S. Zainab would like to think she bleeds ink but the very idea makes her feel faint. She writes fantasy and horror, and is currently clutching a manuscript while groping in the dark. Find her on Twitter: @szainabwilliams.
Dark academia fantasy written by one of our most versatile and talented contemporary writers, who also happens to come from the world of academia? Yes, please. Today, I’m talking about this month’s biggest new release, which also happens to be one of the most anticipated books of the year. This might be the only time I recommend a book by the same author in fairly quick succession, but who can keep up with this writer who’s been writing award-winning and best-selling books since she was 19. Because I trust this author to expertly deliver a great story, I was going to pick up this book regardless of the topic, but the afterlife is a setting I’ve been particularly drawn to ever since I duped myself into reading Dante’s The Divine Comedy as a teen, and I thrilled at the promise of a fresh take.
Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
It’s testament to Kuang’s ability to recreate herself that I have to remind myself that Yellowface (which I recommended here) and Katabasis are written by the same person. I love both of these books for different reasons, but if I had to point to a shared bond, I’d say I find satisfaction in her critical reading of a subject. She pointed her laser focus on publishing and publishing-adjacent social in Yellowface, and in Katabasis she puts academia on blast through the story of Alice Law and Peter Murdoch who journey through Hell to recover the soul of their (untimely and gruesomely) deceased advisor, Professor Grimes.
Alice is a graduate student of Magick willing to commit herself, quite literally body and soul, to her academic career so she doesn’t wait for the dust to settle after Grimes dies in a magical mishap. She hits the books to find her way into and path through Hell, where the imposing man most certainly landed. The problem is that the other brightest bulb among her peers, Peter, elbowed in on her plans and has joined her in the afterlife. Both students need their professor to help pave their bright path forward into the hallowed halls of tenureship, and they’ll stop at nothing to get his good word. A world of pain awaits them, from bloodthirsty monsters bereft of humanity to their own tense and painful relationships with each other and with Grimes. They’ve paid dearly for their entry and now there’s nothing left to be done but race through the Eight Courts to the domain of Lord Yama the Merciful to reclaim one valuable soul.
Whenever I visit my family in Singapore, I insist on a trip to Haw Par Villa, an amusement park where you can journey through the Courts of Hell. This monument of Chinese religion speaks to my curiosity about what happens to us after we die. Katabasis gave me that same feeling and posed thought-provoking questions about the value of and tension with being locked in a corporeal form, the constant (obsessive, in Alice and Peter’s case) act of striving, and conundrums posed by philosophy, logic, and even math. Like Alice, this story is stridently intellectual even as it engages in the speculative and, better still, it’s a thoroughly engaging journey.
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English (US) · 