Babel by RF Kuang 
4.5 / 5 📜s 

I hummed and hawed over what rating to give this book. There is no question if I enjoyed it: I devoured this text in 3 days. I was enraptured with the world, intrigued in the plot, invested in the outcomes. Is this book ambitious? Yes, absolutely. Within it's pages are discussions of belonging, normalizations of abuse, systemic racism, colonialism, and classism. It does not handle all of these topics with depth or complexity. At times ham-fisted and overwrought, the text nevertheless succeeds in creating a compelling story where many others have tried and failed. 

Robin Swift is young Chinese boy rescued from a cholera outbreak in Canton and brought to London to study language in order to someday attend the illustrious college Babel, home of the British translators. In this reimagining of Imperial Britain, silver is the currency of empire, highly prized due to its ability to amplify etymological shifts in words across languages into powerful forces used to strengthen ships, create light, and even turn invisible. In a nation still heavily stratified by race, class, and gender, Robin's position as a native Chinese speaker becomes his ticket to privilege as he joins the ranks of Babel scholars. Through the years, however, Robin learns the cruelty and greed that fund his linguistic endeavors, and must choose whether he will continue to live in comfortable disillusionment, or choose to destroy the system that empowered him at the expense of others. 

Many people label this a quintessential "dark academia" piece of fiction, and I just don't think that's true. There is a school, and studies, and unspeakable cruelties committed described within. But there is also love: an abundance of it. Love for people, love for each other, love for knowledge and love for idle things. Love that, unfortunately and inevitably, cannot permeate the cruelty of the society. But it is important that it was there. 

The text is a word-nerd's delight: the language and etymology research is simply delightful. The worldbuilding is utterly fascinating with how seamless it feels. However, even in the course 500+ pages, many of the characters felt hollow and under developed. Too much time is spent explaining, with not enough time letting the characters breathe into the work. This is a shame, because the crux of the book hinges on the believability of the main four's relationship, as well as the agony of betrayal. 

Lastly, if one excepts a nuanced, critical examination of colonialism and imperialism set within the historical lens of the British Empire, this is not the book for you. Robin is a reader-expy: the book presumes no knowledge of colonialism or it's impact, and hand-holds the reader through repeated exposition and explicit villification, as if it does not trust them to see the cruelty of the system except by spelling it out overtly. As such, it never tackles it's heavy themes with any depth because the time is spent convincing the reader of their badness. 

However, with all my critics, I want to still point to the rating I have given it. I enjoyed this book, immensely, with the full knowledge it is not perfect. For anybody well-versed in colonislist history, this text may be frustrating and lacking. But for those eager to learn about the interlocking systems designed to maintain conditions of poverty, this book offers a way into understanding that may otherwise be inaccessible in rigid, scholarly texts.