Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

The Mushrooms from Hell and A Dragon in a Mary Poppins Bag

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft

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The longer I think on it, the more I think I liked The Hexologists. Sometimes while I reading, I wasn’t feeling super into it, and as soon as I finished I still wasn’t sure. I think part of the challenge for me was that there’s a lot of necessary world-building going on at the same time characters and scenarios are being set up, and some things don’t get even attention. I’m still not sure about the narration; the narrative voice for random reasons suddenly seems […]

Who wants to get drunk together and talk about the Bricklayer?

The Fall of Babel by Josiah Bancroft

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  In my previous review of Josiah Bancroft’s The Hod King,   the third instalment in the Books of Babel series, I mentioned that due to its darker tone and shocker of a cliffhanger, the third book appeared to be ‘The Empire Strikes Back’ of Thomas Senlin’s story.  So now that I’ve read that The Fall of Babel, the final instalment in the series, can I say that this is Bancroft’s ‘Return of the Jedi?’ Not, really, no. I have to confess that with this last […]

One of the most imaginative fantasies I read this year

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

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Senlin Ascends has gotten a lot of hype the past few years in fantasy circles. After reading it, I can really see why. It is utterly imaginative, crafting a fantasy world very different than most: one that takes place almost entirely within a tower that reaches up towards the heavens. Thomas Senlin is a mild-mannered schoolmaster from an analogue of 19th century Britain, who travels with Marya, his new wife, to visit the Tower of Babel for their honeymoon. Yet he loses Marya almost instantly, […]

Location, Location, Location (200 pages of it)

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

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Bingo 8 (So It Begins) This makes twice recently that I have gone into the library to kill a few minutes after returning something and come out with something I’ve been wanting to read for a while. This time I found Senlin Ascends, which is book 1 of what I think is currently a trilogy, The Books of Babel. I actually saw books 2 and 3 first on the display, and after a few minutes I found book 1, which has been on my TBR […]

Come the Hod King

The Hod King by Josiah Bancroft

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I was so very, very excited, waiting for this book to come out! Unfortunately, I’m ashamed to say I got snowed under with work. I loved the previous two books in Josiah Bancroft’s Books of Babel series. I don’t think I had ever come across an author who had such a rich, yet witty, literary style. Even better was that he was able to pair it with an unusually intriguingly built world and fantastic character progression. I’m happy to say that this entry lived up […]

I Feel so Damned Spoilt Reading These

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  So I spent my last review squealing all over Mark Lawrence’s Red Sister, which I thought was some of the best fantasy I had read all year.  Well, the universe must be spoiling me or something, because Josiah Bancroft’s books run in at a close second! I’ll be reviewing them both together, so there will be very, very mild spoilers for the first book. I’ll try not to do too much damage, but be warned. I’ve always enjoyed the more weird and wonderful entries […]



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