Magic exists. It exists in the words etched into bars of silver and the latitude in the interpretation of a single word from one language to another. But you are always giving something up in the conversion and it's the bar that manifests what's lost in translation into being. At the Royal Institute of Translation in Oxford, commonly called Babel, they make magic with words and hoard the knowledge. The bars are used for anything from curing disease to holding up a bridge to making your carriage have a less bumpy ride. The newest most powerful bars rely on Chinese, Sanskrit, and Arabic. The romance languages have become overused and English, being such a magpie language, means that words from whole dialects soon lose their power. Therefore if you know an obscure language, you are a valuable commodity. Because the thirst for, the need for this knowledge of rare languages, is unending. Which makes the tower the epicenter of colonialism. It feeds the need for expansion because language is an infinite resource so long as you can find and control it. But silver is not. Which means that in order to keep your carriage comfy war is necessary. Because the Royal Institute of Translation doesn't help the poor, the downtrodden, those societies where they spirited their scholars from, they help the rich, the professors lining their pockets, and, above all, the Crown. Robin Swift is soon going to learn all this in his short life. Professor Lovell rescues Robin from a cholera outbreak in Canton and brings him to his home in England. There he trains Robin in all the rudiments necessary for entry into Babel. When Robin achieves this goal he thinks that his life will be perfect. When he arrives in Oxford and meets Ramy, a member of his cohort from Calcutta, the two of them spend a few blissful days until the other students arrive and they realize they are men at Oxford not Oxford men. Which makes them stick to the tower and their work and the other members of their cohort, Victoire, from Haiti, and Letty, a true Brit. They are united because of Babel and their precarious position that makes them simultaneously bold and terrified. Though the more they learn of the outside world, and the shadowy Hermes Society which Robin's brother Griffin is a part of after his ouster from Babel, life becomes about a moral compromise to survive. But translation itself is a betrayal, you are doing violence to the original by warping if for foreign ears. When what you do on a daily basis is a violent act, how long does it take until you make a real stand?

The Princess Bride. It's a classic. It's perfection. Which is why so many people try to lure you in by saying something is "like" it. It took thirty-seven years for me to agree with critics that something was worthy of that honor. The recipient is My Lady Jane which was cancelled prematurely. I'm still bitter. My love for Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is close to if not equal to The Princess Bride which is why, again, when someone says "this" is a worthy successor, I look at them with confusion in my eyes, because they keep saying that word and I do not think it means what they think it means. Babel in particular should not be mentioned in the same breath as Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell. Just because it's set around the same time period in Regency England and there's magic doesn't make it a worthy successor. Yes, it can be in the conversation if that conversation is how to trick people into reading a book where each chapter felt longer than the whole book. And this isn't figurative, it's literal. My reading speed is about a book a week, Babel took me eighteen days to read. And it's not that it's badly written, it's just unedited spewing forth of irrelevancies. This book isn't what this book was billed as. It's not about magic and the marvels of the written language and how words grow and change and evolve and how languages have to be lived to be understood and Oxford is the opposite of real life, it's a book about colonialism and the stupidest stand in fictional history. Babel, or the Necessity of Violence is supposedly an "Arcane History" and it reads, to that extent, like a history book. A very boring history book about what you might call the translators' war. Because Robin goes nuclear and destroys Babel. Oops, sorry, spoilers, but I did warn you about the stupidest stand in fictional history and that's it. So we're supposed to be intrigued by these scholars that are able to move past the realm of ideas into the realm of action, something Oxford was wholly unprepared for? I'm sorry, but I literally did not care. Robin and his stand? Sure, it ground things to a halt for a few days and caused probably more harm than good but I just didn't care. I just couldn't get behind these characters plodding about and being too dumb to live. They literally didn't even know how to dispose of a body. Seriously!?! They were on a boat. But overall this book just left a bad taste in my mouth because it felt like it was preaching that violence is the answer and yet the violence answered nothing. Especially not why this book was written. Unless it was to show that higher education is a scam, because, yeah, it did show that.

Babel was such a unique and powerful read. The whole concept of using translation as a kind of magic was super original, and I loved how it was all tied to real historical and linguistic ideas. R.F. Kuang does an amazing job blending fantasy with real-world issues—especially colonialism and how much meaning and culture can be lost in translation.

What really stuck with me was how the book tackled heavy themes without feeling preachy. It made me think a lot about language, power, and who gets to tell stories. At the same time, the characters and the plot kept me totally hooked.

It’s one of those books that feels both smart and emotional, and I’m still thinking about it days after finishing. Highly recommend it if you’re into thoughtful fantasy that doesn’t pull its punches.

Thank you so much Avon and Harper Voyager, R.F. Kuang, and NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

R.F. Kuang is one of my favourite authors. I devoured the Poppy Wars series, and was absolutely thrilled when this book was announced and jumping for joy when I had the opportunity to read this book. First off, this book is 1000% worth the hype because of its immersive world-building, captivating characters with excellent development, and glorious dark academia vibes. The book heavily discusses capitalism, imperialism, colonialism, and was overall very thought provoking. I devoured this book and it took me about 4 days to get through. 5/5 stars & highly recommend this book!

Worth the hype. So glad I got to read this one early. R.F Kuang is a masterful writer. Pick this one up, when it releases. You will not regret it one bit..Excited for more from Kuang. This book delivers and is a great reread.

I forgot to leave a review for this when I first read it. Yes this book is almost 600 pages, yes I tore through it in about 3 days. I literally could not put this book down.

The book is beautifully written, with rich world-building that’s deeply immersive, but it takes a while to really get into. The first few chapters can feel slow and dense. If you’re someone who enjoys a more leisurely-paced story where you have to pay close attention to detail, you’ll appreciate this aspect. However, if you’re looking for something quick and easy, it may take a bit of patience to get hooked.

Babel deals with a lot of heavy concepts like colonialism, racism, and power. It is not an easy read.
There were many times I had to set the book down and read something else because it was to heavy at times.
Babel is well worth the read, but be prepared for a challenging start.

I was excited for Babel given how much I loved Kuang’s Poppy War trilogy and her latest with Yellowface, but unfortunately, this one didn’t hit the mark for me. The premise had a lot of potential, but the story felt slow and, at times, boring. The characters didn’t feel particularly well fleshed out, and I struggled to care about their struggles. While the themes around language and colonialism are thought-provoking, the execution often felt heavy-handed. It’s a shame, but this one just didn’t resonate with me.

This book. Holy hell. First of all, Ramy is awesome and the true star. Robin is all of us, but Ramy is who we should aspire to be. With that out of the way, this book was nothing short of incredible. After the 20% mark, it definitely started going in a direction that took me by surprise, and I was just along for the ride because I trusted R.F. Kuang knew what she was doing. And she did indeed. There’s something about the writing, the story, and the pure intellectualism that made me love it and want to immerse myself in this world. Kuang does an excellent job with the sense of deep foreboding from the very beginning of the book and that sense of dread never lets up. There’s excellent character development and dynamics, and Ramy and Robin’s friendship is beautiful, healthy, complex…and a lil romantic 👀 Babel is a tough look at capitalism and empire, but about the power of true solidarity and sacrifice in the face of creating a better world for future generations.

So Babel is one of those books I think you have to be in a mood to read. When this book was announced I was so excited. Dark Academia is hot. What's not to love?! R.F. Kuang is a phenomenal author. The book itself is extremely well polished and readable. It's informative and the world building is outstanding.

However, I just think it wasn't for me. I wasn't...bored? I enjoyed it while reading it, but if I put it down to go do something it would take me days, weeks, to pick it back up and then I had to remind myself what was going on. Maybe it's just not for me...right now, but Ill try again in the future.

Amazing, R.F. Kuang is an auto buy author for me. She never disappoints! Her writing is always impeccable. I love that she branched out into dark academia.

Babel by R.F. Kuang is a captivating and emotionally charged novel that is a perfect fit for readers who appreciate complex, dark academia, and are drawn to stories that explore the intricate relationships between language, power, and colonialism, with a particular interest in the struggles of identity, loyalty, and revolution.

Beautifully written and thick with academic, historical substance, Babel is an intense and uncomfortable read but an instant classic.

As R.F. Kuang's most ambitious work yet, Babel stands apart from other dark academic fantasies out there. It almost needs its own genre with how deftly Kuang melds real-world history and linguistics with the not-quite fantasy, silver tech-filled world of Babel.

I didn't expect a happy ending, but I wasn't prepared for how much sadness and anger I felt for all main characters, especially Robin. All of them had experienced such tragedy and systemic racism that continued to haunt them no matter how hard they worked or how much they "impressed" their colonizing oppressors. Still, there were moments of unbridled joy among the group, which kept me reading through the horrendous behavior of all the white characters.

That said, Babel isn't for everyone. It makes bold statements about colonialism and systemic racism. It's also partly written like an academic text, which can turn off more casual fantasy readers. Luckily, I'm an academic and love reading and learning, so I greatly enjoyed Kuang's footnotes.

This book took me way too long to read, but I remain in awe of Kuang's brilliant storytelling in Babel.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperVoyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Babel is set in the late 1820s and follows a group of students who attend a prestigious university, Oxford, and experience various degrees of societal injustices. This book tackles what dismantling a system of oppression and how institutions play into that system.

Language plays a major role in this book, as the students' majors are translation majors, though in different languages. Silver is also quite important, as it is a mechanism for the well developed magic system, I think that the inclusion and development of the importance of translation and language within the novel is very profound and interesting. R.F. Kuang really does an amazing job in her elaboration of how systems of oppression and colonization have an impact on language and translation.

The characters are very well developed and have depth. Each character of the main cast has a purpose not only to one another but to the overall plot and message of the story. Each character had a purpose to the story. There are so many layers to the characters that I could delve into, but I do not really want to spoil this.

This is a longer book with a pretty slow start, however, there is so much information and layers with everything that the end makes it worth the slower beginning.

Absolutely loved this one! It was the perfect blend of fantasy, historical fiction and dark academia, and such an interesting blend of linguistics and commentary on colonisation, as well as the class divide within academia. While a long and detailed read, I think it was necessary to tell the story of Babel and to build the world it exists inside. The level of care and detail put into creating this alternate setting of Oxford in the 19th century is very apparent and makes for a vivid and gritty world, where language, racism, cultural identity and colonialism create the heavy theme of where our main character, Robin, truly belongs. Is it in Babel as a translator for silver-working, or with the Hermes Society, an organisation dedicated to sabotaging the practice of silver-working? As a Chinese boy whisked off to London by Professor Lovell, who teaches him multiple languages in preparation of sending him to Babel, his character arc over the course of the story is masterfully done and showcases the multitude of emotions that comes with grappling with self-identity and making impossible decisions. I couldn't recommend it enough to anyone with an interest in etymology or academia as a whole.

Holy... This book was in no way what I was expecting. I went into Babel slightly blind. I knew roughly that it was a book about scholars in Oxford pursuing language and translation, but I was not ready for the explosive middle. While I'm glad that there was some world-bulding reserved for the footnotes strewn throughout the pages, the amount of lectures in the beginning of the book were hard to get trough at times., While I understand why they're present, and they do help the story along, I had trouble focusing on the reading. The last fourth of the book felt very subdued compared to the action/ high stakes in the middle, and understandably so. But with the normal buildup before the final chapters in the majority of other reads, this felt very lacking. All together I did enjoy the read and the thought provoking issues it brought up.

I actually didn't care for this one. I was so excited when it came out, but the overall story just really fell flat for me.

"Violence shows them how much we're willing to give up. Violence is the only language they understand, because their system of extraction is inherently violent. Violence shocks the system. And the system cannot survive the shock."

holy moly, this was excellent. but also ngl I kind of want to gatekeep this book from everyone whose first/only language is english.

R. F. Kuang's tremendous modern classic is everything I want from a book.
The alternate history worldbuilding is expertly devised to be so close to true that the world feels instantly real. The characters are endearing, even in their faults, and are three-dimensional and complicated in wonderful ways.
Much like in the novel Yellowface, Kuang uses fictional recounting of all-too-real events to paint the perfect picture of how racism, colonialism, and greed act upon the world in horrific ways, and the courage it takes to stand up to such overwhelming forces.
This book was practically perfect. I'm recommending it everywhere and giving it a spot in my top twenty all-time favorites.

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang is excellent but does not have a happy ending; the empire is brought down by dying in the process of destroying the center of power, which makes a lot of sense thematically but was painful to read. The characters were, I felt, subordinate to the anti-colonialist plot, but I couldn't help wanting the central characters to survive and thrive by overcoming the colonialism in which they were trapped despite knowing that wasn't the point of the book. There's a lot in there to think about. I need to read something cheery now.

While Babel is quite a long book, it flew by. Fantastic worldbuilding and great diversity. I actually liked this book a lot more than the Poppy Wars series.