sasha_karamyshev 's review for:

Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

3.5

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 At times it was a pretty engrossing story. It definitely felt closer to hearing R F Kuang’s personal voice than Babel did. Much more a story about grad school than one about hell (imo) — which is not a bad thing, just not exactly what I expected. The stories from inside vs outside hell felt disjointed in the first half of the book. It felt like they may have been better as separate books. Hell seemed at times like more of a setting than driving force (idk if that makes sense). But it felt more clear once everything was mainly just in hell. Some aspects probably went over my head because I don’t know/haven’t read many of the philosophers / accounts of hell she references. But it’s not too overly worried about mechanics which I liked. I didn’t always love the prose and dialogue but that’s just personal preference. 

Overall I would recommend  people who are interested read it, but I probably won’t reread 🫶