Marc *Dark Reader with a Thousand Young! Iä!*'s Reviews > The Hexologists

I loved Senlin Ascends and the whole Tower of Babel series. I love Bancroft's prose: elegant, playful, poetic, outstanding similes. I love that he writes what he loves, genre categorization be damned; this one is alt-history Victorian mystery, steampunk-light high fantasy, urban fantasy inspired, climate fiction, who knows what else all at once. I loved Byron in the Babel series and there are many parts of Byron in Warren's character in particular.

I didn't love this book until the last 100 pages.

Prior to that, I found it just irritatingly twee in its worldbuilding choices. I'm not a fan of fae or paranormal fantasy, and this is not that, but it was adjacent enough to disappoint me. Too many "oh-ho-ho, jolly good" elements, mostly (view spoiler)[the dragon (hide spoiler)]. I could find no fault with the solid characters, authentic and easy to fall in love with (and what an exceptional married couple! Complementary and undyingly co-supportive, emotionally true, and endlessly horny for each other,) or with the sublime writing, the pacing, the plot progress, all dreamy as expected from this exceptionally talented author. It was simply some of the genre elements drawn from my less preferred genres.

At page 200 it turned a corner for me. The stakes shot suddenly upwards, the hazards more menacing, the characters more determined than ever, and from that point my reservations drifted away. The story is brought to a wholly satisfying conclusion. I don't often read mystery, but this seems the perfect sort: the answers make complete sense upon revelation, tying strongly into all of the novels events, in such a way that the reader feels no shame for not putting it together until the main character does so and explains it, at which point it all makes sense. And there's no need to dwell on the mystery while reading; the adventure is enough of an experience on its own. Masterfully done.