MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.75/5
Format: Kindle Whispersync
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The Tower of Babel is proving to be as difficult to reenter as it was to break out of. Forced into a life of piracy, Senlin and his eclectic crew are struggling to survive aboard their stolen airship as the hunt to rescue Senlin’s lost wife continues.
Hopeless and desolate, they turn to a legend of the Tower, the mysterious Sphinx. But help from the Sphinx never comes cheaply, and as Senlin knows, debts aren’t always what they seem in the Tower of Babel.
Time is running out, and now Senlin must choose between his friends, his freedom, and his wife.
Does anyone truly escape the Tower?
MY REVIEW
It’s been over a year since I read Senlin Ascends, and without reading my review to refresh my memory, the first thing that came to mind when I started listening to this was Ewan McGregor, and funny enough, in my review of Senlin Ascends, I mention that the narrator’s voice reminded me of him. Speaking of narration, John Banks also has another voice that reminds me of something even more strange. If you’ve ever seen the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movies from the 90’s, The Sphinx’s voice actually reminds me a bit of Kevin Clash who voices Master Splinter in those films. So I literally pictured Ewan McGregor and a rat lol, not really, but Senlin is 100% Ewan!
I also said it reminded me of The Lies of Locke Lamora and A Series of Unfortunate Events with how everything that can go wrong for Senlin seems to go wrong, and that’s what makes this so much fun to read. I actually caught a few other things that this started to remind me of as well, maybe it’s because of the Ewan thing, but I also feel like there is a little bit of Big Fish in this as well. The big one though, is Alice in Wonderland. The more I read this, the more it felt like that, especially after The Sphinx dropped a very famous line, but just a little different “We’re all strays here.” It instantly hit me, and from that moment, all I could think of was The Sphinx was the Cheshire Cat and Senlin was Alice.
“History is a love letter to tyrants written in the blood of the overrun, the forgotten, the expunged!”
Aside from all of that, this story was very fun to read, the tower continues to be this bizarre oddity that just kept getting stranger as I kept reading. What stood out the most about this story though, was how much Josiah worked on the development of the characters and their relationships with one another. He really got into the flaws of each character to let the reader see what they are going through mentally, and that was fascinating to read. While I did enjoy the entirety of the story, I do think that part 3 was where this really got strong. To the point that I finished about 35% of the book in one day because I wanted to know what happened next and how it would finish.
I’m really enjoying The Books of Babel, it is definitely one of those series that just feels good to read with its flawed but likable characters, a peculiar story with an absolutely bizarre setting in a very steampunk type of world, and a narrator with familiar voices. I really feel like this is one of those series that I’ll be able to continuously go back to and always enjoy the ride that Josiah takes me on.
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