Senlin Ascends
By: Josiah Bancroft
My Rating: Four out of Five Stars
Best for: 16 and up
Senlin Ascends, indie darling, has been picked up by Orbit and has finally found it’s way to the masses.
Congrats Josiah Bancroft! You made it because you deserve it.
For the rest of you, it’s not too late to jump on the band wagon.
But don’t worry…
You’re going to like this one. It might be the most original thing I’ve read since Bilbo found that ring.
In this world, the Towel of Babel isn’t just Biblical…it the cultural, financial, and thought center of the world. To most, the Tower and its fabled wonders, riches, and treasures are a mystery; a wonder of the world that inspires the imagination of children and the passion in adults. How tall is it really? No one knows. Want to visit? Take your life savings and make the trip. Maybe go for your honeymoon? Dull and stiff, boring and proper, small town and naive school master Thomas Senlin decided to do exactly that.
Of course, this is the Tower of Babel we’re talking about.
Minutes off the train, Senlin and his wife are separated in a mass of humanity, and poor Senlin learns quickly the Tower is nothing like he imagined as he ascends in search of his lost beloved.
Surprise: the Tower of Babel, wonder of the world, isn’t just the center of all things glorious…it’s also the center of all things wrong with humanity.
How broken do you have to be before you can rise? Senlin’s about to find out.
Senlin Ascends is packed full of clever writing and outstanding characters. There are layers to this story…short story arcs embedded in longer, and those are embedded in something grand. This is mystery, fantasy, and steampunk. You think you have it figure out, only to discover you swallowed the bait in a long-con long ago. You know nothing.
Except that this book rocks and you want more.
Content appropriate for all ages, but it is complex and it moved slow at times (or maybe I just wanted it to more faster. There’s a difference). It felt like the longest sub-400 page book I’ve ever read. I think younger teenagers could find it tedious. Only two books published out of a planned four-book series, and with the new publisher now in control book 3 has been pushed to Sept 2018.
Highly recommend, but you may want to wait for the rest of the series before starting this trip.
Happy reading!
One Man Book Club 
5 responses to “#SenlinAscends (The Books of Babel #1): You’re going to like this one…”
That sounds intriguing…nice review!
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Thanks! I’m about to start the sequel and I hear good things about that one too.
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I’ll look forward to your review!
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Ahoy there matey! I heard about this one and added it to the list. I saw one negative review and was sad. Yer review gives me hope. So it is still on the list. Of course who knows when I will get around to it. That is a problem for another day. Arrr!
x The Captain
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It’s so original and we’ll written, and generally reviewed very well, but I can certainly see how could be hard for some people… It’s the kind of book you want to move through fast, but instead it moves along deliberately. It bugged me while I was readying it, now I see it as part of the charm and uniqueness. Good luck!
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