Reviews

Babel: An Arcane History by R.F. Kuang

viceli483's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny informative inspiring sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

valiavskaa's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring lighthearted medium-paced

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

5.0

annaprats's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring reflective sad 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

¡Muy recomendable! Historia con una buena trama, personajes y valores/perspectiva. Se me queda un poco corta la perspectiva feminista, me hubiera gustado que se hubiera desarrollado al mismo nivel que la decolonial. Y hubiera disfrutado más si el personaje principal hubiera sido una chica, pero a pesar de ello lo he disfrutado como hacía mucho tiempo que no disfrutaba de una novela.

Si pudiera poner un pero, sería lo demasiado evidente que a veces es la crítica que se hace al colonialismo, es decir, que no dejan que el lector/a saque sus conclusiones de una situación de desigualdad, sino que ya te viene a través del pensamiento del personaje principal. Siempre pienso que la crítica es más efectiva si es el lector/a quien cree haber llegado a esa conclusión por su cuenta (a pesar de haber sido deliberadamente dirigido a ese pensamiento). Pero quizás esa crítica no sea evidente para toda la gente, que quizá no vea racismo, clasismo, xenofobia o misoginia en situaciones que quizás tenemos normalizadas, más si no las sufrimos.

esoteric_nebula's review against another edition

This is the only book I read this year, and will likely remain the only one with only a dozen or so days left in 2023. I read it slowly over the year. I really had hopes to read more this year, but I suppose that wasn't in the cards.

I really loved the magic system Kuang developed in this book—I'll save you the details, but if you're a linguistics nut you'll love it too.

I found the characters somewhat one-dimensional, but I found the ending moving regardless. I never felt like I got to know the main character, Robin, but maybe that was intentional by the author.

Regardless, happy that the one book I read this year was this one. And shout out to my sister who read this with me and provided a lot of great perspectives, and was just generally a joy to read with. Sorry it took so long to finish, but I got there.

jenhurst's review against another edition

4.0

This was one of my most anticipated books for he hear and I really enjoyed it. I thought the atmosphere was really good and Robin was a compelling protagonist. He was well developed and made decisions that actually made sense. But the cast of side characters was really not developed. Lettie in particular was the caricature of a white feminist. I found the world building to be lacking, at the expense of good atmosphere. I also found the themes to be way too heavy handed. You don’t need to be beat me over the head with it. The book is really slow as well.
I did have a lot of fun and love the pretentiousness. I really enjoyed the discussion of language and the the classic quotes at the top. Studying classics is such a quintessential dark academia part of the book.

gemlat's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated

3.5

epaulsenernst's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

crisso's review against another edition

informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

alexey_wish's review against another edition

adventurous relaxing medium-paced

4.25

isabellehendo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

i’m not mad, just disappointed. 

i have heard so many raving reviews about this book, and wanted it to be a 5 star read so badly, and was just overall disappointed. don’t get me wrong, it was a book i thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend, i just went into it expecting a life-changing book and didn’t get that. 

i did not get into this book until almost 50% through it. it was very hard for me to commit to the book and the story, because i just couldn’t seem to find it all that interesting. i enjoyed the concept, but found that the execution was rather disappointing. 

i enjoyed the characters, but didn’t feel connected to them the way i do in 5 star reads. i found robin to be interesting, and his morals and thoughts were interesting to read. ramey was good, but seemed to be utilized by the author as a talking piece for anti-colonialism. i appreciate this standpoint, but i wish ramey was given a stronger presence and personality. letty and victoire were alright.

i found letty’s betrayal to be so blatantly obvious, it did not evoke any of the shock factor that it seemed it meant to.

 
i appreciated the way the way reality and imperialism were tied into the fabric of this story, and found it to do a good job at portraying the ethnocentric ideologies that back imperialism, both in history and today. 

one thing i could’ve done without; it felt like by the end, the author was forcing this idea that violence is the only way to end conflict. i didn’t necessarily appreciate that, or the way that suicide was depicted at the end.

once i got past that 50% marker on this book, i couldn’t put it down. the plot quickly escalated and the payoff finally felt worth it. honestly, although i was slightly disappointed by the ending, and felt that (even with the same result) it could’ve been executed better, the last 50% largely made up for the faults i did find with the book. the characters were good *enough,* the world gave off the dark academic vibe that you expect, and it was just exciting and sad enough to rank at a 4 for me.