Josiah Bancroft Books In Order

Publication Order of The Books of Babel Books

Publication Order of The Hexologists Books

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

Publication Order of Poetry Collections

Before becoming an author of fantasy novels, Josiah Bancroft was a college instructor, a poet, and aspired to become an artist for comic books. He even found a rejection letter he got in the year 1999 from Marvel Comics.

When he is not busy with his writing, he likes to play post pop music with Dirt Dirt (his band), cooking pub curry (a dish he feels he has never made the same way twice) for Sharon, his wife, and drawing chalk pictures on a wall in his office. Bancroft enjoys cooking, everything about it; the spices, the smells, and the injuries, too. He shares a home with his wife and Mabel and Chaplin (their rabbits) in the city of Philadelphia.

His band is made up of Will and Benjamin (brothers that he has had since he was sixteen) and his wife. They have played, recorded, and performing original tunes for a few years.

His debut novel, and the first from Bancroft’s “Babel” series was published in the year 2013, and was called “Senlin Ascends”.

Bancroft began writing novels at the young age of twelve, and once he finished his first, he was hooked. Eventually, he began work on “Senlin Ascends”. It is a fantasy adventure that is a lot like the worlds that got him hooked on words to begin with.

The first novel he wrote was called “The Quest for Mortoangus”, a fantasy novel. His friend Ian Leino helped him. They saw quickly that Ian was more interested in illustrating the story, while he wanted to make the story 250,000 words. Two decades later, Ian was still illustrating and Bancroft was still writing. When asked, Ian agreed right away when asked if he would illustrate Bancroft’s new fantasy work.

While writing “The Quest for Mortoangus”, Ian came up with a character that was a thief named Fingol, who later inspired Finn Goll in the “Babel” series.

His goal was to do for other readers that his favorite authors had done for him. To pick them all up and take them off to a wonderful and dangerous world that is spinning rapidly.

“Senlin Ascends” is the first novel in the “Babel” series, which was released in the year 2013. The greatest marvel to come from the Silk Age is the Tower of Babel. It is as immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower has many ringdoms (both peaceful and warring) stacked on top of each other like layers on a cake. This is a world of tyrants and geniuses, odd animals and mysterious machines, steam engines and airships.

Thomas Senlin (the mild mannered headmaster of a tiny village school) is pulled to the Tower by his scientific curiosity and the big promises of a guidebook. The Baths of the Tower seem like it would make for a great place to have a honeymoon, but Thomas quickly loses Marya in the crowd. His search for Marya takes him through ballrooms, madhouses, and burlesque theaters. He has to survive assassination, betrayal, and the long guns of a fortress that flies.

This book pulls you right in and holds you captivated the entire time until you quickly finish it. It is an adventure full of character, beauty, and voice. Josiah Bancroft has combined all of the action adventure found in high fantasy with everyday strangeness and lyrical prose. Here is a rare modern book that feels just like a timeless classic. Readers fell in love with the book, and everyone in it.

“Arm of the Sphinx” is the second novel in the “Babel” series, which was released in the year 2015. Senlin and crew have been forced due to necessity into a life of piracy, and have to survive on their stolen airship. Senlin is still searching for his missing wife, even while her ghost still hounds each step he takes. The Tower of Babel is still as tough to get back into as it was to escape.

Thomas finds Luc Marat’s camp as he searches for a port that is unguarded. Luc appears to be equally a humanitarian and bandit. There is one thing that is for sure: the asylum he gives to downtrodden hods is not at all as peaceful as it seems.

Desperately, Thomas turns to the dangerous and mysterious Sphinx, with whom Edith has a terrible bond. They find, too, that the Sphinx’ help is not cheap, either.

The book is another brilliant work of fiction and the characters, the story, and the imagination of the author shines through here. The characters get developed extensively over the course of this book. There is a different tone to this book from the first book, as there should be, since this is a different story. There is more humor and more action adventure in this than the first book. The pacing has sped up, addressing a problem with the first novel.

“The Hod King” is the third novel in the “Babel” series, which was released in the year 2019. The Sphinx fears an uprising and send Thomas Senlin to investigate a plot that has taken hold in a ringdom called Pelphia. Thomas is alone in the city and infiltrates a bloody arena where the hods fight for the entertainment of the public. His investigation quickly gets derailed by a brutal crime and an unexpected reunion.

Voleta and Iren pose as a noble lady and her handmaid in an effort to reach Marya, who is now isolated because of her fame. While making her way through the court, Voleta gets the powerful prince’s unwanted attention, whose pursuit could threaten their plan.

Edith, who is now the captain of the Sphinx’s mighty flagship, joins up with one of her fellow wakeman to investigate a beloved friend’s disappearance. She has to figure out who she can trust while her search takes her closer to the Black Trail where hods climb in darkness and they whisper of the Hod King.

Senlin and crew becomes dragged in further into the Tower’s conspiracies, it all comes down to a single question: Who is the Hod King?