Babel Indigo Special Edition: A Novel

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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 . . .

That’s just what translation is, I think. That’s all speaking is. Listening to the other and trying to see past your own biases to glimpse what they’re trying to say. Showing yourself to the world, and hoping someone else understands." For a book about language and the importance of its impact, there’s a bizarrely hypocritical employment of it. It doesn’t make sense to write a historical novel about language if you then employ politically contemporary language to develop your characters’ identities, and how they self-identify. Why make it a historical novel at all if you disregard the language limitations of the period? Why write about the nuances and inadequacies of language within a historical period if you ignore all the limitations of language during that period and instead have your characters understand race and discussions about race and identity with language that’s only come into existence in the past 50 years? If you only read one book this year, read this one. Through the incredibly believable alternative HF, Kuang has distilled the truth about imperialism and colonization in our world. Kuang’s depth of knowledge of history and linguistics is breathtaking. This book is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, a true privilege to read.” - Jesse Sutanto, author of Dial A for Aunties Product DetailsAn astonishing mix of erudition and emotion. What Kuang has done here, I have never before seen in literature.” - Tochi Onyebuchi, author of Goliath Ok, so we’ve covered the fact that Kuang uses inaccurate political language regarding race and social status for this period of time (and the characters have an awareness of these issues in a language which is unbefitting to the period). But Oh GOD, the Opium debate. This is probably where I got the most irritated. No offence to Gen Z, but there’s a stereotype of your generation for being preachy know-it-all/experts in every possible situation, and this scene really fell into that stereotype (I don’t agree with this stereotype of you, by the way, I’m just using the stereotype as an example so you can picture this scene). This book, besides managing to both annoy me and bore me to tears also managed to almost ruin footnotes for me. (That’s a crime, given that I, as a devoted Terry Pratchett fan, have not previously met a footnote I didn’t love — until Babel came along). Magic System (1/5): This is the weakest part of Babel. Silver is magical because...it just is. In my opinion, this book would have been much better as historical fiction rather than fantasy. I found myself thrown out of the story every time magical silver made an appearance. I liked the novel best when it stayed in the realm of actual history. Second, RF Kuang has a very good grasp of readability. For example, she doesn’t have massive paragraphs and massive sentences. She has also modernized the language for 1828. There are no thees or thous.

Babel is set in Britain in the first half of the 1800s. A young Chinese boy is brought from Canton to London by a language professor and taught Latin, Greek and Chinese in preparation for his future studies at Babel-- Oxford University's Institute of Translation. In this alternate world enchanted silver is used to power the empire, and it is the careful application of language that enables silver's power to be harnessed. In short, it is about how colonial powers used language to control and profit from others. The magic system was so original in nature yet failed miserably in execution. I think people really underestimate how difficult magic systems are to create: they think they can just throw in magic and that’s all that’s necessary. Don’t get me wrong, Kuang can write when she actually does it, but rather than write a scene, Kuang chooses to summarise it, and the same goes for her magic system. I really dislike books which tell, not show, and this whole book is written in this way, and the same law applies to its magic system. https://limitededitionbook com/2021/05/01/limited-edition-adolf-galland-lot-2-signed-books-leather-wrap-slipcase-rare-mint/ Awards: B&N's Discover Winner, Best Books of 2022". Shelf Awareness. October 17, 2022 . Retrieved 2022-11-27. I mean, you can’t criticise racism and then reduce all your characters to caricatures of their racial and social stereotypes. I mean, come on — you made the Irish girl THROW A POTATO AT SOMEONE for crying out loud. Good grief.

But that’s the beauty of learning a new language. It should feel like an enormous undertaking. It ought to intimidate you. It makes you appreciate the complexity of the ones you know already.’”

https://limitededitionbook com/2021/12/07/dune-by-frank-herbert-waterstones-exclusive-foreword-by-hari-kunzru-sprayed/Mainly, though, Babel is about colonialism and revolution. Robin questions how he should live, whether he should focus on his own survival while at the heart of the colonial empire or resist. Both come at a personal cost: the weight of denial or the risk of his life. Kuang takes the reader along Robin’s realistic journey of realizing the necessity of resistance and violence to achieve decolonization. This book is most heartbreaking not in the parts related to death, but in the parts about hoping and hoping to one day belong and be valued in a place that does not see him as human—and the realization that it never will. Like with the Poppy War trilogy (and in my opinion, even more than TPW), I do think Kuang gets caught up with painting large thematic statements and subsequently leaves behind the characters. But I enjoy Kuang’s writing specifically for her themes, so I can’t exactly complain. Alright so what does this have to do with Babel or am I just delusional? Well I’ll let you be the judge of that.