The only way I can get my thoughts on this book in order is to compare it to food. You see, normally I’m a very fuss free eater, I like something tasty where I know what I’m going to get and can devour it as quickly as possible before moving to the next meal. Babel, however is a Michelin Star, fine dining experience. You need to take your time, savour every bite, get to know the flavours, take a few breaks to fully appreciate each course - because so much work has gone into this book, to not pay it the attention it deserves is just disrespectful.

For me, Babel was a tale of belonging, friendship and for understanding who you are and how far you’re willing to go for what you feel is right.


Thank you NetGalley and Harper Collins Audio for the ARC.

As this was the most anticipated read of the year by almost everyone, I was so excited to receive the audiobook through Netgalley!

Seeing all the praise that this book got and since it was compared to my favourite book (Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell), I was so disappointed to not have loved this to pieces.

Let's start with what I really liked: the world and the magic system were great.
The atmosphere in the book is what you expect it to be from the description of the dark academia aesthetic: studying in libraries full of books, old Oxford architecture and autumn days.
The magic system was very peculiar and innovative, but not really hard to understand.

The sad part for me is that I did not connect with any of the characters.
I did not care for the main character and he felt so dull the entire time. I understand that they played with his brain and lied to him all his life, but still he felt to me like an empty doll moving where it was convenient.
There was also a lot of telling and not showing of how the friendship between the characters formed. In particular, at the end of book one there is a paragraph describing how they will become very close friends right after they meet and how their friendship will end in ruins.

A little side note, maybe it is just me, but the notes were so strange.
Like there were annotations that should have been in the prose (like how the characters behave seen from an external point of view) and text that should have been in the annotations (like descriptions of historical events).
I also agree with the fact that this, for the most part, reads like a text book. The insides and the commentary were interesting, in my opinion, but they could have been included better within the prose.

In conclusion, this is a really well written book with some issues and it is definitely not for everyone. If you are seeking for a book with dark academia vibes and you really care about topics like translation and colonialism, you will definitely love this one.

R.F. Kuang says that Babel is the most ambitious thing she's written, and I agree to an extent. Babel focuses on the life of Robin, a boy who grew up in Canton and was saved by a white man while he was on the verge of death. This man, Prof. Lovell, told Robin that he would take him back to London to raise and educate him with the intention of having him become a student of language at Oxford. We see Robin quickly grow up and begin his studies at Oxford, where he meets his first friends; Ramy, Letty and Victiore, and thus begins the main premise of the story.

In Kuang's rendition of 1800's England, all is the same except for the addition of silver bars. These bars imbue a sort of magic that requires words and a knowledge of languages to activate. The bars can do anything one you can find two words from different languages with similar meaning and background. This is the part where I must admit Kuang's genius. You can tell she did a lot of research on languages for the sake of this book and it really shows in the way the bars work. The only little niggle I have in regards to Kuang's study on language, is that based on the accent given to one character which made me assume she was Irish, she had her characters refer to the language as "Gaelic" which is not what Irish people call our language. It was just a bit disappointing considering all the research that was clearly done on other languages mentioned.

While I feel like the details around the silver bars was very well done, and I really liked Robin's character, I feel like the plot was lacking. Kuang is well known for her "The Poppy War" trilogy, which is a series I really loved, but I was disappointed to see Kuang using similar plot points from that book in this one. While they weren't exactly the same, there was too much that reminded me a lot of "The Poppy War" especially towards the very end of the book. Things began to get predictable because of it which I didn't enjoy.

Overall I feel like this was a well written book, but it lacked imagination when it came to the plot.

The audiobook narrator was very good and I really enjoyed listening to it. They had a separate narrator to voice the footnotes which was a really smart idea, even if it confused me at first to have another narrator suddenly speaking mid-paragraph.

This is my favourite book of the year (probably one of my favourite books of all time actually). The story is so gripping and thought provoking whilst also having characters that you truly fall in love with. Seeing Robin wrestling with how he fits in to this world that he has been brought up to aspire to but then realises has been built on the exploitation of people like him, it was all just so well done. The audiobook was particularly fantastic as it helped to seamlessly add the footnotes in to the text. I particularly liked the choice of having a second narrator for the footnotes, giving them that one step removed presence.

Thank you NetGalley for helping me receive this audiobook!
There is a lot of triggers in this book - racism, slurs, colonisation, violence, death, child abuse, suicidal thoughts and classim. Please check the tws for more as I’ve not listed them all here.

I don’t normally read Dark Academia, however after this book I definitely need to take a deep dive into this genre! I also went into this book not knowing anything about it…

Babel begins with Robin Swift, who is orphaned in Canton. He is brought to London by Professor Lovell, who trains him to learn Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese. This is Robins opportunity to reach the bar to enrol in Oxford university’s Royal Institute of Translation.

I was intimidated to read this as it seems too smart for me, but I recommend every single person to read this as even though it’s a fiction book it did educate me and the footnotes are so helpful for the context!

This book is a lot to get through, Babel covers a lot of years and because of this I found some parts confusing. However R.F Kuang is an amazing writer! I was intimidated by reading an academia but thank god there wasn’t massive sentences. And even though the book is set in the 1820s she managed to modernise it perfectly! There are a lot of languages mentioned in this book and I definitely enjoyed this feature

The magic building was unreal! Which happens through translation and silverworking. And this in its self made the critique of colonialism even more interesting. Colonisation isn’t subtle in this book, which I’m glad as it should be upfront, as the violence isn’t hidden.

I’m still processing this book as I’ve only just finished it, but I’m definitely going to need to read more of R.F. Kaung’s books, and luckily I already have Poppy war on my tbr

This is the first book by this author that i am reading and i was expecting this book from the beginning of this year. For some reason, I wasn’t particularly impressed by the execution of plot, especially towards the end of the novel. I was feeling as the story didn’t quite live up to its potential. I didn't like all the footnotes, it broke up the flow of the story too much, and while the academic pretentiousness fits in well with the subject matter of the novel, it was grating, the characters were grating.

For some reason, i just wasn't enjoying this book and no idea why. Maybe because this book wasn't as epic as the other books i read. Maybe because this book was not as dark as i was expecting it to be. Don't know. All i can say for sure was this was an interesting read for me. Not because of the story but for the way it was written.

Well damn, this book absolutely blew me away. I was not expecting to adore this as much as I did.
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This book is very slow and takes a long time to get into it, which is honestly my only criticism.
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The world-building is spectacular. Kuang has done an impressive amount of research and planning to pull this WORK OF ART off.
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I listened to the audiobook and the narration is spot on and really helps bring in the ambiance and atmosphere this book needed just to take it to the next level.
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The struggles of these characters is something I will never understand but this book really highlighted things that I would never have even understood otherwise and I’m so glad I read this. Each character has a brilliant backstory and really strong motivations for the decisions they make. I’m so glad to have learned the things I did.
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This book made me cry and laugh and just made me emotional. I want to read this for the first time again and again.
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I would highly recommend this book as long as you’re okay with the slow start.
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Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for access to the audiobook. This has not affected my review at all.

Babel is incredibly well written, the world is so immersive, you cant help but be swept along in Robin’s story, at some points it can feel very academic but this never detracts from the story itself, and, if anything, only deepens the reader/listeners understand of Babel.
The book is everything dark academia should be, it places a large amount of focus on the academic aspects of the story and the effects on the lives of the students who are overworked and pitted against themselves to do and be the best they possibly can, but Babel also addresses topics that are hugely important and relevant to society and the changes that need to be made.
The story itself is no fast paced, exciting page turner but that didnt stop me coming back time and time again. I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it to anyone looking for something a little different.

Babel follows the story of a young boy rescued from a cholera outbreak in China, he's taken back to England by his saviour, Professor Lovell, where he chooses an English passing name and under strict tutelage begins language lessons. When Robin is of age he goes to study at Oxford where Professor Lovell teaches, and studies languages at the Tower of Babel, translating languages (Chinese, Greek and Latin) one fateful night he meets a rebel group called Hermes who ask for his help, convincing him that they're helping the world and all he has to do is open and close a door...

Babel is an incredibly rich and in depth world, its harrowing, beautiful and scary. It starts a little slow and reads a little like a history text book at times (similar to the style of The Song Of Achilles) but there's a lot of information to convey and its not a bad thing. It also conveys the subtle and not so subtle themes of racism of the early 19th century. I have nothing negative to say about Babel, it hurt me in the most beautiful ways and at no point could I guess what was going to happen next, Babel kept me on my toes every step of the way, gasping, crying and muttering to myself.

Absolutely fantastic read.

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.
Oxford, 1836.
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?

A quick look around the internet will show that there is already an impressive amount of praise for RF Kuang's Babel, and I'm going to be another positive on the pile - I thought the book was fantastic and would highly recommend checking it out for anyone who is into Sci-Fi and Fantasy, Historical Fiction, Action and Adventure, it's got a bit of everything. One of my main takeaways from a story element was how great a setting this would make for a DnD-Esque storyline, with so much of the world left to explore in the imagination - unless we find ourselves with some further books down the line.

The dark academia and gothic feel of Oxford in the mid-1800s were just right as autumn began to set in, this is a read for the grey and a fire. You'll settle into Oxford quickly: the work ethic, the cliques and the other students' lives develop much further into the soup of geopolitics, race, colonialism and covert operations. More telling is having a particular other non-fiction book set in Oxford almost 150 years later on the go, and recognising that when you strip the fantasy, some elements of the institution remain very similar.

At times the book can become hard to read in its nature and the topics it's tackling, the story is of a world which is trying to grow and move on, facing a power which focuses its efforts on maintaining the status quo. Things begin with a nicely paced slow burn, before fully catching fire around the midway point, and from then on you might as well write off any plans you had to go elsewhere.

One of the joys in this book is exploring the depth of research and work into the words and translations, the footnotes are a work of their own and as someone who will find themselves going down a rabbit hole on etymology, it was great to get lost in it. So much of this is because it's tied to Kuang's education and experiences, a scout of her Wikipedia shows her attainment at just 26 and her interest in other areas of literature from Tolkien to Star Wars.

Throughout the book, we see the changing dynamics between Robin Swift and his fellow students as personalities, outlooks and histories collide. The books timing against the Victorian industrial revolution and its changing world map are expressed in the small group of main characters and their backgrounds, each coming to Oxford with their native languages and experiences.

From other reviews, Characterisation is an area RF Kuang does her best work, and so all I can say is that I'm excited to get around to the Poppy War and any future releases on the cards. Robin is a superb lead in the story, seeing how his mind and world views develop as he experiences the world around him and the culture clashes with those who have lived their lives inside the halls of Oxford. Robin comes to England with nothing, a story that does coming-of-age and explores what relationships mean in a competitive environment.

Exploring a story involving fighting against the challenges of gender and race needs to be done with a level of detail which makes it understandable to those who haven't had that experience to anchor to in their lives. I felt like this was done really well and was able to give a look into what this looked like for the characters, but I'm sure also lots of others who will feel a shared experience in the book.

Reading both the book and listening to the audiobook gave me two wonderful experiences, the tone of the narrator is perfect and in a book where the words play as much a part as the character, hearing the pronunciations were great.

I can't recommend it enough and look forward to more of RF Kuang's work.

So where do I even start with this? There’s so much I could talk about that I’m definitely not going to fit it all in here!

This book was AMAZING!!! I was apprehensive going in as it’s my most anticipated book of the year but it didn’t disappoint!

It was slow to begin with but I enjoyed seeing the cracks form and then it exploded just over half way! The ending was so heartbreaking that I actually started tearing up which I don’t do often! I also didn’t mind the slow pace as I knew from other reviews it would be a slower paced and quite dense read at times. But this allowed me to really get to know the characters and the state of the world to make for a devastating ending.

I loved the dynamic between Robin and the friends. Seeing how close they are through the book and how it all begins to fall apart as the book goes on.

I liked robin’s arc, going from someone non-violent and naive to fighting against the British Empire!

I loved how Kuang weaved silver-working into real history and have it be the driving force for the Industrial Revolution.

I enjoyed the mirroring of the Babel institute to real life - they need the talents of foreign people and languages to keep the silver-working running, yet the people are still unaccepted and their countries continue to be reaped for money & resources to benefit England. She did an amazing job using this fantastical element of the story to reflect real history and suffering, just as she does in the Poppy war.

I also loved feeling through the page Kuang’s passion for translation and languages! It underlies the whole book - who the characters are, the plot, the world and more! This book really felt like a love letter to translation and also an amazing commentary on racism, sexism, classism and colonisation/empire.

I also read this along with the audiobook which was amazing (thank you @harperaudio for the audio arc). I think it helped me keep my pace up reading this book and also was really helpful for all the accents and pronunciations of different languages, especially symbol based languages like mandarin.

If you couldn’t tell, this is 5 stars all the way!

I received this book from Harper Collins via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This dark academia book has been compared to both The Secret History and Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell, two books that I absolutely loved. Combine that with how much I adored Kuang's Poppy War trilogy and this was a must-read for me.

I am very happy to say that I adored every second of this book. The entire book embodies dark academia and the atmosphere captures it perfectly: the thrill of the overworked student aesthetic, the camaraderie between students, the addiction of knowledge, and the dark undertone throughout the novel of politics, deception, and colonialism that academia is built upon. It truly encompasses dark academia but it also challenges the whiteness of it all.

It's obvious just how much research went into this book's creation - it was beautifully written.. I loved learning about the etymology of words and how it tied to a magic system. The friendships between Robin and his cohort were wonderful and they really embodied the bubble that people end up in while studying - especially at university. Of course, one of the most wonderful things about this book is how it challenges the racism and sexism happening at this time. Obviously, this is a historical fiction, but it sheds so much light and truth on how the British Empire exploited and harmed both other nations and their people. Showing a society that was built on the shoulders of oppression while it attempts to seem progressive is so realistic and important. The way white characters act as well is extremely realistic and hard to read because of that. I love that Kuang's characters are always challenging societal 'norms' and willing to do anything to make things right.

My only complaint about this book include wanting to see more of their time at the school in Oxford. I would've adored seeing multiple books of their years at the school so we could see the characters' friendships develop over time and also grow to love the city of university as much as Robin and his friends do. The ending was heart-breaking and I wish we'd seen just a little bit more in the Epilogue, but it was still the perfect ending for this book.

Overall, I loved this book. While reading it the atmosphere felt all encompassing and I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys dark academia with an alternate historical twist.

Babel is a brutally honest and ambitious take on post-colonial discourse that explores the inherent attractions of an elite education system, or how to abolish it. I first read through it in print, but it struck me so powerfully that I wanted to experience it auditorily as well.

The audio narration was perfectly apt and captured the mystery and intrigue of Babel beautifully. I could envision the story being brought to life, and I found the pacing of the narration well-suited to the story, with the voices of the different characters delivered exactly how I'd expected it.

As for Babel itself, everything about the contents of this book was painful and brutal, but also breathtaking, explorative, and diverse. It encompassed so much of my experiences being unmoored and living in a western country, and even though the book is set in 1830s Oxford, so much of what it discusses is still highly relevant now.

The insidiousness of colonisation and the mindset of those few elite who possess power, as well as the effects of it on the individual and the collective marginalised was thoroughly explored, and I enjoyed the subtleties of such messaging and how delicate the balance is shown through the four main cast of characters, as well as how easily the balance can be tipped.

Characterisation is where RF Kuang thrives, and Robin Swift could not be a more perfect protagonist for this story to be told through. The intersectionality between race and class, juxtaposed with the inherent selfishness and inhuman nature of the elite and the ethereal, out-of-time setting of Oxford blended wonderfully for the clash of ideologies between the conservative British colonisers and the marginalised, othered scholars and working-class people who are treated as tools and caricatures of real people, infantilised and dehumanised for their lack of whiteness, maleness, and in not having received higher education.

At times, the book read very academically, which I personally loved, enjoying the treatises and the breakdowns of etymology, as well as how the magic of silver-working worked to translate what is lost between words of different languages. I particularly loved the footnotes, which helped to inform the contextual backgrounds of what made the characters how they are, and in giving the reader more context of how the proliferation of the British Empire and the drastic actions being taken are relevant to the story.

I always enjoy a found family, but I especially love seeing the flaws of a found family, one that has no choice but to rely on each other because their differences are what make them stick together. Such relationships can often be toxic, and breakdowns, after being in such an intensive environment, are inevitable, especially when misunderstandings occur, and when characters are unwilling to change their perspective of the world, even if they are wrong because to do so would mean to unmake the worldview they have built all their lives and to admit that they are wrong.

I've really enjoyed Babel and thankfully I chose to listen to it as it is a huge commitment. I felt there were strong parallels to Donna Tart's 'The Secret History'. Babel is a science fiction novel which captivated me from the start. Babel follows the story of Robin Swift, a young Chinese boy who is saved from a life of servitude with a mysterious silver bar. Swift travels to Oxford to become a translator in the prestigious Tower of Babel. Here he meets others who were sponsored and are believed vital to the success of the institution but, something more sinister is happening. It is revealed to Swift that he has a half brother, people go missing while on expedition and are alleged dead with no thought or memorial from the college. A fascinating and clever read. Having studied French, BSL and Attic Greek, I resonated strongly with Robin feeling out of place and struggling to grasp a language especially as everyone at Oxford is fluent in Latin and Greek, something Robin was shy to admit to. Set in the 1800s, themes of slavery, foreign and not belonging are prevalent which is a hard but necessary read. I also really enjoyed the word pairs and learning the different root words for certain things. A very clever book, one that will stay with me and has strong parallels to my own time at University trying to fit in and find your place.
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I feel very privileged to have read this and I feel the author has really hammered home the privilege of the four friends, how lucky they are to be awarded scholarships and the privilege of the white, English born. I have thoroughly enjoyed this book especially the root word connections. An interesting read and an intriguing take on how the world worked in the 1800s with the need for translators and silver bars.

4.5⭐️Wow what a story!
I am SO glad I read this via Audiobook because I fear if I read this physically I wouldn’t have finished it as its very dense and heavy with the translation, origins of words & information but behind all of that the plot and characters were sensational.

I loved how R.F. Kuang let us fall in love with the characters, fall in love with their friendship group because it really made the ending impact me 10x more! It felt like these were real people, I still feel the hurt, betrayal and grief as if they were real.

I finished Babel last night and I will be processing this book for months, years, maybe forever.

This book is exceptionally well researched sometimes reading more as historical non fiction, I would say for most of us readers quite early on you realise that this book can only end in tragedy and emotional damage and my instincts were not wrong.

The world building is just exquisite- the social commentary and the wider historical impact of racism, colonialism played out in the serene city of Oxford was so so clever.

I'm not sure that I enjoyed this book is the right thing to say, I lived this book and as a white person I felt shame it was hard to read as the racism and prejudice formed such an intrinsic part of the story.

The characters were crafted so well and so well that I felt a physical pain at some of the story and what plays out.

I listened to this on audio book and subsequently have now read it physically. Personally I would recommend the audio to anyone wanting to hear this story, I thought the narration was really in keeping with the tone of the book and the additional narrator for the footnotes was such a clever addition.

I think 2022 will be hard pushed to deliver me another book that will emotionally effect me as much as Babel- a magnificent book!

A book well named. Titled Babel, of the Necessity of Violence, this beautifully presented tome is one of 2 minds.

Part fiction, part scholarly work, and one littered with historical soundbites that still resonate and call the reader onto the page of Wikipedia, R F Kaung has spun a rich enthralling tale of Empire, colonialisation, privilege and prejudice.

Quickly gathering our main cast, sourced from across the empire, we are first introduced to Oxford in all its glory, and at its heart, Babel, steeped in its customs and silvery aura. Kaung masterfully entwines fiction with fact, taking the reader along with our protagonist as the ‘real’ history unfolds. It is here that the secondary title comes to the fore, that for all the eloquent words, beliefs and opinion, it is violence that is necessary to stir apathy and the apathetic. It is also here the familiarity with Kaung’s previous series, the Poppy War trilogy shines through, often uncomfortably so, as our main characters are put to test, both in terms of their moral fibre and resilience.

A stunning work on many levels. Not the easiest of read, or in my case, listen, and the audio presentation is excellent, even down to the many footnotes that appear, like any scholarly work littered throughout. But nothing of this worth should be given or received easily. Rarely have I encountered such a richly researched and historically referenced book, not since Suzanne Clarke’s Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrel, a similar work of alternative history in the Victorian era, which also adopts a similar style and approach

This is a very intelligent and complex book that, while I am not 100% sure I understood everything, I know it was an enjoyable read that kept me gripped after a nice slow introduction.

With historical and fantasy elements, it takes a bit of getting used to, but once I got past that, it was a very powerful read. It highlighted a lot of big issues such as racism and colonialism while also looking at the power of friendship and how big an impact you can have when joining forces against a common enemy.

I received an audio arc of this from NetGalley and it was an excellent version with both narrators bringing both the story and characters to life well. I also appreciated the addition of a accompanying map in pdf from the publisher website.

Many thanks to HarperCollins UK Audio and R.F. Kuang for the advanced audio copy of Babel via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel.

This book ripped me apart. There are currently three months left of 2022, but I doubt highly there will be another book coming to push this one from the top spot of favourite books of the year for me.

This novel was amazing in audiobook format. I will be buying myself a physical copy of the book to read in future, but I will definitely be re-listening to the audiobook as well. The narrators were well cast and the distinct difference between the two narrators helped distinguish between the main body of the text and the footnotes.
There was an initial getting-used-to period of the editing style of re-recorded words/phrases, but that soon faded into the background.

The story itself takes the reader on an emotional trip through the story of empire and colonialism and all its inherent racism, classism, nepotism and blatant disregard for human life. The author pulls no punches and at times you feel very uncomfortable by what you read. Well, as a white person whose Dutch ancestors have a very colonial history, I was extremely uncomfortable.

The description of Oxford life is eye-roll-worthy (for the ‘regular’ students) and humbling (for the Babel students). The language is academic and fascinating, but never pretentious.

Anyone with an interest in language will thoroughly enjoy the continuous narrative surrounding the use of language. I learned so much about the root of so many words, languages and uses.

For fear of this review getting too long I will stop waxing lyrical now, but if you have any interest in language, etymology, colonialism, empire, race relations, alternate histories, mild steampunk, Oxford, the Opium Wars, Chinese-British relations or magic, then definitely give this book a read or listen.

Moods: adventurous, challenging, dark, emotional, informative, reflective, sad, tense
Pace: medium
Character development: medium-strong
Plot or character driven: 50/50
Diversity: high
Spice: 0/5
Trigger warnings: Blood/Gore, Child abuse, Death, Death of a family member, Drugs, Murder, Physical or mental abuse, Physical illness, Racism, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, War

Rating
Audio: 5/5
Story: 5/5

I enjoyed every minute. Original, atmospheric, and engrossing. This book reads like a nineteenth century novel with a modern twist. I’d recommend it to people who enjoyed Jonathon Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke.

The audiobook was brilliantly read and a joy to listen to.