Babel, or The Necessity of Violence

This is my first book of Kuang's, and I'm glad I started with Babel, because I loved it. It's set in mid-1800s, primarily in Oxford, in a world where language (and specifically the translation of languages) powers the modernization of the world and the expansion of the British empire. Ostensibly, it's the story of a linguistically brilliant young boy, who is groomed from an early age to become one of the vaulted translators. But really it's an indictment of all the ills of this world: colonialism, exploitation, & prejudices (racism, sexism, classism, etc).

I love words and language (I always say that in another life I would've liked to be a translator), and I appreciate how language is really at the heart of the story. I also enjoyed the incorporation of the ancient story of Babel, the dedication to detail of 19th century Oxford, the accuracy of the casual disdain coming from the elites, and the imperfect characters. And after if finished reading, I start thinking about the exceedingly precise research that must have gone into the translations incorporated throughout the whole book, which is just impressive!

I keep seeing it billed as a fantasy, and then some reviews that didn't like it because it didn't have enough fantasy elements... And I think that's because it's NOT a fantasy novel! It's an alternative history with magical realism, and I get that maybe that's splitting hairs, but they are different in my opinion.