Cover These five titles delve into the same questions that drive ‘Katabasis’: what power demands, what knowledge reveals and what descent uncovers (Photo: Luemen Rutkowski/Unsplash)
These five titles delve into the same questions that drive ‘Katabasis’: what power demands, what knowledge reveals and what descent uncovers (Photo: Luemen Rutkowski/Unsplash)
1 / 1
Five books that explore power, myth and knowledge for readers drawn to the dark brilliance of ‘Katabasis’
RF Kuang’s Katabasis has drawn readers in with its unsparing look at ambition, power and myth-making, exploring what happens when brilliance turns corrosive. It is a work that blends the intellectual and the visceral, steeped in literary tradition yet unafraid of confrontation. For those still lingering in the book’s afterglow, finding a follow-up read can feel daunting. The books below share a kinship with Katabasis: the cost of knowledge, the rewriting of old narratives and the uneasy beauty of descent. Each one traces a journey, both literal or psychological, that examines the tension between enlightenment and ruin.
1. ‘Inferno’ by Dante Alighieri
Above In ‘Inferno’, Dante journeys through the nine circles of Hell, a descent that echoes the search for moral truth in ‘Katabasis’ (Photo: Thomas Nelson)
In ‘Inferno’, Dante journeys through the nine circles of Hell, a descent that echoes the search for moral truth in ‘Katabasis’ (Photo: Thomas Nelson)
1 / 1
The defining story of a journey into the underworld, Inferno follows Dante’s guided journey through the nine circles of Hell, where each punishment reflects the moral nature of the sinner’s crime. Its precision and psychological detail established a template for how writers imagine the afterlife as a mirror of human failings. The influence of Inferno runs through Katabasis, which similarly uses descent as a framework for moral inquiry and self-exposure. Both works treat knowledge as ordeal and insight as consequence, suggesting that understanding comes not through salvation but through confrontation with one’s own corruption.
2. ‘Piranesi’ by Susanna Clarke
Above ‘Piranesi’ unfolds in an endless, statue-filled house where solitude and knowledge intertwine, much like in ‘Katabasis’ (Photo: Bloomsbury)
‘Piranesi’ unfolds in an endless, statue-filled house where solitude and knowledge intertwine, much like in ‘Katabasis’ (Photo: Bloomsbury)
1 / 1
Clarke’s Piranesi takes place in a vast, seemingly endless House made of halls, statues and seawater, inhabited by only two people. The novel unfolds through journal entries, gradually revealing that the House may be both a physical space and a state of mind. Like Katabasis, it is a study in isolation and the fragility of perception. Both works blur the boundaries between the real and the symbolic, showing how knowledge can become both illumination and imprisonment. Clarke’s spare, controlled prose creates a mood of quiet revelation that echoes Kuang’s interest in the disorientation of learning too much.
3. ‘The Magicians’ by Lev Grossman
Above In ‘The Magicians’, a gifted student learns that mastery brings emptiness, reflecting the intellectual toll seen in ‘Katabasis’ (Photo: Penguin)
In ‘The Magicians’, a gifted student learns that mastery brings emptiness, reflecting the intellectual toll seen in ‘Katabasis’ (Photo: Penguin)
1 / 1
Lev Grossman’s dark academia novel The Magicians reimagines the tropes of magical education through the disillusionment of adulthood. Centred on Quentin Coldwater, a gifted but restless student at Brakebills College, the novel examines how the pursuit of power and knowledge can erode meaning rather than create it. Its world is both seductive and hollow, echoing the intellectual ambition and moral fatigue that run through Katabasis. Where Kuang exposes the ethical cost of brilliance within institutional confines, Grossman traces the emotional fallout of learning that mastery offers no fulfilment. Both works question whether transcendence is possible once idealism has been spent and self-awareness becomes its own trap.
4. ‘The Penelopiad’ by Margaret Atwood
Above ‘The Penelopiad’ retells the ‘Odyssey’ from Penelope’s view, reclaiming mythic voices as ‘Katabasis’ reclaims moral perspective (Photo: Canongate Canons)
‘The Penelopiad’ retells the ‘Odyssey’ from Penelope’s view, reclaiming mythic voices as ‘Katabasis’ reclaims moral perspective (Photo: Canongate Canons)
1 / 1
Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad retells Homer’s Odyssey from Penelope’s point of view, giving voice to the famously patient wife left behind in Ithaca and to the 12 maids executed upon Odysseus’s return. Through their alternating narratives, Atwood reconsiders myth from the margins, turning a tale of heroism into one of silence, complicity and survival. The Penelopiad and Katabasis share an interest in how power shapes storytelling—who is granted speech, and who becomes the evidence of others’ glory. Atwood’s prose is cool and cutting, exposing cruelty beneath legend, much as Kuang dissects the cost of intellect and ambition. Both use retelling as a form of reclamation rather than homage.
5. ‘Foundryside’ by Robert Jackson Bennett
Above In ‘Foundryside’, language reshapes reality itself, echoing the fascination with how power is created and undone in ‘Katabasis’ (Photo: Arcadia)
In ‘Foundryside’, language reshapes reality itself, echoing the fascination with how power is created and undone in ‘Katabasis’ (Photo: Arcadia)
1 / 1
Jackson Bennett’s Foundryside opens in the industrial city of Tevanne, where magic and technology merge through a system called “scriving”, a form of coded language that convinces objects to defy physical laws. Thieves, merchants and scholars alike compete to control this power, treating words as weapons and tools of creation. The novel’s focus on language as both invention and instrument of control aligns closely with Katabasis, which also interrogates how knowledge systems sustain power. Both works reveal how mastery—whether intellectual or mechanical—can replicate the hierarchies it seeks to escape. Bennett’s blend of philosophy and world-building sharpens the question that haunts Katabasis: whether liberation lies in rewriting the rules or refusing them altogether.
Each of these books, in its own register, extends the conversation Katabasis begins: about descent as a form of knowledge, and knowledge as a form of descent.
Chonx Tibajia is a senior editor at Tatler Asia’s T-Labs team, where she writes widely on lifestyle subjects including beauty, style, entertainment and travel. She has a long career in journalism, including roles as a columnist at The Philippine Star, and is the founder of the creative platform Pineappleversed. Beyond Tatler, her bylines appear in regional lifestyle and business publications, showcasing a broad portfolio that spans beauty trends, travel guides and culture pieces.
