Katabasis

A Novel

De: R. F. Kuang

Narrado por: Morag Sims, 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.

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!

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.

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!

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.

most boring story about hell

Somehow this author wrote an insanely long, boring story about hell!!?? The story starts strong, but as soon as they get to hell its just a lame story where everything revolves around school. It feels so immature. Is this everyone's version of hell? Or just the main characters? Or the authors? It read like a Disney school version of Dantes inferno. IDK how the author could make a story about traversing hell into an immature child's story. The male narrator was awful - why were his parts so much slower than the woman's??? I had to speed it up or else it felt like a stereo with the battery dying. The woman nardator was fantastic so that was good. I liked the end with the Cryptkeys. Everything else was such a let down and I actually felt myself hating this book and rushing to get through it on a long road trip. The sprayed edges of this book say "Other people are hell" which is what made me buy this book and the audible, but it should say "immature teenagers cos playing as academics are hell".

Stick it out until the end

Overall the book was great but it did get boring in the middle. The majority of the book consisted of the characters face trial after trial progressing slowly to their goal. Throughout this process character development and relationship development is slow. There is quite a bit of looking into characters past which does increase your under of the characters introduced and breaks up the repetitiveness the trials can have. However, the subject matter and the development the does occur motivates you to continue reading. The ending makes it all worth it! You gain understanding of the world, the characters, and the purpose of the journey.

Getting lost in hell? UM YES!

The story, the suspense, the inner monologue, the characters. Every part of this is amazing. Brittany, from the broski report, talked so good about this book so I HAD to come listen to it and I am speechless. It’s one of those where I’m actually so sad it’s over. I listen to it playing Minecraft, driving, at work, everywhere. Listen to this book, and any negative reviews, ignore them. This book is so, so good.

Character

Kuang did such an amazing job of making the main character real. I liked, sympathized, was aghast at, hated, disliked, was disgusted with, then grudgingly sympathized again, pitied, was impressed with, back on board and filled with her resolve, fiercely cheering for her, and basically I am loving how the book took me on this crazy journey. Audio was nice, but this book is well beyond the worth of physical manifestation and a nice cup of tea pairs nicely.

Hysterically Good

This is the most realistic depiction of graduate school I've ever seen or read, and that includes the magic.