Babel is a historical fantasy centring on Robin Swift, an orphaned Chinese boy taken from his homeland as a child in order to serve at the behest of the Crown in the Royal Institute of Translators, also known as...Babel. The novel deals with themes of colonialism, violence, language, friendship and betrayal. It is a work of towering - if you'll forgive the pun - intellect and craft.

The story follows Robin from his mother's death in Canton and into his life as a useful patsy of Empire in Oxford. The Oxford of this book is seductive, appearing as it does to be founded on the purity of academia and intellect. However, what it really runs on is silver, which in this book is not just a precious metal and symbol of wealth, but the medium through which the magic at the heart of this world is expressed. Translation and language are also at the core of this.

"The first lesson any good translator internalizes is that there exists no one-to-one correlation between words or even concepts from one language to another."

This gap, this infinite space between meanings, is where the magic that powers this world comes from. Empire, in its avarice, requires not just resources and labour from the nations it colonises, but also languages. European languages, having become more and more intermingled and similar, are proving less and less efficacious for silverwork. Mandarin, Urdu, Arabic, Sanskrit - these languages are further removed from English, provide more potential shades of meaning, and are therefore powerful. But in order to work, the translation magic requires native speakers, and that is where Robin and his friends Ramy and Victoire come in. They are part of a new class of colonised - a scholar class, allowed to live and study in England, but never to forget their place.

The force of history - and looming war with China, the Opium War - will make them decide where their loyalties lie.

I received this book in audio format from HarperVoyager via NetGalley. The audio is a wonderful way to experience this book. There are numerous footnotes included in the text, which are read by a second narrator. Both readers were excellent, bringing the novel and the characters to life. The audio also comes with a supplementary PDF containing maps etc., which can also be accessed directly from the publisher's website.

This book was a triumph, a searing indictment of racism and colonialism, and a heartbreaking personal story of a man from whom everything was stolen in the name of Empire. 5 stars.

When a book is this stunning, it really better be good - and this one definitely lives up to its cover!

I’m not going to even try and explain this one, because the author is clearly a genius and I am not 🤣 It’s an incredibly intelligent, complex novel which focuses on translation as an act of diplomacy…or warfare. Whilst I’m definitely not going to pretend I understood all of the ideas around this, that didn’t stop my enjoyment of this story for a second - Kuang js a gifted storyteller with such imagination and an obvious knowledge of academia, that I was just riveted from the start.

This would actually be a really great entry level fantasy novel for those who enjoy a literary read because there’s not masses of crazy fantasy aspects - no weird and wonderful otherworldly creatures or magical powers. The only fantastical element is in the power that Silver holds, and the way translators can activate it to heal (or kill!). Obviously the historical elements were also quite creative, but they certainly seemed scarily grounded in truth about the way the British empire took what it wanted with so little respect for other countries and its people. The whole novel is a really powerful look at the awful racism that used to be so blatant and shameless for people who came from abroad or had a different skin colour. (Not saying that doesn’t still happen but god I hope not to this level). Be prepared to feel really angry whilst reading a lot of this.

But there’s also a lot to bring joy - I found learning about language and the etymology of words absolutely fascinating, and I am now officially obsessed with Oxford and desperate to get up there soon and explore! The sense of place was just perfection and honestly just left me mad at my husband again for having tonsillitis when I was meant to go to a BABEL event in the university 😩😩 There were also some beautiful friendships and some wonderful selfless, heroic characters to love. This book really has it all!

Babel

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ 3.75

I received this an an audiobook as an arc courtesy of NetGalley. All thoughts are my own.

Shown from the perspectives of a group of friends taken from their own countries to bolster England in a prestigious organisation known as Babel, this book details the atrocities of colonialism and entitlement.

I just wish that I could have read this rather than listened to it as I think I would have been able to fully appreciate the musical prose and pressing, hard topics covered.

Furthermore, I don’t know if this is an issue only with listening from it on NetGalley, but the narration did not work well if sped up. However, this may not be an issue on other platforms.

I’m rendered almost speechless when contemplating this book and how to describe it adequately. A vastly reaching novel that will take time to sink in and will absolutely benefit (this humble reader anyway) from multiple re-reads.
Anyone familiar with Oxford will appreciate the primary setting of this novel and the location of the Royal Institute of Translation aka Babel nestling neatly between the Bodleian Library and the Sheldonian Theatre. At its heart the story encompasses etymology, love, friendship, greed and power, colonialization and revolution. Very powerful subjects wrapped in the most intellectual backstory.
Read other reviews if you want a precis of the storyline – I say just read it or listen to the fantastically narrated audiobook, it’s a masterpiece.

I think classing it as dark academia will pigeon-hole it when it is actually of far wider appeal.
Many thanks to the publisher for a review copy via NetGalley.

Wow wow wow, this book was just wow. It was everything I had hoped and more! The story, the vibes, the characters! I can’t cope. RF Kuang has outdone herself!

Full review will be posted soonish and I'll add links to blog as well.

I would like to thank the publisher and netgalley for providing me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

It is clear from the very start that R. F. Kuang dedicated her time to this book.
Her prose is beautifully written once again and I adored the translation and etymology throughout.

This book is genius, I wish I had the capacity to remember everything Kuang wrote down, but alas I am not a Babel student.

Overall a great read, I highly recommend if you're interested in languages and their meanings.
It's worth noting that the magic is very minimal in this story, it reads much more like an historical fiction.

This is unrated as far as I am concerned. I have no wish to give a one star review and no stars is not an option. That is the reason it has three even though that is not a reflection of my opinion.

Audio ARC provided by NetGalley. All opinions are my own.

Chris Lew Kum Hoi, the main narrator deserves 5 stars all by himself. He was fantastic and at points was literally the only reason I kept going. I will definitely check out other books he's performed.
The second narrator, Billie Fulford-Brown, suffered from only being given material to read which was completely unnecessary in the book. However, I did not find her engaging and her share of the recording seemed quite poor.

Main review:

Based on the subject matter, this book should have been exactly my thing therefore the excuse that 'it just wasn't for me' is redundant, It very much was for me - or should have been - but a combination of factors ruined the entire reading experience for me.

The good first:

- Kuang has an easy, engaging style. In that respect her work is easy to read.
- Her passion for her subject - language, etymology and linguistics - shines through. I can absolutely get behind that since it's a lifelong passion of mine too.
- The concept was brilliant.


The bad:

- This fails as a fantasy novel. The point of adding fantasy to any story is that it adds a different dimension to the mundane. If your magic system does nothing that cannot be accomplished some other way, then it doesn't belong there. I liked the idea for Kuang's linguistics based magic system )although I found the execution lazy and listless) but you could pull it out of the story by the roots and it would change nothing.
- This fails as historical fiction. I think we can all agree that there's no need to write in a historical voice so accurate that no one can understand it. For instance, if you were writing a book set in 1347 England, then you would be writing it in a mixture of Middle French and Chaucerian English which most readers would not understand. However, attempting to keep all historical aspects of your 'loosely based on history' 'fantasy' world 'accurate' but having your character speak as if they were audio recordings of tumblr memes is laughable.
- This is not dark academia which concerns itself with an introspective deep dive into the dark wrinkles of the human soul and usually emerges without finite answers. This is a college story set in Victorian England which flirts with dark fantasy but never gives up the goods.
- This is unnuanced. The MC's pov is interesting and poignant. It's also extremely biased. But this would have been a much stronger book if there had been more povs.
- I love seeing diversity in books. I don't count a bunch of characters with different ethnicities by themselves as diversity. Diversity should include diversity of thought, not three MCs who all think the same but look very different.
- The political message is delivered like repeated blows with a mallet. In that respect it's quite childish. There was so much potential here for a beautiful, multi layered and nuanced novel that would have got Kuang's point over so much better.
- The pace plods and the plot is very lather rinse and repeat. Honestly that wouldn't have been a deal breaker for because it was about language and etymology, if it wasn't for everything else that was wrong with it, but I can definitely see that putting other people of.
- Because the fantasy aspect has just been grafted onto real (but under developed and unnuanced) historical setting, there are some huge blind spots. Neglecting to consider how a language based magic system would affect things like poetry, for instance, is just nuts.
- When Kuang hates one of her characters, she doesn't want you to like them. Or engage with them. At all. It would probably have been better if she just hadn't included them.
- The footnotes were a nightmare. I imagine if you read the book, you might just ignore them. In the audio book you don't have that option. I'm actually fond of well crafted footnotes in fantast novels - think of the wry commentary they add to Nevernight, the tremendous world building they accomplish in Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell or the way they actually teach you Lapine, the rabbit language, in Watership down. But here they serve no purpose except to stop what little action there is to sign post that something in the text was racist. Really? You don't say? You're writing about the British Empire (without bothering too much about all the facts) and what you're including is racist?
- And that leads to my main problem with this author. She's no doubt a brilliant academic but she condescends to her reader and it's repeatedly clear that she does not trust the reader to be as intelligent as she is. Or, more charitably, she is so invested in her topic she neglected to develop her storytelling muscles or research outside her comfort zone.

Overall, this has had many excellent reviews and I am genuinely happy for the people who love it. I wish I could be one of them. Kuang is a good writer but a terrible storyteller. I think this is where she and I part ways.

A pure masterpiece that ties together a love for linguistics and learning, academic atmosphere, and a deeply cognitive plot driven by heavy themes of colonialism and colonial resistance.

To say Babel was my most anticipated book of the year would’ve been an understatement coz I was literally unable to get into any other book in my anticipation to read this one. But unfortunately the hype was all I was destined to get as this has become my biggest disappointments this year.
The first 5-10% of the book was excellent. It got me emotionally invested in Robin, hooked by the discourse on racism and colonialism, the expositions on language and translations had me awestruck and I was halfway in love with the book. But…. it never progressed beyond that. The next 70-80% of the book was just a repetition of all of this over and over again with little to no further developments of the characters, plot moving slower than a snail’s pace if at all and exposition after exposition on language which was interesting no doubt, but felt like sitting in a language and translation lecture rather than reading a novel.
I do appreciate the immense effort and research that went into creating this book but I also wish Kuang had spent 10% of that effort into crafting the characters and plot as well. The fantasy element was just a little bit of silver magic added on to actual history to make it different.
The writing itself left me disappointed. After each and every incident of racism the characters face we get paragraph after paragraph of explanation which imo completely ruins the impact of the actual scene. The footnotes were purely for cosmetic reasons without them adding anything substantial to the overall plot in terms of entertainment, insight or information. I felt like they were added on just to make the book look academic.
The actual plot or action starts in the last 20% or something by which point I was too bored to care. I could basically predict every thing that happened well in advance so nothing was actually surprising. If Kuang could have cut down the expositions and elaborated and incorporated the last 20% into the rest of the book, it would’ve been a much better experience.
The audiobook narration was done really well so I am going with 2/5 stars for this one

Babel or, The Necessity of Violence an Archane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution is the dark academia book of my dreams. What I wouldn’t give to be in R.F. Kuang’s mind for 5 mins. It’s the perfect blend of historical fiction, fantasy, and nonfiction.
Babel is a standalone, as much as I wanted to devour it immediately, it is definitely a book you want to take your time reading as it is so immersive. It is so much more than your typical academia aesthetic, including themes of revolution, colonial resistance and translation as a tool of empire. The magic system is reliant on language, and as the long title may hint, to the act of translation.

There is so much I could say about this book but none of it will do it justice. I highly recommend you read it for yourself, but please check trigger warnings.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced audiobook to review and Harper Collins for sending me a physical arc. The narrators were perfect and made the footnotes pop. I think it’s so important to immerse yourself in the language with a book so heavily based in translation.

Everyone should be babbling about brilliant Babel.
This book made me simultaneously nostalgic towards my time at university and rage against colonialism and racism.
As a English Language and Linguistics graduate, I loved how much focus there was on words, specifically translation, and how they are pivotal to the magic system in this alternative 19th century. The book is full of meticulous research and detail and I can see how much work and soul R.F. Kuang put into it. With the mix of politics, intrigue, revolution and dark academia, the story was brought to life and I felt like I was actually studying at Babel alongside Robin et al.
If you like His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman or Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, I would recommend you add this to your TBR pile.
I listened to an audiobook version of Babel. The narration was split between two people: one who did the footnotes and one who did a wide range of voices for the main story. Both were really good.
Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC of this title in exchange for an honest review.

Narration 11/10
Story 11/10

R.F. Kuang has shown everyone what dark academia is with incredible ease. I loved the characters, magic and the setting was beautiful. I felt fully immersed in the story and didn't want it to end.
Ramy will forever have my heart❤️

How she managed to entertain and educate us without making it feel like reading a history textbook is just one display of her genius. We don't deserve R.F. Kuang but I'm immensely grateful we have such a powerful story teller.

Extraordinary in its execution Babel is a 1828 historical fantasy tackling the important issues of Race, British Imperialism and resistance.
A Dark academia questioning the true cost of knowledge and the power of language.

Just wow !!! I have no words just blown away by this book. Every so often a book comes along that just consumes totally. I don't want to give any of the plot away!!! But it's magical I haven't felt such joy reading a book since Harry Potter. The description of Oxford. The friendship. The language. I got approved the audio versus and after half an hour of listening I knew I had to have the words in my hand to consume. I immediately purchased the hardback.

I've been mulling over how to word this review in my head for hours, and I'm still at a loss. The way this book made me feel and think would simply be lost in translation.

We follow the story of Robin Swift, a young boy taken away from his homeland and "given" the "gift" of a "new, better life." We get some brief glimpses of his ensuing childhood before finally his admission to Babel, and everything that comes thereafter. A translator, someone vitally important and necessary for England's progression, but always, always an outsider.

I haven't read Poppy War, so Kuang is a new author for me, but if Babel is anything to go by, she's a powerful one.

This book was, for one, beautifully written. I got an ARC for the audio version of this book, and I was so utterly enraptured the whole way through.

And the story itself... it was just, magnificently well done. I adored the love/ hate relationship Robin felt towards Babel, could feel those emotions myself in the language used. The relationships built, the losses and betrayals, all felt so very real to me.

I always like books that teach me things, or leave me feeling as though I've come away with something more than I had before. Kuang clearly put a lot of time and research into this book, mixed with her own fantastical flair of course, and I loved that.

Having said that. The fantastical flair I mentioned is small. This, whilst technically yes, IS fantasy... I would not consider it a fantasy novel. If that makes sense. As in, don't go into it if you're expecting a world full of magic that is so very different to your own. That is my own critique, really, and is more down to the marketing of the novel than of Kuang's writing.

When I finished this book I just, I felt so sad, because it just felt like such an important story. It's one of those books I could easily imagine being discussed in schools one day. A piece that gets people talking, gets them asking the big questions. It just felt, important.

Over all, I loved it. Really loved it. I know people are often put off by these long, heavy books, but I would honestly recommend everyone read this when they can!

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins UK Audio.

Thank you Net Galley and HarperCollins UK Audio for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Wow, this was incredible.

Babel follows protagonist Robin, who has a skill with languages. After the death of his family, Robin Swift is taken to England by Professor Lovell. Here he joins the Royal Institute of Translation in Oxford University. When attending he meets Ramiz, Victoire and Letitia, who were all in very similar situations to him. Soon they become inseparable and work together to uncover the secrets of Babel. This novel shines a light on Colonialism in the Victorian Era and the effects on colonised communities having their existence diminished. Babel is full of love, betrayal, secrets and family. The language is compelling, emotional and incredibly skilled. R.F. Kuang is yet again a genius and I think this book deserves to be nominated for the Booker Prize. The way this book made me feel was incredible - I highly recommend it.

Every so often a book comes along that is so close to perfect you don’t quite know how to put into words just how incredible it is.

If you have read any of the Poppy War books, you’ll be familiar with the beauty of R.F. Kuang’s writing. In Babel, she has taken it to a whole new level.

The amount of research that must have gone into this book is just mind-blowing. It is fascinating to learn about the connections between different words and languages and the etymology of words we take for granted.

Making many of the characters morally grey was a brilliant touch that makes them easy to relate to. Their complex relationships and motivations as well as the character development throughout the book keeps the reader engaged and experiencing the twists and turns of the plot alongside them.

The political elements of the story are told in a way that makes you feel morally outraged without feeling preached at which can be a difficult line for an author to tread. Knowing so much of the story is based on real history makes it all the more poignant.

A truly phenomenal book - I’ve only just finished it and I’m already considering starting it again.

I listened to the audiobook of this title and experiencing it this was is definitely something I would recommend. The two narrators (one for the main body of the text and a female narrator for the author’s footnotes) worked perfectly together. Their voices were spot on and made the experience very immersive. I would definitely listen to books narrated by these voice actors in future.

Sometimes you find a fantasy novel that shines a light on the real world in such a way that you feel you understand it better. 'Babel' is one of these. I feel like I have a better understanding of colonialism - why it happened, what it was like, why it was so wrong - than I have ever gained from novels set in the 'real' world. 'Babel' is set in an alternative history, in Victorian Britain. The British Empire dominates the world, thanks to a magic-like technology using silver bars engraved with imperfect translations that enable a wide variety of effects. At the centre of it all is the Institute of Translation - known as Babel - part of Oxford University.

The central character, Robin Swift, is newly orphaned when he is brought from Canton to England by the cold Professor Lovell. He is groomed to become the perfect student of translation, fluent in Greek, Latin, English and Cantonese. When he arrives at Babel as an eighteen year old, he quickly falls in love with opportunity, privileges and traditions of university life. But at the same time, he fights an increasing awareness that his lifestyle is afforded by the oppression of the majority of the world's population. As he gets older, the contradictions become harder more complex to live with, until finally he is forced to make a choice that will have vast repercussions.

Robin is a very likeable and interesting character, and is surrounded by interesting and well drawn supporting characters. The fantasy concepts are well explained and understandable, and the whole idea of the 'magic' (which isn't exactly magic, more a sort of impossible science) is clever and original. The first half of the book is a sort of gorgeous rose-tinted fantasy of university life - a lifestyle full of teashops, punting and intellectual debates that only exists in fiction. It reminded me of the great fantasy novels about fairs and circuses, where you can simple lose yourself in the descriptions, wishing you could visit. This is a higher education version of that. But as the story moves on it becomes darker and more compelling. Kuang creates very sympathetic characters, but is ruthless in how she treats them.

It's a long book, with a serious tone despite it's moments of humour and light, but it never feels heavy going. The plot is fascinating and original and it really isn't clear what will happen and how things will turn out. Robin is a good protagonist, one you can care about and want things to turn out well for. As you might expect with a book set in academia, it doesn't shy away from complex concepts and arguments, but the pace doesn't lag. There are some distressing descriptions of racism, and it can be an uncomfortable read for people (like me) who have benefitted from the real life British Empire simply by being born in modern Britain as a white person. No one should fool themselves that the real Empire was any less heartless and self-interested than this fictional one, as I think there's ample evidence otherwise.

The narration is mostly by Chris Lew Kum Hoi, which makes sense with Robin being the viewpoint character. I was pleased to see they chose a narrator with Asian heritage as befits the story. He has a pleasant, easy to listen to voice which is just right for an audio book. He also voices the different characters well, making the voices distinct enough to tell apart without slipping into parody. The female narrator only chips in for the footnotes, and I found this rather odd, particularly when it effectively meant she was just repeating the Chinese pronunciation of a certain word. I don't know if this is standard practice in audiobooks for managing footnotes, but I disliked it because I felt it broke the flow and pulled me out of the story. Of course, a written footnote does that too, but using a completely different narrator for them felt strange to me.

If you enjoy intelligent, complex stories - whether fantasy or not - I'd highly recommend 'Babel'. It reminded me somewhat of the books of Nick Harkaway, but I think 'Babel' is more readable. It is a must-read for anyone who is interested in language, colonialism, or alternate history. I shall definitely read Kuang's other novels.

Everyone and their mother and their dog needs to go read this book. I am still recovering from this absolute masterpiece.