Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution―An Historic Fantasy of Dark Academia, Perfect for Fans of Historical Fiction and Nineteenth Century England Hardcover – August 23, 2022

Babel: an Arcane History, by R.F. Kuang(SPOILER ALERT)I have not always enjoyed alternative histories as a genre, but I do trust that books that win, or are even nominated for, the Nebula Awards are well worth reading.As a lover of languages, I was immediately drawn in to this book. In this alternate world, translation is a power. Bars of silver can be inscribed with a pair of words where the translated word fails to capture the essence of the original. Silver bars inscribed with those words, when their word-pair is read by someone fully fluent in both languages, cause the missing concepts to be manifested in the world. Silver bars are thus hoarded by England, and at Oxford University in the 1830s, the Translators are the super power that makes the British Empire’s ships faster, their medicines more effective, their carts safer, their sewers cleaner, their food more nutritious.But to continue to expand their powers, they need to bring in more languages. Robin, is rescued from a plague in China that has killed his family, by a professor in the Translation Tower. He is raised in the professor’s home, tutored in Greek, Latin, and English, while continuing to practice his Cantonese. This prepares him to be accepted at Oxford, where he quickly befriends other foreign students who are in similar situations. Ramy, from India, Victoire, from Haiti, and Letty, a British girl who rooms with Victoire. The severe discrimination that they face as foreigners and as women in 1830s Oxford is overcome by their sheer love of languages and the bonds they build with one another.Until they are sent on a mission to China, with Robin assigned to translate for a diplomatic mission, assigned to force China to accept their shipments of opium or to be attacked by the overwhelming might of the silver-powered British fleet.Suddenly the four realize that they are pawns in an Empire built on the backs of their motherlands. And that they must do something about it. But how do a handful of foreigners challenge the might of the Empire?—————-Kuang is uniquely qualified to write this amazing novel. She has an MPhil in Chinese Studies from Cambridge and an MSc in Contemporary Chinese Studies from Oxford; she is now pursuing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures at Yale.Beyond the knowledge of languages though, she has done the work to deeply understand the history of Oxford and to be able to accurately portray the culture and the other-worldly richness of the academic crown jewel. She actually begins the novel by citing the many sources that she studied in order to make sure she captured the majesty of Oxford, including the most authoritative histories of today, but also many 19th century sources.Late in the book, I began imaging the tale as a parable about the computer age, as the Information Technology revolution became a tale of the haves and have-nots. I cannot say whether Kuang had that in mind or not, but it certainly worked on that level for me!Five stars. Especially for any students of history or linguistics!————There is one note of controversy. The Hugo Awards seem once more to have been “gamed.” Babel earned enough votes by the committee to be on the finalist list for Best Novel. The voting, however, is conducted at the World Science Fiction convention, which was hosted in China that year. Next to the novel’s name on the ballot were the words “not eligible.” No one has gotten to the bottom of that controversy, but it seems likely that the host government felt the book portrayed China in an unflattering way. The author expressed disappointment, but said she won’t dig into it further as “she has books to write.”

Beautifully written altered historical fiction with magic, espionage, and lectures in language and etymology.Robin, a half English/half Cantonese boy, was taken from his home to England after his family died from cholera. Raised by Professor Lovell to one day enroll in Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford. Robin becomes friends with Ramy (India), Letty (a girl *gasp*), and Victoire (Haiti, a girl, and black). The four are inseparable for the 4 years they are studying languages, translations, and silver working. Silver working is the highest honor at Babel - creating word pairs on bars of silver to make “magic”.Add in a secret society, the English empire attempting to colonize the world and obtain all the silver, a potential war, a revolution, and Robin’s dilemma - stay true to Babel or true to himself.I highly recommend listening to the audio book for this one. The narrators (book narrator and footnote narrator) are fantastic. Babel has a lot of footnotes. I know I am not one to “read” all the footnotes, but these are important to the rest of the story. The audio book reads the footnotes at their correct locations. It is like watching a flashback in a movie.

This book has everything I loveA storyA plotGood charactersHappy momentsSad momentsGrowthWell researched which is my most important aspect in books I love.I have NOT read a book of this caliber in a long time. I have such a severe book hanger.

This book was all over booktok, so i decided to give it a try. Im trying to expand my book tastes, and this seemed like a good one off. There were parts of this book I enjoyed, and parts of it I didn't. For the most part, It was a decent book about our young protagonist learning and studying to go to Oxford and participate in this fictitional institution that the magic system is developed around. Speaking of the magic system, it's unique but not flashy or exciting. If you're looking for some cool or interesting use of magic, you're not going to find many in here. It's basically using silver and two words in different languages to create an effect, and that's it. For instance, using two words to make sure boats move faster or wagons/carts dont tip over at higher speeds. But it's these effects and uses the world has come to rely on and why Babel is so lauded. It's the general Crux of the book, but again, it's not very flashy. So just know that going in. The author did a great job of using multiple languages and showing she did her research. It just became heavy-handed at times. I dont need a full lesson on the relationship between words each time a match pair is used. I get it. You did the homework. But I came here to be entertained not to enroll in a class. Some of the stories and details were a bit superfluous. know that giving more details helps flesh out characters, but some of them had absolutely no bearing on the story and didn't really seem to add a lot of depth. The footnotes were especially annoying. A lot of times they were just an Asian character or a translation of a phrase that could have easily been included in the original paragraph in parentheses vs me having to go back and forth between a footnote which breaks up the flow of a story. Am I reading a textbook or a novel? Most of it was a pretty decent book overall, and at times, I couldn't put it down, and others i struggled to keep going. In the latter half it seemed to switch gears tonally and went into a bunch of racism/colonialism which I know is the general premise of the book but it was such a tonal shift it seemed that it was a bit jarring. One thing towards the end that i found completely out of character and seemed more out of spite or vindictveness was when Victoire was talking about Letty and that if Letty knew she was alive she would hunt her to the ends of the earth to bring her under heel where she belongs. BS! The whole time, letty just wanted to be friends, have fun with her friends, and work at babel. Yet now we're made to believe she's been this racist that wants to maintain the world order. *eye roll* And I don't know about anybody else, but I get really tired of hearing white people = bad. And all of the evil in the world Is their fault over and over in books and movies. Every race on this planet has enslaved and committed atrocities, but It's only ever passable to blame the white people. It's old. It's overused. Most importantly, it's time to move on.