Babel

For a good chunk of it, it's a coming-of-age and "magic school" tale with a pinch of the chosen one narrative. The later gets subverted in a very interesting way. And soon there are more unexpected and emotional twists which lead to a confrontation with the imperialist and racist authorities. The magic system Kuang came up with is very original and intriguing. Often, with magic, language or the right words play a role but basing it on the power of translation seems quite unique. I loved all the in-depth discussion of language and translation. It inspired a friend and me to come up with our own word pairs and speculate about what those pairs would do. It's also one of the few fantasy stories that deals with how magic would be used in a capitalist society in a realistic manner. My only major point of critique is that the narrative is perhaps a bit too clear cut in the sense that the villains are very villainous and all the students of colour develop a modern understanding of racism and colonialism very quickly even though that would have been unlikely given the time and setting. The ending is very emotional and moving. I'd love another book set in the same world, preferably a sequel.

This is a historical novel about a small group of scholars (mostly of color) in Oxford in the 1830's, with an added fantastical element of magical silver powered by language and translations. Historically, it covers a modified industrial revolution, British colonialism, opium wars with China, and even gets into the Luddites, all impacted and warped by the British empire being powered by silver. What I especially appreciated is that the magic silver mostly just exacerbated issues and functioned as a metaphor for power in all of these historical situations; this is not a book about historical divergence due to magic but rather a book where the magic is used as a metaphor to reexamine things in a fresh light.

The idea of magic silver here powered by translations is just so well done. Scholars (and thus language) are extracted from colonies to power silver magic as a parallel to other resource extraction. The scholars are ultimately not really wanted for who they are but for the utility of what they know. And, I also love the detail that the empire is eating its own tail by its continual expansion and globalization weakening the magic. It reminds me a little of Yoon Ha Lee's Phoenix Extravagant where the magic system itself was intricately tied to colonial resource extraction.

It's a slow-building book that doesn't pull its punches about colonialism, racism, white folks siding with the establishment, or (as the subtitle to the book directly informs you) the necessity of violence. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

This memorable novel is both ingeniously creative and importantly timely in its message. R.F. Kuang weaves together a story that injects magical realism into a novel that is both historical and revisionist. That is, this is a story that asks us to imagine the road not taken at a certain time in history, and the ethics of the decisions of those in power–and question how and why such power came to be, in the first place.

I felt that the characters were well-developed and realistically complex, making it possible for the reader to feel the emotion in their stories. The plot was also well crafted and paced.

Instead of summarizing the plot, I want to simply recommend this novel, which I knew nothing about before I started reading. Part of the magic, for me, was simply reading on to discover the shape of the world as it is created by this author.

Bravo!

It was good, really good. The characters were interesting and three dimensional and enjoyable, the setting and plot was engaging and high stakes, and the translation lectures were tailor made for language nerds like me.

However, don’t do like I did and go into this expecting a fantasy novel. This is, mostly, historical fiction with a magic system reskinning technological progress in Victorian England.

This is not a knock on it, though, saying that it’s superfluous; it has a very interesting, if specific effect on the reader’s relationship with the world. It moves all of the varied goods and services that imperial Britain used to maintain power over their colonies into one spot and one profession: Oxford translators. As I see it, the silver magic system mostly exists to move the political center of Britain into this area. And I enjoyed it if only for this facet, if not for all the other symbolism it brings to the table.

However, I think it’s easy to be misled as a reader, that you will be seeing imaginative “what if?”s that are the bread and butter of alternate history fantasy novels.

To sum up, I recommend giving this novel a try if you are at all interested in Victorian England, in translation/linguistics, or just enjoy a really good, tragic, character driven story.