Katabasis

A Novel

No cover

R.F. Kuang: Katabasis (2025, HarperCollins Publishers)

560 pages

English language

Published 2025 by HarperCollins Publishers.

ISBN:
978-0-06-302149-5
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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 🤷