Reviews

Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R.F. Kuang

kiwiborb's review against another edition

emotional mysterious tense

• Diverse cast of characters? Yes

5.0

maybe_emma's review against another edition

adventurous challenging tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

inktreader's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

riskeytaker's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I don’t know what I can add that everybody else hasn’t said about this book. It is amazing probably the best book. I will read this year. 

luminous's review against another edition

4.0

I don't know what to rate. Enthusiastic 5 stars about the first 70%. When it got to the revolution and some things leading to it, I'm less enthusiastic. It was actually anticlimactic. I think what happened is Kuang bungled the climax, thinking it was at Oxford, when in reality the climax of the book happens elsewhere, 60% in,

Spoiler

at sea

. Everything after that point is fallout from that climax, and the first thing that happens is that four brilliant Oxford scholars suddenly turn dumb as a doornail. So for the reader, a good portion of that fallout, which, remember, takes up the last 40% of the entire book, shouldn't even be happening the way it is, given what we know of our protagonists. Yes, I can excuse panic and stupidity, but they really did have quite a while to get everything figured out and they simply didn't. I don't expect closeted scholars to be worldly, but I have no doubt that given the information they had at hand, they would have handled things better than they did.

But, of course, the revolution was going to happen no matter what, wasn't it? The fallout from the climax would have happened anyway. And I'm getting ahead of myself, because the real instigator for the revolution was the second climax (

Spoiler

Ramy

), which is not at all like second breakfast.

I dunno. I just don't think the sacrifices made a difference. I want my fiction to be less realistic.

camillerose22's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

mich31le_27's review against another edition

emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

miaajolinee's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

paul_1997's review against another edition

reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

juliaa_19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0