Arm of the Sphinx

 
 
Arm of the Sphinx
by Josiah Bancroft

Orbit

2018

 

 

Following Senlin Ascends, the second book in Bancroft's quartet, Arm of the Sphinx is a little uneven, but its second half is consistently good, and has me very excited to read the next two volumes.

 
The book opens with Senlin and his friends having already failed and given up as air pirates. They think Senlin's wife Marya is in Pelphia, the 5th story 'ringdom' in the Tower of Babel, but they can't get in past the militarized port guards. In the mean-time, they've been stealing just enough to survive using cunning stratagems to outwit merchants and other pirates. But they realize they can't continue, and in desperation, chase a rumor that there's a secret passage into Pelphia from the former Silk Gardens in the abandoned 6th story.

 
The airship gets ambushed by the military and barely makes it to crash land on the 6th floor. They discover the secret headquarters of an army of escaped slaves (called 'Hods') being led by a rebellious former 'Wakeman,' one of the cybernetic agents of the Sphinx, the same mysterious entity who gave Edith her cybernetic arm. Their barely repaired airship gets ambushed again by the Hod army, and they again barely escape. Entirely out of other option, the crew follows Edith's directions to the lair of the Sphinx, fearful of the price he will demand for help.

 
The problem with this part of the book is that it's clear from the title and other early foreshadowing that we're all going to meet to Sphinx. It seems like Bancroft couldn't figure out how to skip straight to the good part, but neither could he disguise that this first half was all set-up for the part he really wanted to write. 

The 'last days of piracy' section has all the suspense of a foregone conclusion. I think if Bancroft could've started earlier, shown the crew's pirate days as present tense instead of mostly already flashbacks, and shown them giving up as a conclusion they're pushed toward instead of a choice they've already made, it would've been more compelling. The visit to the Silk Gardens is actually pretty good, because it contains some interesting set-pieces and surprises along the way. Senlin thinks he knows what they'll find, Edith thinks she knows, and they're both wrong, which is great.

 
It's in the second half of the book that everything really springs to life. The Sphinx is clearly a canny negotiator. He wants Senlin's information about the rebellion, and even moreso, the painting he stole in the first book. He makes a deal to replace Edith's broken cybernetic arm, fix their ship, and help the crew get into Pelphia to look for Marya if Senlin will please just sign this contract and spend two weeks finding a book in the Bottomless Library...

 
While Senlin is away, Edith tries to hide Adam from the Sphinx, which results in them going to the roof which is rumored to be covered with trees of silver and rivers of gold. They learn the truth, and Adam gets hidden, but not in the way Edith wanted.

 
Voleta sneaks around and meets the Sphinx privately, the Sphinx takes a liking to her, reveals his true face, shares some secrets, and seemingly chooses her as a successor.

 
Iren's story is mostly character-driven. She begins coming to terms with the fact that she's getting older and that she has real friends now. She's no longer just an enforcer. I imagine her looking like Scorpia from the new She-Ra cartoon, and I've really warmed up to her.

 
During his journey, Senlin, among other things, realizes that he can't keep chasing Marya forever, that he's changed and she probably has too, and that he has romantic feelings for Edith. He decides Pelphia will be the last place he looks, and that he can no longer assume a straightforward reunion if he finds her. At the end of the journey, the Sphinx tells Senlin yet more secrets, including about the Brick Layer who organized the building of the tower, and some information about the stolen painting. Given the long lifespans of these people at the top, I wonder if the Sphinx is the person in the painting?

 
Edith gets a better new arm and a promotion from the Sphinx. Senlin gets recruited as a spy. The crew gets a shiny new ship and a robotic crewmate to accompany them into the next book. I doubt that my description does this part justice, but the prose is lively, the characterization is dynamic (everyone goes through a period of self-reflection and change), we learn a lot about the world, and the stage is set for a three-way conflict between the agents of the Sphinx, the Hod rebellion, and the corrupt Ringdom governments, like the one in Pelphia.