After reading and enjoying the Poppy War trilogy, I was excited to see a new book by R.F. Kuang. I found the world of Babel intriguing right away. It is mostly set in Victorian era England, but where much of the technological progress of the industrial revolution has been replaced by a form of magic imbued into silver bars. The people working the magic into the silver are the translators of Oxford University. They work on finding translations of words from various languages into English, though many words cannot be translated directly from one language to another. This breakdown in communication fuels the magic of these silver bars. Some of the bars do simple things like make carriages or boats move faster, while others do more complex tasks like making a person invisible.
Our main character, Robin, is an orphaned child from Canton, China. He is taken to England by a professor from Oxford after his family dies of a mysterious illness. Unsurprisingly, the professor is not adopting Robin for completely altruistic reasons. The translators have discovered that as Europe has developed and their languages have been more learned by more people, the effectiveness of the bars from those languages has become less potent. Translations from Mandarin, Arabic, and other languages further from Europe are now in high demand. For this reason, many of the students at Babel are children of other countries who are now being “adopted” into in service for the British Empire.
The criticism and condemnation of colonialism is woven into all the pages of Babel. It draws you and its characters in with a comforting Hogwarts style setting. Young students studying in a magical school, dealing with the interpersonal dramas of teenagers while they study for exams and worry about being late for class. The glow of Oxford lulls you into a false sense of security until it is smashed by casual and sometimes blatant racism. Robin is allowed to experience the joys and wonders of Oxford, but never allowed to forget that he is an outsider. That he should feel lucky and grateful to be studying in England and offering up his language as another resource to be consumed by the British Empire.
Babel is simultaneously entertaining and heartbreaking, but also educational. For its social commentary primarily, but also for its numerous notes on translation. I usually find myself annoyed by footnotes, but there is almost always an interesting (or enraging) note waiting for you at the bottom of many pages. Kuang has a passion for translation, and it comes through clearly in these notes. I thoroughly enjoyed Babel, and I am excited to see what she works on next.
