The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

Author page

Josiah Bancroft

2 universes Last reviewed 2026-08-26

Josiah Bancroft (born March 29, 1978) is an American fantasy author best known for the Books of Babel series, which began as a self-published novel, Senlin Ascends (2013), later acquired and republished by Orbit Books in 2018 after achieving uncommon success independently; the four-book series continued through 2021. His work blends steampunk and surrealist influences, and Senlin Ascends was named one of the Washington Post's five best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2018, earning Publishers Weekly starred reviews for both it and its sequel Arm of the Sphinx, along with recognition in the 2016 Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off competition and an endorsement from author Mark Lawrence. He has since begun The Hexologists series, starting in 2023.

Universe(s)

The Books of Babel

  • Core Canon books: 4
  • Current rank: #119 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 4.20
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

The Hexologists

  • Core Canon books: 2
  • Current rank: #666 in the official ranking
  • Weighted average: 3.84
  • Award recognitions: None recorded

Books

Aggregate across all universes

These are separate, unrelated universes; the totals below are plain sums of already-published per-universe facts, never a blended or averaged score across them. See each universe's own figures above.

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