Nebula Award-winning author R.F. Kuang returns this week with a new fantasy novel. Pitched as Dante’s Inferno crossed with Susanna Clarke’s Piranesi, Katabasis is a 560-page novel that takes place at a magical university and the underworld. The highly anticipated standalone novel releases August 26, and publisher Harper Voyager is commemorating the launch with a gorgeous collectible hardcover. Katabasis Deluxe Limited Edition is available for $24.48 (was $35) at Amazon and Walmart.
After the first printing of Katabasis sells out, readers will have to settle for the standard edition, which means you’ll miss out on the eye-catching sprayed page edges, lavish case, and illustrated endpapers. Considering that Amazon now also has a store page for the standard edition–for only two bucks less–the Deluxe Limited Edition is possibly close to selling out.
Take a look at the Deluxe Limited Edition of Katabasis below. Fans of Kuang’s Poppy War Trilogy should also check out Amazon’s discounts on the new Deluxe Collector’s Editions of the first two novels in the series.
R.F. Kuang Collector’s Edition Books:
$24.48 (was $35) | Releases August 26
R.F. Kuang’s latest fantasy novel revolves around a pair of PhD students, Alice Law and Peter Murdoch, who study Magick at a fictional Cambridge University. When their academic advisor Professor Jacob Grimes dies in what sounds like a classroom exercise gone terribly wrong, Alice blames herself. She couldn’t stand the guy, but as the best magician alive, Jacob’s recommendation letter could jumpstart her career in Magick. And he hadn’t written recommendation letters before his untimely death.
Described as academic rivals, Alice and Peter join forces and risk their own lives to try to save their futures–and Jacob, who happens to be in literal Hell. And so the pair of brainy, aspirational magicians take a trip to the depths of Hell. But all of their training didn’t prepare them for what Hell is actually like.
The title comes from Greek myths that refer to a descent to Hell as a katabasis. The publisher calls Katabasis “2025’s most unexpected love story,” in case you were wondering whether this is an enemies-turned-lovers situation. And while it is, in a way, I’ve read it, and it really does subvert your expectations in this regard.
The 560-page Deluxe Limited Edition hardcover has decorative sprayed edges featuring the college and the underworld. The dust jacket artwork shows Alice and Peter descending a winding staircase surrounded by bookshelves. This 3D representation of their journey is also depicted on the embossed front cover when you remove the dust jacket. The Deluxe Limited Edition also has exclusive endpapers designed to resemble pages from Alice’s notebook with equations, tables, and diagrams.
Signed copies of the Deluxe Limited Edition were available at Barnes & Noble for $35, but it’s currently sold out.
Editions of Katabasis by R.F. Kuang
The Deluxe Limited Edition is for the US market, but Harper Voyager also printed a different collectible hardcover in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. Big fans of Kuang’s work can import the international limited edition from UK bookshops like Waterstones–though shipping costs and potential tariffs could be rough–or buy a copy from a US reseller on Amazon for around $50.
Large Print editions of Katabasis are available in paperback, and the UK version is roughly half the price compared to the US Large Print edition.
Katabasis is also available as a $15 Kindle ebook and Audible audiobook narrated by Morag Sims and Will Watt.
- The Poppy War Trilogy Box Set — $32.49 (
$60) - The Poppy War: Book 1 (2018)
- The Dragon Republic: Book 2 (2019)
- The Burning God: Book 3 (2020)
- Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence (2022)
- Yellowface (2023)
Kuang is one of the most prolific and successful young writers working in fiction today. Despite only just turning 29 earlier this year, Katabasis is Kuang’s sixth novel. In 2018, Harper Voyager published Kuang’s debut novel, The Poppy War, when she was 22–but she was only 20 when she signed the contract. The first in a grimdark historical fantasy trilogy set in a fictionalized version of Kuang’s native China, The Poppy War was followed up by The Dragon Republic in 2019 and The Burning God in 2020. The award-winning series is available in multiple physical formats, including a budget-friendly paperback box set, hardcover, and trade paperback.
Last November, Harper published The Poppy War Deluxe Collector’s Edition with sprayed edges, illustrated endpapers, embossed visual effects, and a fully illustrated dust jacket. The Poppy War Collector’s Edition hardcover is discounted to $24.29 (was $45) at Amazon. The Dragon Republic Deluxe Collector’s Edition released in June and is on sale for $26 (was $45). Though not confirmed yet, we imagine The Burning God will get a matching Collector’s Edition of its next year.
After completing the trilogy, Kuang shifted gears to speculative fiction in Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution. Yes, that’s a very long title. Babel is a fascinating alternate history that, like Katabasis, revolves around academia. It won the 2022 Nebula Award for Best Novel.
Kuang changed genres once again with her riveting 2023 novel Yellowface. The satirical novel takes aim at racial diversity in publishing. If you like audiobooks, Helen Laser’s narration of Yellowface is wildly entertaining.
August has brought a number of other notable new fantasy and sci-fi novels, including Charlie Jane Anders’ Lessons in Magic and Disaster, Gareth Brown’s The Society of Unknowable Objects, Louis Sachar’s The Magician of Tiger Castle, and Yasuhiko Nishizawa’s The Man Who Died Seven Times.
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