A review by freyapuppy
Arm of the Sphinx by Josiah Bancroft

5.0

A fantastic read full of heart, adventure, absorbing prose, and lots of character development for Senlin and the side characters of the previous book, especially Edith. The Sphinx is also a fascinating new character--mysterious and with unclear intentions. For me, what made this book even better than the first was two things. One, there was a lot of world building in this book as we learned about the origins of the tower, the Brick Layer, the Sphinx, etc.. The second was that the camaradery and developing relationships between the crew were deeply engaging, especially between Senlin and Edith. I found myself rooting for every crew member of the Stone Cloud-troubled people who come together and make each other whole. I missed Tarrou from the first book though, although I suspect he will return in the next. Overall, this is an excellent sequel that builds on Senlin Ascends while standing on it's own as well.