#senlin

[burnbrighterthanever]

I know it's a little late for AAPI Heritage Month, but I made some edits to celebrate my favorite AAPI mutant women.

#hisako ichiki #armor #jacks chopra #black knight #shilpa khatri #trinary #mạnh cao xuân #karma #lin li #nature girl #senlin #alani ryan #loa #kwannon #mochizuki kannon #psylocke #jubilee #jubilation lee #sooraya qadir #dust #noriko ashida #surge #marvel can have one (1) rights #x-men #stel speaks #stel creates #my children of the atom

[tuktukpodfics]

Just popping by to say that 'Wanyi' and your words for why it's a good name for Zuko's ship hit me like a sack of bricks to the chest. absolutely incredible choice, I am REELING.

I'm glad you found it so touching!

I haven’t read Embers. I thought MuffinLance intentionally named Zuko’s warship 萬一 (one in ten thousand, what if) from the start. It’s been a bit bewildering to see a mistake become new fanon. 

At risk of ruining the sentimentality of the name Wanyi, I would issue a few caveats to people adopting it for their fics. It’s really more of a retrofit of the old name—something to rebrand while sounding and looking similar enough to Wani to not be distracting. 

Wanyi is pinyin romanization, used in the People’s Republic of China. You could just as easily spell it Wan-i or Wani. Canon uses a mix of romanization methods. However, if the goal is rebranding, Wanyi makes sense.

Wanyi isn’t an Authentic™ historical Chinese boat name. That would be something like Galloping Clouds or Tranquil Seas. 

You might want to use a different culture instead of Chinese for Zuko’s warship. Canonically, there are Fire Nation characters with Chinese inspired names, like Zhao, Piandao, and Shyu, but if your fan-fiction is drawing more inspiration from Japanese or Thai culture, maybe a different name is more suited. 

Wanyi is often used for negative what-ifs. An unlikely disaster. Zuko is, after all, a disaster magnet. And the cause of many misfortunes. 

Wanyi literally means one in ten thousand, but it is grammatically used to indicate an extremely unlikely possibility. Like finding the avatar. To me, it feels ominous, anxious, yearning in an unrealistic sort of way, which I think all speak to Zuko's character arc. Idk, what do other Chinese speakers think?

#atla #avatar the last airbender #Wanyi #Wani #Ten-thousand is used to just mean something is countlessly large #One vs ten thousand = one vs an inconceivably big number #aka near-impossible #The library spirit Wanshitong’s name is translated as “he who knows ten thousand things” but it also just means “he who knows everything.” #Yeah it’s not authentic but canon is pretty fast and loose with authenticity the forest is just named Senlin (Chinese for forest)

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

#ultimate obscure blorbo #polls #round 3 #Theta One One (Subsurface Circular) #Thomas Senlin (Senlin Ascends)

[waitafrikk]

"its an emu"

"how can you tell?" "

"it has 3 toes, an ostrich only has 2"

"how in the world would you know that?"

"i had a student ask me once what the difference was, and so i went home and read everything i could find on emu and ostrich anatomy"

#thomas senlin #AUTISM FR #the books of babel #senlin ascends #I NEED Y'ALL TO READ THESE BOOKS #PLEASE #josiah bancroft #SOMEONE WRITE A FIC FOR THEM IM BEGGGINNGGGG

[blogishdaj]

I'm five chapters into Senlin Ascends and loving it. The premise is basically "nerd loses wife on honeymoon to tower of babel which also happens to be several kingdoms stacked on each other." The worldbuilding is fascinating and I'm loving every tidbit that drops of what seems to be alt-history world. Thomas Senlin himself radiates pathetic meow meow energy and the plot is like if the author was microwaving this poor guy. The mystery I'm most invested in is how this emotionally constipated dude who carries himself with the air of a frail victorian maiden managed to get married in the first place. There's a flashback where his wife is flirting with him by asking him architecture facts. Incredible.

#senlin ascends #ishdaj reads

[tpfw01]

"You've made it impossible for me to read a book in peace. When you're not here, I just gaze at the words until they tumble off the page into a puddle in my lap. Instead of reading, I sit there and review the hours of the day I spent in your company, and I am more charmed by that story than anything the author scribbled down. I have never been lonely in my life, but you have made me lonely. When you are gone, I am a moping ruin. I thought I understood the world fairly well. But you have made it all mysterious again. And it's unnerving and frightening and wonderful, and I want it to continue. I want all your mysteries." - Thomas Senlin, Senlin Ascends.

#thomas senlin #senlin ascends #marya senlin #josiah bancroft

[t00nified]

Did you know that Sēnlín  was with them when they had a sleep over at Red Son's place?

#lmk oc #lego monkie kid oc #senlin shumiao #Toon Draws

[justmymycelium]

All those adventure books I used to read - you know what they all got wrong? The nature of survival. The heroes who survived their ordeals always came out the other end unchanged. Maybe they walked away with a nice little scar on their cheek or a fitting shock of grey hair. But essentially, in all the ways that matter, they emerged the same as they were before. That's not how it is though, is it? Survival makes you a stranger to yourself. Senlin - The Fall Of Babel - Josiah Bancroft.

#the most underrated book series #senlin ascends #quotable books #book quotes #book review #bookworm #scifi books #fantasy books #booklr #literary quotes #literature #look i just love this book okay

[opewritingtheater]

Worldbuilding in Layers: The Setting of Senlin Ascends

The tower of Babel is as wide as a city, but no one knows how tall; when airship pilots fly toward the top they are shot out of the sky. Thick clouds cling to its higher levels, hiding them from view. People come from across the world to throw themselves into its lower levels and climb, earning it its nickname “the sink of humanity.” It’s in the nature of humankind to gravitate toward the tower, to be swept up in its chaos, often never to return.

Josiah Bancroft chose a wonderful stage for his novel to play out on. There is inherent gravity to a setting like this, it has a way of drawing people in. The tower is a structure so immense that it becomes the defining feature of its world. It is the hook that will catch a reader’s attention, it’s the centerpiece of the elevator pitch, it’s the main gimmick. It might have ended there, have served as only a gimmick, but in Senlin Ascends, it does more.

The tower makes such a strong first impression because of its scale. Its size makes it unmistakably important, and implies plenty of space for mysteries and wonders within. The tower makes a promise to the reader that the rest of the story, which will take place in and around it, will match that initial sense of awe.

read more...

(Image generated using Midjourney AI)

#world building #worldbuilding #writing #writeblr #writing advice #blog post #writing community #writers on tumblr #senlin ascends #fantasy #I read this book at about the same time as Piranesi #two very different stories set in superstructures #it was a fun time

[oceanssapart]

I knew a boy in school who rolled out of his bunk in his sleep, struck his head, and never woke again. I console myself with this terrible memory whenever I look down at the chasm that follows me like a shadow. We are, all of us, living at a deadly height.

Josiah Bancroft, Arm of the Sphinx

#words #josiah bancroft #books of babel #senlin ascends #arm of the sphinx

[skiitter]

Extremely niche feelings regarding a very un-fandom book series incoming: devastated that Senlin and Edith don't appear to be endgame thanks to Olivet and her tiny baby existence. I really, really liked them together and it is so sad watching Edith mourn this relationship in private while Senlin is going out of his mind in the belly of the Hod King trying to get back to Marya and Olivet with no passing thought towards Edith.

#the books of babel #The fall of Babel spoilers #Tom Senlin #Edith Winters #I'm very invested in them and they're evolution together and like I get it OK #I know he has an obligation to Marya and Olivet but still #Edith loved him when he wasn't even sure who he was #The man Marya loved died #Ugh

[nevinslibrary]

Weird & Wonderful Wednesday

Just the Tower of Babel is awesome, and that’s just the start of this book. The Tower is made up of ringdoms, and, let’s go with, they’re not all at peace with one another. Nope, not at all. Thomas has just gotten married to Marya and they go to the Tower. And then… they get separated. Thomas has to find her, ascend the Tower to rescue her. Easy right. Hah, no… nope, noppers…

World building can definitely make or break a book, especially one that’s a sorta science fiction, sorta fantasy novel, and this one definitely makes it. Add to that the awesome characters within and the story itself. Ooh, and, it’s a 4 book series as well. Ticks off all the boxes.

You may like this book If you Liked: Hyperion by Dan Simmons, Fool's Errand by Robin Hobb, or The Gunslinger by Stephen King

Senlin Ascends by Josiah Bancroft

#weirdandwonderfulwednesday #nmlRA #nevins memorial library #senlin ascends #josiah bancroft

[pizza-with-kiwi]

the birth of revenge

#Aisha de senlin #aisha

[who-do-i-know-this-man]

⚠️Vote for whomever YOU DO NOT KNOW⚠️‼️

#ultimate obscure blorbo #polls #round 2 #Thomas Senlin (Senlin Ascends) #Thorfinn (Vinland Saga)

[waitafrikk]

About to write a music shop AU for a fandom yhat doesn't even exist

#the books of babel #senlin ascends #thomas senlin #marya senlin #josiah bancroft

[lilareviewsbooks]

“Senlin Ascends”’ Odd Choices For A Romance

3/5 stars

448 pages 

Contains: a shy nerd; a tower full of crazy things; steampunk! Let’s go steampunk!

Senlin Ascends required stepping outside my bubble, something I’ve been periodically doing this past year in hopes of reading all the fantasy “classics” or important works in the genre. My bubble, of course, being my little gay SFF books. Senlin Ascends is most definitely not queer, not in the slightest. In fact, it is so straight I feel like I need to make a proper complaint: there’s no gay people! Not to mention the shocking absence of people of color from the cast of characters, save for the occasionally ambiguous “olive skin”. And this was published in 2013!

Anyway, before I go on my tirade: what is this book about? It follows Thomas Senlin, the headmaster of a school in a tiny village, and his wife Marya. They’ve just gotten married and chosen a fantastic honeymoon destination – the Tower Of Babel, which Thomas idolizes as the pinnacle of civilization. Tragedy strikes, though, as soon as they arrive – Thomas and Marya lose each other at the base of the Tower, and it’s up to Thomas to navigate its many floors in search of her. However, his previous impressions about the Tower might be completely wrong – maybe it’s not all that civilized, after all.

When it comes to social concerns, I have an even bigger one. The main relationship in the book – Senlin and his new wife Marya – has a 10 year age gap, which I guess is fine if both parties were consenting adults when the relationship began (which, as I understand, they were). The problem I have is that they were teacher and student when they met, and Marya was a minor at the time. And listen: I hate student teacher relationships with a passion. I don’t care if it’s fictional – do you know how many kids will read these kinds of books while still in school and internalize that this is normal? Like, no! This is bad! 

But even without this social issue, I think this is just so, so avoidable. In Chapter 13 of Part 2, it’s established that Marya was a student at the school when Senlin became headmaster – that is, he wasn’t teaching there when she was first enrolled in the school. Now, this makes sense because Senlin is a headmaster and the only teacher in a small town, which only has one multi-serial school. He must’ve taught almost all the village’s younger citizens. But if Marya was already a student, why not age her up a little bit (a matter of 2 years, or some such, so the big age gap between Senlin and Marya can be kept, in case that’s important) so that she wasn’t in school at the time Senlin took the helm there? Why must they have been student and teacher at some point? It’s just so incredibly predatory – the age difference might already raise a few eyebrows, but the fact that he knew her since she was underage, and had power over her? That’s so weird!

And although this book and its series are very popular in the fantasy sphere of BookTube, for example, I haven’t heard comments on this at all. I had no idea that they were student and teacher, at all, because I’d never heard anyone mention it. I think this isn’t something we can ignore, and it says something about the message the book is trying to convey. 

Of course, as always, I hold out hope that this will be some sort of critique, or that the narrating voice or the characters themselves will condemn or discuss this issue, in further installments of the series. But, judging from the lack of representation for any minority groups in this at all, I’m assuming social consciousness isn’t at the top of the author’s list of priorities ��� which I guess is fine? I don’t know, I don’t want to tell anyone how to live their lives or write their books. 

Apart from this concern, Senlin Ascends is – and I’ll put it as eloquently as I can – meh. 

It has strong characters, that’s for sure. Quirky ones that appear and reappear as Senlin goes through the Tower, whose personalities are convincing and well thought-out. Senlin himself evolves as a person throughout the story, which is satisfying to watch, especially when it intermingles with other characters’ arcs. But there’s something quite predictable about the structure, as Senlin continues to go up the Tower, find something odd and vaguely steampunk-y, and then leave to continue on upwards. This is held together by short chapters, which almost always end in either a cliff-hanger or in a revelation. This is a common tactic in popular writing, and I don’t think it’s necessarily bad, it just loses its efficacy and all meaning when it's done so much – not to mention how tiring it is. The short chapters sometimes fall flat, as it feels like there’s something missing and the atmosphere needs a little tending, which would’ve happened if Mr. Bancroft had opted for longer chapters.

Senlin Ascends is the first book in a series, The Books of Babel, which spans four books. From what I’ve heard from BookTube (specifically, I’m thinking of a video by Tall Guy Reads), the books become more epic, as the scope of the story shifts from “trying to get to Marya” to “saving the world”. This doesn’t really entice me. What led me to Senlin Ascends in the first place was its premise – and I liked how contained the story felt, how small it was in comparison to other fantasies. This was what would’ve kept me on track to finish the series. Unfortunately, given the mediocre experience I had with this first book, not to mention the weird origin of the main relationship, I think I’ll be calling it quits now. I’m really not interested in seeing this expand and become a “saving the world” story. I think the strength of the book lies in its protagonist and supporting cast, all of which don’t have much to do with saving the world, and whose backstory was compelling enough without it being fuel to do something heroic. 

If you’ve read this one, I’m curious to know your thoughts and would love to hear them! I’ve seen so many people love this one, so I’m wondering what I missed and if it was just a matter of not connecting with the story as much as others.

#stempunk #steampunk books #booklr #booksbooksbooks #fantasy books #sff books #book recommendations #book recs #book review #the books of babel #books of babel #senlin ascends #problematic book #romance books #romantasy