India, Jan. 27 -- RF Kuang's propensity for satire has won her a cult following. While her speculative fiction novel, Babel (2022), crucified the very foundations of Western 'liberal' knowledge production, Yellowface (2023) was an indictment of the contemporary publishing world, located in the 'Global North', which thrives on appropriating and marketing marginalised narratives to an unaware audience. Her latest literary outing will remind her devout readers of both of these predecessors. While Katabasis marks a return to the genre of fantasy writing, for which the author is known and loved, the critique of academia is scathing in a narrative replete with political commentary on the state of scholars and of universities today.

The narrati...