Katabasis. Special Deluxe Edition

A true rollercoaster of emotions. Love, death and despair in equal measure. Isn’t that just what you’d expect from a trip to hell? Katabasis tackles a lot of complex real-life issues. All the hard-hitting themes are handled well and elegantly woven into the story. At the same time, it’s achingly romantic but never too saccharine. The characters are flawed and lifelike. Like with her other books, Kuang inspires awe with her seemingly endless knowledge of linguistics, literature and history. Katabasis just blew me away.

For me, Katabasis was the least good of all the R. F. Kuang's books. But it was still enjoyable most of the time. The setting was interesting and the characters were mostly likable.

First, you think you’re too dumb for this book. But then you’ll keep on reading and you’ll discover that indeed you are too dumb for this book. I had trouble connecting with the story and the characters. I also wasn’t able to envision this Hell she describes and I still don’t understand how the pentagrams work. But when I was quite sure that this book is not doing it for me, she hit me with a complex analysis of power structures, manipulation and exploitation and I remembered, why I faithfully vowed to preorder every single book this woman ever writes. Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to keep me intrigued for over 500 pages. I felt like the romance was lacking conviction and the main character, Alice, was not elaborate enough to keep the story running on her own. Maybe you need to be a scholar to enjoy this book. Maybe you need to have read Dante’s Inferno to enjoy this book. Neither of these things apply to me. So maybe I’m just not the target audience. Is this a bad book? No. I just missed the fun/excitement I usually experience while reading fantasy.

Der Anfang etwas kompliziert und holprig. Wenn man sich jedoch über Seite 150 bringt, dann wird man äusserst belohnt!! Selten hat ein Buch mich so auf neue Gedanken gebracht! Wer gerne Geschichte und Mythos, Philosophie, Wahrheit und Liebe mag, der ist hier richtig.

Katabasis was a wonderful mix of weird and intriguing. I loved the depth of the characters and their individual backstories. I also liked the magic system and the academic setting. The story realistically depicts the problems that alot of women in STEM face.