Review by Booklist Review
Thomas Senlin's name is Mudd. He's the pirate captain of the Stone Cloud and its ragtag but intensely loyal crew. They use creative methods to survive as pirates, but it's all for naught when they're banned from the Windsock, the one safe port open to them. Senlin is still obsessed with finding his wife Edith, though, and they must find a way into the last level he tracked her to, Pelphia. It's harder than it seems, and they visit a series of increasingly strange characters and places, from a weaving oracle to the back roads the hods use to the Silk Reef. When Edith's mechanical arm is broken in an airship battle, the Stone Cloud must go to the near-mythical Sphinx for help. Everyone is keeping secrets, so there are a number of painful revelations. Senlin continues to be inexplicably naive, although he tends to listen when offered the opportunity to learn; the secondary characters grow in satisfying directions. The Sphinx's realm is magnificent and hints atthe start of another journey in the next volume of the Books of Babel.--Schroeder, Regina Copyright 2018 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Bancroft's brilliant second installment in the Books of Babel, following Senlin Ascends, continues Thomas Senlin's desperate quest to reunite with his wife, Marya, whom he lost in the crowd at the base of the unknowably high and teemingly crowded Tower of Babel. Now the captain of a ragtag pirate airship, Senlin (using the name Mudd) must find some way into the aristocratic and well-armed ringdom of Pelphia, where the latest rumors indicate Marya is. But Senlin is a wanted criminal, fewer and fewer ports are open to his crew, and his first mate owes a mysterious debt to the Sphinx, a creature of myth and whisper whose marks are stamped all over the Tower. Bancroft's world continues to teem with explosive energy, and he ranges ably from the transcendent to the vicious in an instant. The unchecked splendor of the scenery is balanced by the complicated, sympathetic characters, and the plot maintains a steady stream of surprises without ever wearying. This volume not only matches but adds to the notable achievements of the first. (Mar.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
