The Books of Babel
#1174.20 in the official ranking · full ranking
Books 4 books Status Complete 2013–2021 Reading commitment Medium Josiah Bancroft Last reviewed 2026-08-25
Overview
A surreal, richly imagined tower-as-world fantasy following Thomas Senlin, a village headmaster searching for his missing wife through the endless bureaucratic and criminal layers of the Tower of Babel. Josiah Bancroft self-published the opening novel, Senlin Ascends, in 2013, and it found an audience gradually through the 2016 Self-Published Fantasy Blog-Off competition and endorsements from established authors including Mark Lawrence, eventually leading Orbit Books to republish it alongside its sequel, Arm of the Sphinx, in 2018. Each of the Tower's many ringdoms functions as its own strange, self-contained society -- part carnival, part bureaucracy, part criminal underworld -- that Senlin must navigate and survive as his search stretches across the four-book series, concluding with The Fall of Babel in 2021. Critics praised the series' inventive, steampunk-inflected worldbuilding and prose; Publishers Weekly called the debut a "brilliant debut fantasy," and The Washington Post named it among the five best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2018, with later volumes such as The Hod King continuing to draw praise for their vivid prose.
New Weird · For Adult
Core Canon: Reading Order (4 works) counts toward ranking
The Books of Babel Josiah Bancroft
| Work | Year | Canon | Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Senlin Ascends | 2013 | core | 4.10 (35,078 ratings) |
 | Arm of the Sphinx | 2014 | core | 4.31 (18,165 ratings) |
 | The Hod King | 2019 | core | 4.43 (14,108 ratings) |
 | The Fall of Babel | 2021 | core | 3.99 (9,271 ratings) |
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.
Quick answers
- How many books are in The Books of Babel? The Books of Babel's Core Canon is 4 books.
- What is the reading order for The Books of Babel? Publication order, starting with Senlin Ascends. Full list and years in the Core Canon table above.
- Is The Books of Babel finished? Complete (2013–2021).
- How much reading does The Books of Babel take? Medium reading commitment (estimated from 4 Core Canon books · ~1,692 pages).
- How is The Books of Babel ranked? #117 in this site's official ranking, based on 76,622 reader ratings across 4 Core Canon books. See the full ranking for how this is calculated.
Why is it ranked #117?
Ranked #117 in the official ranking.
- Average reader rating of 4.20 across 4 core books.
- A smaller readership (76,622 ratings), so the score carries less weight of numbers.
- Uneven reception: its books range from 3.99 to 4.43.
- Less than 0.01 behind #116, The Lord of the Ice Garden (a finer tie-break level decides the order).
- Below the top-10 average of 4.45.
Why explore this universe?
Highly rated · 4 books · Complete · 77k ratings · Ranks #117 overall
Good choice if you want a moderate-length New Weird universe that's already finished, so there's no wait for the next book.
Reading order
Publication order (4 Core Canon books)
- Senlin Ascends (2013)
- Arm of the Sphinx (2014)
- The Hod King (2019)
- The Fall of Babel (2021)
Awards (verified)
- No confirmed major juried award win found after a genuine search.
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Suggestions computed from what The Books of Babel and each of these worlds have in common on record (subgenre, audience, shape, reading commitment and score), not a documented narrative connection.
- The Locked Tomb Dark fantasy / New Weird · Ongoing · Medium commitment · 4.23
- The Lord of the Ice Garden Epic fantasy / New Weird · Complete · Medium commitment · 4.20
- Bas-Lag / New Crobuzon New Weird · Ongoing · Medium commitment · 4.00
- The Well-Built City Dark fantasy / New Weird · Complete · Medium commitment · 3.79
Official resources
Research details
Ranking metrics: weighted average 4.20 across 76,622 ratings on 4 Core Canon books. See Why is it ranked here? above for the full breakdown, or the full ranking.
How do we know this?
Admission: The Books of Babel admitted (Josiah Bancroft) accepted 2026-08-25
Sources: (see source tier definitions)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josiah_Bancroft
- http://www.thebooksofbabel.com/
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Senlin_Ascends
Last reviewed: 2026-08-25
Rule: Core Canon = the complete four-novel sequence: Senlin Ascends, Arm of the Sphinx, The Hod King, and The Fall of Babel. The first two volumes were originally self-published (2013, 2014) before a 2018 trade re-release by an established publisher; the original self-published year is recorded as first publication, per this project's print-edition convention.