Senlin Ascends
Ratings193
Average rating4.1
You can't talk about Senlin Ascends without bringing up the Tower of Babel. This thing dwarfs Barad Dur and Burj Khalifa. Characters in the novel have to guess at how tall it is because you can't see the top. And that's just on the outside.
On the inside, the Tower is made up of many varying ringdoms, each with its own distinct personality. When you walk in, you get to see the Basement. It's kind of the slums of the Tower, but it's invented the marvelous Beer-me-go-Rounds, which allow anyone to hop on and peddle their merry way into inebriation. Hopefully they have craft. Further up, you get floors like the Parlor, one giant theater where anyone can star as an actor, and the Baths, a place full of temptation and relaxation.
Newcomers may expect the ringdoms of the Tower to be like the layers of a cake where each layer is much like the last. But this is not the case. Not at all. Each ringdom is unique and bewildering. The ringdoms of the Tower share only two things in common: the shape of their outermost walls, which are roughly circular, and the price of beef, which is outrageous. The rest is novel.
I picked this book up because it seemed like /r/fantasy had the biggest fucking boner for it—and boy, do I have the biggest fucking boner for it right now. Senlin Ascends was an amazing read. It's got just about everything you could want in a book—Amazing prose, fantastic worldbuilding, a captivating story and really good character development.
It's a creative and innovative work—with a wonderful setting and new and interesting ideas. I won't try to describe why this book is so amazing because I'd just end up repeating what so many have said before me (Mark Lawrence, Emily May, etc).
At the very least, it deserves hundreds of thousands of fans.
I've gotten an ARC from [a:Benedict Patrick 15139422 Benedict Patrick http://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1487193678p2/15139422.jpg] back in around November or so. In one of my emails to him I remember mentioning how the amazing covers of his books really did help to get me interested, which is always a good thing for an indie author trying to gain popularity. This book is another great example for that; don't judge a book by its cover, but shit, good art always inspires me to pick it up. Interesting art comes with an interesting story in this case. It's... not easy to talk about this one without giving things away and taking away from the weirdness that I think you should experience for yourself. Thomas Senlin is not a great person. He's the headmaster of a school in a little fishing village, which also makes him the only teacher there. His manners are stiff, he doesn't care about anything grandiose and boring things fit him perfectly. We can call him anxious and a coward. Still, the lovely Marya marries him and even with their differences, they are happy. Their honeymoon takes them to the amazing Tower of Babel, this gigantic complex of everything fun you can just imagine. It would have been cool if they didn't get separated in the market around the tower, which leaves Senlin having to be brave, resourceful and smart to find her again. When I think of this book, I have to say that it is not for people who are not in for something different. It has a style that makes the whole thing feel like a bit of a dream, it's whimsical and horrible and just... something else. Personally I found it interesting, but I know it wouldn't be for everyone. Which is all fine, of course, I think it's great that a new author (and already a poet) is willing to take this risk. Not necessarily the easiest to read in places, but I find it worth the effort. Flawed characters are also my thing. I'm so tired of perfect people, especially ones who are somehow always morally perfect and just need to be better than everyone, because it makes their deeds weightless; you know that even if they do things wrong, it will turn out that they were actually right from the very beginning, you just didn't see it. Senlin is lovely, because he avoids this. Not a bad man, not really. Not hero material either. By the end you will see him becoming much bolder, ready for adventure and more and more equipped to fulfil his mission. Again, I have no idea how to describe it. Just give it a go, it really does deserve more attention, as it's something different and it could be a pretty great choice for people who are looking something out there and refreshingly different in the fantasy genre. Definitely going on to read the second book in the series and if it keeps this up I'm going to be excited about the book to come in the rest of the series, as I think there will be some interesting conclusions and great ideas about the whole tower system, which just started to happen at the end of this one. Good night and learn to enjoy your home sweet home instead!
4.5 out of 5 stars – see this review and others here.
I was completely taken with Senlin Ascends right from the outset. Author Josiah Bancroft's words paint a vivid picture of a peculiar world where nothing is as it seems. It's Tim Burton meets Wes Anderson meets something completely its own.
The story follows Thomas Senlin as he climbs the massive Tower of Babel in search of his missing wife. Senlin encounters a compelling cavalcade of characters who he uses as stepping stones to reach his ultimate goal, while they use him to further their (often) nefarious aims. These symbiotic relationships teach Senlin about the true nature of the tower and about the man he must become in order to succeed.
Bancroft's prose is lyrical and conveys a sense of grand adventure that I rarely find in my reading life. I am perplexed about the lack of mainstream attention Senlin Ascends has received since its release several years ago, but I plan to keep the positive word-of-mouth going as much as I can.
Shout out to Mark Lawrence for putting this book on my radar! I don't have much of a track record writing reviews on here but it would be negligent of me not to say a few words of praise.
Unlike some reviews, I was not immediately sucked into the novel. I wasn't sure what to expect heading in and found myself as baffled as Senlin in the early chapters. But, just like our hero, I learned to quickly do away with my naivete as the story rose with the tower. Josiah Bancroft has delivered a wholly original, wholly engaging work of speculative fiction. It is charming, witty, sometimes hilarious, often terrifying, and I cannot wait to dive into the next book!