Fantasy spotlight
Katabasis
by R. F. Kuang
Two rival Cambridge magicians descend into Hell to retrieve their dead supervisor's soul - and his letter of reference.
Buy the book
Alice Law will do anything to get her doctorate - including walking into Hell to drag her advisor back. Unfortunately, her academic rival Peter Murdoch insists on coming along.
Publisher's blurb
Synopsis
Kuang turns the classical descent narrative into a satire of graduate study. Hell is organised into courts of logical paradox; the demons argue like examiners; and the two students bickering their way through it are carrying grief, ambition and a shared history neither will name. Analytic magic, footnoted scholarship and a genuinely unnerving portrait of what an institution can extract from the people who love it.
The editorial feature
Funnier than Babel and angrier than it first appears. Kuang's Hell is a bureaucracy, which is the correct instinct, and the academic satire lands hardest on those who have lived it. The romance is prickly, slow and much better than the premise suggests.
Book details
- Genre
- Fantasy
- Released
- 26 August 2025
- Publisher
- Harper Voyager
- Featured on
- 26 August 2025
Where to buy
Katabasis is available from these retailers.
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