A review by jbxdavis
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

3.0

High marks for the fantastical world-building and exploration of humanity in dire circumstances. The prose is solid, but the narrative structure is slow for my taste. Worse, every action scene (particulary the climactic sequence) leans so heavily on last-minute interruptions to save the day that it borders on parody. Every time someone is about to do something of great consequence, some other party or force stops it. Eventually the moments that should be the most tense feel like cues for some other party to show up. I'm planning to revisit this trilogy since I get the sense from reviews that the later books are better, but the introduction was a bit messy and didn't really scratch my itch for an adventure.