Josiah Bancroft (born March 29, 1978) is an American writer of fantasy, known for his initially self-published debut novel Senlin Ascends (2013).
Bancroft's inspirations for the story are numerous and include Invisible Cities by Italo Calvino, Midnight's Children by Salman Rushdie, The Castle by Franz Kafka, and The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams.
Publishers Weekly's starred review described the "brilliant debut fantasy" as "steampunk and epic, surreal and yet grounded in believable logistics".
[4] The Washington Post included it in its five best science fiction and fantasy novels of 2018, describing it as "a classic hero's quest, elevated by creative world building and memorable characters".
[9] The Fall of Babel, the final book in the series, was originally scheduled for release in 2020, but Bancroft asked his publisher for an extension because, among other reasons, he "suffered some setbacks with the draft, including the deletion of a hundred pages or so.