Senlin Ascends
Book One of the Books of Babel
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4.3 • 20 Ratings
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- £2.99
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- £2.99
Publisher Description
'Gracefully written, deliriously imaginative, action-packed, warm, witty and thought-provoking' Madeline Miller, author of Circe
'One of my favourite books of all time' - Mark Lawrence, author of Prince of Thorns
'I'm wildly in love with this book' - Pierce Brown, author of Red Rising
DISCOVER THE EXTRAORDINARY DEBUT THAT HAS GOT EVERYONE TALKING
Mild-mannered headmaster, Thomas Senlin prefers his adventures to be safely contained within the pages of a book. So when he loses his new bride shortly after embarking on the honeymoon of their dreams, he is ill-prepared for the trouble that follows.
To find her, Senlin must enter the Tower of Babel - a world of geniuses and tyrants, of menace and wonder, of unusual animals and mysterious machines. And if he hopes to ever see his wife again, he will have to do more than just survive . . . this quiet man of letters must become a man of action.
'Brilliant' - Publishers Weekly
'I loved it' - Django Wexler
'An engrossing intoxicating delight' - Forbidden Planet
'An extraordinary debut that is well worthy of the hype. A beautifully written, highly engaging page-turning masterpiece' - Fantasy Book Review
'Thomas Senlin is the most unlikely yet likeable hero since a certain hobbit rushed out of Bag End leaving his second breakfast half-finished and entirely unwashed-up' - Fantasy Faction
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bancroft's brilliant debut fantasy, first in a planned series, stars the eponymous Thomas Senlin, a provincial schoolmaster. Thomas and his wife, Marya, honeymoon at the Tower of Babel, a notable tourist attraction. No one knows how high the tower is, as its upper stories are hidden behind a permanent fog, and many other things about it are also mysterious and dangerous. Upon losing Marya in the massive crowd around the tower's base, Thomas begins to climb in the hope of meeting her again. Every one of the tower's staggeringly original individual rooms, many of which have their own cultures, could make a setting for a novel all by itself, and the suspenseful plot and cleverly handled side characters add to the surfeit of riches. The relationship between Thomas and Marya is touching, well-established, and, most importantly, egalitarian. At once steampunk and epic, surreal and yet grounded in believable logistics, this novel goes off like a firework and suggests even greater things in the author's future.
