Arm of the Sphinx

Bancroft’s brilliant second installment in the Books of Babel, following Senlin Ascends, continues Thomas Senlin’s desperate quest to reunite with his wife, Marya, whom he lost in the crowd at the base of the unknowably high and teemingly crowded Tower of Babel. Now the captain of a ragtag pirate airship, Senlin (using the name Mudd) must find some way into the aristocratic and well-armed ringdom of Pelphia, where the latest rumors indicate Marya is. But Senlin is a wanted criminal, fewer and fewer ports are open to his crew, and his first mate owes a mysterious debt to the Sphinx, a creature of myth and whisper whose marks are stamped all over the Tower. Bancroft’s world continues to teem with explosive energy, and he ranges ably from the transcendent to the vicious in an instant. The unchecked splendor of the scenery is balanced by the complicated, sympathetic characters, and the plot maintains a steady stream of surprises without ever wearying. This volume not only matches but adds to the notable achievements of the first. (Mar.)