'Senlin Ascends' by Josiah Bancroft

This book review was part of a podcast discussion.
Listen to the episode here.

Senlin Ascends, the incredible debut novel of Josiah Bancroft, tells the story of an unlikely hero who must face untold dangers to save the one he loves from unknown dangers.

Sounds original when I describe it like that, doesn’t it?

In all seriousness, this novel successfully carves out a space for itself on my shelf among stories like Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere or J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, and even The Buried Giant, which I reviewed earlier this year. A timid unlikely hero character must leave his comfort zone to embark on a quest that will change him forever.

The setting is the infamous Tower of Babel, reimagined as the pillar of technological advancement. Each floor of the tower contains different features, different people, and different challenges. Featuring airships, high speed trains, clockwork spiders and more, this setting cements the book firmly in the steampunk genre.

We follow the character of Senlin, a schoolteacher who fancies himself smarter than most others in his home village, as he and his wife take their honeymoon at the tower. Senlin had always romanticized the idea of the tower, but it becomes apparent that the Tower of Babel he read about at home is nothing like real life.

After losing track of her outside of the tower, we watch the “very smart” Senlin fail time and again to find his wife, losing all of his belongings and nearly his life. Nevertheless, his continued commitment to doing the right thing (even though he is often learning what the right thing is as he goes) has the reader continuing to root for Senlin.

Senlin Ascends is a story about overcoming your fears and overcoming your perceptions of how things ought to be. The story challenges the idea that the conventional way things are done is the right way, lifting the rug on convention and exposing the horrible things in society.