Reviews with content warning for War - Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

Reviews tagging 'War'

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

812 reviews

naeara's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Strong character development? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.25

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awildpreciouslife's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative mysterious tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

The particular itch this scratches in my brain. If you like dark academia, alternative histories, non white leading casts, and linguistics -- this is also for you!

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bernika999's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

This book was amazing.
I would recommend 100 per cent. I had finished the Poppy War series and would recommend reading that first. Not because you have to. You don't. But I think this book hits harder when you do.
The connections between them kills man.
I'd admit that it's a slow start, I mean it was for me. The footnotes are lengthy and sometimes the terminology goes over your head. However, that doesn't matter, at all, it didn't prevent the book from getting five stars from me. Very painful but definitely worth it. Wish I could read it again for the first time.
And all her other books, are all 5 stars for me, must read them.

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discocaptain's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.25

what else do i fucking say, r. f. kuang has brought me to my knees. i have things to pick at but they're not important right now. all that comes to mind is how painfully real it felt to me. i can already see this being a "dark academia" staple in the same way that a secret history or the dead poets society is, which is not necessarily a bad thing and i want to say i ALSO like them but can we be real for a second and forget that? its an evolution past these stories. it's an attempt to infiltrate and blast through the silver laden halls of the ivy league. it's the futility of trying to love a place that does not love you back. it's trying to hold two things in your mind at once, two contradictory things. robin is an excellent protagonist and the undergrads are a wonderful ensemble. it's a bit obvious and a bit overt and a bit heavy handed but, well, as those that have read it to completion know: toppling empire necessitates violence. learn. internalize. listen. understand. this book is just begging you. listen, and then act.

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catmisae's review against another edition

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challenging 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

4.0

There was a lot I liked about this book, but I didn’t end up enjoying it as much as I wanted to. The world building was great, and all the talk of match pairs and translation made me nostalgic for my time studying linguistics as an undergraduate.

Unfortunately I think Kuang put so much work into the world building and linguistics content that she didn’t have a lot of space left for the character development. For a story about belonging, alienation and a conflicted sense of national identity, our protagonists felt pretty flat to me. The reader would often be told that characters felt certain ways for specific reasons, but as a result their various reactions and changes in perspective felt forced. They almost seemed more like figures in a case study rather than characters in a work of fiction. Maybe this was deliberate? I’m not sure.

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