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

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.5

Let’s start with the good. “Babel, An Arcane History" is very readable and touches on many important themes. Racism, colonialism, sexism, class conflict and more highly relevant society subjects are tackled in this novel and put together in a smart and coherent narrative. They never feel too much on the nose, contrary to some other novels that tried the same thing ("The Calculating Stars" comes to mind, at least for the racism and sexism).

The magical elements get revealed as the novel goes along and do not feel too heavy handed. Overall, I liked the pacing of the book and its structure. Despite its length, it’s a rather easy read. The characters are diverse and interesting, and some are quite relatable. You quickly get a clear idea of their different roles and aspirations. 

The plot is also quite interesting. For quite some time, we aren’t sure where the story is headed. It builds gradually and takes us for a long and beautiful ride. I really liked those aspects of the novel. I also liked the whole analysis of languages. The author explains quite well that we do not think abstractly, we think using a language. This models how we are thinking, and part of our culture and soul. This is something that is rarely discussed in science-fiction and fantasy, and I think she did a very good job at it in this novel.

The depiction of colonization is a great strength of the book. The perversity of the process, the hypocrisy of the colonizers, the blatant racism, the denial of the “good” white people despite obvious evidence, etc. Kuang presents this with intelligence and care, showing you all sides of the story. Colonialism is complex and deserves to be analyzed thoroughly, and it is remarkably well done in this book, despite its being a work of fiction and not a historical analysis. I can only commend Kuang for her investment in this difficult topic.

I do have quibbles with the execution though. First, the prose. Although very readable, it’s not very literary. I believe it’s on purpose, I think Kuang wanted her novel to be accessible. But it almost reads like a YA novel at times. Sadly, it is somewhat of a trend in fantasy from what I’ve read. The writing is not that great as the audience is not trusted to appreciate a higher level of prose. So it gets dumbed down somewhat. It’s a shame because it feels like Kuang is holding up her capabilities, the whole thing feels very restrained.

Secondly, for a book about languages and translation… there is quite a few translation errors, at least for the parts in French. Example: “He translates Haroun Alrashids concubines as dames ses favourites. Favourite ladies. How do you get "favourite ladies" from "concubines"?” 

“Dames ses favourites” doesn’t mean anything. It’s probably “ses dames favorites”. It’s obvious to any francophone.

Another: “Elémens de la grammaire chinoise” it’s “Éléments”, not “Elémens”.
And there is more.

This really pains me as someone, either the author or the publisher, really didn’t pay attention to these things, and it’s really a shame. For a book that wants you to care about languages and culture, there was certainly a lack of care here and it’s very detrimental to the “ensemble”. 

Finally all the twists and turns in the book are fairly predictable and the whole thing is a bit bloated. The characters behave sometimes in very clichéd ways and you really can tell what’s coming. Even though the story is nice, I can’t say the suspense was good. And the book needs to lose 100 pages, easy.

So I mostly enjoyed reading it, I liked what Kuang tried to achieve here and I think she did manage partly what she wanted to do. But these blatant translations errors and relatively lack of care for the literary aspect of the book makes it lose some points for me. Call me a snob, but I think it’s only a good book, not at all a great one, despite its core ideas and very relevant themes. 
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