Thomas Senlin is a man of letters; the headmaster of a school in the country, he has always been fascinated by the Tower of Babel and plans his honeymoon with his new wife, Marya, to see the tower for himself. Trusty guidebook in hand and a wealth of additional knowledge besides, Senlin is surprised to find the area around the Tower to be more chaotic and dangerous than he expected. When Marya disappears, Senlin goes in search of her, and finds that not only is the guidebook wrong about the Tower in almost every way, but Senlin himself may be capable of far darker acts than he imagined if he wishes to be reunited with Marya.
Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft is a book that was originally self-published, but reads like a book that deserves to be signed to a major publishing house because of the level of detail and cohesiveness that Bancroft brings to the story. Rather than strictly a story about lost love and adventures to find them, Senlin Ascends structures the adventure around specific ways that society can shape the human experience of its occupants.
Every level of the Tower of Babel offers a different kingdom or “ringdom” for the reader to understand, and Bancroft conveys the entire universe of each ringdom quickly and efficiently. In part this might be because each ringdom offers something tied to how a society can become dysfunctional; there’s an entire one dedicated to play-acting, another dedicated to total lawlessness, another that’s the embodiment of everything that would appeal to a hedonist, and so on, but each has a secret price to it that is unknown to Senlin at first. The guidebook he came with paints the Tower and its ringdoms as places of prosperity, where people can thrive, but as the bill comes due for each indulgence, Senlin finds that the foundation of the Tower may be a bit more focused on domination than on trying to highlight the power of human ingenuity.
For Casual Readers
Senlin Ascends offers a steampunk, fantasy-esque adventure into a world reminiscent of the Bioshock games, which would make it ideal for anyone who enjoyed the games or prefers stories that use classic elements of love and adventure to tell a new story. Similar to The Book of Doors by Gareth Brown, the story can feel like it’s right on the cusp of tilting into a familiar genre, but never quite tips over that line, which may make it disorienting for someone who prefers their stories come in clearly defined boxes, but it would be immensely appealing to someone who enjoys seeing something new that resists traditional genre definitions, especially when it does so well.
For Writers
Bancroft’s novel is an intriguing story as a reader, but it also offers more fascinating lessons for writers as well. It’s worth reading for the world-building alone, which evokes the scenery uniquely without devolving into explanation as a way of getting a point across. Further, Bancroft’s method of world-building created a bit of a disorienting effect, since there seems to be so much crammed into each level that, instead of giving a sense of scale, it highlights the feeling Senlin has as he finds the tower to be more complex than he imagined.
Besides world-building, Bancroft takes characterization in an interesting direction, making it possible to create a whole band of adventurers around Senlin that the reader feels invested in without dedicating a lot of words to doing it. It’s possible that the style could be described as “understated,” but on reflection, Bancroft’s descriptions of the characters and their back stories don’t really fit into this category so much as taking a minimalist and functionalist approach to their description: there may be points where he describes the character background in greater detail, but Bancroft focuses instead on integrating those character details when they become relevant to the story, which can be a useful thing for writers of every creative stripe to learn.
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Next Up: The Voyage of the Basilisk by Marie Brennan
A Final Note
The Coffeehouse Creative is a place to flex creative muscle while working on other projects. That means that alongside book reviews, you’re likely to find:
Travel pieces that have brought joy the writer’s life
Reflections on writing and the life that it brings with it
Recommendations on marketing and management practices
Notes from a graduate student looking to survive the studies
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