Book Title: Katabasis
Author: R.F. Kuang
Date Started: September 13th 2025
Date Completed: October 20th 2025
Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance
Quality Rating: Four Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Four Stars
Review:
I found the start of Katabasis hard to get into; supposedly straight into the action, but there is so much it wants to tell us it takes 100 pages for the story to gain its footing. Once it does, though it meanders at times, it's undoubtedly Kuang's most innovative fantasy yet. I was getting strong Boy and the Heron and His Dark Materials and vibes - but Kuang is distinctive in where she takes it for the ending.
I'd be curious to see what someone with 0 Classics/Philosophy knowledge finds it; I know a handful of the references via my interest in mythical folklore and Ancient Greece, but I was mostly just nodding along in acceptance of my confusion. It led to an interesting conversation with my mum (who has a PhD in Political Science), but I came out of it ultimately none the wiser. Perhaps if you know none of it you can buy into the fantastical side a bit more.
And boy is the magic system and world-building creative - insanely so. I know to expect scales of epic proportion when it comes to the universes Kuang wills into being for us, but almost every time she builds on her wealth of knowledge, curiosity, intelligence and pure joy for creating these imaginary plains of existence. Katabasis especially made me appreciate the philosophical way she approaches storytelling: it's not really about creating a world to tell her story in, it's about repositioning your way of thinking so that you're open to the story she's ready to tell. It's ultimately why her novels are so universal, despite their authentic roots in Kuang's own studies, heritage and temperament: what she asks of the reader is to join her in looking at something from a different perspective, and discovering what it leads to together.
While the book is ultimately a character story (though Alice's agency for what happens to her is unreliable), I really enjoyed the exploration of corruption, discrimination and toxicity of gatekeeping education and imbalanced mentor-student relationships. It rang so universally true for imbalanced power structures, even though it focuses very specifically on academia, and made such an impact on the development of the characters without having to be the main plot. Alice is the person who toils, fails, suffers and grows - and the book doesn't flinch from that anchor - but it has an awful lot to say about the hypocrisy of what people expect her to grow into. And a final act that is satisfyingly resolute in its answer.
