for me, babel was a really fascinating read. from the get to, the narrative grabbed my attention and and kept me going throughout the read. while it did have its point in where I felt a little bored, it then suddenly picked up again and continuously kept me want to keep reading which is a rare feat these days.

however, one thing which drags the book down for me is the fact that I, at no point, felt super invested in any of the characters. dont get me wrong, I was really invested in the themes of the book and being bipoc was something which I could identify with. I wanted to be invested, but regardless of what happened to this group of friends, I found myself not to care at all. like theres a certain point in which I know I was supposed to feel sadness i was more concerned with how it would progress the plot further.

what i really did enjoy was the way it dwelled into internalised colonialism and the wounds that it gives a person. The guilt and self-hatred and the sacrifices ones has to make when trying to reclaim ones identity. Because there is a sacrifice. For me, the character of lettie was interesting because i thought the author did well portraying the microaggressions as well as the blatant racism in which she and the white character displayed.

*this copy was given to me from netgally in exchange for an honest review 📚

So I might have been a bit unprepared going into this book. There was a huge info dump at the beginning and was a little confusing (I felt a bit like an idiot) but after I got over that it was an enjoyable listen.
I liked how the female narrator would pop up and read the anecdotes that would be at the bottom of the page in the book, made some of it a bit easier to understand.
Might be easier to read, but I was a good listen (a very long one).

Babel is honestly unlike any other book I've read! It's an extraordinary blend of dark academia, historical fiction and fantasy. Upon reading it feels like fiction and non-fiction have collided and it's obvious that this was written by an academic!

Babel is such an incredibly well-researched and carefully thought-out novel. The settings from London to Oxford and Canton are all wonderfully immersive and atmospheric, Babel itself is written beautifully and I felt like I was transported there on every page. I especially loved how silver working was so important to this version of London and the 18th century. The industrial sense of magic was really unique and something I enjoyed about this book, it just felt really refreshing and different.

All of the characters in this novel were flawed, complex and utterly relatable. I really enjoyed reading about their friendship, their struggles and their time at Babel. This was such a unique group of friends who were all really different and yet shared very similar qualities and experiences. They were all really intellectual, well-rounded and fleshed-out characters. None of them felt like they were lacking and they all had their own space to grow and develop in this story which I really liked.

Yet despite all of these positives, there was just something about this novel that threw me through a loop. I can't quite figure out if I enjoyed it or found it tiresome at points. Babel is a story about so many things all at once. It focuses on linguistics and language, race and the impact of British colonialism. Yet it also has secret organisations, rebellions and silver magic! It's so full of twists and turns that it kept me guessing right until the end, but its heavy academic style also had me questioning my enjoyment of it. Overall I would say that whilst Babel didn't quite hit the spot for me, it is a wonderful book for those who love dark academia, historical fiction and have an inclination towards languages and linguistics.

~ ARC Review ~

🍁Published 1/9/22🍁
Name: Babel
Author: R.F. Kuang
Rating: 5 stars - ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Audio: 21 hours 45 Minutes
Narrators: Chris Lew Kum Hoi & Billie Fulford-Brown

"The city of dreaming spires. It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison… But can a student stand against an empire?"

I am not usually one for Historical Fiction/Fantasy simply due to having my own history degree, I always get pulled out of a story when I notice something isn't quite accurate and therefore normally stay clear but I had heard this book buzzing around BookTok/Bookstagram and gave in to my curiosity.

Although Babel is a work of fiction it pulls from real places, people and events. Kuang creates a masterpiece using colonial history, the Industrial Revolution and the cruelty of the British Empire and rolls it all into one with a large helping of dark academia at its core.

But the true beauty of this book comes in its language. The story weaves beautiful and enchanting words throughout making Babel a love letter to the power of language and the politics of translation. You are introduced to words you probably have never come into contact with in day to day life and given explanations and the history of said word.

In relation to the audio book:
Chris Lew Kum Hoi was the main narrator and got me immediately immersed into this story, he gave wonderful conviction and energy to the roll that kept my attention at all times. Billie Fulford-Brown would then come into the story to read the footnotes. I believe this was a brilliant way to do it and gave the listener a clear indication of extra information that was separated from the main plot. Both narrators were brilliant!

A huge thank you to R.F. Kuang, HarperCollins UK and Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

https://lynns-books.com/2022/10/11/babel-or-the-necessity-of-violence-an-arcane-history-of-the-oxford-translators-revolution-by-rf-kuang/
4.5 of 5 stars
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Fascinating, Mesmerising, Clever, Shocking, Beautiful

Babel is one of those books that I’ve inexplicably struggled to find the words for with this review, so I’m going to start by saying that this book feels like an ode to words, a love letter to literature if you will, and I loved reading/listening to it. On a wider note there is plenty for discussion here, colonialism, racism, the power of language, dark academia, elitism all wrapped up in a story narrated by a rather unassuming, shy and intelligent young man known as Robin Swift.

As the story begins we meet Robin (though this wasn’t his name at the time but an assumed identity forced upon him for his new life). Robin’s mother dies leaving him an orphan and his care is picked up by an Oxford Professor called Lovell (Loveless might have been more appropriate). Lovell gives Robin a roof over his head, food and clothing and in return Robin is expected to study hard and become a first class student in the field of translations – the aim, to attend Oxford University’s Institute of Translations, known as Babel (the students attending known as Babblers because of their ability with languages). It soon becomes apparent that Robin will receive little (or no) affection from Lovell and if he fails in his endeavours to work hard and learn the threat that he will be returned to China (homeless and alone) is more than implicit. Robin soon discovers that his love of reading is not all about finding heros but is something that has been fostered in him for other purposes. Now, I don’t want to go into any further detail about the plot, I guess, rather than a coming of age story you could call this a rude awakening. It does take Robin a while, but eventually he begins to question who and what he’s working for and whether he can truly deny the harsh truths he discovers.

So, to the setting. Well, we briefly start in Canton, we travel quickly to London where Robin’s transformation to potential Oxford candidate takes place before finally moving to Oxford. I loved the descriptions and can totally understand Robin’s lovel for both London and Oxford and the lifestyle he leads in both places. He soon discovers that as a student at Oxford he is only suffered amongst the wealthy and elite for his language abilities. Abilities that are fundamentally necessary in the use of magic.

In terms of the magic,I would say that this is the only real element that I felt a little unenthusiastic about. I’m not going to go into great detail but basically silver working involves bars of silver that are enchanted and powered by matched terms – basically, this is why there is such a necessity for language students to study words and find their lost meanings. The silver bars can be used for all sorts of applications from keeping a bridge strengthened to powering a machine. On the face of it I must say I like the sound of this very much but in terms of Babel, well, I’m not sure it was absolutely essential to include the use of magic. For me this reads more like historical fiction rather than fantasy – that being said, I loved the exploration of words that the magic system involved, the footnotes looking at origins and meanings and the way these have changed during the course of time. So, definitely more an observation and perhaps one that will interest those readers who shy away a little from fantasy on a more epic scale.

The writing is beautiful and Kuang is a great storyteller. I just love the way she turns a phrase. She has modernised the dialogue which is something I like as it makes the read flow better somehow and, to be clear, that’s not to say that the characters come out with all manner of everyday slang from our current era but they’re not constantly thee’ing and thou’ing or nay’ing or aye’ing. In fact, the author being something of an expert in this field not to mention incredibly well researched, I half expected this to have a more olde worlde style and I admit I breathed a sigh of relief to find that wasn’t the case.

The feel of the story gradually changes, and whilst you’re expecting it to an extent because of the narration style, you soon find yourself in much deeper water and scratching your head about how everything will be resolved. This isn’t grimdark by any standards but with revolution being the key to the piece, in terms of invention and uprising, well, history demonstrates only to well how change is often brought about and the subsequent bloodshed and death that it leaves in its wake. On top of this there is plenty of food for thought here and it’s not wrapped up in soft or comforting terms. Be prepared for harsh truths.

The characters. Well, I wouldn’t say that I became overly attached to anyone other than Robin. He makes friends with fellow students Ramy, Letty, and Victoire and they all have their parts to play here but Robin is the key character for me. He has a great character arc and I found myself worrying about him a good deal of the time. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t dislike the other characters but they just didn’t feel as well drawn to me, they were there because they were part of Robin’s experience and helped nudge him, sometimes unintentionally, to hone his understanding and guide his future actions.

Overall, I really enjoyed Babel. I listened to the audio version which was excellent and I must say I found the footnotes much better in this format. I would describe this as historical fiction blended with light magical realism. The writing and attention to detail are stunning and I really look forward to seeing what this author comes up with next.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

I really struggled to connect to this book, I think I may have found the physical book better than the audio.

I can’t deny the fact it’s incredibly well researched but in a way that’s almost a negative as it feels overly long and sometimes things are explained too much.

I do think this will be a love/hate book for most people. It’s worth a read but it’s a bit of a slog.

This book. Omg. It was everything I could have asked for. A beautiful and necessary book on the colonialism and racism in British history. Full of magic and knowledge as well as betrayal and pain, Kuang's Babel institute is the perfect example of the horrors of colonialism and the injustices that Britain is built on.

This book was everything to me, but I can see how it would be a marmite book. Be aware that it is full to the bursting of language facts and language roots with the most complicated magic system I have ever seen. If you love languages as much as I do, then this is the book for you, but if it's not consider how much language nerding you can cope with. Don't be put off too much by the complexity though. Kuang does a really good job of explaining everything. There were a couple of bits that I had to reread to make sure I understood fully and the silver working needed the three examples she gave to explain, but I kept up very well.

At it's heart though Babel is the story of people and their reactions to the mistreatment they encounter. The characters are really easy to like and feel for. This is definitely a book you will need tissues for!

This is a book that's going to stay with me for a long time.

For me, personally, I felt it was a 2, maybe 3 star (if only for her prose!) based on my own personal preferences - it just was not for me and I finally chose to set it down and move on with something different. For others, I know Babel will be rated significantly higher - the things I found to be obstacles in reading will not be obstacles for other readers, and they'll get more out of the story than I did (I can hope, anyway!).

Thank you so much for the Audio ARC! I didn't really expect to have my request approved!

This was my first R F Kuang book and I could definitely appreciate parts of if, but it just didn't click with me, sadly, although the narrator was great.

I was already a little bit apprehensive after hearing the oddly defensive author's note at the beginning. The whole book had a bit of an odd tone, somehow. I guess it just lacked subtlety in its primary message, that the British Empire was ruthless and inhumane, that the British were racist and saw others as inferior. I'm sure we already expected this when we started reading Babel, so the footnotes reiterating to us that something obviously bad was bad just seemed unnecessary.

Babel is definitely very well researched and well written (in terms of the quality of the writing). I am not well versed in either history or linguistics, so there was a lot of interesting information. You can tell from her writing that R F Kuang is an academic herself and a very good one too.

I think my biggest issue was probably with the plot (or pacing?). We'd reach a point when I'd think "ah, okay, now it's going to get interesting, this is where it's heading" and it would all just fizzle out to nothing. A lot of false starts that just meant I wasn't gripped by the story.

For some reason, I didn't get attached to the characters either. I thought I would love Robin, he was a very sympathetic character at first, and even later on I could understand his struggle, his reluctance to "rock the boat". As someone who enjoys comfort and dislikes conflict, I could definitely see myself in parts of Robin. I found him quite inconsistent, though, and was surprised by a few things he did that seemed rather out of character to me.

Unfortunately, I wasn't sold on Robin's friendship with Ramy, Victoire and Letty. I just never saw enough bonding between them. I felt like we were being told how close they were, how they spent time in Oxford, but we weren't shown enough. I think this would have worked better for me with each character having their own p.o.v. chapters. I can see that this wouldn't be possible, though; not with the way things panned out.

Another thing I found underwhelming was the use of the magic. Such an interesting magic system, yet we barely see it on page. We're told a lot about its uses (which many readers rightly pointed out are mostly a fantasy replacement for actual industrial revolution, things that happened anyway in reality), but we only witness it a handful of times.

So overall, while Babel was a book I could appreciate for its message and research, it wasn't a book I liked as a novel.

5 Stars - Audiobook provided by NetGalley

Wow. This book was so incredibly well written, I felt like I was with Robin in Oxford. The dark academia ascetic was impeccable. You could feel the love and passion for academia the characters have as well as the exhaustion and dissolution. The lessons felt like real university classes and I loved the talks about entomology and translation.

Racism and colonialism are a running theme throughout the novel and I felt like it was explained and talked about in a way that made you angry because colonialism still has effects today and you can recognise the racism. It was unsubtle because racism isn’t subtle to those affected.

I loved listening to the audiobook as well as reading along as you got to hear all the different languages spoken out loud in a way I would never have been able to replicate by reading physically. I also loved the different narrators for the footnotes.
The only problem I had with the audiobook was I could hear where they had spliced together multiple different recordings to make the final cut and it was a bit off-putting.

Babel
By R.F. Kuang

This is my first time to read this author so I was not prepared for her mastery at storytelling. This is such an ambitious tale which spans from Canton in China to Oxford in England. but contains layers of insights into the effects of British colonisation on the rest of the world. The world building is excellent. I got completely swept up in the imagining of nineteenth century Oxford, the city and the student life. There is more than my usual limit of fantasy, but it works on all levels.

I love language, words, etymology, the art of translation, what can be lost and what can never be truly translated, so finding that this is such a huge part of this story was exhilarating. I'm aghast at the amount of knowledge that has been poured into this.

The characters are numerous, but Robin and his three pals Ravi, Victoire and Letty are fully drawn. Their friendship is the crux of the novel, each having their own conflict of identity, sense of imposter syndrome and attitude towards race, class, gender. They are drawn together in the age old way of the outsiders.

With a stunning start, I was waiting for the pace to fall off, and it did. I drifted a little in the middle, but the closing few chapters is something I really want to see in movie format. I just know my imagination cannot do it justice.

Themes include academic classics, colonisation and the economy it produces, master disguised as saviour, exploitation, identity, friendship and more than anything, the magic power of words.

A word about the narrator: Chris Lew Kum Hoi's permormance is outstanding. His voice was perfect for this swashbuckling adventure, and despite having both written and listening options, I listened to about 90% of it.

Thank you to #netgalley and #harpercollinsukaudio for the ALC

I loooooved Babel! R.F. Kuang is such a talented writer and I can’t wait to read more of her work! The audiobook narration of this was also really enjoyable to listen to. I liked that there was a different voice to narrate the footnotes and to explain the origin of certain words. In fact, one of the things I liked the most about this book was learning about the etymology of words, just so interesting! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the review copy of this audiobook!

An absolutely brilliant audiobook. At almost 22 hours in length at 1. Speed, it may seem like a mammoth listen, but it is an engaging story and so well narrated that it flies by. This is a must read for fans of The Poppy War series, of fantasy fiction and indeed for lovers of languages, linguistics and colonialism.
Robin is orphaned as a child and taken from his native Canton to England by Professor Lovell. His one aim is to study and make himself worthy or joining the prestigious Babel translators of Oxford University. He gains his knowledge of languages and his place, but faces much racism for his Chinese roots. The book cleverly weaves words and syntax and creates links between words that form a kind of magic that infuses silver. As a result, words really do give power. Robin soon finds himself torn between his allegiance to Oxford University and the knowledge he gleans and his Chinese roots as colonial Oxford seeks imperial power over China. Robin is an asset for his Chinese roots, but is also an outcast for the same reasons. This is a love/ hate story for Robin's Oxford and education there. A love and hate story for the translation of one language into another and what is lost and won in its processes. This is a passionate and brilliant book showing the path of Robin's experience of Babel turning from a his paradise into his prison. It is narrated primarily by a male speaker Chris Lew Kum Hoi, from Robin's perspective with interruptions from a female voice, Billie Fulford-Brown, who provides explanations of translations. The single must-read book of 2022. #Babel #EFKuang #Netgalley #darkfantasy #historicalfantasy #language #translations #colonialism

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins Audio for access to the audiobook in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This book is my first experience of R.F Kuang’s writing and the narrator Chris Lew Kum Hoi gave it the gravitas, atmospheric beauty, sensitivity and raw emotion that the prose deserved.

Babel is not a book for the faint of heart, the topics it deals with are heart wrenching. It unflinchingly holds up a mirror to our own society and says ‘can you not see that this is how the world still works, that society is still this broken’. It is written as an alternative history, set in a time when the romantics such as Shelley were favoured and only white European men were permitted to study in the likes of Oxford and Cambridge. It is written in a way that resembles the prose of Oscar Wilde. It is here in this world we are confronted with the upbringing of Robin Swift, a boy stolen from his home in Canton, China, and brought to England under the guise of being ‘saved’ from the ‘barbarism’ of his home town (we later learn but always really know that this is a lie constructed by his guardian for his own gain). By Robin’s side we experience the heartbreak of the loss of oneself, the way his own natural language of Cantonese becomes a stranger to him even though he still dreams in the language. He is moulded into the perfect language scholar, beaten for attempting to read and enjoy fiction. Robin’s story is sadly not an unusual one, a child taken in the name of colonisation, ‘educated’ to the point of losing who he is and then used against his own people, set around the time of the opium wars in China. Robin falls in love with the idea of Oxford college, the romance of it all. He finds friendship with the other Babel scholars and for a while is shielded from the othering he will later feel at the hands of other Oxford scholars who very much feel that Robin and his cohort do not belong.

The characters and emotions were so raw and real,

Now for the fantasy side of this book. The power of language is explored heavily in this book, words and silver are the most important things within this society. The silver working represents the very real industrial revolution. The students of Babel are there only because they are masters in their own language, their ability to translate to English from their native tongues is one that gives the silver more power and it can therefore be used in the same way a spell would be used. The magic was well thought out and at times dark and visceral.

Babel is about friendship, betrayal and the effects of colonialism on the colonised. It is about resistance and the plight of the working man vs the oppressive regime that seeks only to better itself riding on the backs of the downtrodden. It is about how the world we live in would not exist if it were not stolen. It is about the power of language and the way it can be used in both resistance and oppression with similar strength. It is beautiful, raw and heartbreaking.

(Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Collins UK Audio for an ARC audibook in exchange for an honest review).

Babel is a work of historical fiction, set in an alternative England where magic is real and the industrial revolution has been replaced by the "silver industrial revolution". While the story has one key protagonist, Robin, we're also focussed quite heavily on the three other members of his cohort once he begins his undergraduate studies.

So let's begin there:
While I'm sure few people will be interested, I was utterly blown away by how strongly this book managed to invoke nostalgia for my undergraduate years in Oxford: especially given that as a scientist I didn't have the same experience of the small intense cohort. I don't just mean the odd fond memory: this was a bit like a brick to the head and I can't pinpoint what it is that makes it so impactful. My point, I suppose, is that this is fine writing to evoke such an emotional response.

As the title might suggest, the book includes a lot about the interaction of languages and etymology and where words come from. I don't want to say too much about why as [SPOILERS] but it all served as a very interesting aside (which didn't particularly move the plot on, but was highly interesting nonetheless].

The characters feel well-fleshed out, and the story has a certain pleasing arc to it. Truth be told, I was 80% of the way through and enjoying myself marvellously, with one small exception. The book (rightly) has a big anti-colonial slant, and in order to get across how different this was to the current world there are a number of characters who espouse some really racist views. This is to the point where - had I not gone into this, knowing it was written by somebody with Chinese heritage - I would genuinely have been tempted to stop reading, as it made me so uncomfortable. Knowing about the author made me feel like I should just power through because clearly this was there as a plot device, but even so it was pretty distasteful.

Unfortunately, with about a fifth of the book to go, I stumbled across a review that asked what the actual point of the magic was? How had it made any material difference, not caused by just "the industrial revolution"? And that happened to coincide with a number of places where I felt the plot just came adrift. I can see how people might get used to using silver to make things faster or better and therefore could get sloppy about safety. But the idea that buildings would just clean explode apart without the silver to hold them together just didn't make sense to me. And so the whole back chunk of the book had me rolling my eyes and huffing in annoyance.

In the end I found the whole conclusion to the story a bit of a let down, but the quality of the writing was high and I enjoyed the ride to get there.

I absolutely loved listening to Babel. It's one of those books that grabs you in and holds you in its clutches until the very end.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading about Robin, Rami, Victoire and Letty. And I connected to this novel on a personal level.

As a once foreign student in the UK I found most of the characters' experiences familiar and relatable, including the casual discrimination they were facing. While not of a different race, I still experience casual discrimination at the work place on occasion. It keeps me on my toes, you know.

Anyway, I loved this book so much because of how much it means to me. I love R F Kuang's writing and her skill at presenting a really good atmosphere helped immerse me in the story even more.

WOW,

Do I even need to say anything else after all the glowing reviews?? This book is a MASTERPIECE! Robin, Ramy and Victoire have my HEART. This audiobook was so beautifully done, and I felt every single emotion. I can assure you this book will break you and I just enjoyed it so so much. It's so powerful and calls out academia for a lot oof things, mainly racism and discrimination, and also led me to discover more about languages and how important translation is for humanity.

I can't believe this book exists!! R.F. Kuang is one of the best writers I have come across, so please please read this book for you to expand your mind and take a look into the world of translation with a dash of magic!

Kuang weaves a beautiful and poignant tale through 19th century Oxford, casting light and shadow across a cohort of students.

Though she is sometimes wont to lead us by the hand and diverges occasionally a little too heavily into her footnotes, the crafting of the characters and story is rich with the tapestry of Robin Swift’s life, his friendships and isolation, his privilege and his powerlessness.

Babel
❤❤❤❤❤ 5 out of 5

‘Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.’

Babel or Royal Institute of Translation is Oxford University’s prestigious faculty, where students from around the world train in translation and silver-work, which allows practising magic through words written on silver bars. Two words having the same meaning in different languages are used to manifest the specific effect. The art can only be performed by those fluent in both languages and aware of the whole meaning and etymology of used words, which is why translators are in constant demand. Babel, with the best scholars and an enormous library, is a world-renowned centre using the empire's wealth to the full extent.

When Robin Swift enters Babel, he is amazed by the Institute’s magnitude. Orphaned at a young age, he was brought from Canton to London by Professor Lowell. After years of rigorous study in Chinese, Latin and Ancient Greek, he begins his journey as Babel’s student. Soon, he starts to understand the importance of knowledge Babel possess and its role in supporting the empire and the colonial expansion...

Babel is now, officially, my favourite book. It is ambitious, brilliant and surprisingly accessible. I was fully absorbed in the spellbinding world-building presented by Kuang. The world in this novel is similar to Victorian England, with the addition of the magical effects of silver-working. I loved the atmosphere of old streets, full libraries, books read by the fire, and the love for knowledge, books and words. I found the magic system based on the impossibility of perfect translation fascinating and unique. I also loved how the novel becomes involved in the history and politics of the period, touching on the crucial topics of imperialism, racism and the silver trade.

The most captivating elements of Babel are the complex characters that inhabit its pages. They all have their distinct personalities and backgrounds. Not only the main characters but even the professors and some older students seem very vivid and well-written. As Babel was the only Institute that accepted women and students from the Colonies, the issues of gender and race became an essential part of the plot. Kuang writes skillfully, leaving the reader emotional and engaged in the characters' lives and all the inequalities or injustices their encounter.

I simply love this book, and I think I will always recommend it to everyone.

My review:
https://abookishdaydream.wordpress.com/2022/10/04/babel/

I really enjoyed this audiobook of Babel! The narrator was fantastic and of course the story was great! I love that it was a combination of real historical facts mixed with some fiction and a little bit of magic! Racism was a big theme in Babel and an important part of the narrative of this book. It is terrible how people were treated in that time period solely because of race, but it’s even more terrible that people still experience things like this today. I loved the characters and their dynamic!