’ll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters.I kept asking myself these questions as I read the opening chapters of the last book of The Books of Babel.

Unlike much Modern Fantasy, a lot of what happens here isn't too far removed from characteristics and science of our world. This is what happened with Senlin, and other than him, Marya, and Byron, none of the characters captivated me anymore. 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’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 may end up adding more to this review as things come to me, just so I don't have to be done with the series quite yet.

Instead of jumping right into their misadventures, Bancroft first shows the reader what happened to Adam.