Katabasis - Orreadi

560 pages

English language

Published 2025 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-344624-3

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero's descent to the underworld.

Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick. But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.

But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she’s going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.

That’s if they can agree on anything.

Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek. The story of a hero's descent to the underworld.

Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick. But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and – inconveniently – in Hell. And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.

But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she’s going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.

That’s if they can agree on anything.

Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?

4 editions

Tak! reviewed Katabasis by R.F. Kuang

4 stars

Katabasis was a fun ride - "what if Virgil were a Cambridge magic scholar"

It's mostly a story about the characters' abusive relationships with their advisor and with life in general. I thought it fell apart a little in the middle where it turned out that the characters had done meticulous, exhaustive research up to a point, and then were like "meh, it'll work out somehow" after that. The ending felt very hollywood, but that's maybe forgivable for a "to hell and back" story 🤷

Katabasis was a fun ride - "what if Virgil were a Cambridge magic scholar"

It's mostly a story about the characters' abusive relationships with their advisor and with life in general. I thought it fell apart a little in the middle where it turned out that the characters had done meticulous, exhaustive research up to a point, and then were like "meh, it'll work out somehow" after that. The ending felt very hollywood, but that's maybe forgivable for a "to hell and back" story 🤷