I have really enjoyed the previous R.F. Kuang books I have read. They are unlike anything else I’ve read and might not be easy to digest, but are nonetheless great. So of course Babel has been on my TBR since it was released. And now I have finally read it! Obviously I wanted to share my thoughts on the book with you all. So let’s jump in!

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a historical fantasy epic that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British Empire

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel. The tower and its students are the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver-working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as the arcane craft serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide . . .

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

This is a hard review to write! I’m not completely sure on my feelings on this book haha. But hopefully they become more clear as I’m writing this review. The first thing I have to say is that this is a great story. I’m just not sure if it was an enjoyable one for me.

The story starts off pretty slowly. We follow Robin Smart’s journey to Babel and his experience living and studying at Babel. With a slow paced story like this I usually have to be invested in the characters to enjoy the story and it took me a while before I started to appreciate Robin. He was a pretty flat character in my opinion. At Babel he forms a friend group with Letty, Ramy and Victoire. He and his friends are all outsiders, because of their skin color or their gender. To me it felt like that was the thing that was most used to describe them, and I couldn’t tell you much else about them.

For a big part of the story, I wasn’t really sure what the point of the book was. There is a long introduction and at some point I just didn’t really care anymore. If it wasn’t for the audiobook, I’m not sure if I would’ve continued. At some point things do start happening (and I was happy I hadn’t read the synopsis all the way through because over half of the book is spoiled in my opinion haha). I was definitely more interested in the plot of the story from that point on. It became more fast paced and I felt like we were going somewhere.

This book is about colonialism, racism and slavery and it was so interesting reading how Robin had to grapple with his own feelings surrounding these topics. I also liked the ending of the book, it was definitely not what I was expecting. And I may have shed a tear or two haha. Based on the last couple of chapters I would say I enjoyed this book, but I’m not sure if that is enough to make up for the lack of plot and my lack of enjoyment in the first big chunk of the book. I think this is a book you have to experience for yourself, it is pretty polarising. But R.F. Kuang’s books tend to end up like that more often than not haha.