Senlin Ascends

I read Senlin Ascends back in June and meant to leave a review then, but of course, life kept happening. There were more books to read and what was postponed ended up forgotten.
As I'm now finally starting book 2, I decided to take a few minutes to write down my thoughts about this brilliant book.
It's not often a book grabs me from the beginning and when they do, I usually have a fairly good idea of the type of story I'm reading and what to expect.
I was completely lost with this one.
Almost every theory and expectation I came up with was wrong. I must have spent the first half of Senlin Ascends alternating between moments of ‘oh, dear' and ‘what the f#ck?' talking to myself like a crazy person. I loved the weirdness and mystery of it all, the vivid descriptions and the beautiful prose.
Senlin Ascends is unlike anything I've read before and Senlin is such an endearing character, perfect for this story.
It's not easy to review this book without spoilers. In sum, Senlin Ascends is quite the intellectual and emotional adventure, filled with witty humour, bizarre characters and situations. I was almost sad when things finally started to make sense.
I'm looking forward to continue this series.

Got about 65% of the way through the book and just couldn't freaking take it any more. The sheer STUPIDITY of the main character (and his wife) really grates, and the fact that the book is simply reaction after reaction to circumstances makes for tedious reading. The whining, the idiocy – oh good freaking lord, the IDIOCY – became too much.

Holy crap this book. I had high expectations from everyone's lofty reviews. WRONG WRONG WRONG. I am so angry that I wasted time on this horrible drivel.

What can you say about this book. For a start, I think that this is the first book in ages that I have given a five star review to, and this book deserves it so much. I saw the praise that the book was receiving from critics and other authors and thought I would give it a try. Unfortunately, I could not put it down.
The prose of the book is gorgeous, Bancroft's imagination is outstanding and the development of the characters is excellent. In fact, I am quickly running out of superlatives to describe this book.

For those that haven't read this and fancy reading this, the story concerns itself with the hero of the title, Thomas Senlin, a fish out of water schoolteacher who takes his young bride to the famed Tower of Babel. The story moves extremely fast from their arrival at the Tower's market and the loss of Thomas's new bride whilst on their honeymoon.

What follows are Thomas's adventures and misadventures in order to attempt to locate his missing bride.

This is wonderfully written book, reminding me at times of Johnathon Swift, but primarily GK Chesterton, particularly the dreamlike absurdness of the Man who was Thursday. However, the story can turn on a sixpence to violent undertones.

I really recommend this book, and am moving on to the second one. I hope that it is as good as this!