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A review by andmarstan
Babel by R.F. Kuang
4.0
4.5/5 stars
Wow, this book was truly a journey.
For the positives, RF Kuang knows her stuff. The amount of time and love and effort put into this novel is so clear; I learned so much from this book in terms of history and linguistics (I know that's only scratching the surface). I've added a ton of books to my reading list as a result so that I can learn more. My favorite part of the book was the first 1/3. She captures the experience of being in a highly competitive undergraduate setting perfectly - so perfectly that I started having flashbacks to my own experiences. I loved the set up for the story, and I was so excited to see where it would go.
Onto the negatives, I would say the middle 1/3 of the novel dragged on a bit for my taste. It felt very slow and a bit directionless, and as a result I wasn't super motivated to pick up the book. The characters didn't feel fully fleshed out, which was a shame because I loved the set up for their personalities in the first 1/3 and was so excited to see how they would progress. Another issue I had is that there was an incredible amount of telling instead of showing, to the point where it felt redundant and seemed to assume that the reader wouldn't be able to put the pieces of plot and theme together themselves. The world building itself wasn't fleshed out enough for me; it almost felt like the author was holding back a bit from fleshing certain things out past a historical citation. It definitely didn't feel like a fantasy book to me, though there is a fantastical/magical element.
Back to the positives, I really loved the last 1/3 of the book! It felt very raw and real, and I really enjoyed the strategic planning elements. I couldn't stop reading because I really needed to know what was going to happen, and it definitely came together for me at the end (though I did kind of seeing it coming, Chekhov's silver and all). England really f***ed with so much of the world, and I appreciated RF Kuang's deeply-researched take on colonialism and how translation and language was used to abuse and control other countries.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this! Was it perfect? No; however, it does tackles a challenging and important topic in an interesting way. Like I said, I did really enjoy reading it, and I'm excited to read more of the books RF Kuang recommends at the end of the novel.
Wow, this book was truly a journey.
For the positives, RF Kuang knows her stuff. The amount of time and love and effort put into this novel is so clear; I learned so much from this book in terms of history and linguistics (I know that's only scratching the surface). I've added a ton of books to my reading list as a result so that I can learn more. My favorite part of the book was the first 1/3. She captures the experience of being in a highly competitive undergraduate setting perfectly - so perfectly that I started having flashbacks to my own experiences. I loved the set up for the story, and I was so excited to see where it would go.
Onto the negatives, I would say the middle 1/3 of the novel dragged on a bit for my taste. It felt very slow and a bit directionless, and as a result I wasn't super motivated to pick up the book. The characters didn't feel fully fleshed out, which was a shame because I loved the set up for their personalities in the first 1/3 and was so excited to see how they would progress. Another issue I had is that there was an incredible amount of telling instead of showing, to the point where it felt redundant and seemed to assume that the reader wouldn't be able to put the pieces of plot and theme together themselves. The world building itself wasn't fleshed out enough for me; it almost felt like the author was holding back a bit from fleshing certain things out past a historical citation. It definitely didn't feel like a fantasy book to me, though there is a fantastical/magical element.
Back to the positives, I really loved the last 1/3 of the book! It felt very raw and real, and I really enjoyed the strategic planning elements. I couldn't stop reading because I really needed to know what was going to happen, and it definitely came together for me at the end (though I did kind of seeing it coming, Chekhov's silver and all). England really f***ed with so much of the world, and I appreciated RF Kuang's deeply-researched take on colonialism and how translation and language was used to abuse and control other countries.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this! Was it perfect? No; however, it does tackles a challenging and important topic in an interesting way. Like I said, I did really enjoy reading it, and I'm excited to read more of the books RF Kuang recommends at the end of the novel.