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A review by invicticide
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
For quite a while - perhaps too long - the book feels like a series of bottle episodes, each about meeting a different character in a different place, with a structure so regular it could pass for a video game. While the encounters are charming, the lack of an apparent purpose to any of them almost made me put the book down.
But then someone is re-introduced, and it suddenly becomes apparent that those weren't standalone episodes at all, nor were they mere exposition, and in fact you're in the grip of a careful and deliberate storyteller who knows _exactly_ where he's going.
This book doesn't end so much as it hands off to the second in the four-book series, but even this handoff is a thrilling and satisfying climax.
The titular character, Thomas Senlin, has an arc. It's a good arc. The entire book is _really_ about that arc. And now, after going through that arc, I'm _so ready_ to find out what this character will get up to next.
But then someone is re-introduced, and it suddenly becomes apparent that those weren't standalone episodes at all, nor were they mere exposition, and in fact you're in the grip of a careful and deliberate storyteller who knows _exactly_ where he's going.
This book doesn't end so much as it hands off to the second in the four-book series, but even this handoff is a thrilling and satisfying climax.
The titular character, Thomas Senlin, has an arc. It's a good arc. The entire book is _really_ about that arc. And now, after going through that arc, I'm _so ready_ to find out what this character will get up to next.