The Fall of Babel

EDIT: I am editing this rating to two stars so that Allen gets off my back, and increases the likelihood of him reading Jade War. Also, I gave this book 3/10, so after emotions have cooled, math prevails.

And so ends perhaps the most disappointing read of my life.

Four days later

I was hoping a little bit of time would make me find some positives as I come to grips with disappointment.

But here I am four days after finishing, and two months after starting, Fall of Babel, the final book in Josiah Bancroft's debut series, and I have precious little goodwill to give. This was my most disappointing read of the year, and perhaps ever. I loved the first three books but I wanted to set myself on fire while reading this.

Priming in psychology is when a stimulus unconsciously changes the way you react to something. For example, if you are in a room with smelly garbage, you will be more conservative. If you see a red bench while eating candy, the next time you see a red bench, you may want candy. Stuff like that.

I bring up priming because I think my biggest issue with this book is that it started with 170 page flashback that could have been 50 or, ideally, zero pages. I can't emphasis how little I think this flashback added to the book. And I think it primed me to be uncharitable towards everything else.

Because this is book 4. I know this series is going to be weird. I know the characters are going to be weirdly poetic in situations when they shouldn't. I know there are going to be weird cyborg people. I know there's going to be plot elements that come out of nowhere and that ringdoms are going to be introduced that are too weird to exist. So why did I hate all of it this time?

I don't know. But I really did. I have no positives for this book besides Byron. The two villains set up in the last book become cardboard cut outs in this one and end up vastly unsatisfying. Senlin, our MC, is barely around. His quest to find his wife resolves in the worst way possible. Time travel is introduced in a series that it doesn't fit in. There are 50 fight scenes that are boring and add nothing. An important character is killed off screen for reasons? And nothing comes of it. The ringdoms all act stupid. The characters barely act like themselves and service whatever Bizarro plot is necessarily (the characters were my favorite aspect of the series, so this really bothers me). The ending is terrible in all respects. It is just so unsatisfying and weird and out of nowhere. I can handle lack of total resolution, but not a bunch of random shit that feels unearned. I hate this book.

3/10