As a followup to my other post, I started the book Katabasis last night. I downloaded it first, before I had even heard of Piranesi and the cover said it was similar, so I thought that was serendipitous since I was looking to scratch that similar itch.

And wow, is it a badly written book by comparison. This book might be inspired by the plot of Piranesi, but it completely misses with execution. Where Piranesi was stripped back, told you very little and had you infer things from the characters, Katabasis just drops everything in front of you with an omnipotent narrator that just spews exposition at you. I can also see all the tropes in the first chapter; singularly focused protagonist that needs to learn to chill out, enemies to lovers forced buddy situation, ‘naturally gifted’ expert who it turns out things aren’t so easy for, and macguffin plot that won’t be realised by the end because of the inherit flaw of the main character pursuing it.

These differences really stand out after reading Piranesi and Get Shorty previously. This writing breaks all of Elmore Leonard’s rules and is worse for it. Leonard even says his rules are guides and can be broken, but his books are so readable and enjoyable without being overly flashy or feeling dumbed down.

I’ll give Katabasis a bit more of a chance, but I can’t see myself getting through the 800 odd phone screen sized pages of this book compared to the 300 of Piranesi.