Katabasis

R.F. Kuang
Completed 4/20/2026, Reviewed 4/22/2026
3 stars

I was so disappointed in this book.  I loved Kuang’s previous Babel, with its rich world building and prose.  I was expecting more of the same here.  Instead, the prose felt bloated, the world building tedious, and the plot buried under the main character’s constant brooding and dwelling on her fears and self-doubt.  The only parts of the book I enjoyed were the revelation of Alice’s part in the demise of their advisor and the exposition of her rival Peter’s background.  Katabasis is ancient Greek for a hero’s journey to the underworld.  With a title like that, I thought I would be enthralled.  Instead, I wanted to get out of the book as much as Alice and Peter wanted to get out of Hell.  This book was nominated for a 2025 Nebula and several smaller awards.  

The book begins with Alice, a graduate student in magick at Cambridge, rushing to cross into the Underworld to bring back her sadistic and morally reprehensible advisor, Professor Grimes, who died in a tragic magical accident.  Alice believes she was the cause and it is her duty to bring him back.  She’s interrupted by her rival Peter who has the same mission.  Together they travel through the different areas of Hell based on the Seven Deadly Sins.  Their only guides are the “accounts” of Dante, Orpheus, and other figures who supposedly traveled to and returned from Hell.  They encounter many different Shades, including some who help, some who deceive, and some who want to eat them.  

It was tough liking either Alice or Peter.  Alice’s reason for going to Cambridge and studying under Professor Grimes is that it will ensure her a job and success after school.  She’s obsessed with Grimes, basing her self-esteem and talent on his every word and action.  Everyone else is competition and everything else is a distraction.  Her biggest rival is Peter who also studies under Grimes.  Everything seems to come easily to him.  In the year leading up to the events of this book, she sees him usurping her position.  Grimes himself is a morally reprehensible slave driver with no regard for anyone else, including his students.  Alice takes it because of her obsession.  Peter seems to not mind Grimes, taking everything very casually and still landing himself on top.  So when he appears while she’s opening the portal to the underworld, she’s reluctant and resentful about letting him join her.  Through most of their time in Hell, they are at odds, despite Peter being most helpful and generous.

I tried to read Dante’s Inferno in high school on my own and was very lost.  I understand the basic concept of the book as well as Orpheus’ journey to bring Eurydice back from the underworld.  Alice and Peter refer to these and other tales during their journey.  But most of the time is spent in Alice’s head, hating and second-guessing Peter and recounting her relationship with Peter and Grimes up to that moment.  This was the part I disliked.  It was very repetitive.  My reaction was always, let’s just get on with the search for Grimes.  It didn’t help that Hell was mostly a wasteland with days and days of nothingness.  Even when they met Shades, good or bad, the action was constantly interrupted by Alice’s manic mind.  

The only parts I really liked were the chapters where we got the full concise disclosures of Peter’s past and Alice’s more recent disenfranchisement from Grimes.  They explained all the motivations and truths they both were hiding from each other.  However, this was not enough to make up for the first four hundred or so pages and didn’t make the last hundred and sixty any better.  

I thought the magick system was somewhat interesting.  Everything was based on chalk drawings of pentagrams, symbols, and magick words.  There’s even amusing references to the differences between brands of chalk and academic loyalty to each one.  The world building, however, was not interesting.  I quickly grew tired of the underworld.  The features like the river in which shades go to forget their previous lives and reincarnate, the reflection of the living world, the market, and even the eighth level home of Hades aka King Yama, all got tedious as the scenes progressed.  I simply could not get into it.

One other positive thing about the underworld was that it was mixed with the stories and myths of different cultures.  It wasn’t all Greco-Western.  It included some Chinese and other cultural myths as well.  

I give this book a very low three stars out of five.  Two stars implies bad.  It wasn’t bad, just very boring.  The prose is beautiful but dull.  The characters are very well developed though Alice is quite whiny, misguided, and not very likeable.  The Shades they meet in Hell are interesting.  And there’s a cool cat named Archimedes who pops in and out, occasionally helping them.  I’m not turned off by Kuang, though.  I hope to eventually read her Poppy Wars trilogy, which is supposed to be excellent.