Senlin Ascends
core novel 2013 The Books of Babel
Record
| First published | 2013 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.10 (35,078 ratings, collected 2026-08-25) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780316517904 |
Synopsis
Senlin Ascends opens The Books of Babel with Thomas Senlin, a mild-mannered village schoolteacher, arriving at the foot of the immense Tower of Babel while on honeymoon with his new wife, Marya. Senlin has read everything he could about the tower beforehand, but nothing prepares him for the chaotic, self-contained world he finds at its base, and he and Marya are separated amid the crowds before he can get his bearings. The novel follows Senlin as he sets out alone to find her, climbing upward through the tower's strange, self-governing levels, each with its own customs, dangers, and rulers. Ill-equipped for the tower's schemes and deceptions, Senlin must adapt quickly, relying on his bookish knowledge and growing resolve as he is drawn deeper into a world far stranger and more perilous than the one he left behind.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Books of Babel
- Series: The Books of Babel core; position 1 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Josiah Bancroft
Notes
- From the series record (The Books of Babel): A complete four-novel sequence; Senlin Ascends and Arm of the Sphinx were originally self-published (2013/2014) before a 2018 trade re-release by the same author under an established publisher, per the print-edition-first convention.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series The Books of Babel: position 1 of 4: next Arm of the Sphinx (2014)
Sources
← The Books of Babel dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.