2019
The Hod King is the third book in a quartet, following Senlin Ascends and Arm of the Sphinx. The story started with one hapless man trying to find his lost wife, who he got separated from within minutes of their arrival at the Tower of Babel for their honeymoon. Early on, I thought he would wander his way to the top, encountering some sort of 'sorry Mario but your princess is in another castle' scenario in every floor along the way. Fortunately the series is much better than that. By now Senlin has made friends, they've become air pirates, and are now on an espionage mission assigned by the mysterious Sphinx...
Bancroft has two talents that have served him well so far. The first is seeding the early parts of his books with clues and mysteries that all come together in moments of revelation further in. The second is setting expectations at each point for what might happen next, and then finding some way to do something better and more interesting.
And despite the steampunk technology and fantastical vertical city setting, the problems within the Tower are all too realistic - class and gender inequality, slavery, the corrupt rule of self-serving elites. I daresay Bancroft might be a feminist. He certainly writes a variety of women characters well, and he depicts complaints about rich men that you rarely hear other men voice.
This book is split into three sections as we observe the events of about a week from three different viewpoints. First Senlin, disguised as a tourist, sent to investigate the coliseum where enslaved 'hods' fight as gladiators. But since his wife Marya lives on this ring of the Tower with her new rich husband, Senlin can't resist the chance to finally make contact. This goes poorly, and Senlin is enslaved and sent to live among the hods, where he reconnects with some characters from previous books who blame Senlin for their own enslavement.
In the second section, acrobatic Voleta tries to enter high society by being introduced with great fanfare as the Sphinx's niece. Her mission is to contact Marya while Senlin and Edith do their political spying. She finds the competitive upper-class partying on this ring almost unbearable. Accessing Marya also means dealing with several men from the royal family, who turn out to be much more dangerous than she expected.
In the third section, Edith acts as the Sphinx's official emissary to the local government. She befriends another woman with cybernetic implants from the Sphinx, but this other 'Wakeman' has been operating without new orders for over a decade. She's trying to do right, but no longer really trusts the Sphinx any more than she likes the locals. Also, the royal family and their guards decide to either seize the Sphinx's airship or blow it out of the sky!
One of my friends described this book as the Empire Strikes Back of the series, and I think it's an apt comparison. Our heroes end up outsmarted and beaten back at every step, one captured, several injured, one killed. But they also make new allies, and maybe find themselves in a position to succeed in the Sphinx's mission next time...
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