Review of The Fall of Babel by Josiah Bancroft

There was perhaps no book I was looking forward to reading more in 2021 than the final volume in Josiah Bancroft’s Babel series, The Fall of Babel. Certainly there is some sentimentality, some honeymoon vibes in the air, but four years on and this, as of the completion of the third book The Hod King, is my fantasy series of the 21st century. While we live in an entirely different cultural state than when books like Lord of the Rings or Song of Ice and Fire dominated (the market seems too diverse and saturated to lean toward one series, for example), the first three books in the tetralogy left me with such belief. Does the fourth and final volume hammer home the thought?

As with the preceding volumes, The Fall of Babel picks up where the previous book left off. Bancroft having split the narrative in The Hod King, readers bounce between a handful of viewpoints—Adam, Voleta, Marya, Senlin, Byron, and so on, which also means bouncing to different places in the tower as the mysteries of the Bricklayer, the Sphinx, and Luke Marat grow deeper. These threads of story slowly but surely braid together as the book builds toward its epic climax, as well as resolution of Senlin’s quest to reunite with Marya.

And to get the obvious question out of the way early: does The Fall of Babel deliver on expectations? The answer is yes. Not a YES, YES!, Yes, or no, or kind of. Just a simple yes. Narrative and style are consistent with previous volumes. Character arcs resolve themselves in organic, satisfying fashion. And the overall state of the setting is brought to a place that readers can walk away feeling good about. But—you knew there was a ‘but’ coming—there are a few things that prevent the answer from being a Yes!—which is what I was hoping for.

The first thing which prevents The Fall of Babel from being a platinum capstone on the series is the sense of character and place. Where Bancroft did an exceptional job delineating the various places Senlin and the other characters visited in the tower, in The Fall of Babel these are noticeably less distinct. They bleed together too often. Where am I now? Oh, there is Voleta’s name. I remember… I hate writing this but it’s true: the majority of the novel is its own vanilla. I hated writing that…

The second thing is the overall experience. It’s too often paint-by-the-numbers. Look back to the 80s and remember your favorite Mel Gibson or Eddie Murphy Hollywood action movie (feel free to channel Vangelis). You have some police, there are some bad guys, the bad guys do some bad things, and there is a dramatic showdown between the bad guys and police. And we know who wins. Details are impossible to know ahead of time, but the showdown and its result are as predictable as clockwork. One of the hugely positive things about the first three Babel is how both the details and plot are unpredictable. They are exciting, fresh reads at every turn. Not so with The Fall of Babel. There are a few new elements. It’s more like the 80s action movie. You sit. You eat your popcorn. You are entertained. You think it’s good. But you walk away already thinking about something else.

And the third thing—and not as big a deal as the previous two—is that Bancroft made a structural decision that may not do the book any favors. The first quarter is a novel within a novel focusing only on Adam. After +/- 100 pages, the reader starts to wonder Is this still a Babel book? Where is Senlin? The afore-mentioned braiding of story is nowhere to be found. The other characters do eventually appear, and the narrative gets “on track”, but the structure remains disruptive.

Having now completed the novel and series, I see the conundrum Bancroft was in. The “Adam novel” contains information critical to the overarching plot, and yet there is no natural place for it. It seems Bancroft faced the choice of 1) adding “Adam’s novel” to the end of The Hod King, 2) chopping it up and adding its pieces to either The Hod King, The Fall of Babel, or a combination thereof, or 3) doing what Bancroft chose to do and put it smack-bang at the beginning of The Fall of Babel. #1 is not the best option, clearly, but there is an argument to be made for #2. It makes for better narrative flow and offers some tension in the transition between The Hod King and The Fall of Babel. That being said, it also results in a bit of a mess narratively, and may not fit well in terms of the timeline. But taking The Fall of Babel for what it is, “Adam’s novel” makes for an incongruous beginning but is something that quickly slips into the rearview once the other storylines start dovetailing in.

To be 100% clear, The Fall of Babel is not disappointing. My assumption is that most readers will say it was worth the wait, with some perhaps even saying it’s the best of the series. (There is a reason Hollywood puts the fireworks at the end.) There are still a couple of surprises waiting to be uncovered. Some character arcs go in unexpected directions—and some end more abruptly than the reader might think. And Bancroft continues to channel his creative juices toward maintaining the series sense of wonder.

In the end, The Fall of Babel, for as fun and satisfying as it is, has forced me to revise my opinion of the Babel series as best of the 21st century. It is a lot of fun, delivering in terms of character arcs and resolution of the tower as a quasi-mythical place. But it also pulls back the series’ façade to reveal it as a traditional, romantic fantasy. The steampunk is wonderfully imaginative, the story is highly readable, and the reader can get behind the characters. But overall it’s themes are representative more of late 19th and early 20th century concerns rather than the 21st. There is a clash of free market vs socialism/tyranny, and the exploitation of the underclass through labor, giving the book an Industrial Revolution feel (fitting for the steampunk motif, in fact). I’m now leaning toward R. Scott Bakker’s Second Apocalypse series, with its exploration of the deeper psychological motivations for power, as fantasy representing the contemporary era. Steven Erikson’s Malazan series is likely also deserving of consideration. But don’t let any of this put you off reading The Fall of Babel. Bancroft delivers—just perhaps not with the unique, kaleidoscope finale the reader may have hoped for—at least this reader.