Rating : 3 out of 5
Blurbs :
As Marat's siege engine bores through the Tower, erupting inside ringdoms and leaving chaos in its wake, Senlin can do nothing but observe the mayhem from inside the belly of the beast. Caught in a charade, Senlin desperately tries to sabotage the rampaging Hod King, even as Marat's objective grows increasingly clear. The leader of the zealots is bound for the Sphinx's lair and the unimaginable power it contains.

In the city under glass at the Tower's summit, Adam discovers a utopia where everyone inexplicably knows the details of his past. As Adam unravels the mystery of his fame, he soon discovers the crowning ringdom conceals a much darker secret.

Aboard the State of Art, Edith and her crew adjust to the reality that Voleta has awoken from death changed. She seems to share more in common with the Red Hand now than her former self. While Edith wars for the soul of the young woman, a greater crisis looms: They will have to face Marat on unequal footing and with Senlin caught in the crossfire.

And when the Bridge of Babel is finally opened, and the Brick Layer's true ambition revealed, neither they nor the Tower will ever be the same again.

Thoughts :
It's the end. It's amazing and full of adrenaline. It's not as what I thought it would be but that's the end. It's complicated to say. I love the characters and it's such an ending.

Thanks Netgalley for the early copy!

I am sorry for the inconvenience but I don’t have the time to read this anymore and have lost interest in the concept. I believe that it would benefit your book more if I did not skim your book and write a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for the inconvenience.

3 stars

This ending was kinda of....disappointing. I still have so many questions and it feels like Senlin stopped being the main character. There was too many other POVs that drowned his out. I hope this isn't the last we see of this world because it's so complex and I adore it. Even though this was okay for me, I still love the series and will recommend it to friends.

Too many POVs drowned out and delayed a cool ending

I love this series! I love Bancroft's writing, it's so poetic and engaging. But this book is drowning under too many characters. Too many POVs where nothing really happened. Should have stayed with just Senlin and Edith. It's their story. But no, we got pages and pages of the baby which was super boring. I don't care about this baby. I care about Senlin and want to know how he'll survive.

The ending pays off, once you finally get there. All the hints and build up to what the Tower's true purpose is rewarding. I didn't guess, but it made sense.

This... .really..... cannot... be... the... end? Can it? While I liked the ending, I felt that the last half of this book really felt like a puzzle almost completed being destroyed by a nefarious cat. Things at the end did and didn't make sense, and I really, really am not ready to leave this world.

This was a pretty satisfying conclusion to this series. Unfortunately it was also my least favorite of the 4. It felt like nothing actually happened in this book, since the original conflict from the first three was resolved in the third book.

I really wanted to love this book, but I couldn't get past the my indifference for the characters. The world was so well built, but I don't think any of the characters were given the same care. I continued only to find out how it ends, but without a sense of suspense or excitement. Underwhelming...

I requested this here before even having read the first book after seeing rave reviews from one of my friends, and boy am I glad I did. I absolutely flew through the first three books and immediately delved into this one, and loved it. The characters are all so complex and genuinely make the story shine. Bancroft created a genuinely delightful fantasy world and though I'm sad it's over, this was a stunning conclusion.

This series just did not continue in the way that I had hoped it would. I had very high expectations going in, and unfortunately what I found was very middle-of-the-road.

I spent all of feb reading the first three books in this series and rated them all 5 stars. Finished the last one today and was just not as into it and was let down. senlin being a side character and Adam taking the first 200 pages of the book doing what is a noble thing but not sure it was the best place for it in the story. I read this series cause I liked the originality of it and we still get that in this final book but we loose the focus and the interest of senlin reuniting with his wife and child. not what I was expecting and did not keep me as interested as the previous 3. I probably would of dnf this book if it was not the final in a series and I need to know how things end for the character.

SIGH yeah I'm shocked myself. I really hate to admit that I am incredibly unsatisfied with this ending. Senlin felt thrown aside. I was left with far more questions than answers. I'm kind of just pretending this book doesn't exist. Sad times.
Full review on my YouTube channel.

No one can deny the amazing world that Bancroft had created in this series. Right from the first book you get an interesting plot and complex characters packed with crazy shenanigans and the best part is that it continues in the rest of the books. While those elements can still be found in this explosive conclusion to a well loved series, I have to say that the long wait for it definitely dimmed its impact on me and my interest dwindled since I read the last book.

Overall, it wasn't amazing because I struggled with the pacing while trying to remember things from the past but it also wasn't the worst. It was just forgettable

What a journey it's been for both Josiah Bancroft and his readers. I started reading Senlin Ascends in 2017 when he was getting word of mouth spread from SPFBO and Mark Lawrence's championing, and switching from self to traditional publishing. At that time, it felt like this Tower of Babel book had sprouted fully formed out of nowhere, a wonder to behold. Now, four years later is the final book, the capstone of this unique series. Thanks to Orbit Books for providing an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Definitely have to read the first three Tower of Babel books to embark on this fourth one. We start with Adam on the uppermost ringdom of Nebos. There is a fair bit of authorial social commentary here, and I don't remember the strong linkage of hods to refugees in previous books. After that, we toggle between Edith and her crew (Iren, Violeta, Ann, Reddleman, Byron, Marya) on State of the Art airship trying to find the copies of The Brick Layer's Daughter paintings scattered across various ringdoms and Luc Marat, his Wakemen, Senlin and hods trying to destroy the tower. Overlaying all this is the question of the Brick Layer's plan and intentions and the fate of the Sphinx.

I am glad that Marya finally gets to showcase her story; in the first two books, her disappearance and Senlin's quest to find her made her almost like an invisible unattainable goal. I've always felt uncomfortable with how they met - she the schoolgirl and he the principal. While Senlin went through character development through trials and tribulations in previous books, we readers never really knew what happened to Marya and how she felt.

It took me a long time to get through this 670 page book, there were a lot of battles and skirmishes which started to drag. Each new ringdom and world still feels novel though. The steampunk elements are quite cool, worldbuilding continues to be strong.
Character-wise, Bancroft seems to keep drilling on that Marat is a pompous zealot, power hungry and having delusions of grandeur. The redaction of books is an interesting touch. Not cool with how the hobbled hods wear sarongs and Senlin muses to himself it's weird to see the ship officers wearing sarongs. Before sarongs became fashionable beachwear in the west, they have been the traditional clothing worn by Malay people in SE Asia and yes, can function as formal wear in official settings.

The baby is protected by plot armor, no need to worry about her. I've noticed that new father authors like this and Brent Weeks tend to infuse a very pronatalist worldview into their fantasy novels. Ann is reduced to a round the clock effective pliant nanny. Violeta has changed, understandably after her death experience. Edith, Iren and the Sphinx were the most intriguing characters to me. The Sphinx and Edith both have heavy responsibilities and burdens in their roles, the finale scene between Byron and Edith quite moving.

Was the ending satisfying? Somewhat. Still leaves a lot of questions unanswered and the possibility of new adventures and installments.

Thank you to Orbit and Netgalley for an advanced eARC in exchange for an honest review. This was one of my most anticipated books of last year but unfortunately, I really struggled with this book. I loved book 1-3 and blew through them. This book does no recapping and jumps right in but since it had been so long since book 3 and it took me several chapters before I even remembered who Adam was. I overall found this book less engaging than the others and it spent a lot of time on side characters before getting back to Senlin. I did really enjoy the Hod King sections and I did love the description of the furnace as well as getting to see a few more ringdoms. Overall, a good ending to a series but the start was really rough. I do think it would benefit perhaps from a reread of earlier books before jumping in.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher’s for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

This was unfortunately not the ending I was looking forward to. Still one of my favorite series but the ending was not it.

While I did finish this book, it took me a very long time to slog my way through. I wanted to find out how this series ended so I forced my way to the end but I didn’t enjoy it that much. The first book in this series was definitely my favorite.

I was hoping a little bit of time would make me find some positives as I come to grips with disappointment.

But here I am four days after finishing, and two months after starting, Fall of Babel, the final book in Josiah Bancroft's debut series, and I have precious little goodwill to give. This was my most disappointing read of the year, and perhaps ever. I loved the first three books but I wanted to set myself on fire while reading this.

Priming in psychology is when a stimulus unconsciously changes the way you react to something. For example, if you are in a room with smelly garbage, you will be more conservative. If you see a red bench while eating candy, the next time you see a red bench, you may want candy. Stuff like that.

I bring up priming because I think my biggest issue with this book is that it started with 170 page flashback that could have been 50 or, ideally, zero pages. I can't emphasis how little I think this flashback added to the book. And I think it primed me to be uncharitable towards everything else.

Because this is book 4. I know this series is going to be weird. I know the characters are going to be weirdly poetic in situations when they shouldn't. I know there are going to be weird cyborg people. I know there's going to be plot elements that come out of nowhere and that ringdoms are going to be introduced that are too weird to exist. So why did I hate all of it this time?

I don't know. But I really did. I have no positives for this book besides Byron. The two villains set up in the last book become cardboard cut outs in this one and end up vastly unsatisfying. Senlin, our MC, is barely around. His quest to find his wife resolves in the worst way possible. Time travel is introduced in a series that it doesn't fit in. There are 50 fight scenes that are boring and add nothing. An important character is killed off screen for reasons? And nothing comes of it. The ringdoms all act stupid. The characters barely act like themselves and service whatever Bizarro plot is necessarily (the characters were my favorite aspect of the series, so this really bothers me). The ending is terrible in all respects. It is just so unsatisfying and weird and out of nowhere. I can handle lack of total resolution, but not a bunch of random shit that feels unearned. I hate this book.

3/10

What Bancroft has built up from Books 1 to 3 all culminates here at the top of the tower, with our heroes and villains racing to get to the Sphinx and claim the zenith. The banter is still witty, with the interplay between our main characters enjoyable, endearing, and tense. Every one has a role to play and they do it well. Our supporting cast is just as important in pushing the plot along and keeping the heroes humble.

Though at times the prose and exposition could go on, it points to Bancroft's dedication in leaving no device or strut unturned or bare. He is determined in ensuring his readers are fully immersed in this bustling and complex world he has created.

The Books of Babel are a genuinely enjoyable romp through an eclectic mashup of steam and technology, of advancement and prejudice, of family, love, second chances, and friendship. It is a richly imagined, described and at times long-winded ride, but one that will delight with its many warrens and tunnels of creativity.

The Fall of Babel is a fantastic conclusion to a wonderful series. The storylines were wrapped up so well, and I was very happy with the ending. The prose and the character work were exquisite.

I'm at a loss for words at how great this series was. However, this wouldn't be a very good review if I didn't, at the very least, attempt to put words to it. I couldn't imagine a more captivating end for what turned out to not only be one of my favorite fantasy series, but one of my favorite works of fiction. As always, I will avoid spoilers in this review.

This series never stops being whimsical and thought-provoking. What starts as a story about a man ascending the levels of a massive tower to find his missing wife quickly evolves into something else entirely without losing sight of what made it enchanting in the first place. The Tower never seems to run out of secrets. The inhabitants of the Tower never ceased to surprise me.

There aren't many fantasy authors, if any, who can keep up with Bancroft's style of prose. I would find myself rereading entire paragraphs to appreciate the unique turns of phrase and care he put into crafting these sentences. This book took me forever to get through because I just didn't want it to end. I was cursed with the knowledge that any interaction between these amazing characters might be their last that I get to witness.

It's very rare for each successive book to be better than the previous but this series accomplishes it. I recommend this series if you're looking for a unique adventure with endearing characters, masterful worldbuilding, and beautiful prose. I can't stop thinking about this series but I need to stop talking about it for fear of spoiling anything. I will not soon forget the Books of Babel nor the way they made me feel.