Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution, to give it its full title, is not a gentle book. It is not a book inclined to mince words about its topics. It is about a lot of things - colonialism, both physical and cultural, racism and classism, white fragility, love, linguistics and the power of belonging, and of not belonging. To quote the author, it is a "love letter and break up letter to Oxford". It is a story of how a small group of people try to find a way to fight against the seemingly insurmountable force of the British Empire in the early 19th century, in a world where we imagine magic powered by silver and language exacerbates the technology and various societal effects of the industrial revolution. It is unflinchingly critical and honest about history, academic culture, and the untrammeled self-interest of those in charge.

In the world of Babel, languages can make magic - by inscribing words that translate, but with some meaning lost in the process, onto a bar of silver, the linguistic dissonance can cause some thematically similar effects in the real world, when the match pair of words is spoken by someone fluent in the languages. Collecting more words, more translations, more languages, allows the translators of Oxford to find more effects, which in turn are sold for exorbitant profit, or used to fuel the expansion of the British Empire. This in turn brings in more silver to inscribe, more languages to plunder and more speakers of those languages to exploit - because native speakers of the more "foreign" languages, ones who have had less cross-pollination with English, are particularly prized by the Translation Institute, and what better way to get those speakers than when they are young and can be moulded to fit an English lifestyle?

Our protagonist Robin is one such, taken from his home in Canton after the rest of his family died of cholera, himself on the brink of succumbing, healed by the English Professor Lovell, then raised in his house on a diet of languages until he was ready to take a place in Oxford.

By getting Robin's perspective, raised to think of Lovell with gratitude for saving him, to focus on nothing but language, starved of affection and people his own age, Kuang is in a position to give us the authentic feeling of coming up to Oxford as an undergraduate but on overdrive. And at this, she is devastatingly effective. The passages of the first years having their first tutes, discovering their intellectual curiosity, the sparkling feelings of joy talking to other people their age about the things they've all been raised to hold most dear, they feel so palpable, so painfully real. The bond between Robin and his three cohort-mates is immediate and vivid and so earnest, and all of their bond together with Oxford as a place and a feeling is so instantly, intensely passionate, a sense of sudden belonging after a childhood of various hardships.

Which makes the rest of the book all the more bittersweet. Because the thesis of the book is about how that belonging is false, an impossible dream none of them could ever realise. The carrot dangled before them to lure them along, alongside the stick of what would happen, what their lives would be, if they didn't give in to the temptation. And watching them realise this in slow motion, as events unfold that force them to see what was there all along, force them to realise they can't shut their eyes to it all, is devastating. It is a story of the shattering of pleasant illusions by bitter realities, and it is impossible not to grieve with the characters for the lost dreams, even as we and they know those dreams were never going to actually happen. The whole thing builds slowly through the course of the book, but by the end it is entirely gutwrenching.

As an emotional journey, the story is pretty flawless. Robin's slow progression from childhood ignorance to youthful academic zeal to disillusionment is beautifully, poignantly told, as are his relationships to both England and Canton, and China more broadly, and his own sense of nationality and identity. We move from mood to mood in smooth progression, and it is incredibly easy to latch onto his changing feelings, and slip from one to another as events dictate.

On the flip side, some of the early parts are a little repetitive in their world building and exposition. The beginning of the book has a lot of telling us about slavery, oppression and exploitation in the world of the early 1800s. All of what it tells us is true, clear, unambiguous and necessary, but is occasionally undercut by some of the footnotes - where the text will give us a pretty well-drawn picture of the world, the footnote spells it out so basically that it feels almost as if it doesn't trust the reader to have understood what it was telling them, which is occasionally a little grating. However, this mostly clears up once Robin reaches university, so it's possibly some of the tone is meant to be through the lens of his understanding of the world (or lack thereof), and if so, some of that heavy underscoring makes a little more sense. There are also so many delightful bits of historical accuracy, in the details. For instance, Robin once asks the Professor "what do I need Latin and Greek for?" and is met with "to understand English", which is such a 19th century view, and there are enough nuggets like this hidden among the childhood parts that it becomes relatively easy to forgive some of the overemphasis where it crops up.

Once we reach his time at university, there is a definite shift in the way the narrative moves - we speed up, steadily at first, matching the pace of his own growing understanding of the world and his place in it, and this match of prose and tone to content is both subtly and skillfully done. By the time the book reaches full flow, it feels impossible to put down, and utterly immersive in its worldbuilding.

We also go from his limited character interactions as a child - seeing really only Professor Lovell, his tutors and the cook - to a more richly peopled world. The sparseness of the childhood parts again mirror in the reader Robin's experience of his narrow world, and emphasise again the sheer emotional intensity of his coming up to Oxford, and the friends he meets and makes in his cohort.

And what a cohort they are. The four characters, who comprise most of the books main social and emotional interactions (alongside the Professor and one other), have a beautiful web of love and hate and co-dependency, understanding and ignorance, between them. There is the tension between the two boys and the two girls (who have their own struggles in an Oxford that barely accepts women might be capable of study), between white Letty and the other three, and then between Victoire and Ramy, and the sometimes-white-passing Robin. It is a book, encapsulated in these four, that really wants us to see the many, many different ways the world chose to oppress people, and how difficult it could sometimes be for people to see outside of their own struggle to those of others, even those nearest and dearest to us. The progression of the four way relationship in the Babel cohort is one of best written parts of the book (which is saying something), and it is just so, so good. It's "emphatic hand gestures while failing to find the right words to tell people how good it is" good.

It is also to some extent the tension of the main plotline writ small - because when we come to the events of the latter half of the book, Kuang manages to encompass so much of what was going on in the world of the 1830s, and so well, and it is brilliant. She draws in threads of the social and economic harms of industrialisation, the struggle of the working class, sexism, racism, the self-serving nature of apparent philanthropism, the intersections of religion with both liberation and oppression, the sheer hubris of empire, the self-sabotaging nature of colonialism, the blindness of people to the harms around them, and so, so much more, and connects and contextualises them with each other. And she manages to do this without flooding us with extraneous information that the reader might juggle to hold in their head all together. We don't need to know every single piece and part of every struggle that forms a part of the whole - she gives us what we need for the narrative to work, and for it to feel immersive, coherent and natural as a world, and this is absolutely critical for both allowing the story to move along at the speed it does, and for it to balance so well with the arc of the character relationships. This is, of course, to some extent helped by the fact we view the world through the lens of sheltered academics, and so can be presented information as somewhat new that many outside of the Oxford bubble would have been well aware of, but even so, it is extremely well-handled.

As is the magic system, and the necessary smattering of linguistics that gets thrown in as part of it. Because the silverwork relies on translation, and understanding words and how they come to be as they are, it is necessary to explain some various bits and bobs of philology to move the story along. And obviously, these are all factually good and sound, but more critically, what is included, the real and fake scholars' works that are quoted, work together to build such a perfect vibe of linguistics as a discipline in the early 1800s (with some tweaks for the story, of course). The ubiquity of Latin and Ancient Greek, as well as the abundance of German scholarship, the insistence on biblical underpinnings, the inter-country feuding and prides at stake, all builds together to create a great pastiche of the linguistics discipline as it did, or could have, looked.

And then, of course, the brutal honesty of the end thesis - on the necessity of violence. The crux of the novel. It is an inexorable, powerful, sophisticated and sharp conclusion to an argument we've been led along through the book. It is devastating and it is brilliant, and that is all I can really say about it.

As I was reading, several other books came to mind as drawing on similar themes in different ways, but the one I would most pick up is how the portrayal of the poisoned-fruit lure of Oxford in Babel is extremely resonant with Mahit's infatuation with the Teixcalaanli culture in A Memory Called Empire. Both manage to capture exactly the feel, the siren song of that beautiful, cursed and toxic coloniser culture, through the eyes of someone immersed but othered, whose highest possible aspiration in the eyes of that culture will be "one of the good foreigners", as though that were the best compliment that could be paid. And both manage to capture the impossible position it puts those who live between the worlds in, and how, whatever they pick, whatever path they walk, whatever life they lead, they will never win.

I am in total awe of this book. It was my most anticipated read for the year and it did not disappoint. As a post graduate student of history, particularly Caribbean history I fell in love with the plot. I know the rage I feel at time when researching colonialism and imperialism which is an enormous part of our history and this book delivers that emotion. The growing understanding of the exploitation of the minority groups and of the colonies and the characters' growing realisation of this was paced so well and it brings back that gradual rage that builds over the forceful Anglicisation, blatant racism and prejudice that our main characters faced.

My respect for the author grew with each new page. The amount of research that needed to be done and the efforts placed in her explanations of the history and especially the etymology just had been completely enamored. Her magic system had be floored, it was such a unique concept.
I will definitely be buying a physical copy of this book.

Bookstagram post will be up in September. An exact date will be given soon.

At this point I will read anything by R.F Kuang she has a unsettling way with words that's both beautiful while being rooted in opinion
Very different from the poppy war but I absolutely love her writing.

“Language was always the companion of empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.”

Antonio De Nebrija, Gramatica de la lengua castellana

It’s been a while since I’ve felt a slight sense of fear when writing a review. In the few cases I can remember, one was because the book I had just read had a plot so incredibly bizarre that it was hard to summarise without utterly confusing myself and the reader; the other was having to pen a less than glowing review for a book that I did enjoy but found some deep flaws in and the lingering dread of writing something that may be seen by the author.

This time around it’s the fear that my review will not live up to the glowing esteem I have for this book. My words don’t feel adequate or eloquent enough to properly praise how amazing and transformative this novel is. Babel is an impressive, highly ambitious, and intelligently crafted masterpiece and I am forever changed after reading it.

Even the full title of the book ‘Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution’ should be a hint at how intense the narrative will be within its 560 pages, but it’s worth it. It’s an astounding read.

The main story focuses on a young boy, the last surviving member of his family who died during an outbreak of cholera in Canton, China. He is rescued by the mysterious Professor Lovell and quickly adopts the name Robin Swift before being brought to London to study languages in preparation for the day he’ll enrol in the prestigious Royal Institute of Translation known as Babel.

Babel's power lies in its silver-working which has fuelled the growing expansion of the British empire. Silver-working is the art of imbuing silver bars with magical effects by engraving them with match-pairs; two words from different languages that captures what is lost in translation and manifests the desired effect into being. Magic in this world is just another resource to be extracted from the poor by the powerful; an excuse to exploit other lands and people, mining them for their resources and their language.

Once Robin arrives at Oxford, he forms a close bond with his cohort, Ramy, Victoire and Letty, who all have their own difficulties assimilating to life at Babel. Their bond is one of the novel’s greatest strengths and is the true heart of the story. There is a sense of kinship through shared adversity, but at the same time there is an undeniable underlying need to feel a sense of belonging that has made their friendship a necessity to their day to day survival. I won’t go more into the plot as there are some revelations and twists which are best unspoilt, but Robin is caught straddling two worlds and his actions and loyalties will change the course of history.

Babel shines a light on the heavy themes of colonialism, racism, languages, translations, identity and the necessity of violence as an agent of change, but Kuang never shies away from showing the ugly side of history. It’s laid bare on the page and scathing in its critique of the excuses used to justify the actions of the powerful. There is so much to unpack in this novel and a lot of history that I was unaware of before reading this, but helpfully she has inserted footnotes containing interesting tidbits from both real history and amusing side notes set in universe. I don’t necessarily think they’re absolutely essential to the story, but it lends itself to the atmosphere of its dark academia roots and adds deeper impact behind key moments and helps you fully understand the context behind it.

"Languages are easier to forget than you imagine… Once you stop living in the world of Chinese, you stop thinking in Chinese… Words and phrases you think are carved into your bones can disappear in no time.’

There’s a painful truth to Kuang’s words and her deep insight into the effort it takes to maintain mastery in language and a natural fluency with words. 30 pages into the book, Robin feels a deep sense of fear at the realisation that it is startingly easy to lose a language that once felt as familiar as his own skin. Being immersed in an environment where your mother tongue is made to feel out of place and sound like gibberish does make you want to retreat into the safety of conformity. In my own experience, I was a fluent speaker of Cantonese when I was younger, but lost so much of it growing up in Canada due to my own desire to fit in. It is one of the biggest regrets of my life.

In the world of Babel, language is power. It’s treated as a commodity with talented people of colour plucked from their homelands by rich benefactors for the purpose of enriching the empire. It’s not enough to just learn a language, but to live it and be immersed in it. Babel asks the question multiple times throughout its narrative, what language do you dream in? Where do your loyalties truly lie when faced with the truth?

Kuang’s writing is magnificent. She manages to do the impossible by balancing a staggering amount of information and history with a highly addictive immersive story. I love all the details in her writing; her obvious love of etymology shines as she explores the enigma of language and interpretation, but it’s the characters, especially Robin and Ramy, that made me live and breathe each page. It's a glorious read and by the end of it you'll be clamouring to rise up and defy the empire.

Babel is a dark academia set in Oxford, in the 1830s. Babel tells the story of Robin Swift, a young boy from Canton, China. When his whole family dies from an illness, Robin is taken from Canton to England, by a Professor Lovell working at Oxford University. In England Robin is tutored in various languages, so he can later become a student in Oxford University.

After reading The Poppy War trilogy by R.F Kuang and loving it, I was excited when she announced Babel. This was one of my most anticipated books in 2022. While it didn't disappoint, I also didn't fall in love with this book, as much as I wanted and had expected to.

I loved the writing in this book, you can cell how much Kuang has improved her writing.

Personally, though, I feel like the start of this book was kind of slow. While the lectures were and could at times be interesting, it was a lot of infoformation to take in. Informoration, you just knew wouldn’t come up again. Around the 40% mark I do feel like the pace piked up and things started really happening.

I loved Robin and his cohort, minus one person. Loved seeing them explore things together and just trying to enoying being young. Instead of worring about exams and all books that have to be read.

But I can definitely appreciate the amount of research and effort Kuang put into this book. To make the lectures as belive as possible. Kuang, herself, being an academic really shows while I read this.

I honestly do not know how to review this book - I do not think I have the words to show how incredible this book actually is.

Babel follows Robin, a Chinese boy who is quasi-adopted by a language professor and eventually is admitted to Oxford university to study,

This is very much a Dark Academia novel, but it is one that is so deeply entrenched with history and imperialism that it almost does not feel like a fantasy novel. It does focus on the 'academia' as well, with portions of the story dedicated to following the studies of the characters. The magic system is also very deep rooted within language and translation, which very much made my nerdy heart very happy.

The characters were very well written, they felt very real and the troubles they face were so engaging. The dynamic between the main four characters is so interesting, as they all have different backgrounds and approaches. I do not want to give too much away.

Babel is a very original novel that i think will be a standout within the dark academic genre. I loved it and I think so many others will too. I would 1000% recommend this book.

Thank you to Netgalley for the eARC.

R. F. Kuang is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors even though I always feel like I need a break after reading one of her books. Babel has cemented this position for me, it's a tightly packed, fast-paced, rollercoaster of a ride and despite its chunky size, a quick read. Following a similar structure to The Poppy Wars, Bable starts out with a chaotic and stressful academic storyline as the characters accustomed themselves to the pressures of Oxford which then descends into a bloody battle against colonial power in the second half. Not quite as gruesome as Poppy War but still emotionally devastating.

It is a masterful deconstruction of colonial ideologies that exposes how the horrors of the Empire seeps into so much of British culture and continues to be romanticized. This is mostly done by looking at institutions like Oxford and the conflicting relationships the characters have with it. Most of them had been ripped away from their homeland to be tutored in England, so they can get into the translation school of Oxford and its tower of Babel. Bable uses other languages and their connecting etymologies to create magic silver bars that are the backbone of the Empire's might. Having exhausted European languages they are now taking children from their colonies and further afield so they can create more powerful bars for the Empire.

Robin our main character is taken from Chine after the death of his mother and quickly falls in love with learning new languages and Oxford. But as Robin and his friends face countless racist attacks, they come to hate Oxford and Bable with the same ardour in which they love it. Reading them sort such a complicated relationship hit home hard and I think a lot of dark academia fans can relate to loving these intuitions of learning and beauty while recognising the noxious ideologies they were built on and continue to perpetuate. It demonstrates how for centuries Britain plundered from other countries, becoming reliant on them but then insisting they should be grateful to the Empire despite all the suffering it caused. Whenever a character tries to criticize any of the injustice Babel commits they are lectured and condescended to. Told that they should only be happy and grateful for the opportunity to study at Babel even when asked to participate in actions that hurt their home countries.

I also loved the involvement of the Weavers and Luddites in the climax of the book. It was a much-needed dose of hope and collaboration as the story gets progressively bleaker. It’s a joy to see these different groups fight against the capitalist hell hole the Empire created. The silver bars only amplified the terrors of the Empire and Industrial Revolution. From Britain trying to pump a dangerous drug into China just to get more silver to machines that run faster and strangle young girls if their hair gets caught. All these issues are interconnected and seeing the Bable students and working class protestors working together was kind of amazing and relevant to modern-day struggles. I honestly wasn't expecting to get a join a Union message but I loved it.

Overall this is one of the best dark academia books to come out of the genre. A true pleasure to read even when it stabbed my heart again and again. I can't recommend this highly enough. Thanks to the publishers for giving me a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

4.5/5
RF Kuang is, quite simply, a genius. I have never read a book like this and it absolutely blew my mind.
Thank you Netgalley and HarperCollins UK for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
Babel is extraordinary. It's heart-breaking and devastating and so, so important. It covers so many themes that I have no clue where to start or which to touch on first. One of its main focuses is on colonialism and it explores this in such a nuanced way; the portrayal in particular of the people the empire oppresses and their relationship with empire was so complex and interesting and guttural.
'Always this, the argument from bondage, as if his loyalties were shackled by privilege he had not asked for and did not choose to receive.'
RF Kuang never backs away from showing raw emotions and gruesome truths in her writing and this book was no exception, which in part made this a challenging read at times so please make sure that you look up the trigger warnings. Its emotional and ruinous and beautiful. The writing is gorgeous and complicated. Every sentence compels you and it truly is so unique.
The world-building, the idea of silver-working and the things they capture, in itself was brilliant but every layer only built upon this and got better and better and better.
Reading this book I often wondered whether I felt smart or stupid because it is astoundingly intelligent. We explore language and linguistics in so much depth and I've never been so invested in something so academic. That's what reading this book felt like at times, like I was constantly learning. Even the footnotes echoed this feeling. It was incredible!
When things startlingly took a darker turn I truly fell in love with it. The characters are so compelling and the world around them so cruel. You feel every emotion viscerally and from your grief grows anger. I was shocked by a lot of the directions we took but I thought they were perfect choices. In not backing away from awful truths of the world, RF Kuang also doesn't back away from her views, she doesn't back down from offending privileged white people's feelings. She stands her ground and shows you the true face behind (primarily) England's mask. She combines beauty and horror, loving something and hating something, flawlessly. She explores each theme with nuance and complexity but allows no space for prejudice, whilst still showing us the oppressor's views. The intellect of it all is inexplicable and leaves me in so much awe.
'But who, in living history, ever understands their part in the tapestry?'
Language and its importance to the empire (influenced even more in this alternate history world with silver-working) was such an important observation and one that is greatly overlooked. There is so much to this story that I can't find the words to review properly, my own intellect is nowhere close to being on RF Kuang's level, which only made me admire all her workings even more.
The ending broke me and I cried a lot more than I thought this book would demand of me. The ending truly is what makes Babel. It's gut-wrenching and harrowing and damning and final.
This review has been incredibly all over the place but there really aren't words that can be used to explain something like this. I feel this even more so after the conversations of language within the book itself, English doesn't encapsulate even half of what this book holds. It is important and demanding and brave. It can be a challenging read, but it is without a doubt worth it and is something that I will be thinking about for a very long time.
'Language was always the companion of empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.'

I don't even know where to start with my thoughts on this book. I think it will take a long time for me to unpack thoughts other than "this book is amazing please read it immediately!". By far my favourite read of the year and probably fair to call it an all time favourite book too.

This book gave me so much to think about and ponder. The footnotes were used to perfection to provide further context and meaning, often leaving me wanting to look into further reading on the topic at hand. The linguistics academia, the discussions on colonialism. This is a book that I want to reread immediately because I think there is so much more to take in.

Amongst all of the academia and learning there is also just fantastic writing, world building and character work. This is an amazing book.

I cannot remember the last book I read that was this profoundly beautiful or profoundly devastating. Robin Swift’s story manages to ask and even answer some of the biggest questions I have encountered about the legacy of colonialism, academia, friendship and what it means to try to make a different, better world from the mess that currently exists. Babel overflows with energy and fury and compassion and love in equal measures; it tears you apart to rebuild you. And if this book does not fundamentally change you as a person, I simply must believe that we were reading different books.

It is hard to pinpoint exactly what my favourite part of this novel is, but two factors stand out. The first is the gorgeous way that Kuang explores so many elements of language. I not only enjoyed this book but I felt immersed in this fictional Oxford world and loved every moment of my courses there. And then there is the dynamic between Robin, Ramy, Victoria and Letty. They broke my heart and I fell in love with them. These characters will live rent-free in my mind forever.

I love Kuang’s Poppy War triology, so expected great things, but Babel is a battle cry of a novel beyond anything I could have imagined. Read this immediately. Tell everyone you know to read it. This book is a stunning masterpiece and I cannot wait for the rest of the world to see it.

Babel is a very ambitious and so far the best book of the author. You can feel the passion, dedication and hard work that went into this book. The characters of the story are very compelling and lovable, the themes are strong and impactful and the writing is quite accessible and interesting to read. It does have some weak points though - the plot twists are very predictable, it has some slow parts where nothing happens. But overall it's very enjoyable read.

So this is what people mean when the talk about a tour de force.

Robin Swift is taken from his home in Canton by the British professor Lovell, and gets dropped in a life that will prepare him to become a translator at Babel, the Oxfordian translation institute, where masters of language use their words to inscribe silver bars with magic. Magic used to help run the country smoothly, to guide its machinery and strengthen its roads and safeguard its people. So they are told. So they believe. Until Robin becomes involved with an underground group of ex-students, among which Lovell’s former ward, who are trying to expose and unmake Babel’s full influence on the country and the world.

It took me a while to get into this one. It’s a big book. It unfolds slowly. But over the course of its 500+ pages it becomes clear how masterfully Kuang broadens the scope - or shows you how big it’s always been - shifting from intimate to earth-shattering (and back).

The shape this took is wonderfully executed too. It is a history of a period that did not actually happen, but completely woven into the world that did so the two blend easily and without question. The use of (translator’s) footnotes works well and never takes you out of the story, instead becomes an integrated part of the narrative. I love etymology and translation and the puzzles it presents, so naturally the heavy focus on both the depth and the width of languages were a delight.

And this book is difficult to read. It is dark academia turned inside out, exposing its innards to you. It deals with colonialism, abuse, grief, violence, and the cost of knowledge, and does so in detail and with the weight these things demand. It makes this a book to dig your teeth into. It deserves your full attention.

A high recommendation. An immediate favourite of 2022.

So many ways to describe this book but ironically enough given the content, I cannot find the words. This was a truly revolutionary book in ever sense of the word. Kuang effortlessly discusses debates around colonisation and imperialism and weaves that in with linguistics in a book that is a love letter to the art of translating in many ways. The plot is heartbreaking and the characters feel so real- truly one of the best Dark Academia books I've read in a long time

Babel is startling good!

When I was only a little way into it, a friend asked how I was finding it and I told her it was "Better than it has any right to be." At that point it was an alternate history/fantasy book all about etymology and linguistics, spending most of its time talking about the intricacies of translation between a bewildering array of languages, and very little else. And yet, somehow, I was completely gripped by it! There is a magic in words, and R. F. Kuang absolutely knows how to wield that magic. Her descriptions of London and Oxford are absolutely beautiful and evocative, bringing them immediately to life.

This is a novel that grows and shifts before us on the page. Yes, it is about the power and magic of words, the difficulties and joys of translating them and how their meanings shift and change from language to language and across time, but it is about so much more than that.

It is a book about an alternate England, where silver bars are engraved with match-pairs, words in two different languages that mean the same thing, but have more complex and different meanings too. That tension between the different translations creates a magical effect, that can be used for anything from making trains run faster by embedding silver in the tracks to keeping food warm on the dining table in dishes with silver in their bases. Creating this magic takes a team of linguistic experts, centred in the tower called Babel in Oxford University. Because of the in depth knowledge of the languages used, many of the scholars and students in this institute are foreign-born, brought to England and educated here by guardians in preparation for a career at Babel.

We follow Robin, a young boy from Canton brought to England after the death of his family, educated in Hereford by Professor Lovell and then sent up to Oxford, where he meets and befriends the three other members of his cohort, Ramy, a lively young man from Calcutta, Victoire, a black French girl, and Lottie, a little English rose struggling to find her father's acceptance. Together they navigate their studies and the difficulties of finding acceptance in 1830s Oxford, a place where none of them fit it.

Babel gives us a really powerful perspective on British imperialism and colonialism, the arrogance of the oppressors and their complete disregard for the rest of the world if it comes between them and their power and their profit. It links this to class warfare too, showing why the English working class have so much more in common with the foreign victims of our Empire than we have ever had with our own nobility and merchant classes. It pulls in diverse topics like slavery and emancipation, feminism and suffrage, and the strong links between these movements of resistance.

But most powerfully it shows us the immigrant view of imperial England, the idea that people were plucked from their homes in Canton or Calcutta, brought to England and expected to be grateful. People who were given opportunities, limited opportunities with firm conditions, under scrutiny from peers who only ever saw them as their inferiors, for as long as they were useful resources to our empire and its endeavours, and they were expected not only to go along with whatever was asked of them, but to be grateful for it. And in one character we see the familiar figure of the white woman, who has fought her way into a limited level of acceptance within the status quo, and will then do whatever she can to protect that self same society from any disruptive forces. There are so many stories here, most of them tragic, too many of them still very familiar today.

Babel is a novel about the power of words, a novel about the people swallowed up and spit out by colonialism, a novel about what separates us and what brings us together, a novel about revolutions and power, a novel about violence and where it leads, a novel about friendship and sacrifice.

Babel is a quite extraordinary novel.

"Language was always the companion of empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish . And later, together, they fall."

Babel is a dark academia with a touch of magical realism set in 1830's Oxford. It is an ode to languages and the art of translation and it explores themes of colonialism, imperialism and racism in a profound and fearless way.

Despite the powerful social commentary I ultimately did not feel engaged with the characters. Their arcs and relationship dynamics did not feel distinctive or compelling; there was a lot of telling instead of showing therefore I did not feel the emotional impact of the story. As a character-driven reader that was a huge let down for me.

While I appreciated the in depth chapters on etymology and translation, in the end, it felt like the characters development as well as the magic system got lost in these pages long lectures.

All in all I think it's a story that raises thought-provoking questions, therefore I would recommend it.

"He read the city, and he learned its language."

4.25* Where to begin? Babel was one of my most anticipated reads ever. R.F. Kuang immediately became one of my favourite authors ever since I read The Poppy War years ago, and she did not disappoint with Babel.

Covering themes of colonialism, white dominance and privilege, and at its core: translation theory and an insanely well-thought-out magic concept of silver working, Kuang created a book that is more than your average literature. Babel is dark academia and fantasy woven together with immense skill, heart and intellect.

Kuang is no stranger to complex, morally grey characters, as any fan would know from her brilliant fantasy trilogy (I’m still suffering from the emotional damage). With Babel, she again introduces four distinct and diverse characters: Robin, Ramy, Victoire, and Letty.

Four of them were thrown together as one cohort at the Royal Institute of Translation, Babel, in Oxford, England. I adored each character individually. However, what fell short for me was the group dynamic. I just felt like something was missing, so I couldn’t quite feel the supposedly thick-as-thieves, unconditional bond between the characters.

Nonetheless, each of their arc played out so well. I especially loved Robin’s, who is the main narrator of this book—from his introduction to the world of Babel to his descent towards the end. As expected, it was devastating yet I cannot deny that I am satisfied.

Kuang’s take on the struggles a foreigner faces in a different country and how one will never truly understand unless they are a foreigner themselves was unflinchingly honest. Another crucial aspect that struck me was the effects of silver working; it is efficient, It is brilliant, and it leaves countless people without jobs in its wake, which is exactly what rapid technological advancement is doing today.

Although Babel built up rather slowly for me, it was a ride till the end once it gained momentum, and I have never read a book quite like this one. I think Babel will get better and sink in deeper in subsequence, and I'm planning to savour it with every reread. I recommend this book with my whole heart.

Robin Swift counts himself lucky. Lucky to have been plucked from his home in Canton and raised in England. Lucky to be accepted into Oxford, a paradise for a boy like Robin who thrives on learning. Accepted into the Institute of Translation, Robin, Ramy, Victoire and Letty spend their first few years in a kind of awed hazed. Amazed they had been accepted despite being women, foreign. But the more time they spend there, the more they learn about the Institute, how it distributes it's wealth, the more they start to loose their rose tinted glasses and come to realise that the Oxford they have created in their heads is not the same as everyone else sees. Is it too late to bring about change or will their revolt bring the whole of Oxford crashing down on their heads.

If I could only use one word to sum this book up it would be exquisite. It's been a while since a book gripped me as much as this one, dragged me down into the pages, made me feel so angry, heartbroken and resigned. Everything from the world to the magic system was so brilliantly brought to life, but what stood out to me most of all were the characters. Robin, Ramy, Victoire and Letty are all so real they almost bleed off the pages. Robin is a boy struggling with his identity in a world that is ready to define him, even if he isn't. Growing up in England has almost indoctrinated him to a certain way of life, and it takes moving to Oxford and meeting other people like him for him to realise that not everything he's been told is the truth. Ramy was a child taken from his family because of his ability to soak up languages and the Empires knowledge of how he could work for them. He has seen the British Empire at it's worst and has no real love for it. Victoire is both a girl and foreign, one of those alone would cause most people to stir, but together mean she is the biggest target of the lot. Letty is the only white member of the gang, with an inability to see the sometimes quiet, sometimes loud snubs her friends have to deal.

Together they are outsiders at Oxford, misfits, but Babel is willing to accept them as long as they prove themselves valuable. Kuang uses their everyday lives and interactions to show what it is like for someone classed as 'foreign' in a privileged white world, but also, how easy it is to be an ally until the time to step up arrives. How importantly identity is and how distressing it can be when you don't know where you come from, where you belong. Seeing all the little snubs, the cruelties these characters had to deal with makes you realise their strength, but also makes you incredibly angry that they have to be that strong to survive. None of them are wholly good, instead in true Kuang fashion they fall more on the morally grey side of the scale, the difference, the thing that makes us love one character more then the other is the thing they are fighting for.

Anyone who has read Kuangs previous works will know that rage normally play's a large part in her stories, and Babel is no different. You start this book feeling almost pity for Robin, a boy who struggles so deeply with his identity, but through him growing as a character, coming to realise his worth in a world made for rich white men, you slowly but surely start to get angry until you get consumed by an overwhelming rage. Rage at how unjust the world was back then and rage at knowing that just how little has changed. Rage at those 'fake allies' who claim to be on your side until you need to take action. Rage at a world where people believe the colour of your skin decides how important your life is. Let's just say if you're reading this book and not getting angry... you're part of the problem.

Through Babel, Kuang gives us a scathing view of the British Empire and Capitalism, not just accurately for the historic period, but also through her magic system. In Babel's world Silver bars, marked with a pair of matching words, are used to facilitate magic. Magic that goes to the highest bidder ensuring the wealthy have safe carriages, The British Empire have ships that sail faster than others, Mills have machines that run faster without the need for human intervention. To be able to create a silver bar, the worker needs to find words that mean the same thing in two different languages, but to really make it work the user has to live, breath and dream in the languages they are using making it easier for Britain to bring in Children from foreign countries and mould them to society, rather than trying to learn the languages themselves. She shows how willing the Empire was to take things from lesser, 'uncivilised' worlds, as long as it benefited them in the process, but also how their tendency to steal what they need, to almost devour other cultures into their own would ultimately be their downfall. I loved how literature and language played such a large part in this story and, as a huge history and language buff, couldn't get enough of the little etymology lessons Kuang throws in, how we learn that so many words have multiple meanings in multiple languages, I found it all incredibly interesting and almost devoured those parts of the book.

If you're looking for a fantasy book with an easy to hate villain, a nice tied up ending where everything works out for the better, a story where the good guy get's their happy ending... this isn't going to be the book for you. The villain isn't a person it's a people, a people who still to this day do not see what they're doing as wrong and the ending... well I think we all know that, sadly, this is a story that is still going on today and with the state of world politics, with no end in sight. It's a book about resistance, about what it takes to survive in a world that doesn't want to accept you, about rebellion and it's cost. It's not a fast read, the first 50% of the book gets us settled into the world, the characters, the magic system and then BANG the story takes off and I found it nearly impossible to put down. This review doesn't at all do this book justice, but it's a book that is so, so prevalent now with the state of the world. Kuang has created another masterpiece and I would LOVE to read more set in this world.

I was lucky enough to read a copy of Babel on NetGalley by being chosen at random. Thank you!

There are many in-depth reviews already of this book so I will keep mine succinct.

Babel is a world full of translations, academia, college life, racist colonial attitudes which infiltrate all aspects of the characters’ lives, and subtle fantasy elements. The characters are multifaceted and explore what it is to lose your identity or have it striped from you as another one is forced into it’s place. The four friends- Robin, Ramy, Letty and Victoire- are, in turn, endearing, angering, tragic and delightful which makes Kuang’s character development simply beautiful. We explore the world of academia (Oxford University) through Robin’s eyes, see him mature in age and personality, at a place which sees his potential as a linguistic but not as a person. Kuang’s immersive world is so successfully written it is a challenge not to believe that the tower and the silver works are real and is going to stay with me for a long time.

I cannot wait for this to be published as Babel is exciting, unique and a stunning piece of literature.

Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution is my first RF Kuang novel and I’m not too sure how to feel about it.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he'll enroll in Oxford University's prestigious Royal Institute of Translation — also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center of translation and, more importantly, of silver-working: the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation through enchanted silver bars, to magical effect. Silver-working has made the British Empire unparalleled in power, and Babel's research in foreign languages serves the Empire's quest to colonize everything it encounters.

Oxford, the city of dreaming spires, is a fairytale for Robin; a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge serves power, and for Robin, a Chinese boy raised in Britain, serving Babel inevitably means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to sabotaging the silver-working that supports imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide: Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence? What is he willing to sacrifice to bring Babel down?

Babel — a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell — grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of translation as a tool of empire

Kuang surprised me with the magic system and the action but I was wary of the way this was told. Throughout lecturing we are introduced to these scenes and whilst the academia setting is sharp and fluid, the pacing through me out of the story at points before coming back in. The writing style was smart and intriguing. There is no doubt that Kuang has a way with choices and vocabulary that feels effortless and interesting but the characters started to lack depth and felt more like NPCs than side characters at times. There were moments that moved the story along that ended up fizzing out but the highs were high just as the lows were low. This was an academia novel and it definitely felt like it. We got lost in lectures that took me away from the deep social commentary and the solid story. Perhaps I was expecting more or this genre is not for myself but whilst this was a good book, that’s all it was.

Kuang can definitely tell a story but there are obstacles that preventing me from enjoying this as much as others have. Fans will get more out of the story than I did but I grappled with DNFing and struggling through.

I feel like I should apologize for not liking this book, given that I'm fairly certain it's going to be one of the top books of the year soon.

But in all honesty, I can't get over how dull this book was. That's it, that's my criticism.

Okay I'll elaborate more.

There are some people who give high rating to any book that has IMPORTANT ISUSUES in it. For those people, this book is definitely going to be a hit. But if you want the book to be actually engaging, or even to explore the subject matter in an interesting way, I don't think this will work for you.

What really killed this book for me was the cold, distant, unengaging style of narration. It's a very distant third person narrative that always kept me at arm's length. In all honesty, it reads like a very dry textbook, so on that note the non-fiction-style-title is very on point. But in all honesty, I have read even non-fiction books that were written in a more engaging style. So make of that what you will.

There was also a lot of telling instead of showing. At the point that I abandoned it, the book was trying to explain how the friendship between several character is formed, but instead of showing those important scene, the author tries to tell us.

You'd think a book that doesn't have much of a plot, and not enough cool world building, would spend most of its page time for developing the main character and making us emotional about the said character, but everything about this book was super dull. The MC is dull, the friendships he forms are dull, even the discussion of colonialism is dull. Okay I admit that I might have DNFed too early to be a judge of how the main theme is explored, but from what I read so far, it doesn't seem like the author had any intension to explore the theme in an interesting way.

I would recommend this book to people who like to read general fiction books about IMPORTANT STUFF. Certainly won't recommend it if you expect your book to be actually engaging or slightly enjoyable.