Babel

Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution

De: R. F. Kuang

Narrado por: Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Billie Fulford-Brown

From award-winning author R. F. Kuang comes Babel, a thematic response to The Secret History and a tonal retort to Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell 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.

Babel is 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 its knowledge 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?

Supplemental enhancement PDF accompanies the audiobook.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 R. F. Kuang (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers

The novel language lovers have been waiting for

Beautifully narrated. I was drawn in immediately. And the novel itself is so lovely. As a student of history and someone who works in the language industry (which is still incidentally dominated by Britain), I found it to be brilliantly conceived, well researched and expertly told. It’s the best novel I’ve read since A Gentleman in Moscow. If you like Amor Towles, Anthony Doerr and Donna Tartt you’ll appreciate the ambition and skill behind this historical fiction. As someone who doesn’t typically prefer fantasy writing, I found that the fantastical elements did not distract in any way from the novel’s historical relevance and integrity. It’s a love letter to language that highlights the role language played (and still plays) in geopolitics, conquest and resistance. Just brilliant.

It ended up being something totally different

It end up being something so different than what started. Half of the book everything changes into a different narrative and I have to say I liked much more the first half. However, this world is engaging and interesting all the way through, Its a delight in literature and the love of translation. But also is a wonderful study on colonialism and explotation. It also gives a raw reality on inmigration and cultural explotation.
Definitely worth discovering

Huge Highs, Low Lows

Starts off super interesting. This book has an amazing magic system. Using language and etymology as your magic is so unique and fascinating. It is so interesting and really drew me in to learn more. They tie the magic system in well with the theme of race, identity and colonialism. Powerful writing that really demonstrates what it must’ve been like for minorities from the British Colonies in the early 18th century.

And then, that’s it. Nothing profound happens. The main character is extremely passive outside of two moments in the book. The characters, while diverse, are super bland and too similar to stand out much. Nothing really happens for about 15 hours worth of this book and it shows. Toward the last half I was counting down the time until it was over it was so boring. The ending was very anti-climatic.

The topic of colonialism and race are so well done, that the book looses that certain whimsy which makes you want to reread a book. You want find Harry Potter levels of excitement or The Witcher levels of unique and likable characters or Game Of Thrones level of story beats. Is the aspects of race, colonialism and identity well done? Absolutely! But it wasn’t exactly fun. I’ll pass on any sequels.

Is it worth a read? Yes. The magic

Fantasy….or possible reality

Took me about 6 chapters to get into the book, not my typical novel but OH wow! Fantastic adventure that makes you question everything.

Enthralling

Fantastic book and amazing narration. The book was wonderful but I was truly blown away by the narrator, he made it such a joy to listen too.

slow start, well worth it

this book was recommended to me by a friend. I had no idea what I was getting into. I was honestly kind of bored for awhile into the beginning, but I loved all the getting into the origins of words and the translations so I was into it. then things started happening and wow, the last third is crazy. the setup was needed. very good book. I would be interested in a second.

Loved it!

The ending was not what I expected but I definitely liked all of the book, especially the explanations of certain texts and words.

Small Plot for Length of Book-- Heavy-Handed

Babel is very long for having a very simple point. It's basically a heavy-handed statement about the evils of imperialism and racism. Both truly are awful, but the author doesn't add anything new or make her point subtly enough to make good literature. The actual plot about the silver bars is a silly veneer. It seems like she was digging for an original idea, couldn't come up with anything good, and used an idea that might have made a good short story. The genera of magical realism also doesn't fit to me. This seems like super weak fantasy in which it would have been just as easy to use realism instead of fantasy... e.g. people fighting about gold or a technology. Sandwiching silver between words to create magic just seems incredibly anticlimactic. To me, the weakness of the "magic" plot just highlights the fact that the book is actually about being angry at being a minority and feeling marginalized. Again, that's a great subject, but would have been better on its own and with more character development. Books with magic need for the magic to be significant. The characters are flat as well, which makes it even more unfortunate that the magic part of the plot isn't more interesting. Super engaging, round, characters, could have compensated for the otherwise boring plot. The murder part of the plot is insanely stupid. Having the protagonists give totally different stories to everyone instead of just claiming that the victim disappeared is so stupid that I sped the book speed up another 20% to get through it (it was already at 135% normal speed by then). Basically, the author must be both smart and incredibly stupid at the same time. She appears to know facts, but not what to do with them.

Annihilating !

I didn’t know what to expect from this book.
The title was enticing and promised
Vast rewards to those brave enough to follow through this intricate story.
My recommendation is to not give up .
I did a combination of book read and audio.RF Kuang is an author who leaves us with a gaping hole in our chest. Well worth the effort.

Great!

It was a great story that I really enjoyed listening to. Will read it again