Robin Swift, plucked from his home at a young age in Canton by an Oxford professor, is brought up to study various languages. When Robin is old enough, he attends Oxford and studies at Babel, the prestigious institute that provides silver bars and spells that keep the world running efficiently. When Robin and his friends discover a corrupt plan by academics, Robin is faced with the challenge of continuing as he has been or creating change. Which side will he choose?

This may be my favourite book of the year. I know this book is getting lots of hype, but for me, it lives up to the hype. Even though it’s a very long book, I was sucked in right away and would think about the book when I wasn’t reading it. The world, the characters, the plot – everything was so well done and so well written. I loved the commentaries on classism, racism, and the politics of academia. This was my first book by Kuang, but it won’t be my last. If you like dark academia like Ninth House or A Deadly Education, I think you will like this magical historical take.

Thanks to Harper Collins Canada for the eARC!

TW: Racism, Sexism, stereotyping, death, torture, suicide, murder, drugs, alcohol

It took me anywhere from 47-54% of the book to be truly hooked on reading it. Kuang straddled the very fine line when it came to the descriptions, almost stepping over the line. At many points, I struggled with deciding if this book was fantastic or entirely too wordy.. Ironically. 😅

Despite the slow start, I'm incredibly moved by this book. For most of the book, I didn't know what I was reading or why. Honestly, the mystery of it all kept me turning the page. But maybe that is what distinguishes a good book from a great one: When you have no idea what you're reading or why, until it all comes to a head and explodes in a miriad of light, enlightening you and making you feel as if you had no right to question this book to begin with. That's how I felt at the end of the book. Overall, I had no right to question Kuang's style. This was beautiful. (Although, I am of two minds when it comes to the footnotes. Not really sure the footnotes added enough to the story to be useful... But if you're gonna use footnotes, could have made more of them. There were too many tangents in the story. All in all, there seemed to be no rhyme or reason of the footnotes.)

Babel explored so many themes in depth. It truly is a well-written book. Loved the diverse group of young characters in this book! If you're a fan of LBGTQ rep, strong friendships, shocking betrayals, and strong world-building, you NEED to read Babel! I hope everyone enjoys the ride as much as I did.

THANK YOU to Harper Voyager & NetGalley for sending me this ARC. All reviews are honest reflections of my own opinions, always.

Silver is power, and the British Empire is its master.

In the year 1828 a young Cantonese boy, himself also in the throes of cholera, watches his Mother take her last breath.
Orphaned, decidedly weak, and inherently backward, the mysterious Professor Lovell takes the child under his own guardianship, back to the civilization & refinement of London. Reminded both of his privilege & position, here Robin begins the years of intense language study that will ultimately prepare him for his enrollment to the Oxford Royal Institute of Translation.

Babel.

Here, in this tower of erudite scholars, is where the truest meaning of translations are crafted. Carefully engraved onto the silver bars that power & enchant nearly every aspect of Britain. Silver upholds foundations, creates beauty & atmosphere. It's embedded into carriages and bakeries, employed as defense, hoarded as commodity. Silver is all, but it takes the work of the gifted to create.

Here, among books, lectures, and intense studying, Robin creates home, finds family, feels love. But when he's approached by the secretive Hermes Society, the illusion of utopia begins to fade in the light of truth; that his value is based solely on his abilities. He is, to the Empire, passably human, his cohort of mixed nationalities even less so. They are expendable cogs of the machine, grinding away at the rest of the world through colonization, exploiting their own Motherlands in the name of British prosperity, where the rich grow fat on the spoils of foreign nations. Caught between to halves of himself, Robin must decide what he is willing to sacrifice, and for what cause.

Revolution begins as a single silver bar.





Incredible. A tale of conflicting emotions & loyalties, crafted to take one's heart to the edge of breaking. This book begins slow, & falls into beautifully stepped pacing, taking the reader along with Robin as he grows, learns, evolves. The first half of the book gives ample time to really connect to the cast, to feel the atmosphere & emotions that Robin experiences. There are no frivolous paragraphs, every sentence counts toward the story that unfolds.

Within the walls of Babel, I found myself leaning in to each lecture, wanting to know more about the magic system, as desperate to learn as Robin. Within his cohort of found family, there is vast representation, immersive backstories, ones you love & ones you keep at arms length. These are the people the reader abides with, each moment shared, from glorious sunsets & crumbling scones, to an academic workload that threatens to break the mind. Even so, I wasn't ready for many of the events, where I had to put the book down a moment & dry my eyes. Revolution, mystery, & sheer companionship catapulted my reading forward, towards an unexpected ending that has me eagerly awaiting the continuation of Babel.






Content Notes: Childhood abuse, racism (in light of British colonization) minor swearing. The book contains only the hints of romantic feelings.

Ah, I love a good resistance of an Empire.

This is a 10/10 for me. This book is THICC but I enjoyed every bit of it. It’s super in your face about colonialism, racism, appropriation, and to be honest that was a huge draw for me. It was such a satisfying journey to make me, a white woman, think about all the ways I benefit from the indentured servitude of others, let me feel icky about it, and then dazzle me with cool magic—but don’t stop feeling icky, we have a resistance to organize.

The characters were all interesting, and each had their own motivations and flaws. The Oxford experience is well-explored, it’s clear even if you skip the intro that Kuang has lived it (or a modern version of it).

The linguistics and localization lessons are well done and interesting. I loved that the magic system was built around these subjects, both praxis and practical. I suppose if you’re a person who does not give a hoot about translation and localization, you’ll feel bogged down in these pages, but I hope at least you won’t feel caught off guard by them. The book is called Babel, after all, with a big ol’ Tower on the cover.

For any lover of languages or systems of magic, I fully recommend Babel. It was a delight to read.

The irony that I have no words to explain this experience is…. hilarious to say the least. But I shall try. The writing was beautiful. The setting was astounding. The story sucked me in immediately and never let me go. I finished this a while ago but wanted to wait until I had the right words to explain the beauty of this book, but I still can’t find anything worthy to say! This is not the sort of book that would normally interest me, but after reading the Poppy War trilogy, I was so very excited. If you love Dark Academia, READ THIS BOOK. If you don’t, READ THIS BOOK. This book was a masterpiece from beginning to end.

Seriously. I think this might be the most ambitious historical fantasy/dark academia book ever written. Tackles colonialism ✅ Fictional Oxford/student revolution ✅ Etymology/linguistic lecture ✅ incredibly original system of magic ✅

A stunning delivery by the goddess, R. F. Kuang.

“Languages aren’t just made of words. They’re modes of looking at the world. They’re the keys to civilization. And that’s knowledge worth killing for.”

Let me start this “review” by giving thanks to the publisher for gifting me a digital galley of this book during Asian Heritage Month.

Last June 16, 2022, we HCC Influencers received an e-mail about their Late Summer ARCs for us to request, and one of those titles was Babel by R.F. Kuang. As soon as I saw it, I immediately sent the request form and waited for approval of my request.

Fast forward to more than a month later, I noticed that mainly white influencers were holding physical ARCs of this book while I was browsing both Instagram and TikTok. Then I saw an ARC giveaway post of this book on the @hccfrenzy account.

Worried that I might have missed the e-mail that I was assigned a physical ARC of this book, I immediately checked my spam folder, and when I saw that I didn’t see anything from there, I immediately contacted the HCC Frenzy Team.

After a few backs and forth e-mails from them, they have graciously told me that they received 300+ requests for this ARC and were only able to give 75 copies to their influencers. Since they have 170+ Asian-identifying influencers on their list, they weren’t able to meet that demand—according to them. When I pointed out to their team and asked them why their white/caucasian-identifying influencers (and mostly white influencers in North America and Europe) were holding physical ARCs of the book, they weren’t able to answer it, and they reasoned out that those white influencers are booksellers themselves—which is not an excuse. Plus, not forgetting the fact that they hosted a giveaway of TWO physical ARCs of this book (which they have given to two white Bookstagrammers when they announced the results on the post itself on July 29, 2022) instead of giving them to two of their influencer who are of Asian descent—which is disappointing on their part.

Let me end this statement with this: give physical ARCs of queer and BIPOC authors to queer and BIPOC reviewers only, and not to the cis, white, hetero influencers/reviewers.

Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by a mysterious benefactor, Professor Lovell, where he trains for years in Latin, Greek, and Chinese, in preparation for the day he will attend the Royal Institute of Translation (aka Babel) at Oxford University. Babel is the center of silver-working, where enchanted silver bars keep England as the most powerful country. As systemic racism, colonialism, and the increasing divide between the wealthy and poor become more apparent to Robin, he must choose between the beautiful utopia Oxford provides and joining a revolution of change.

I am going to be in the minority when I say that I did not enjoy this book. 😬 Perhaps I’m not highbrow enough or intellectual enough but the book was incredibly long and way too slow for me. While I enjoyed the plot premise and the astute commentary about systemic racism, unequal global resource hoarding, xenophobia, white privilege, and colonialism; and while the word etymology and meanings were interesting, I would have appreciated that part in less detail as well.

Read this book if you enjoy dark academia, have a passion for words, languages, or translations — and you are interested in reading a book with insightful commentary about social injustices.

Thank you to @netgalley @avonbooks and @harpervoyagerus for the advanced reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

The Poppy Wars is one of my favorite books of all time, so I was extremely excited for Babel. R.F Kuang is one of those authors that pulls you into this fantastical worlds and you can't help but love it. gothic Academia is slowly becoming one of my go tos for reading this year and the characters here are amazing. This book has everything you may want for a back to school, fall read. Perfect for crisp, fall air and just sitting on your porch.

The deeply creative and thoroughly crafted dark academia novel we didn't know we needed. Babel was an absolute TREAT to read!

I received an advance copy via NetGalley.

<i>Babel</i> is a complicated work of fantasy, and requires a complicated review. It takes place in an alt history 19th century, wherein the might of the British empire is being empowered through the strength of magic derived from the use of silver and linguistic word play. The narrative primarily follows Robin, born and raised in China. After his mother dies, he's taken in by a white Oxford professor and brought to England, where his linguistic skills are cultivated with a goal of eventual education at the great tower known as Babel in Oxford.

As a work of research, this book is masterful. Kuang knows languages, knows Oxford, and this is a novel that word geeks will delight in... or like me, delight in to a point. The book succeeds in channeling an academic voice, footnotes and all, and is a slog to read. The plot isn't big on action, but on revelation. The deep criticism of colonialism and empire-building is fascinating, educational, and quite often horrific, because it's very clear that everything is based on fact even if given a magical bent. The characters are incredibly well-done, too, complex and real. If you've read Kuang's other books, you know she handles the dark shades of people with deftness, and she does so again here.

The book slowly yet surely built up to an ending that left me surprised only in that the major point of plot resolution was blatant very early on. I expected it to go a different way but it didn't, leaving me feeling flat at the conclusion.

"One thing united them all – without Babel, they had nowhere in this country to go. They’d been chosen for privileges they couldn’t have ever imagined, funded by powerful and wealthy men whose motives they did not fully understand, and they were acutely aware these could be lost at any moment. That precariousness made them simultaneously bold and terrified. They had the keys to the kingdom; they did not want to give them back."

Robin is brought from Canton to London under the tutelage of Professor Lovell yo Babel. Babel is a center for translation. It is also the main source of silver, a magical element with many uses.

To me, this book is basically in two parts (it's actually split into several mini books). The first part follows Robin and his classmates as they study translation. This basically reads like an academic paper. It is long and frankly a slog to get through. I found myself flipping through as fast as possible. It's clear that the author is an expert in this area. If I was interested in translation at all I would probably find this interesting. But I'm not and I didn't after The first few pages.

The second part is where things take an interesting turn. That's where this book becomes more of a dark academia story with a taste of revolution in it as well.

So reviewing this story is tough for me because it didn't feel like one cohesive story.

Overall I'll give it 3.5 stars.

Thank you netgalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for giving me an advanced review copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the ARC! I'm not sure that I have the words to properly convey my thoughts about this book. I found the magic system to be fascinating and grounded, but the heart of the book was/is the characters, the relationships and the focus on colonialism. This book has dark academia vibes if you are into that, but it is not dark academia. I wish I had better words, because I feel like this book deserves a lot of praise and attention. This book is one that will stay with me for a long time. It's haunting and affecting, and I simply loved it.

This is genuinely the best book I have read all year. RF Kuang is a master writer, and this book is a tour de force. I have not stopped thinking about it since I finished it. Not only is this book incredibly well-researched but it has the perfect pace, beautiful writing and wonderfully drawn characters. Read this book!!

Usually, when I love a book I will breeze through it in a week or so. Babel took me about 2 months to get through, but not because I didn't enjoy it. This story was so different from what I expected and I wanted to savor the story and the characters. This book deserves to be savored. The unique magic/science aspect of silver working and etymology creates a complex world around language, race, and colonialism. I was recommending this book before I even finished it. A must-read for those who enjoy fiction and nonfiction alike.

Quite possibly one of the smartest books I’ve ever read. It’s pure dark academia and is perfect for fans of Donna Tart’s THE SECRET HISTORY. It’s an incredibly moving story of colonialism, but also one of found family. There were moments when I laughed but also moments when I cried. Kuantan is clearly our next star author. I don’t think I have ever read a book white so unique and riveting. The only element keeping me from giving 5 stars is that I felt the novel had moments of lectures, which while fascinating, did seem to go on for too long at some points.

A brilliant exploration of the insidious harm of colonialism, detailed in magic and breathtaking prose.

I spent so much time wondering why this book wasn’t working for me. I love dark academic books. I love wizarding school books. This magic system is interesting because it deals with words, but there was too much lecturing about etymology to the point where there might be a quiz later. R. F. Kuang put all her creative energy into the magic components that she forgot the characterizations.

This book unflinchingly examines England's racism, colonialism, and sexism during the 19th century. I respect Kuang for not having a problem making the reader uncomfortable with the ugliness of a time and place usually romanticized. My problem is that when we first meet the characters that will be Robin’s friend group for the rest of the book, Robin narrates that one of them betrays him. The book is not subtle about who it could possibly be. After the halfway mark, when the book starts to pick up steam, I wondered if the betrayal would happen at this scene or maybe this scene. Nope, it’s going to be this scene. If there weren’t that line at the beginning, that betrayal wouldn’t have been so anti-climactic.

It confuses me. As her world-building demonstrates, Kuang is a talented writer, but the characters were flat.

This review is based on an advanced reader copy provided through Netgalley for an honest review.

so i absolutely loved absolutely everything about this book. this is what dark academia was supposed to be from the beginning. i thought i took latin in high school for fun, but it turns out i did so only to understand why exactly this magic system makes so much sense.

This book was absolutely stunning. It was easy to read, but about complicated subjects. It was funny, it was tragic. It was an intimate look at human issues, it was epic in scope. This book will win the Hugo award for best novel. I have never read anything like it.