Praise for The Hexologists
“Bancroft is a wonder as ever! The Hexologists was a joyous delight on every page—buoyantly inventive, witty, poignant, gripping, and deeply satisfying.”
“Bancroft has returned to the page in force, deploying his crystal prose and razored wit around a tale that mixes whimsy and threat in equal measure. He’s a gift to the genre and we should support his work.”
“Fantastic! The Hexologists fizzes eloquently with wit and elegance, but also has marvelous worldbuilding and an excellent plot - and a central pair of characters who I quite simply love. A cocktail of a book made with the very best champagne.”
“Josiah Bancroft’s imagination will astound you. One of the most inventive fantasy authors out there.”
“Bancroft brilliantly inaugurates a new fantasy series with this suspenseful and humorous introduction…This light and charming tale encompasses a twisty mystery, detailed Victorian-esque worldbuilding, and nuanced protagonists who love each other dearly, all relayed in Bancroft’s superior prose. Readers will be eager to see how the series evolves.”
Meet the Hexologists!
The Hexologists, Iz and Warren Wilby, are quite accustomed to helping desperate clients with the bugbears of city life. Aided by hexes and a bag of charmed relics, the Wilbies have recovered children abducted by chimney-wraiths, removed infestations of barb-nosed incubi, and ventured into the Gray Plains of the Unmade to soothe a troubled ghost. Well-acquainted with the weird, they never shy away from a challenging case.
But when they are approached by the royal secretary and told the king pleads to be baked into a cake—going so far as to wedge himself inside a lit oven—the Wilbies soon find themselves embroiled in a mystery that could very well see the nation turned on its head. Their effort to expose a royal secret buried under forty years of lies brings them nose to nose with a violent anti-royalist gang, avaricious ghouls, alchemists who draw their power from a hell-like dimension, and a bookish dragon who only occasionally eats people.
Armed with a love toughened by adversity and a stick of chalk that can conjure light from the darkness, hope from the hopeless, Iz and Warren Wilby are ready for a case that will test every spell, skill, and odd magical artifact in their considerable bag of tricks.
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Praise for The Books of Babel Tetralogy
“The Hod King is a compelling and original novel; the Books of Babel are something you hope to see perhaps once a decade - future classics, which may be remembered long after the series concludes.”
“Senlin Ascends is one of the best reads I’ve had in ages . . . I was dragged in and didn’t escape until I’d finished two or three days later.”
“Senlin is a man worth rooting for, and his strengthening resolve and character is as marvelous and sprawling as the tower he climbs.”
“Josiah Bancroft is a magician. His books are that rare alchemy: gracefully written, deliriously imaginative, action-packed, warm, witty, and thought-provoking. I can’t wait for more.”
“It’s rare to find a modern book that feels like a timeless classic. I’m wildly in love with this book.”
“What is remarkable about this novel, quite apart from its rich, allusive prose, is Bancroft’s portrayal of Senlin, a good man in a desperate situation, and the way he changes in response to his experiences in his ascent.”
An Empyreal Retinue
Original art by Tom Kidd.
An Anthology of Books of Babel Shorts, Vignettes, Oddities, and Ephemera
Expanding upon the world of The Books of Babel, this collection of short works builds upon the Tower in directions both acquainted and strange.
Herein, readers will find a heartbreaking account of the Sphinx as she prepares to receive expected but unwelcome guests.
Intrepid bibliophiles will be dazzled by Byron’s bravery as he charges headlong into a paperwork labyrinth and locks horns with a misanthropic minotaur.
Sensitive witnesses will delight in John Tarrou’s evolution from romantic naïf into sickly waif languishing upon porcelain shores in the grips of a theatrical cure.
Devotees of poetic justice will find satisfaction in Finn Goll’s grasp for redemption with hands caked in gun powder and book glue.
In addition to these familiar sagas, this volume contains a number of new meditations upon the spire’s innumerable facets: a bookseller tries his hand at racing airships; a youthful orphan seeks sanctuary in a ruin; an ambitious vendor of fleece is reacquainted with the value of his own pelt; and two explorers of the cruising Nebos stumble upon an unexpected stowaway.
To guide visitors, the author supplies a preamble in which he attempts to account for these tales that seek to enrich tourists, zealots, and hods alike.
The collection is heavily illustrated by the incomparable Tom Kidd. You can learn more procuring a hardcover of the volume here. An e-book edition of the book is also on sale here.
Welcome to the Tower of Babel!
The Tower is the greatest marvel of the Silk Age. Immense as a mountain, the ancient Tower holds unnumbered ringdoms, warring and peaceful, stacked one on the other like the layers of a cake.
Thomas Senlin, the mild-mannered headmaster of a small village school, is drawn to the Tower by scientific curiosity and the grandiose promises of a guidebook. The luxurious Baths of the Tower seem an ideal destination for a honeymoon, but soon after arriving, Senlin loses Marya in the crowd. Senlin’s search for Marya carries him through madhouses, ballrooms, and burlesque theaters. He must survive betrayal, assassination, and the long guns of a flying fortress.
But if he hopes to ever find his wife, Thomas Senlin must do more than survive. This quiet man of letters must become a man of action.
All cover art was created by Ian Leino. For more examples of his wonderful work, please visit his website, here.