While Senlin Ascends gave me a feel of a quest for one man through many levels of would could be a gilded prison this book is a very different beast this is an adventure tale that allows the focus to move away from Senlin and across the rest of his crew. Slowly he decides that the Sphinx who is known to have created the machines that power the tower as well as Edith’s new arm may be the only force able to help Senlin overcome the powerful families he now believes that have his wife within the Tower’s upper rings. Senlin in possession of a portrait that is incredibly important to the future of his tower. There has been a slight time-jump and in his new guise of Captain Mudd he is fighting for survival by attacking ships for supplies while also evading his would-be captors. His first mate is Edith a woman who the tower punished so severely that she ended up needing a mysterious mechanical arm Iren the enforcer of a local gangster that switched loyalties due to Senlin’s kindness and the sister/brother duo of Violeta and Adam (the latter of whom has betrayed Senlin twice in efforts to free his sister).

We now have Senlin in command of a pilot flying ship with a small crew he has picked up during his earlier adventures. In this adventure focused sequel, we now see Senlin start to take the initiative. I was impressed with both the inventive inner world of the Tower and its theme of the elite preying on the wider population. Very quickly they are separated and Senlin discovers the Tower has a much darker side. Warning – some spoilers for Senlin Ascends (Tower of Babel Book 1)īack in January I was really impressed with Josiah Bancroft’s debut novel Senlin Ascends where an uptight schoolmaster (Senlin) took his wife to the mysterious Tower of Babel that dominates the lands as it climbs into the clouds. I thank the publisher for an advance copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. But help from the Sphinx doesn’t come cheaply and, as Senlin knows, debts aren’t always what they seem in the Tower of Babel. Hopeless and desolate, they turn to a legend of the Tower, the mysterious Sphinx. But the Tower of Babel is proving to be as difficult to re-enter as it was to escape. Forced by necessity into a life of piracy, Senlin and his eclectic crew struggle to survive aboard their stolen airship as the hunt for his lost wife continues.

Senlin ascends book 2