The Hod King
The Books of Babel series, Book 3
Josiah Bancroft
Orbit
Fiction, Fantasy
**** (Good)
DESCRIPTION: It's hard to believe that, a year ago, Thomas Senlin was an unremarkable, mild-mannered schoolteacher from a small coastal town, on his way to a honeymoon holiday with his new young wife Marya at the legendary Tower of Babel. Back then, he thought he understood the world and the people in it. Back then, he thought he was just setting out on a simple vacation before settling down to the modest life of a married man. Back then, he knew nothing at all...
Now an agent of the enigmatic figure known as the Sphinx, who crafts bizarre mechanical marvels and weaves inscrutable plots from high in the tower, Senlin at last reaches the affluent ringdom of Pelphia. His long-lost wife, Marya, has been married to a local duke, and she herself is the toast of the town, known as the Mermaid in the local gossip papers for her enchanting singing voice. It's hard to conceive that she'd want to go back to life as a simple schoolmaster's wife after a year in the lap of luxury, or that she'd embrace a man who has turned to thievery, deception, violence, and piracy, his once-rigid moral code now distinctly distorted by what he's had to do to survive. He even has developed confusing, unwelcome feelings for a companion, Edith. Still, he has pursued Marya for too long to quit now, and he feels he must at least make the attempt to reconnect and get an answer once and for all.
As Thomas conducts his undercover mission, his companions have their own mission for the Sphinx: aboard the State of the Art, the most advanced airship ever to fly, newly-promoted Captain Edith, wild girl Voleta, steadfast bodyguard Iren, and two new companions - the uptight stag-headed valet Byron and the resurrected monstrous assassin the Red Hand - are to serve as the Sphinx's emissaries, scouring the ringdoms for the missing paintings that contain the last secret of the legendary Tower architect, the Brick Layer: the code that will unlock the final purpose of the grand tower. But it may already be too late; word is spreading on the streets and in the hidden slave passages of the coming of the "Hod King" - a promise of rebellion at the least, and possibly the destruction of the Tower of Babel itself.
REVIEW: The third installment retains much of the same tone and pacing as the rest of the series, just as the Tower of Babel and its inhabitants retain a sheen of surrealism. Thomas Senlin has been much tried and tested and changed by his experiences and his failures; he does not even pretend to himself anymore that he's the same man he was before coming to the tower, the same man who married Marya, nor can he pretend that she'll be the same woman he knew. Still, he needs closure, if nothing else, and thus determines to track her down and ask her if she would prefer life as his wife or the one she has found on the arm of of the Pelphian duke. The ringdom of Pelphia itself, grown rich on its cloth and fashion industry, is stuffed to the gills with pretension and self-importance, in a way even the baths on the third ringdom could only dream of; the university has long been abandoned and converted into a coliseum where hods fight for the amusement (and gambling opportunities) of the wealthy, while the newspapers are full of gossip and empty of anything resembling actual news. Marya has become a society darling, her (rather fictionlized) story the subject of a popular musical play - one that Senlin, against his better judgement, can't help but see, and which makes him further question his own role in her life and future. Even as he plots to find a way to get close to her without alerting his many powerful enemies, he also keeps an eye peeled on the Sphinx's behalf for trouble, particularly that fomented by Luc Marat's zealot followers, who seem to be stepping up their campaign to destabilize the Tower and incite a slave uprising... or possibly something even worse. If Thomas thought the Tower had run out of trials and lessons for him, he is quickly disabused of the notion.
Meanwhile, Edith - still processing her own mixed feelings about Thomas Senlin - has her own mission to pursue, along with Voleta and Iren. The girl, under Byron's strict (and often flustered) tutelage, must infiltrate high Pelthian society, even as Edith acts as the Sphinx's ambassador to negotiate the return of the Brick Layer's painting, the one that forms part of the puzzle the Sphinx is so desperate to solve. Even given her inherent immaturity, Voleta could be remarkably obtuse and incapable at times, though she finally starts to grow up a bit as she sees more consequences of her actions. Aging bodyguard Iren continues her slow, halting personal evolution from stoic enforcer to someone more human, someone less detatched from her own emotions and other people, driven in no small part by her devotion to Voleta. And Edith, still unsure of her own feelings toward Senlin, does her best to play the ambassador, though even she finds herself bedazzled by Pelphia's glamour and the few friendly-seeming faces in the crowd. Byron the stag-man gets some development, too, in his first journey beyond the sanctuary of the Sphinx's ringdom, while the resurrected Red Hand offers some unexpected wrinkles. As in previous volumes, chapters start with snippets and excerpts from in-world sources that add color and, often, foreshadowing.
The tale starts off fairly fast, picking up about where the previous one left off, and keeps moving and ratcheting up the stakes and complications until the end, setting up what promises to be a cataclysmic final volume. I'm looking forward to finishing off this series.
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