Babel is the definition of literary perfection. I cried. I was angry. I was devastated. And I was hopeful. In this story there are four major characters. Robin, Rami, Victoire, and Letty. R.F. Kuang is skilled in crafting complex characters who feel like real people. They’re all flawed individuals who struggle to reconcile their complicity within the oppressive British imperial system with their need for liberation.

Robin, the main character, struggles the most with this. As a white passing Chinese man, Robin occupies a space of privilege, and often struggles to reconcile the boundaries between his privilege and oppression. Rami is an intelligent, kind presence throughout the entire story. He’s very strong in his convictions while also being funny and loveable. Victoire was by far my favorite of the quartet. She was sweet and soft spoken while also being capable and intelligent. And then there’s Letty…. All I can say is fuck Letty. From the very beginning I found her insufferable and grating. R.F. Kuang explores complex themes of white womanhood through Letty’s character, and the privileges that come along with it. I also loved the interlude chapters and how we got a glance into the early lives and thoughts of the other characters.

The story explores themes of imperialism, colonialism, racism, academic racism and so much more. Kuang maneuvers through the historical happening of that time with ease and grace, making it clear she put a lot of dedication into the research. The politics were woven in expertly and kept me intrigued from beginning to end. Also, her use of literary devices, particularly foreshadowing, are masterfully done. This is the type of story I could read 100 times over and still find something new.

The writing is fairly simplistic in style, but that didn’t take away from the overall impact. Her writing overall has greatly improved from the Poppy War till now, and I have a feeling it’s only going to get better. The only minor criticism I could offer is that the pacing might feel slow to some, or slightly off, but I was so focused on the themes I rarely noticed.

The ending devastated and broke me in a way I wasn’t expecting. Overall, I think this story is perfection and it’s definitely making it into my best books of this year.

First I want to thank the publisher (Avon/Harper Voyager) and NetGalley for allowing me access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was ready to be blown away by Babel, I've read The Poppy War and enjoyed it so I was somewhat familiar with the author and was intrigued by this new story. I think R.F. Kuang is a great writer and she did a great job with world building and character development. You can also tell that she has done a great deal of research and carefully crafted the story filled with some heavy themes and I also enjoyed the setting of early 1800s London and Oxford.

Sadly this book just wasn't for me. The pacing felt a little too slow from the start and took me a while to get through and by the time it really got going I felt like I was just pushing through because I had already gotten this far. I almost put it down to go to other books on my TBR but I kept seeing all the raving reviews and how so many people loved this book so I went on. After completing it I don't really have any harsh criticisms other than the slow pacing really set the tone for me personally and made this feel more like an assignment than like I was reading form my enjoyment.

This is probably a 3.5/5 for me personally but I rounded up to 4 stars because I still think the writing was good just this story or maybe "dark academia" as a genre just isn't my thing.

This was such a shifty from poppy war but it was absolutely stunning! So Intricate and educational I loved it so much. Kuang is a diety

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution (hereinafter, I'm just referring to the book as "Babel") is the newest novel from author R.F.. Kuang, who previously wrote the incredible Poppy War trilogy. That novel was a second world fantasy based heavily upon the modern history of China, especially the atrocities its people suffered in the Sino-Japanese Wars, the Opium Wars, and from Imperialist interference, and was powerful and devastating to read. So it's hardly a surprise that Kuang would write a Historical Fantasy novel as her next novel, which is what Babel is, taking place in an alternate 1830s, in which the British Empire wielded its power through at type of magic centered around Oxford, based upon linguistics and the ability to translate foreign used languages. And with a full title like Babel has, you have an idea that what's coming is going to be similar in theme and message to that of the Poppy War, in the necessity for violent action in dealing with oppressors.

And Babel is just that, and it is really powerful and incredible as a result, as the book follows a boy, who takes the name Robin Swift, as he's taken from his dead family in China by a racist colonialist English Professor and taught the power of learning and using different languages...and the magic of translation of such languages, like the Cantonese that is his native tongue. There, alongside others at Oxford, at their own tower known as Babel, he comes together with others like himself, taken from various native lands to exploit for England's own use....and Robin and the other struggle with how they're both privileged and still treated as Others, and struggle with the need to rebel and do something about the injustice at great cost to themselves. The result is a novel that is often devastating as we follow Robin throughout a situation that only gets worse and worse, and while it's never anything close to subtle, it's all the more incredibly powerful as a result.




----------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
In 1828, a boy in Canton, China is orphaned when his family falls victim to a cholera pandemic, only to be saved by a mysterious English Professor named Professor Lovell, who uses a strange silver bar to save his life. The professor takes the boy back to London and has him take an English name, Robin Swift, as he begins a rigorous education of the boy in both his native Cantonese, but also in Latin, Ancient Greek, and English.

Years later, Robin is sent by the Professor to Oxford University, to study at its prestigious Royal Institute of Translation - colloquially known as Babel. There, he finds himself in a Class with three other outcasts: Ramy, an Indian boy taken to Britain from a decent family in Calcutta; Victoire, a Haitian girl taken to and raised in France; and Letty, a white English girl who dared to break gender conventions by trying to go to Oxford instead of getting married off and got disinherited as a result. At Babel, the three of them learn the magic of translation - of how matching foreign words to English ones on silver bars can produce magical effects based upon the differences in actual meaning - a magic that has enhanced the power of the British Empire as it spreads its tendrils all over the world.

Yet despite Robin and the others loving their studies, and being fascinated by languages and their derivatives, Robin can't help but feel uneasy with how he and they are still treated as others, and how the power of silver is being used not to support people, but to enrich the already wealthy and powerful. And when Robin finds himself contacted by an underground organization dedicated to righting that wrong, at the potential cost of all the comforts he enjoys, he finds himself greatly torn.

But when Britain appears on the verge of a manufactured war with China, solely for the sake of getting control of China's vast silver reserves, Robin and his friends find themselves forced to make a decision....one which will require him to pick the cause to support....
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Babel is an alternate history fantasy, but its one where the world we face is very similar to our own...even if the way it got there was very different. So here, as in our world in 1830s Britain, the British Empire is flourishing as a world power, and is trying to take advantage of China's massive resources by exporting to it opium in exchange for those resources, setting up the conflict that in our world would eventually become the horrific Opium Wars. The difference is that here, British power is backed by the power of magical Silver, a magic fueled by two things: 1. the raw material (of which China has a lot) of Silver and 2. the research into used foreign languages, as the magic is created through combining an English word with its translation into a foreign language on a silver bar, with the effect resulting from the gaps in the translations and etymologies between the two words. The British Empire powers both its military and its whole economy on this magic silver, creating automaton and technological wonders that enhance the productivity of its labor and the rewards that its rich can enjoy....even as such silver and automaton puts ordinary British laborers out of work and doesn't actually enrich the lower class.

This creates a world in which the British Empire is even more literally than in our own world taking the fruits of its colonies and using them to benefit its elites, even more so than in our world. This is pretty well identified with three of our four main characters: after all the Cantonese/Chinese (known by Robin), the Urdu (known by Ramy) and the Haitian Creole known by Victoire are all relatively new languages to the British people at Oxford, and thus provide for new possibilities for magic created with the right silver translations. Notably, the power gets lessened over time as languages become more familiar to the British, meaning that they are incentived to go and gather speakers of more and more faraway lands to try and keep up and increase their power via the method of translation. Thus the British here are in a more LITERAL sense than in our world taking away the languages of the people they colonize and profitting from them as a result, without ever giving anything back. It's not a subtle message here, but it works really well - especially as Robin and the other struggle with the idea that truly translating a word is not actually possible, and to try and take such a beautiful foreign word and fasten it to an English translation is to do literal violence.

This is especially the case because well, as in our world, Robin and his compatriots Ramy and Victoire are not accepted in the British world despite their use in preserving it. While their compatriot and fourth member Letty is discriminated against in some areas for being a woman, they're discriminated against on the basis of their race - as British elites consider them inferior by definition, even as they exploit them. They get treated miserably by the other students at Oxford, and the White professors around them are little better with their insinuations. So it doesn't take any big revelation for Robin and the others to realize the British actions are evil, they can feel it all along, which naturally results in them becoming willing to rebel and try to find a way to fight back for the colonized and for the lower classes who are victimized by all this.

As you can guess from the book's full violence, Babel eventually comes around to the idea that at least some violence is necessary to make a change, and this results in an explosive final two acts that generally work very well. After all, even the minorly oppressed, like the rich but disowned white girl oppressed for her sex, can't quite get over how much privilege they have and understand that the others around her can't simply accept the evils of the British Empire and try to enjoy it as much as they can - for people of color in this world, as in our world, will never be free from microaggressions and outright racism. That said, the book isn't quite clear - and this is on purpose - as to how that violence should go...for example a conflict between two of our major characters at the end is between whether it is cowardly or right to go out in a big grand sacrifice, or whether it makes sense to try to escape to fight for another day. Another conflict rests upon how many poor people will take the brunt for their actions while the rich are still able to mostly function. Babel raises these questions through its fantasy story really well, and its main characters demonstrate the reasons why these questions and violence are necessary. It also, interestingly enough, demonstrates how racial prejudice can blind people to their combined interests in fighting injustice due to class and poverty level, although honestly it's a bit optimistic in my mind in how it tries to resolve sort of that conflict.

Babel is not a perfect book - while I appreciate the lack of subtlety given how much subtle SF/F tends to go over people's heads, at times like with the white girl Letty is it is almost too much. It also doesn't really develop characters outside of the major four, leading to one side character professor going from an ass in the beginning to someone extremely sympathetic without really any reason. And, as with Kuang's prior works, this is a book dealing entirely with issues of colonization, empire, race, and sex....but not dealing at all with gender and discrimination of LGBTQ individuals, who basically don't exist in the narrative, although to be fair, romance and sex in general doesn't exist in the narrative.

But Babel is an extremely powerful book, well worth your time, and it will rightfully be on the top of rankings and nomination lists for next year...and might also be on mine.

I will admit, at first I was not sold on Babel. I appreciated how smart it was and how much I was learning through reading, but I wasn't sure how I felt about it as a *story*. But then it snuck up on me. I found myself unable to put it down, lost in the world of Oxford and the lives of these characters. The beginning of the book moves slowly, but the second half moves at a breakneck speed and it was then I was hooked. The drawn out lead up was worth it for what it builds and what it leads to. My chest constricted at the injustices faced, my heart clenched at the highs and lows and I gasped at the unexpected moments. This story is dark academia yes, it has magic, yes, but it is also about racism and sexism and classism and colonialism and revolution and living and working and fighting within a system that doesn't and won't ever see you or care for you. It's not an easy read, but it is a necessary one.
One complaint I do have is with the footnotes. Reading the book on a tablet was a challenging experience because there was no easy way to get from the footnote back to the page. Maybe it is just my inexperience with e-reading, but I found it annoying early on and had to force myself to go back and forth.

This was my first R.F. Kuang read and while I had been excited to eventually read The Poppy War (and any other novels if she has any), I now NEED to read them, even if this is a different sort of book, it's so well written that I'm looking forward to consuming anything I can from this author. It is such a wonderful read for spooky season, as this is dark academia personified. It's just so good, so, so good. I cannot recommend this book enough!

Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager and NetGalley for e-ARC of the book.

R. F. Kuang takes us for a journey with Robin Swift, an orphaned boy from Canton who was being raised by his guardian Professor Lovell and now studies in Oxford University’s Royal Institute of Translation - Babel. This story has a little bit of everything - spies, magic, topics worth debating (that are especially pertinent to today), friendship and dilemmas.
Not only this book was well-written from aesthetics perspective, it also contained some interesting linguistic insights.
This book is definitely worth reading and I cannot recommend it enough.

A really epic alternate history novel. I was really captivated by the themes and how realistically racism was depicted in victorian London. I really enjoyed the comraderie between the characters, but I did want to see more from them. The plot was long and hefty, but did have some really good moments. I especially enjoyed the ending.

I don't even know how to put into words my feelings about this book. It was incredible. I want nothing more than to forget it and read it again.

Thank you NetGalley for the eARC. This book was so fun. I really enjoyed it. This book kept me interested and i enjoyed the book and this genre

In the months since I read Babel, I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. There's so much to dissect and reflect upon that I'm not sure if I'll ever run out of new things to love about Babel. It's complicated, it's thrilling, it's emotional, it's sharp, and it features the most unique magic system I've ever seen. Even the footnotes in Babel were a delight and sparked in me an interest in the history of language that I'd never had before.

[Thank you Harper Voyager for a gifted copy!]

Honestly--the best book I've read this year, maybe ever. I have a full review coming out in The Rumpus later this year, so I won't repost some parts, but here are a couple reasons why I loved BABEL:

Because it’s time for dark academia and all its romanticized and idealized and distilled conception of “aesthetic” to be interrogated, to be looked at closely with all its razor shape edges of colonialism and imperialism and white supremacy

Because I want a story that draws out the power of language and how it can be manipulated to play its own insidious role in empire when it is used to set westernization and whiteness as default

Because we need to continue to banish all conceptions of the white savior, fight against how western education paints us as “primitive” or “uncivilized”

Because when I was in an institution that had long ago removed a mandatory curriculum on western civilization there were still students who argued for its revival, argued that western history and ideology were the pinnacle of high society, that yes! we can learn about the west in ways that don’t focus on its pitfalls, but what they don’t realize is that nothing exists in a vacuum, and separating the west from its violence is like trying to separate all the salt away from an ocean

Because I want to read my history in the land of my ancestors and I also want to read about how the diaspora I am a part of have buried their rebellion deep into the root of the west

Because people have power and students have power and sometimes when I was a student I forgot how I could and should interrogate the very power structures I was learning from; and sometimes I forget that the diaspora that has landed in imperialist countries can and should resist their imperialist agendas; that there is a history of diaspora doing so and legacy for me to step into

Because I want to read stories that will break me and put me back together

Because when I read THE POPPY WAR there was something inside of me that unnerved me in the kindest of ways. I thought: surely, surely, this was written for readers like me, like me! Me: a body that holds this history deep in the marrow of my bones and in the red of the blood that has been passed down to me by generations and generations of Chinese, ancestors who have ravaged and been ravaged and have entangled me within their web of contradictions, threads that I will continue to try to unweave even as I add my own, and this is the power of books and words and stories like this.

I freaking loved this novel!!! I was so excited to read the follow-up novel to The Poppy Wars. Anyone who loves historical fiction/ fantasy/ dark academic stories/ sci-fi this one is right up your alley and can't recommend this novel enough! The very beginning of the story draws you in-so engaging and interesting. It is so readable-the magic system is unique, but not over the top. There are some heavy topics in this book that are addressed tastefully. The characters are well thought out and at times-creepy and intellectual.

Many thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the advanced reader's copy in exchange for my honest review.

A writer who is clearly capable of better, delivering a disappointing work. If she would trust the readers to understand her message, this would have been so much better.

Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang was one of my most highly anticipated reads of the year. R.F. Kuang quickly became a favorite with The Poppy War series and I will read anything she cares to write. I just couldn't believe that I managed to get approved for it on NetGalley! Anyway, as far as I'm concerned this new novel is absolutely perfection and is easily one of the best books I've read all year long. It's 545 pages long and it's well worth the time it takes. Historical fantasy is one of my favorite genres and Kuang is marvelous at bringing her world and her characters to life. They could all walk right off the page and I felt like I could enter the world of the novel. Overall, I can't recommend this book enough, especially if you're a fan of dark academia.

I've been sitting on this review for over a week now and I've come to the conclusion that I will simply never feel prepared to write it. I'll never have the words to describe what a powerhouse of a book this is. It's the kind of book that I felt like I needed to take my time with. This was not the bedtime book or the catch-a-few-mins-here-and-there book. This was a commitment that demanded my full attention, which I was more than happy to provide, and I was richly rewarded for doing so.

To start, it's well-researched and masterfully written. I highlighted more memorable quotes while reading this book than anything I've ever read before. I constantly found myself circling back to experience a passage again because the hit was just so perfectly right.

Babel manages to feel massive and immersive as well as niche and intimate all at once. The characters feel so fully realized and my heart ached as I went along on this journey alongside them. I was completely swept up in the illusion Kuang so artfully crafted and I mourned as she tore it all down around me. I smiled, I gasped, I cried - the full range.

People aren't exaggerating when they say this book is brilliant. It's so smart and so carefully crafted. Every little piece of story, every meticulous word choice that connects to another clever piece of language feels so significant and intentional in a way that I've never experienced in a book. It's truly a masterpiece.

Babel is an artful and passionate look at colonialism, language, and power structure through an ambitious dark academia lens. It's hard hitting and nuanced and terribly beautiful to experience. I took away so much from this read, yet know I will take away so much more when I reread it again. In the meantime, I wish I were intellectual enough to talk about this book in the way it deserves. Highly recommend.

Extra special thanks to Harper Voyager for an ARC in exchange for review.

After becoming orphaned, Robin Swift was brought from China to England at a young age. He left everything Chinese behind, even his name, save for the language. At the wish of his wealthy benefactor, his whole reason for existing became to learn languages – and once he got to Oxford and its tower of Babel, to learn the magic of silver-working, fueled by translation. But not everyone is happy about Babel’s key role in British imperial dominance that its silver-working provides.

Babel is less bleak and brutal than the author’s Poppy War series, but not by much. This book is both beautiful and heartbreaking, in early times bursting with the love of found family but ultimately painful as those bonds twist into betrayal. Ultimately it exposes the cruelty, arrogance, and greed of the British imperialist age. In so doing it shines a light on modern society – the way things have changed, and the way things haven’t. If you’re a fan of the Poppy War, you’ll find that Babel has a lot of themes in common – racism, imperialistic subjugation and warfare, found family, and trying to “belong” in a world that will never stop reminding you that you don’t.

Representation: Chinese main character, other POC major characters, hints of queerness

CW: Racism (seriously, there is some hideously vicious racism in this story), sexism, violent child abuse and emotional neglect, imperialistic and colonialistic abuses, drug use, gore, suicide

Thank you to HCC Frenzy, Harper Collins Canada, and NetGalley for providing me with an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

After he loses his entire family during a cholera epidemic in Canton, Robin Swift is brought to London by Professor Lovell and trained to be fluent in many languages in preparation for the day he will join Oxford’s prestigious Royal Institution of Translation, better known as Babel. As the center of the magical art of silver-working, Babel is at the heart of the British Empire’s power. But though Robin loves Oxford and his studies there, he begins to realize that all this pursuit of knowledge will inevitably be used in the service of the Empire, against his own homeland of China that he left so many years ago. Things come to a head when Britain plans to wage an unjust war with China and Robin must decide how far he is willing to go to bring down Babel and if violence is necessary to fight back against this corrupt and powerful institution.

“Language was always the companion of empire, and as such, together they begin, grow, and flourish. And later, together, they fall.”

I’ve had my eye on this book for quite some time, and there’s been so much hype around it too. I haven’t read The Poppy Wars yet, but this sounded like something not to miss this summer. The timing to pick up this book could not have been more perfect for me, because much of it is set in Oxford where I actually visited literally last month, so I could visualize the buildings and streets described and follow along with the places Robin goes to – the ones that are real anyway. Babel is set in an alternative fantasy version of Oxford in a world where the art of silver-working, channeling the meaning of words through translation to magical effect, has not only taken over daily life in England, but has made the British Empire powerful beyond imagination. I’ll settle for calling this a fantastic work of art which is the best I could come up with because this book had me lost for words for several hours after I finished it, much less ones that would do it full justice. I myself speak multiple languages and I found the whole discussion of translation across languages and cultures and how the meanings of words change in the process to be not only fascinating but quite relatable.

“But what is the opposite of fidelity?…Betrayal. Translation means doing violence upon the original, means warping and distorting it for foreign, unintended eyes. So then where does that leave us? How can we conclude, except by acknowledging that an act of translation is then necessarily always an act of betrayal?”

The world building was my favorite part and I loved the author’s descriptions of this Oxford of a fantasy world. Silver-working was extremely intriguing and the book went into so much detail about the whole process and the importance that translation has to it. The magic system such as it was, was described in such depth and I really enjoyed it – few books take the time to do so, and even fewer standalones. What I found most interesting however, was that despite this being a fantasy novel, the story at the heart of it wasn’t about the magic, but the effect it had on society, from silver worked enhancements to machines taking away the jobs of the working class, colonization and the slave trade, identities and ethnicities, racism and the complicated politics behind it all, with a lot of true history woven in, posing some thought provoking questions on morality to the reader. It has been a very long time since I came across a fantasy novel with such a complex plot and I would have binge read it had it not been so long.

The characters – I didn’t expect to like them as much as they did. The book is largely told from Robin’s perspective, and once at Oxford, he meets the other members of his cohort: Ramy, Victoire and Letty, who do get a couple of interludes as the story progresses. Robin’s character development and his arc were amazing, and I’m really impressed at how much the author had managed to fit in from this angle – and in so much detail – in a book that’s not even 600 pages. And the best part of it was that none of it ever felt forced – the events just flowed and Robin’s every reaction was natural, making him an easy character to sympathize with and connect to. His three friends, despite not having POVs, were equally significant figures in the plot, each with distinct personalities and from varied backgrounds which leads to them viewing the truth behind Babel from very different perspectives. I was equally invested in all four characters, and given that this is a standalone, that’s saying a lot.

This is usually the point in my reviews where I start getting into what I didn’t like about the book, but with this one, I’m drawing a complete blank. I suppose the pacing was kind of slow, but I was so caught up in the story that I barely even noticed it – I was just hoping the book wouldn’t end anytime soon because it was absolutely riveting.

After reading this book, The Poppy Wars has just moved to the top of my backlist! I can’t wait to read it and any future books by this author are sure to be on my TBR as well. Though this is a fantasy novel, it’s also dark academia and the themes discussed within will be of interest to readers of any genre. Babel is undoubtedly one of the finest standalone novels I’ve ever read. If there’s one book you read this year, make it Babel – I cannot recommend this book enough!

Kuang took dark academia, magic, and the battle of good vs evil and stripped it of all pretenses. She pointed those bitche$ out for what they are-racism, classism, oppression, exploitation, xenophobia, greed, etc. This isn’t Harry Potter. This isn’t the type of speculative fiction that you’re used to. Many times I had to remind myself that Babel wasn’t real, but unfortunately everything else it stood for was. This is based on the true ugliness of British imperialism and its race to become the most powerful country in the world by any means necessary.
As the kids these data say, “she ate and left no crumbs!”

READ THIS BOOK. READ THIS BOOK. READ THIS BOOK.

And if you need more convincing: this book is a dark academia novel about brilliant people of color studying linguistics at Oxford University while contending with their role in the British empire 🤯

Alright now that that’s been said: I really don’t know how to review this book y’all 😭 I’m glad I ordered two special edition copies (both pictured) because I think this is a modern classic. Mark my words: this book is going to be in English curriculums for years to come.

Okay so some of my chaotic thoughts:

📚This book broke down interracial friendships and connections PERFECTLY! Like…I need more books to talk about the awkwardness and lack of trust that can happen when friend groups pretend like they’re “all the same” even though they have different levels of access. This book was a great reminder to invest in checking my privilege in my friend groups while also calling in friends in when they’re not aware of their privilege.

📚 I loved how there was representation of different ways to resist systematic oppression. Sometimes you gotta choose your peace over the movement and that’s VALID✌🏾I think the point of community in social justice spaces is that when you need peace and space, others can take on the work for awhile. And that’s okay ❤️

📚 The cast is mostly POC (Black, South East Asian, and East Asian) and OMG RF Kuang does a great job of showing the differences these groups face depending on gender, colorism, class, and access to whiteness and oooof I have thoughts and feelings 😭

📚 Lastly- I’m sorry, but the way that this book spelled out how sometimes the well intentioned White people can be the ones who cause the most damage in movements for justice 😭 I don’t want to give spoilers but yo there were some hard moments here.

Brilliant. A masterpiece. Just… RF KUANG. How does she do it??