Babel was not as good as I was hoping for, because when I started the novel it checked so many boxes for me such as the emphasis on Linguistics or rebellion, or coming of age, but these aspects were not as well executed as they were in the Poppy War. I do think that Kuang went into this book with a very ambitious book in mind and I think for some this will be exactly what they were looking for when they read the summary.

So it is safe to say I had very high expectations going into this book but regardless I did think the characters were pretty easy to relate to, maybe that is because I was also someone that was raised on another languages outside of English, and was forced to adapt to the "new age language." It was hard for me as a kid to start having all my thoughts be in a different language than what my native language was but I eventually came to appreciate English just as much as some of the other languages I was surrounded with in my youth. I wish the ending of the main cohort could have been a different than what we got because I could feel it coming about 2/3 of the way through the book.

This book was so detailed and well written. I simultaneously felt like I had a low IQ , was at college, but also getting the best education and fantasy possible. The feeling I had while reading this book was indescribable. I’m not sure how RF Kuang could write such a beautiful masterpiece like this that would take me 50 years to write but it was amazing!

*thank you Harper Voyager for an eARC in exchange for an honest review*

This book has some really great parts and some really not for me parts.

The historical fiction aspect was really interesting and I also thought the magic system of language and silver bars was fascinating. The Hermes society was intriguing and I wanted more and more of the work against the empire. I also enjoyed the character dynamics between our group of four.

With all that said, the pacing of this book was way off. Up until the last 80% I was bored and could not be bothered to pick the story back up whenever I put it down which as a mom of a 10 month old was frequent. It felt like there was a lot of waiting around even in the crux of action somehow.

This is everything I needed from Kuang, and an amazing followup to the promise of her debut series. Themes, plotting, and characterization are more mature and consistent than Kaung's previous work, and she didn't make life easy for herself by choosing to tackle such weighty issues as colonialism, the nature of the relationship between language and cultural violence, belonging and identity across power gradients, etc.

Wow. Babel is the reason I love the dark academic genre. 

Babel follows four translation students at Oxford University’s Institution of Translation. Known as Babblers, these students must navigate a lifestyle of prestigious academia, rampant colonialism, casual luxury, and equally as casual discrimination. 

The first part of the novel follows protagonist Robin Swift’s childhood. Although a bit slow, the momentum insidiously builds to support the rest of the novel. As a result, the characterization of Robin Swift is incredible. He is naive, loyal, desperate, loving, confused, and above all else: angry. What I love is that Robin has to learn to cultivate his anger. In the beginning, he is not traditionally bold or courageous, but he quickly becomes the outspoken face of an entire movement.

The cultural anthropology and linguistics student in me also had a field day. I understand how some will find the professor’s exhaustive lectures and the students’ back-and-forth philosophical musings tiresome, but they were sharp and well-researched. Furthermore, the magic system relying on nuances in etymology and translation is ingenious. I do wish the origins of the magic system had been better explained, as it would have been interesting to learn how people discovered the process, how translation managed to develop into a formal field of study, and more. 

Though not a feel-good story by any means, Babel will alter the way you think and process language.

Incredible. Just...incredible. This book blew me away.

For a book to deal with so many complex, potentially dense topics while moving along at an engaging (and, towards the end, action-movie-esque) pace, while also providing enough detail for the reader to soak in the sensory experience of being in 1800s Oxford, oh, and ALSO still giving those aforementioned unwieldy topics their due? That's outstanding, and damned hard to pull off. And yet this book does it: brilliantly, and movingly. On the sentence level, this book sings (so much beautiful detail; so many lovely descriptions), and when it comes to the plot, all the tensions of translating/working in the service of a country that hates and exploits you, it soars: it's so, so perfectly rendered, so sharp, so forceful, so confronting. I don't think you can walk away from this book without feeling shaken. (And there's so much else to it too: what it's like to be in academia, the actual practice of translation, deeply charged opinions on scones: all that kind of good stuff.)

The only real issue I had here was with the characters. I didn't really feel this at first, since we stick so close to Robin and he's very well-written, but towards the end I started noticing how little I knew the some ostensibly major characters (like...Victoire: who is she when she's not serving as a way for Robin to work his thoughts out out loud? Even the epilogue raised more questions for me than answers), never mind more minor ones. And with Robin, too, it does feel sometimes like he was more vehicle for the plot than anything else, which should have been terrible and dragged the book down a lot, but because the plot IS so strong you can kind of accept it. It just ends up feeling a bit lopsided, that in a book that's otherwise so dynamic, I didn't end up feeling fully connected to the characters.

This would in no way stop me from recommending it though: it's that good, that rich. And I think it's going to be a book I'll be thinking about for a long, long time.

I received an arc in exchange for an honest review.

My expectations were high. My excitement to read was even higher. And yet, it took me months to finish this book. I ended up switching to audiobook and finished it that way. If you are having a hard time with it, I highly recommend the audiobook.

RF Kuang can write a book. No doubt about that. The world was immersive, the plot was interesting, and the magic system was intriguing yet understandable.

Did Kuang beat you over the head with the themes? yes. Did I find the pacing to be off? yes.
Did the story feel entirely accessible? No. The footnotes I found pulled me out of the story.

Sadly I think this is a case of false marketing. I would say this book is historical fiction with magic realism-not historical fantasy. There was little character development for anyone besides our main character. I saw the "plot twist" coming from a mile away. Truthfully, if this was marketed properly I most likely would not have requested it.

A brilliant discussion of colonialism, racism, and the vehicles by which the British empire was expanded. As a black woman in academia, I felt so incredibly heavy-hearted processing this read, though this was to be expected from any read by Huang. It was a little bit slow from the start and I had to kind of readjust my mainframe going into the more hearty chapters centering etymology, but it genuinely was a well crafted and executed read. I can see where some get lost but I was able to shift gears because as aforementioned--I'm in academia. It's another 5 stars from me.

A plague orphan from Canton is taken in by a scheming English professor and in exchange for transport, room, and board he is set upon a rigorous course of linguistic study. He is also expected to abandon his own name and Cantonese language and adopt a pronounceable English one as part of the process. (He goes with Robin Swift, taking the names from books he’s read.) He spends the next six years studying Latin and Greek and keeping up with Mandarin in preparation to enter Oxford’s Babel, where the silver magic that powers the empire is designed. There Robin meets Ramy, another translation ward, and they hit it off at once. Unfortunately, they and the other two members of their cohort are the only people who are happy they’re there. The ubiquitous, casual racism as well as the aggressive racism is not downplayed. At least they’re there for translation, where there are more people of color, and even women.

Within his first week Robin is approached by a half-brother trying to convince him to be a part of a silver-stealing criminal enterprise, wooing him with the big picture idea that Babel is part of an evil imperialist conspiracy to divert needed silver and magic into wealthy Britons’ pockets and enslave all non-whites. Sounds plausible. It’s just less interesting than the linguistics, academics, and scholarly camaraderie that was genuinely enjoyable to read about. Nevertheless, it’s clear that this will become the main story of the book. After all, the full title is Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: an Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution.

This book pulls no punches when dealing with privilege, colonialism, slavery, and the burden of being a minority. It also touches on the difference between being a minority who can “pass” as one of the majority versus one who cannot. The thing is, the anti-colonialist message doesn’t take long to start feeling preachy and the associated plot disappointingly predictable. Revolutions against The Man are no new thing after all. The British, and by extension Americans and other nations governed by white people, do not come out looking good. (And they shouldn't.) But, honestly, nor do the protagonists when they go on a power trip.

The prose here is as splendid as one might hope for in a book about linguistic precision, but the story is excessively long and falls into a tiresome predictability. I'm glad I read it, but I doubt I'll ever feel the need to re-read it.

Ms. Kuang is a young author like no other. She writes books that are sure to be categorized as modern classics. In this book, she tackles academia, colonization and the intricacies of language with a deft skill while never getting bogged down. This is not a little book either, but it feels like it flies by. I’m not sure what to say about it, it has been widely acclaimed and it absolutely deserves the hype.

It reminds me a great deal of Les Miserables. Young people who rebel against the society that they have been forced into, but she takes it a step further by showing how different classes/groups of people interact with that society and how it informs their viewpoint. She is so nuanced. Ultimately, this is a hard one to review, if only because its scope is so very wide I have trouble articulating how I feel about it. Don’t let the size discourage you, it really is as good as everyone is telling you it is.

This book is thought provoking and very well written. This is a book I will be thinking about long afterwards.

This book is probably the most challenging book that I have read in 2022. It is a great example of how much we can learn about historical themes through fiction. Take your time to get through this one and really digest what Kuang has to say.

A truly brilliant masterpiece of a novel. It has footnotes! I love everything R.F. Kuang touches, and she has outdone herself with this one. The linguistic magic system is fascinating, and the themes don't try to make you feel comfortable - it goes hard, and it sticks the landing. I will recommend this book to everyone.

After reading and loving Kuang's POPPY WAR series, I knew I'd eagerly pick up anything else that she’d write. So when I heard about BABEL, you know I got ahold of that ASAP. I admit that it did languish a bit on my Kindle, but I finally got to it in the last month!

Kuang's research and how she incorporates it into the narrative (through plot points, character commentary, etc) is astounding. The way she dreamed up an alternate version of the British Empire at its height is ingenious—unlike anything I've read before! Her research and relationship with Oxford helped the story come alive on the page. I could see myself in the cobbled streets of Oxford, rushing around in the shadows. The setting is almost its own character, providing an essential gloomy, mysterious atmosphere.

But on to the real characters—Robin, Ramy, Victoire and Letty. I loved getting to know them, from their first meeting as they all arrived at Oxford, down the ever-changing route their friendship takes throughout their four years at the college. I'm a sucker for a story that focuses on friendship, and I loved how much their social dynamics wove into the plot as the story wound on.

Even though I loved this story, I must admit that it was a bit of a slow start for me. POPPY WARS felt very pacy, but this book definitely feels more atmospheric and academic to me. It took until the halfway mark for me to really get into the story and look forward to seeing where it would go next. I think if the pacing had been tightened up, this would've been a five star read for me! But it's not far off, and I definitely recommend this if you're a Kuang fan, a dark academia fan, or just want something mysterious for the fall season.

I would read Rf Kuang's grocery list and it would still leave me speechless. Her writing is absolutely breathtaking, and her story crafting stays strong across the genre shift. I'm obsessed with the footnotes and the academic feel of the book, without it feeling like a textbook

Although heavyhanded in its messaging, I really enjoyed this book. The system of magic was interesting and I enjoyed reading all the discussions of translation. Recommend for fans of dark academia and historical fantasy

While the themes of racism, imperialism, classism, and other impacts of England’s colonizing are interesting and important, I struggled to settle into this world. The language based “magic” of this world is interesting, but for some reason I just couldn’t stay connected to the story. Maybe a case of wrong reader, wrong time. I did not finish the novel but would potentially like to come back to it.

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.