I loved every single page of this book! I have been dying to read Babel ever since I saw Rebecca Kuang mention the dark academia book she was writing! To be honest, I can’t believe I got to read this story for free.
The character work, worldbuilding, and plot development are amazing! I really loved the use of footnotes. It helped tie everything together, Its a very creative and innovative method of storytelling.
If you’re looking for a dark academia fantasy read, this is definitely for you.

thank you to netgalley & avon and harper voyager for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review

I actually don’t know where to begin with this book. I knew RF Kuang was going to become a go to author for me after reading the incredible poppy war trilogy. This was nothing short of the RF Kuang we know. Every single character was flawed and every single character was so nicely fleshed out I was in awe of her developments. I definitely shifted towards Ramy and Letty the most. I myself am Muslim just like Ramy so it was amazing to see the amount of research that went into his character - I appreciated this more than anything. This is by far my favourite dark academia, beating some of the ones I read years ago. Babel will surely be a book I remember for the rest of my life and that ending will be one I will never forget. 5/5 amazing stars!

4.5 stars

Is it too early for me to say this was the best book I've read this year?
This was purely excellent and it served what needed to be served! Babel is going to change the dark academia genre and I am 100% here for it! Aside from that, R.F. Kuang has also improved so much as an author, especially with her writing style. Moreover, I appreciate the amount of research done in this book. It really elevated the reading experience, and though I do not have any interest in linguistics or translation, it was still so fascinating to read about because of the way that it was written (I have over a hundred notes on my kindle, so that really says a lot). Perhaps my only criticism is the pacing in the second half of the book was a bit patchy. Furthermore, if you've read the The Poppy War trilogy, I do think you will notice a few things that RFK has done in that trilogy that she does again in this book, and I kinda wish she would break out of those as it limits the way she writes her characters. Nonetheless, this was an ambitious book but it was brilliantly executed. As someone who enjoys reading dark academia, this one is on a league of its own and it simply cannot be compared.

*Requested from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review* Going into this, I knew The Poppy War trilogy would be an incredibly difficult series to follow-up. I had high expectations for what Kuang would pull off by the end, and she exceeded all of them. This book covers the horror of the white world the Western Empire has constructed and just how pervasive it is while also being this dissertation on translation and how powerful language is as a weapon in colonization efforts. There is no separating fiction from reality here, as Kuang has written a book so unique that puts up a ghastly mirror to academia, the English language, and the institutions that perpetuate capitalism (and colonialism - but hey one in the same) so violently and without apology. On the other hand, the humans facing these horrors are ones whose injustices will make you feel irate, will make you want to hope against hope in a world that is out to destroy the safe haven they have built around themselves. I loved my time with Robin Swift and he is unlikely to leave my mind any time soon.

This book. This goddamn beautiful, heartwrenching, academic book that made me so happy and yet tore me to shreds at the very same time. R.F. Kuang is an ingenious writer and has proven that once again with her Dark Academia book that focus on both the dark and the academic

I'm so torn about this book! The magic system based in multilingualism and translation is fascinating, and I'm definitely here for the anti-imperalist themes and exploration of what it means to be educated in a system that hates you but... the entire first half of Babel is SO SLOW, all the characters except the protagonist feel one-dimensional, and it just overall felt like kind of a letdown. Ramy and Victoire in particular feel like they get sidelined and simplified despite being the most interesting characters.

Something I haven't seen other reviewers mention is there's also what feels like queerbaiting to me?? My guess would be the implied attraction between Robin and Ramy wasn't explored because it was thought it would distract from the anti-colonialist message, but I'd argue part of Britain's imperalism is it imposing its standards of sexuality and "proper" behavior on other cultures. I kept waiting for it to be addressed more clearly but it just kept being "oh, Ramy isn't interested in Letty because *wink wink nudge nudge* REASONS".

You can definitely tell RF Kuang knows her stuff, and I loved all the historical details, but there were definitely times where I found myself wanting to just read a history book instead.

I’m in awe. Upon starting this book I had no idea what to expect and I definitely didn’t expect the rich, enchanting story we were given…

The beginning of this book felt a bit slow but it needs to to help with the meticulous world building the author gave us as it made the rest of the book that much more magnificent!

I very much got “If We Were Villians” vibes from the group of friends we followed throughout the story. So if you’re a fan of that book you should 100% pick this one up!

This book cover some very serious topics in such a stunning way… it opens your eyes to colonization, revolution, and so so much more!

If you’re a dark academia and epic fantasy lover than this book will blow you away — and even if you aren’t it’s still a stunning work of art that gives you a peak into the brokenness of academia and how enacting major change may require great sacrifice.

Side note: I did not read the Poppy War series before this book but am starting it IMMEDIATELY because I NEED more from RF Kuang!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for this stunning eARC!

Never before have I immersed myself in a book like this. rfk has redefined and reimagined what this genre should be. all the devastation and passion that goes into simultaneously loving and hating academia packaged in true revolution, in knowledge, in learning. from the footnotes to the characters to the lectures; language is a wonderful and rfk wields it beautifully. Still, I can't forgive her for how much I want to curb stomp Letty; however intentional it is that an annoying white girl has taken up space. There is no subtly with Babel, all the better for it. The necessities of violence and the power of the student has no room to carry an intrigue that is anything but unapologetic, tragic, rooted in conflicting thoughts and actions. I finished babel in two days and my thoughts have been reeling since. fantastic. that is all.

Robin Swift is a Chinese boy raised to be a translator of his native tongue for "Babel" - a translator's college in 1800s Oxford. His skill with language is valuable in this world because of the unique magic system - where silver can be enchanted by using specific words. Linguists will delight in this book.

This story explores the paper line between, despite many academic's belief, how the "real world" and "academic" constantly intersect and impact each other. As it turns out, hoarding knowledge and treating it as an extractable resource for the sole betterment of the ruling class is harmful. This magic allows for colonialism on steroids.

This story really shines with it's theme - Kuang dabbles in historic events (East India Trading Company, Opium Wars, Haitian revolution, etc.) to highlight how British rule tyrannized native populations. Seeing this through the eyes of marginalized (yet ever-hopeful-to-be-accepted) Swift in a quiet, refined setting of Oxford really highlights the insidious nature of this genteel violence.

Kuang shows her complicated history with Oxford as the setting. While she makes Oxford a hub of power for such atrocity, she also takes time to describe the city complete with the cozy cafes and nooks she loves.

The secondary characters felt a little stock - they remained who they were upon introduction. As such, many interactions play out the same way, adding an unneeded repetition. A common complaint would be about Letty & Victoire. Letty gets a lot of airtime for such a shallow character. It is frustrating as it keeps Victoire always on her backfoot and from shining as counter-weight to Robin, but that's also because Letty's (prevalent) viewpoint sucks.

My initial reaction to finding out that this book would be a thing was excitement. After reading the blurb, I very much remember thinking that R. F. Kuang's vision sounded really ambitious, but if she were able to accomplish it, it'd be an epic story. I wanted so much to love this, to fall into the world, to learn a new magic system in a very toxic time and place in history but with characters that I would hope to love. (As a note, I have not ready The Poppy War and have nothing of Kuang's writing to compare to, so going into this my only expectations of this story came from my own hopes that I'd have another Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell on my hands.)

Babel was described as a tonal response to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (one of my all time favorites and historical fantasy done so well) as well as a thematic response to Tartt's The Secret History (which had me a bit more hesitant ... I've not read The Secret History but I've read The Goldfinch, and after reading that one, I can tell you I have no desire to continue reading Tartt - she is not an author for me).

For those who know me well as a reader, I don't usually DNF books too often. I am entirely unopposed to DNF'ing books that are just really not working for me (or even, if there's a chance I might pick it back up again, TTFN - ta-ta for now - a book). DNFs for me are rare because I usually have a fairly good pulse on what I think I'll enjoy and what I won't. Some of my favorite books are books that I'd qualify as historical fantasy, that have a heavy magical system presence and fanastic storyline but embedded in a past time and place, and maybe even around a very eventful time and place.

Unfortunately for me, while the excitement of starting this book might have carried me through in the first 10%, it quickly wore off as I began drudging through each chapter, becoming more and more bored as I went. This felt so much less like Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell and so much more like Tartt's writing, where we have a 500+ page book plopped in our lap and as every 50 to 100 pages roll by, we wonder where the plot is that's holding it all together, that should help to keep us reading, that should leave us excited for the next moment we get to pick the book back up when we have to set it down to go about our day.

So, readers. I DNF'd at 30%. And while this book WAS intelligently written, incredibly smart, and in no form shied away from the colonisation, racism, sexism, and violence that was so prevalent in the 1800s especially in relation to the British Empire, it felt as if the characters, the magic system, and the larger story got lost in academic commentary and philosophical discussions (lectures, and more lectures, and discussions among characters about those lectures, and not much happening in between times except for characters to continue to be treated poorly, adding the author's social commentary to the mix).

There will be readers that absolutely love this book. There are early review readers that already DO love this book (5/5 stars! favorite of the year! "she did it again!"), but for me, I had a hope for what this would be, and it fell short. I know the things that keep me reading, that keep me engaged and wanting more, and Babel unfortunately lacked in those elements, though this will be no obstacle for other readers, especially those who don't depend highly on plot but lean more in the realm of literary fiction (though here, with a dash of magical realism).

So what DID I love and enjoy?
- I really loved the premise of the magical system. I wanted to SEE this more in action rather than be told about how it worked through endless lecturing.
- I love Kuang's writing style in that it's incredibly smart, sharp, and fluid. Her sentence structure is on point, and her mindful choices of high level vocabulary feels effortless.
- There were a handful of moments of light, witty banter and humor, and I wanted more of that.
- There was a small moment in Book 1 when things started to get interesting and I thought, "Oh! Here we go! We've reached the point where things start to move along now!" And then that very quickly fizzled out. I loved where it was potentially going, but then we hit a dead end it felt as if it didn't go any further.
- I did enjoy that Kuang (very purposely) chose to address the great issues of the time, but, as some reviewers have stated, I am a believer of nuance in fiction, and Kuang's social commentary was not nuanced.

What did I especially not love?
- Pacing. Pacing. Pacing. Book 1 (or Part 1) was a slog. As I got into Book 2, I thought there would be a switch, but 30% into the book and only halfway through Book 2 (of 5 total Books!) and still no change ... I couldn't do it any longer. Each chapter of each book took me on average 25-30 minutes to read through, and that didn't help matters.
- I wanted to love the characters but outside of Robin, everyone else felt like a somewhat flat sidekick that I hardly got to know. They were just there to add conversation and discussion. Maybe things change further into the book but I just didn't have any characters tugging at me to keep reading.
- For the chunk of the book I read, it just didn't feel like a story. It felt like sitting in lectures, which took what could've been an interesting and whimsical sort of magical system and made it incredibly boring to the point that I just didn't want to hear about it anymore. I wanted to see it, but instead I was told (as the characters constantly were). It felt like being dropped in a place and time that was hardly different in anyway and a very tiny bit of magic was dropped into it, but we didn't really get to see it, we only heard about it. The story got lost, the characters didn't feel fully fleshed out to be connected with on a deep level, and ultimately what could've truly been a solid historical fantasy novel felt like a historical fiction novel (heavy with social commentary) with some magical realism sprinkled in.

Overall:
I really don't know where to place this on an arbitrary star rating scale. For me, personally, I felt it was a 2, maybe 3 star (if only for her prose!) based on my own personal preferences - it just was not for me and I finally chose to set it down and move on with something different. For others, I know Babel will be rated significantly higher - the things I found to be obstacles in reading will not be obstacles for other readers, and they'll get more out of the story than I did (I can hope, anyway!).

I received an advance reader copy from Harper Voyager via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

For fans who have finished The Poppy War series; this book will scratch the itch you have had since finishing.

Babel is historical, magical and transports the reader into a world of dark academia, history, power and will give you a thirst for knowledge. Many of Kuang’s characters are morally gray, which advances the depth and impact the story has on its readers.

Kuang has a way with words & the way she writes will sweep you off your feet. Her writing is so wonderful to me because it has deep historical roots and lessons, but it also allows way for magic and fantasy. The worlds she crafts are somehow accurate while also being fictitious in nature. Her writing will break your heart, make you laugh, make you yell and make you cry.

I was honored to be given an ARC of this book. I am truly grateful. Kuang is one of my favorite authors and if you read anything by her, it's easy to tell why.

Wow so much to unpack here - RF Kuang has a rare talent to take complicated scholarly topics and translate them (pun intended) into gripping and powerful lines. This is thematically an excellent novel - with a thoroughly constructed magic system and an ending that makes you want to weep without grief and unfinished answers.

However I do wish there had been more character development and the pace in the middle of the book did drag

R.F. Kuang is back with her first novel outside of The Poppy War trilogy. Babel is a work of everything I hoped it would be: dark, brutal, and overall a thrill to read. Kaung takes us from plague ridden China to the oppulence of Oxford in this novel about what it means to be from two different worlds.

Where do I even start? I’ve been dying to read Babel ever since I saw Rebecca Kuang tweeting about this dark academia novel she was writing. And now I can’t believe I had the chance to read it.

It took me two weeks to read this book—for several reasons that don’t really matter right now. At first I was mad at myself, even if I couldn’t make the time to read this book. But then I realized it was a good thing, because it made me cherish every moment I sat down to read it. It also made me enjoy it even more, if that makes sense.

The story takes place in a world where bars of silver with words in different languages engraved on them create magic. And that magic affects everything. This happens because of exploitation, since England brings children from other countries to work for them. They train them so they can speak multiple languages, in order to help with the silver bars.

When the story starts, we meet Robin, a Chinese orphan who had to watch his mother die. He is saved by Professor Lovell, who becomes his guardian and pays for him to learn languages like Latin and Greek, so he can be admitted in the Royal Institute of Translation—or simply Babel.

When Robin steps into the tower, he loves it there. It’s everything he thought it would be and more. It gives him the chance to finally make friends, to have a family. But he soon learns that it also takes too much from him. And then he learns about the Hermes Society, a group of people who wants to tear the empire down.

I don’t want to give too much away, so I’ll try to be as objective as possible.

There’s nothing about this book that I don’t like. Well, except for the fact that I finished it. It was everything I’d hoped for when I heard about it. So I’ll list some of the things I loved about it.

The first one was how language is depicted in the book. As someone whose area is Linguistics, it was amazing to see how much thought Kuang put into describing linguistic aspects, making sure everything was thoroughly explained. It was incredible to see how it integrated the magic system and how little details about a word were extremely important for it to work.

Another thing that fascinated me was how History was presented. We usually see the colonizers’ perspectives and this time the focus was on the oppressed. Not only is this crucial to the book, but it also shows another viewpoint when it comes to Literature as well, especially because the main characters of this story aren’t white.

Which leads me to the fact that I fell in love with these characters. You can see how much they grow throughout the book, and how their struggles only bring them closer—not only to each other, but to where they’re supposed to be and to what they’re supposed to do. They are very supportive of one another and that kind of friendship is mesmerizing to see.

Now, some of the things I loved about Babel might not be that interesting for everyone, but it mattered so much to me. Seeing these characters actually learn and discuss about the subject they were studying was everything to me! I’m so tired of dark academia books that barely show the characters contemplating about something they are supposed to be passionate about, and Babel did the exact opposite.

I also loved the references to other books, texts and authors. It made the whole experience of reading and interacting with the story more substantial.

Oh, and the footnotes! Don’t even get me started on them. I used to skip them sometimes in college, but I was so excited to read them whenever they showed up in Babel. It felt like I was reading a textbook, but in a fun way.

I don’t have enough words to say how much I’ve enjoyed reading Babel, even if it destroyed me completely by the end of the book. It became one of my favorite books for sure.

I thought this was going to be a fun dark academia book, one of mysteries and intriguing characters. It could be later in the book but I’m already too annoyed and the writing is too weird. I am also a creature of habit who glances at the ending of a book first to see if I’m ready to commit my time. Seeing that this is an almost 600 page book, I need to know what ending this book is working towards.

Well.

Having seen and read it, I just can’t see myself spending time to learn and love the characters only for THAT ending. Sounds like it works for other ARC readers but as someone who primarily reads romance and dabbles outside that only occasionally, I would rather spend my time reading something else.

This is a DNF @ 6%.

The start of this book is confusing. It doesn’t know if it wants to be told in a third person omniscient, Professor Lovell, or the <i>boy’s</i> (who later will call himself Robin) POV. It’s a mix. Robin is maybe 10 at the beginning? But the book reads less like a 10 year old would think or act, but more from an older adult’s POV. So, I found the writing style itself disconnected and strange from the start. The footnotes seem like an afterthought and randomly sprinkled in with nothing to add to the story.

It also takes too long to even TRY to explain how the Chinese town they’re in (the start of this book takes place in China in the 1830s) is called Canton, the citizens speak Cantonese, but the translation of the Chinese characters is Mandarin pinyin??? There is a too late attempt to explain that Robin was born in Peking and had a family who once were wealthy merchants, and later had moved south to Canton when their wealth ran out. But it makes no sense if he was raised in Canton to speak Mandarin at all hours even if his mother spoke it, if the city he was raised in spoke only Cantonese? As someone with parents from Hong Kong and who DOES speak Cantonese, this whole mix up took me out of the book and already lost me. His schooling would’ve been in Cantonese anyways since Mandarin wasn’t widespread as an official dialect throughout China then.

We are led to believe Robin is biracial - a Chinese mother and a maybe unknown white father. Maybe more is cleared up later in the book. Like, is Professor Lovell his actual father? There is certainly a mystery there but I kind of hate him and don’t care to know.

And this book deals with colonialism? I guess. If you mean that Robin is met with racism by all the white people around him at every turn and how some random white man just stole him from his own country, basically kidnapped him to London with very little information, and adopted him as his ward. It’s all very uncomfortable to read as a Chinese person. Maybe this is a book more for white people to read because I am certainly not having a good time.

I loved the author’s work with The Poppy War and wish her the best with this book, but I am not having fun and would rather read anything else.

***Thanks to the publisher for giving me an e-ARC of this book!***

The whole book is good but that last 30% was on another level. I can't believe the ending if this book. This book was so well researched, I love when you can tell a lot of thought went into the book.

CW: racism

I received an arc through netgalley.

This book is honestly incredible. The first third of the book is dedicated to worldbuilding and explaining the "magic" system which is based on translation. The magic system is somewhat abstract but through more examples, the reader comes to understand it and it is so unique. The next second and third parts really ramp up the action and the book's themes are clear. While I did predict the ending, I do not think it was to the detriment of the story. If anything the book is very clear on what the ending needs to be and allows the reader to reach that conclusion the same way the characters do.
I do wonder if monolingual people will struggle with understanding how the magic system works as Kuang uses Chinese the most as examples which was incredibly helpful for me, but it may confuse non-Chinese readers in some ways, or it make take a little longer to get how translation works in the book.
The character work, worldbuilding, and plot development are truly great if slightly rushed for a section before the climax, but I understand why it was written that way to simulate how the characters are feeling.
I am so excited for this book to be released and I can't wait to read it again!

I have tried to formulate a comprehensive review of Babel that fully encapsulates how I felt reading it, what I thought about the plot and the writing, and just how much I loved, loved these characters l. So far all I have is incoherent babbling and screaming. My review can be summed up as this: I loved this book. It touched my heart. It’s one of my favorite books. R.F. Kuang is a completely unique voice in the fantasy genre. Her stories are heart-wrenching, beautiful, and completely transformative. What I love about R.F. Kuang’s books is learning new things. With The Poppy War, we learned about the intricacies of war and the absolute devastation it brings. With Babel, we learn so much about etymology. (Among other things, which are spoilers, so you just have to read it.) It was fascinating. Anyway, I wish I could read this book again for the first time. I loved it so, so much and I absolutely recommend it to everyone. I cannot wait to see what R.F. Kuang does next. I know it’s going to devastate me!

Amazing!!! This is easily a 5/5 story. R.F. Kuang has somehow stepped up her writing from her previous novels. A must read!!

I am here for the ferocious and intelligent storytelling that R.F. Kuang continues to bring to readers in her latest novel, Babel. Once again, the author delivers not only a well crafted, engaging, and enlightening novel, but she continues to unapologetically address the deeply impactful social issues of inequality, racism, and the casual cruelty of humanity.

In Babel, as in the Poppy Wars series, Kuang roots her story in history, this time focusing on British colonialism and the rise of global capitalism. The novel could be classified as speculative historical fiction as it is much lighter on the fantasy elements than Poppy Wars.

We experience this story through the eyes of Robin, a young Cantonese boy who is miraculously saved from a deadly cholera epidemic by a somewhat mysterious Englishman. Robin is transported to England under this man’s guardianship and is groomed for a life of scholarly work at Oxford’s Royal Institute of Translation, or Babel. At Babel, scholars like Robin use their language skills to enrich the British Empire via the inscribing of powerful translations onto silver bars, a process resulting in magic that provides structural and mechanical advantages to society. Robin quickly realizes that, as a foreigner, he is a valuable commodity and not an equal in the eyes of the institution or the Empire despite his role in their enrichment. His survival and evolution represent the primary arc of this story as we see him move from obedient ward to deeply fulfilled scholar to conflicted proto-revolutionary.

Oxford’s entrenchment in the history of the British Empire’s success makes it the perfect setting for exploring academic and cultural racism in the larger context of colonialism and capitalism. Kuang skillfully uses the richness of language and translation to demonstrate the interconnectedness of cultures, and to highlight the absurd cruelty of the systemic racism inherent in colonialism. She weaves an intricate storyline with complex characters and forces the reader to consider their own perspective in the context of these important social issues.

The reader should keep in mind that this is an entertaining book, but it is not a light read. The depth of characterization and quality of the writing and research make this book an interesting litmus test. Aside from one or two moments that feel a little too on the nose, there is little to dislike unless you are uncomfortable with the reckoning Kuang is asking you to make as a reader.

My gratitude goes out to NetGalley and Avon and Harper Voyager for access to this advance review copy in exchange for an unbiased review.