I loved being back in this world!! Honestly this is best read after you've finished the series because is full of spoilery bits. I will definitely be rereading the whole series next year and then diving back into this.

An Empyreal Retinue by Josiah Bancroft is a collection of side stories to the Books of Babel. Some were things that had originally been in the books but removed in the editing process, some were ideas he never fully developed, and some were created for other purposes originally. We see Finn Goll, John Tarrou, the Sphinx, Byron, Ann, and assorted other figures from the Books of Babel. This is filled with spoilers, and should not be read until you've finished the main Books of Babel sequence. I expect superfans will love it. As a more casual fan, it was interesting, but I didn't find anything to get overly excited over.

Let me state right off the bat that I thoroughly loved the Books of Babel series. Bancroft is a talented writer who is great at both world-building and character development. This slim collection of short stories set in and around the world of the Tower is a fine addition to the series, but overall left me a little disengaged. I think this is probably because the books themselves were so immersive, and in general I don't connect very well with shorter forms of fiction. If you loved the series, definitely pick up the collection. Ideally, you would read this after finishing all four novels, but before too much time has passed (probably the greatest set-back to my enjoyment of this collection). I will definitely read any future novels set in this world, but I just need to remind myself that short stories aren't my jam with a very small number of exceptions. Thank you to NetGalley and Subterranean Press for a digital review copy.

I've spent the past year mourning the Books of Babel following the final novel, so imagine my delight when Josiah Bancroft announced the release of several short stories set in the universe! I love when author's conceive a short story collection as a way to expand their universe while still letting the series standalone. Yoon Ha Lee's Hexarchate Stories is a great example of this, as is Brandon Sanderson's Arcanum Unbound. "An Empyreal Retinue" scales Bancroft's Tower of Babel, reintroducing familiar faces and exposing new corners of the magnificent, fickle Ringdom's stacked within the tower. My personal favorite stories were "The Ballad of Harirette and John Tarrou" which adds revealing backstory to a complicated side character, and "Into the Misanthropolis" which reunited me with Byron, Ann, and Iren for a jaunt into the Tower bureaucracy, and finally the titular "Empyreal Retinue" which serves as a mini epilogue to the Fall of Babel, and teases at possible future entries in the series/world.