Academic Ambition Goes Straight to Hell and Back
R. F. Kuang gives academic ambition a dark fantasy stage, sending rival scholars into Hell with grudges, intellect and danger between them. It is a strong pick for readers who like clever world-building, uneasy alliances and fantasy with a literary edge.
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Katabasis
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Academic Ambition Goes Straight to Hell and Back
R. F. Kuang gives academic ambition a dark fantasy stage, sending rival scholars into Hell with grudges, intellect and danger between them. It is a strong pick for readers who like clever world-building, uneasy alliances and fantasy with a literary edge.
- Book Synopsis
-
Prepare for one hell of a journey…
'A big, bold fantasy romp' GUARDIAN
'R.F. Kuang is making magic' ELLE
'[A] truly original and spellbinding hero's-journey story' VOGUE
'I devoured it' RED
One of the BBC's 25 best books of 2025 Katabasis, noun, Ancient Greek.
The story of a hero's descent to the underworld.Grad student Alice Law has only ever had one goal: to become the brightest mind in the field of analytic magick.But the only person who can make her dream come true is dead and - inconveniently - in Hell.
And Alice, along with her biggest rival Peter Murdoch, is going after him.But Hell is not as the philosophers claim, its rules are upside-down, and if she's going to get out of there alive, she and Peter will have to work together.That's if they can agree on anything.Will they triumph, or kill each other trying?2025's most unexpected love story is going to be hell in the new No.1 Sunday Times bestselling novel by R.F. Kuang.'Literary super-stardom doesn't seem too far out of her reach' THE HERALD
'Mind-bending fantasy' GRAZIA
Ideal for readers who:
- Seek dark academic fantasy that blends sharp literary intelligence with high-stakes danger.
- Track intense rival scholars who are forced into a treacherous underworld rescue mission.
- Want to explore a brilliantly subverted version of Hell built on analytic magick and deep philosophy.
- Respect ambitious, mind-bending fantasy narratives anchored by uneasy, electric alliances.
- About The Author
- R.F Kuang is the author of The Poppy War Trilogy, Babel: An Arcane History, and Yellowface. Her work has won the Nebula, Locus, and British Book Awards. She is pursuing a PhD in East Asian Language and Literature at Yale.
- Product Details
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- ISBN
- 9780008501907
- Format
- Paperback
- Publisher
- Harper Voyager, (21 May 2026)
- Number of Pages
- 541
- Weight
- 380 grams
- Language
- English
- Dimensions
- 198 x 129 x 40 mm
- Categories: