
Senlin Ascends
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Narrated by:
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John Banks
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By:
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Josiah Bancroft
About this listen
The first book in the word-of-mouth phenomenon debut fantasy series about one man's dangerous journey through a labyrinthine world.
"One of my favorite books of all time" (Mark Lawrence)
The Tower of Babel is the greatest marvel in the world. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake. It is a world of geniuses and tyrants, of luxury and menace, of unusual animals and mysterious machines. Soon after arriving for his honeymoon at the Tower, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, Thomas Senlin, gets separated from his wife, Marya, in the overwhelming swarm of tourists, residents, and miscreants.
Senlin is determined to find Marya, but to do so he'll have to navigate madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassins, and the illusions of the Tower. But if he hopes to find his wife, he will have to do more than just endure. This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.
©2017 Josiah Bancroft (P)2018 Hachette AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
"Senlin Ascends crosses the everyday strangeness and lyrical prose of Borges and Gogol with all the action and adventure of high fantasy. I loved it, and grabbed the next one as soon as I turned the last page." (Django Wexler, author of The Thousand Names)
"Josiah Bancroft is a magician. His books are that rare alchemy: gracefully written, deliriously imaginative, action-packed, warm, witty, and thought-provoking. I can't wait for more." (Madeline Miller, author of Circe)
"Senlin is a man worth rooting for, and his strengthening resolve and character is as marvelous and sprawling as the tower he climbs." (The Washington Post)
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- Narrated by: Jude Owusu
- Length: 17 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Two nations at war. One prize beyond compare. For generations, the Hundred Isles have built their ships from the bones of ancient dragons to fight an endless war. The dragons disappeared, but the battles for supremacy persisted. Now the first dragon in centuries has been spotted in far-off waters, and both sides see a chance to shift the balance of power in their favor. Because whoever catches it will win not only glory, but the war.
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Bold and unique with a compelling story.
- By Kevin Potter on 11-12-19
By: RJ Barker
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The Thousand Deaths of Ardor Benn
- By: Tyler Whitesides
- Narrated by: Tyler Whitesides
- Length: 25 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Liar. Thief. Legend. Ardor Benn is no ordinary thief. Rakish, ambitious, and master of wildly complex heists, he styles himself a Ruse Artist Extraordinaire. When a priest hires him for the most daring ruse yet, Ardor knows he'll need more than quick wit and sleight of hand. Assembling a dream team of forgers, disguisers, schemers, and thieves, he sets out to steal from the most powerful king the realm has ever known. But it soon becomes clear there's more at stake than fame and glory - Ard and his team might just be the last hope for human civilization.
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I wanted to love it but I just couldn't get there.
- By Pdxmattel on 07-22-21
By: Tyler Whitesides
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The Rage of Dragons
- By: Evan Winter
- Narrated by: Prentice Onayemi
- Length: 16 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
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The Omehi people have been fighting an unwinnable fight for almost 200 years. The lucky ones are born gifted. One in every 2,000 women has the power to call down dragons. One in every 100 men is able to magically transform himself into a bigger, stronger, faster killing machine. Everyone else is fodder, destined to fight and die in the endless war. Young, giftless Tau knows all this, but he has a plan of escape. He's going to get himself injured, get out early, and settle down to marriage, children, and land. Only, he doesn't get the chance. Those closest to him are murdered....
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It's... almost really good.
- By Chris on 01-25-20
By: Evan Winter
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Sea of Rust
- A Novel
- By: C. Robert Cargill
- Narrated by: Eva Kaminsky
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
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It's been 30 years since the apocalypse and 15 years since the murder of the last human being at the hands of robots. Humankind is extinct. Every man, woman, and child has been liquidated by a global uprising devised by the very machines humans designed and built to serve them. Most of the world is controlled by an OWI - One World Intelligence, the shared consciousness of millions of robots uploaded into one huge mainframe brain.
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This Book has Magic
- By Kurt Schwoppe on 06-15-18
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Song of the Huntress
- By: Lucy Holland
- Narrated by: Kristin Atherton, Lucy Holland
- Length: 18 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Britain, 60AD. Hoping to save her lover, her land, and her people from the Romans, Herla makes a desperate pact with the king of the Otherworld. But years pass unheeded in his realm, and she escapes to find everyone she loved long dead. Cursed to wield his blade, she becomes Lord of the Hunt. And for centuries, she rides, leading her immortal warriors and reaping wanderers’ souls. Until the night she meets a woman on a bloody battlefield—a Saxon queen with ice-blue eyes.
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Worth it
- By Gloria on 05-10-25
By: Lucy Holland
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The Book of Koli
- By: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Theo Solomon
- Length: 14 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
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Beyond the walls of the small village of Mythen Rood lies an unrecognizable landscape. A place where overgrown forests are filled with choker trees and deadly seeds that will kill you where you stand. And if they don't get you, one of the dangerous shunned men will.mKoli has lived in Mythen Rood his entire life. He believes the first rule of survival is that you don't venture too far beyond the walls. He's wrong.
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A Very Special Book
- By Charles Elmore on 04-22-20
By: M. R. Carey
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The Hexologists
- By: Josiah Bancroft
- Narrated by: Sarah Slimani
- Length: 13 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Performance
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The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.
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The mispronounciations
- By S. Nordstrom on 01-08-24
By: Josiah Bancroft
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Gardens of the Moon
- The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1
- By: Steven Erikson
- Narrated by: Ralph Lister
- Length: 26 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Story
The Malazan Empire simmers with discontent, bled dry by interminable warfare, bitter infighting and bloody confrontations with the formidable Anomander Rake and his Tiste Andii, ancient and implacable sorcerers. Even the imperial legions, long inured to the bloodshed, yearn for some respite. Yet Empress Laseen's rule remains absolute, enforced by her dread Claw assassins.
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An engrossing yet demanding high epic
- By Adnan on 11-20-12
By: Steven Erikson
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Boudicca
- A Novel
- By: P. C. Cast
- Narrated by: Ell Potter
- Length: 18 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
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In Roman-occupied Britain, the Iceni tribe crowns an extraordinary new queen. Tall and flame-haired, Boudicca is devoted to Andraste, the Iceni’s patron goddess, known for her raven familiar, her fierceness and her swirling blue tattoos. Boudicca and her two young daughters will carry the tribe forward in dangerous times. Roman tax collector Catus Decianus, expecting weakness in a female ruler, launches a devastating attack on the tribe’s stronghold. Boudicca and her family barely survive—but they refuse to bend the knee.
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Very well written.
- By Sebee on 03-28-25
By: P. C. Cast
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Malice
- By: John Gwynne
- Narrated by: Damian Lynch
- Length: 23 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
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The Banished Lands has a violent past where armies of men and giants clashed in battle, but now giants are seen, the stones weep blood, and giant wyrms are stirring. Those who can still read the signs see a threat far greater than the ancient wars. For if the Black Sun gains ascendancy, mankind's hopes and dreams will fall to dust....
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This Book...
- By Amazon customer on 03-21-20
By: John Gwynne
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Velocity Weapon
- By: Megan E. O'Keefe
- Narrated by: Joe Jameson
- Length: 18 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall
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Sanda and Biran Greeve were siblings destined for greatness. A high-flying sergeant, Sanda has the skills to take down any enemy combatant. Biran is a savvy politician who aims to use his new political position to prevent conflict from escalating to total destruction. However, on a routine maneuver, Sanda loses consciousness when her gunship is blown out of the sky. Instead of finding herself in friendly hands, she awakens 230 years later on a deserted enemy warship controlled by an AI who calls himself Bero. The war is lost.
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Romance Novel with a Science Fiction Setting
- By T. Van Valkenburgh on 07-23-20
By: Megan E. O'Keefe
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The Emperor's Wolves
- The Wolves of Elantra, Book 1
- By: Michelle Sagara
- Narrated by: Khristine Hvam
- Length: 17 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
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Multiple races carefully navigate the City of Elantra under the Dragon Emperor’s wing. His Imperial Wolves are executioners, the smallest group to serve in the Halls of Law. The populace calls them assassins. Every wolf candidate must consent to a full examination by the Tha’alani, one of the most feared and distrusted races in Elantra for their ability to read minds. Most candidates don’t finish their job interviews.
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Excellent and long waited for
- By Wendy on 10-16-20
By: Michelle Sagara
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The Lost War
- The Eidyn Saga, Book 1
- By: Justin Lee Anderson
- Narrated by: Euan Morton
- Length: 20 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
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With a ragged peace in place, demons burn farmlands, violent Reivers roam the wilds and plague has spread beyond the Black Meadows. The country is on its knees. In a society that fears and shuns him, Aranok is the first magically-skilled draoidh to be named King's Envoy. Now, charged with restoring an exiled foreign queen to her throne, he leads a group of strangers across the ravaged country. But at every step, a new mystery complicates their mission.
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Holy Cow!
- By Lisa M. Perkey on 05-11-20
Bizzare and absolutely excellent
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My new favorite book
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Shortly after I first finished Senlin Ascends, I commented that it was the sort of book that both impressed and depressed me in equal measure. That might sound like a back-handed compliment but that wasn’t how I intended it. I was looking at it through the dual eyes of both reader and writer. The writer in me was depressed because it made me wonder if I could ever be that good. The reader in me was impressed because it is that good.
The interior of the tower is one of the most fascinating aspects of the book. Each level is virtually a city-state, with its own laws and customs, government, people and pitfalls. Each of these is described with loving care and detail, enough that even the most unusual of them can be clearly visualized. Only a fraction of these ‘ringdoms‘ are explored during this installment which leaves plenty of ground for further books.
The other fascinating part of the novel is the character of its protagonist, Thomas Senlin. Beginning as a man who could be described almost as a bystander to his own life, he gets a rude awakening when Marya disappears. As he climbs the tower in search of her, he has to force himself to adapt from the shy intellectual headmaster and become at times an actor, a conman & thief, a businessman and an insurrectionist. And yet, despite the changes he goes through, the core character is written so strongly that none of these new careers seems that great a step for him.
Senlin Ascends is a wonderful read; vibrant, imaginative and stunningly well written. The prose is beautiful in and of itself, but when combined with the creativeness of the settings it becomes truly a work of art. I don’t think I can give it a higher recommendation than that.
The Scribblings Review of Senlin Ascends
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A classic story with an excellent performance
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Good book club choice
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JUST DO IT!!
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I can't wait to continue the series
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This starts out as a 21st Century Kafka-esque fantasy. An unprepared scholarly newlywed loses his wife on his honeymoon in a fantastically imagined construct. The tower of Babel is so vast that no one seems to know its boundaries let along its details. He’s overwhelmed by his every encounter, and we get a variety of implied questions: what does it mean to be an individual in a world where life is so cheap? How can we establish friendships when all life is a contested negotiation? And What does it mean to have an identity in a place where we’re all defined transactionally?
As I read the first half of this, I felt as if I were reading a fantasy that reflected the world of the internet. I don’t mean that the tower represents the internet; rather, I feel as if this is the kind of twisting and endless world that the internet might be if it were made physical. No one knows who built the tower, yet it goes on forever. It gives us the capacity to perform as others, and it gives us opportunity to interact on intimate terms with strangers, but it seems never to change anything. It’s a book that makes us ask questions about our changed world.
Bancroft does a great job of setting all that up, but things move pretty slowly to start. The teeming market scenes are striking, but there are a lot them. And the extended sequence where Senlin falls into a living-theater experience, where he has to perform an ad-libbed role alongside others doing the same, is largely brilliant. It just doesn’t seem to end with the clarity I expected; I can’t tell whether it’s all a performance within a performance or whether it’s a genuine accident within the well-oiled mechanism of the theater.
But then [SPOILER] this becomes a very different novel. The clearest sign of that change comes in Bancroft’s switch from his default epigraphs to start each chapter – instead of quotes from a goofy and ignorant guidebook, they come from Senlin’s future autobiography. That change reflects a reversal of the narrative position we began with: what was a confused and ill-suited protagonist becomes very quickly a canny leader. He goes, in other words, from Joseph K in The Trial to Spartacus in the Kirk Douglas film.
With that change, the slow-developed philosophical challenge of the beginning fades away. We learn, for instance, [DOUBLE SPOILER] that everything Senlin experienced on the lower levels was part of a test to determine whether he’d be a good employee on the fourth level. Rather than giving the bewildering and beguiling experience of the internet, of happenstance informing so much of the avatar-defining choices we make, we get a more conventional fantasy. There are good guys and bad guys. Senlin’s wife didn’t just happen to take a step away from him; she’s now the object of desire by a powerful figure of the tower. The young man who helped and then betrayed him didn’t happen along; he was a plant, part of the test.
I’m sorry to see that fallen ambition because I do believe the original effect of the novel (which may have been Bancroft’s original intent) had the chance to be deeply memorable…especially if it could be tightened and shortened.
At the same time, I confess that this becomes, by the end, a rollicking adventure. [MORE SPOILER] By the very end, Senlin has declared all-out war on the tower. He’s stolen an airship, acquired a crew of dangerous and effective fighters, and set out to take his wife back by force.
I can’t help feeling that Bancroft changed horses halfway through here, and I think this would be a stronger book and a stronger series if he’d gone back and made things more consistent. Still, there’s a lot to like about each half. I’m curious about where this is going next, and – especially now that this seems to have found its adventurous tone – I may just buy in for volume two.
Two Worthwhile Books in One
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A story I always wanted someone to write.
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This was not the book I expected it to be. I expected a fantasy action novel that was at its core a dungeon crawl, but what I got was so much better. The plot of Senlin Ascends is literally the title; Senlin ascends the tower. The pacing was steady and the end had a climactic ending that left it perfectly set up for the next book in the series. Josiah did a phenomenal job in peppering the story with mystery so that you cannot help, but try to figure out what's truly going on.
Characters
Senlin is an unconventional hero. Starting off he's a fairly unpresuming headmaster from a small village school. He's very mild-mannered individual and references his guidebook to the tower frequently. I think this was the hardest thing for me to wrap my head around. Josiah created Senlin remarkably. The other characters I have a hard time judging. They have plenty of exposure, but one thing Josiah shows you quite well is that every one on the Tower of Babel has secrets.
Narration
This is the first book I've heard narrated by John Banks. His voicing for Senlin was superb and other male characters were just as outstanding. The only thing I think he fell flat on were voicing female characters. His tone and enunciation were stunning, as was his ability to put emotion in his voice.
A story of a man climbing a tower and so much more
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