Katabasis

A Novel

By: R. F. Kuang

Narrated by: Morag Sims, Will Watt

An Audiofile Earphones Award Winner, featuring dual narration from Morag Sims and Will Watt Dante’s Inferno meets Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi in this all-new dark academia fantasy from R. F. Kuang, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Babel and Yellowface, in which two graduate students must put aside their rivalry and journey to Hell to save their professor’s soul—perhaps at the cost of their own.

Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek:

The story of a hero’s descent to the underworld

Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become one of the brightest minds in the field of Magick. She has sacrificed everything to make that a reality: her pride, her health, her love life, and most definitely her sanity. All to work with Professor Jacob Grimes at Cambridge, the greatest magician in the world.

That is, until he dies in a magical accident that could possibly be her fault.

Grimes is now in Hell, and she’s going in after him. Because his recommendation could hold her very future in his now incorporeal hands and even death is not going to stop the pursuit of her dreams….

Nor will the fact that her rival, Peter Murdoch, has come to the very same conclusion.

With nothing but the tales of Orpheus and Dante to guide them, enough chalk to draw the Pentagrams necessary for their spells, and the burning desire to make all the academic trauma mean anything, they set off across Hell to save a man they don’t even like.

But Hell is not like the storybooks say, Magick isn’t always the answer, and there’s something in Alice and Peter’s past that could forge them into the perfect allies…or lead to their doom.

True to its title

Katabasis is a wild ride into Hell and the relationship between two people. I loved the character development spread out across a journey and set against a surreal backdrop.

Epic

I really liked this. It is a epic story unlike anything I have ever read. I think I would have enjoyed it more if it was a little shorter. it is also not my favorite by the author, but still a great read.

journey through boredom

the story starts with an interesting plot but nothing happens. the entire journey is boring and all of the characters are paper thin. the voice actors are quite talented however!

School is hell

I am not sure why i am drawn to these magical relationships, but I do find that this story made magic much less fantastical and far more mythical. I enjoyed the upside down of hell and the workings of redemption.

Dark. Gritty. A little bland.

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The premise seemed very intriguing, and there were many points throughout the book that further piqued my interest. However, they all seemed to lead down rather bland rabbit holes. I do think part of that was I'm not an academic so a lot of the references didn't fully land for me.
I will say, how the magic was done and used I thought was very cool and unique. But I wished they would have done more magic overall. I think it would've helped contextualize some of the theories and paradoxes used; at least for me. The Lethe, and the role it played in the story, I quite liked. Alice was honestly hard to love until the last 5 chapters and then I was happy to root for her! I only remember Peter Murdoch because he was selfless and had a dramatic last name. I think I just want some heavier fantasy elements, but that's just me. Despite not being wowed, this book has stayed on mind. I will probably read it again after some time.
Morag Sims and Will Watt were both exceptionally enjoyable in their voice acting and narration!