Review by joysbookcase - Katabasis

joysbookcase 's review for:

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

4.0

It probably goes without saying, but if you enjoyed Babel, you’ll almost certainly enjoy Katabasis. The dark academia vibes are immaculate and there are definite similarities between Babel’s Robin and Katabasis’ Peter. I was lucky enough to hear Kuang speak at a bookstore event and she mentioned that all of her fantasy books unintentionally feature a gangly male character reminiscent of Hiccup from How to Train Your Dragon, her childhood crush!

There’s been a lot of talk on Bookstagram about “required pre-reading”, most notably Dante’s Inferno. Can confirm I did no such preparation and I don’t feel this had a big impact on my enjoyment or understanding. Would I have gained some deeper appreciation if I’d read all of the referenced texts? Maybe. Do I care? No. With that said, it was helpful to use the “look up” feature on my Kobo to learn more about mathematicians and philosophers I was unfamiliar with, but this was by no means necessary as anything essential to the plot is explained in layman’s terms.

Conversely, there are lots of references to Cambridge academia (and Cambridge in general) which I did understand and got to feel delightfully smug about, always a plus. I also really appreciated the chronic illness rep, which feels genuinely integral to the plot and explores the theme of the mind’s relationship to the body. It’s also unexpectedly a little humorous and goofy, which was a pleasant surprise.

Despite my bias towards Cambridge, unfortunately I didn’t love this as much as Babel. It takes place over a much shorter timeframe and the plot feels more simplistic. I don’t object to a slow pace but the epic journey just felt a little…A to B? Also, magic with a K? 😬🫣

Minor niggles aside, I did enjoy it a lot and that’s high praise indeed from someone who doesn’t usually read fantasy or books over 500 pages!

Content Warnings