Reviews

Babel, an Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

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jmsmith's review against another edition

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4.0

4.5⭐️

drjoannehill's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective tense slow-paced

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

4.0

Slightly magical, alternate history of the British Empire in the 1830s amid the beginnings of the Opium Wars, and more of a commentary on racism and colonialism than fantasy.

For me, a book is 4 stars if the story holds my attention across the 500+ pages, and the characters are interesting. So, it scores on those points. Background-wise, you'll be ok with this if you have any interest in etymology and translation, but if not you'll struggle.

The anti-racist message is not subtly expressed - it is very consistently and brutally expressed. It's really laid on heavy by the colonialists quite how little they thought of people from the places they were exploiting, and there's no possibility of responding to their arguments. The characters who are at the receiving end of it sometimes discuss racism and sexism together, in language that is not authentic to the time. One of the central messages of the book is that white women are not allies, that they'll push to get access to the system but not fight the system itself - fine, this makes sense and is likely quite authentic. But as it's such a heavily pursued narrative, there's not as much complexity or surprise as there could be. We basically learn that even in a world where there's a bit of magic to make things run smoother, it is all just used to make the Empire richer, and the Empire will allow any number of atrocities if the Empire itself still stands and makes money and power. (E.g. it is discussed a few times that abolition was just a trade advantage). So, it's bleak, and maybe a tiny bit clunky, but for any readers who maintain a perspective that Britain brought good to the world through empire, they might think differently after reading (they might not though).

Content Warnings

mariana_andrade's review against another edition

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adventurous informative mysterious slow-paced

4.0

lil_marshmallow's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

did not expect it to include so much racism and colonialisation... thought this was going to be something cool (being a translator myself) but it was too political for me and the characters also not that likeable.
it had cool stuff to say about translation in general though and i liked the linguistic bits. wish there was more of that