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4.06 AVERAGE
4.06 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Omg yesssss... I’ve been craving this massive world building and characters that are real and raw and rambling adventures and just, YES! So excited for the next book!
Before I start; these are my personal opinions. I can guarantee others will disagree.
Boring old headmaster turns to reckless adventurer.
To say I fell in love with Senlin at the beginning of the book would be a flat out lie. I hated him in fact. He's a boring, naive headmaster who makes all the wrong decisions but that seems to be how the writer wants you to feel. Through the book he matures, he learns and grows and by the end I actually really liked him (he still does things that annoy me but that's part of the charm.)
Each scenery is beautifully described and you really get a feel of how life is like in the tower from floor to floor. Each being vastly different from the last.
The main recurring characters are also enveloped in rich backstory that either are thrown at you from the start or drip fed to you as you go. I found Josiah Bancroft would often withhold information about certain characters, sometimes crumbs but other times entire story arcs, until the exact perfect moment when it needed to be revealed. The mix up between the approaches gave the characters a more realistic feel.
Once I have finished several of the other books on my to read list i will revisit the tower of Babel series with the second installment.
Boring old headmaster turns to reckless adventurer.
To say I fell in love with Senlin at the beginning of the book would be a flat out lie. I hated him in fact. He's a boring, naive headmaster who makes all the wrong decisions but that seems to be how the writer wants you to feel. Through the book he matures, he learns and grows and by the end I actually really liked him (he still does things that annoy me but that's part of the charm.)
Each scenery is beautifully described and you really get a feel of how life is like in the tower from floor to floor. Each being vastly different from the last.
The main recurring characters are also enveloped in rich backstory that either are thrown at you from the start or drip fed to you as you go. I found Josiah Bancroft would often withhold information about certain characters, sometimes crumbs but other times entire story arcs, until the exact perfect moment when it needed to be revealed. The mix up between the approaches gave the characters a more realistic feel.
Once I have finished several of the other books on my to read list i will revisit the tower of Babel series with the second installment.
Wow, what a concept!! Such an engaging story to go with it. Starting the 2nd book in the series immediately.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft is a free NetGalley ebook that I read in late January.
The title character, a worrisome, slightly flappable (like a put-upon Bilbo) headmaster named Thomas Senlin enters the cylindrical cities of the Tower of Babel with his good-natured, newlywed wife, Marya, and quickly loses her in the fray of a bustling marketplace. We're treated to cute flashbacks of their courtship and simple villager lifestyle amid Senlin searching frantically for her throughout the three familiar levels of the Tower before glimpsing her face in streetside painting. Its artist, Ogier, relates how she posed for him before looking for Senlin with the help of a mysterious Count. Upon learning this, Senlin bands together a ragtag crew, changes his name to Tom Mudd, and captains an airship called the Stone Cloud (just in time for the start of book #2 of this series).
The title character, a worrisome, slightly flappable (like a put-upon Bilbo) headmaster named Thomas Senlin enters the cylindrical cities of the Tower of Babel with his good-natured, newlywed wife, Marya, and quickly loses her in the fray of a bustling marketplace. We're treated to cute flashbacks of their courtship and simple villager lifestyle amid Senlin searching frantically for her throughout the three familiar levels of the Tower before glimpsing her face in streetside painting. Its artist, Ogier, relates how she posed for him before looking for Senlin with the help of a mysterious Count. Upon learning this, Senlin bands together a ragtag crew, changes his name to Tom Mudd, and captains an airship called the Stone Cloud (just in time for the start of book #2 of this series).
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Reminded me of Gormenghast with a dash of New Crobuzon. Wonderfully complex and weird. Discovered through Reddit looking for a book with sky pirates for my fantasy bingo card.