Babel

Took me a while to get through the first three hundred pages, but then it really gets moving. This is not a complaint, just saying it didn't pull me in like the the Poppy War trilogy or Yellowface. I will venture that the author doesn't write male characters as well as the protagonists (or anti-heroes, depending how you read them) of her other books, but I like to see authors stretch and this is I think is a more ambitious work, almost a treatise on linguistics (kind of show-offy in a Neal Stephenson way, shades of Cryptonomicon but without the Asian stereotypes).

While there is a big Chinese allegorical alternate history element here too as with the Poppy Wars, this is more about British colonial history (a sort of love letter to her alma mater Oxford). Some readers may feel bludgeoned in an enough-already way about all the racism, that's the point, this happened (happens), stop whining like you're the real victim, enjoy your buttered scones.

This novel spends a lot of time speeding through events that it seems to not care much about. I wanted to delve more deeply into the setting and explore the experiences of the characters within academia, as they uncovered the dark mystery underneath everything, but everything is glossed over. The events that are focussed on seem not to move the plot forward, and the whole flow comes off as stilted. There is very little build-up or rising tension. Things just seem to happen, and I have never been more aware of a writer's hand steering the outcomes for the characters as I was in this book. It is all just a vehicle for the anti-colonial message, which I sympathise with. It just doesn't make for a good or interesting read. I really wish it was, because the concept is there.

Kuang came up with such an awesome idea and concept for magic. Kuang completely beat me over the head with 'colonialism bad' to the point of ruining perfectly good characters. I get it, but yeesh.

Me ha gustado mucho. Creo que es una historia juvenil que te sumerge de manera muy adecuada en los tentáculos del colonialismo, de cómo la ceguera en lo evidente maneja nuestro día a día y las justificaciones más burdas acaban saliendo a la luz por le miedo al enfrentamiento. No obstante, he de decir que me ha faltado que los personajes estén mejor construidos, que lleguemos a conocerlos mejor. Parece que lo único que guía su existencia, más allá del protagonista, es su relación con este. Por eso no le pongo las cinco estrellas.

XIX. mendearen hasieran txinatar gazte bat umezurtz geratzen da eta babesle misteriotsu batek Ingalaterrara eramaten du, inperioaren bihotzera. Inperio hori gure mundukoaren antzekoa da, baina fantasia puntu batekin.

Zehaztuko ez dizkizuedan arrazoiengatik hizkuntzalaritzak garrantzi handia du liburuan eta agertzen den magia sistema oso erakargarria iruditu zait.

Inperialismo britainiarraren kritika zorrotza egiten du Rebecca F. Kuang-ek liburukote honetan. Ia 550 orri dituen arren ondo eusten dio istorioaren tentsioari. Idazlearen beste lan batzuek ere itxura bikaina dute, esaterako "Opioaren gerra" trilogiak. eu.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebecca_F._Kuang

A dense, multi-layered story that opens up a window into golden age era Britain, painting a vivid picture of the colonialist zeitgeist with all the casual and flagrant racism, exploitation and slavery that comes with it. In particular, it highlights the critical role of intellectual institutions (by example of Oxford) and uses language as stand-in example of how foreign culture is imported and in turn used to opress the colonised countries while further strengthening the existing power structures. To use a coming-of-age "wizard" story as the backdrop is quite a genial move, making the whole subject matter all the more relatable on a very personal level. This book manages to educate about many different subjects that would normally be quite boring to learn about in such a fascinating, thrilling, moving way - I could barely manage to put the book down every once in a while.

Dark academy, прекрасне за атмосферою. Читається довго, але із задоволенням. Захотіла прочитати після того, як закінчила «Жовтолику», бо був цікавий доробок авторки, адже пише вона чудово.

Книжка, яка починається легко та, з першого погляду, щасливо, поступово стає важкою та темною. На героїв тисне вага відповідальності та обрушується неприємна правда, і разом з ними цей тягар відчуває і читач.

Після прочитання захотілось більше дізнатись про колоніальну Англію, в книзі багато політики та дипломатії, роздумів про відповідальність за наслідки дій або навіть бездіяльності.

Впродовж сюжету головні герої буквально піднімають голови над книжками і стикаються з реальним світом. Так, боляче, так, не хочеться втрачати ілюзію безпеки, але разом з тим, я раділа разом з ними, що вони все-таки спробували подивитись в обличчя кривдникам та пригнічувачам, знайти з ними спільну мову, будучи при цьому — іронічно — у Вавилоні. Шкода тільки, що бар'єрів виявилось більше, ніж тільки один мовний.

There is so much to love about this book, I'm not sure where to start. There's a very clear, explicit association: power comes from our differences, and our diversity. The book reeks with a love of language and culture, and with a careful, systematic, structured description of (and dismantling of) imperialism. It emphasizes that with a long enough lever, a small group can move the world - and that knowledge workers in imperialist nations have that lever, if they can only notice. I found it fascinating, painful, and informative - and the pace picked up as it went. Wholeheartedly recommend this book, especially to tech workers like me, and language lovers.

Content warnings for death, a lot of death, and casual colonial racism, a lot of that too.

What first struck me was how this book used a smidge of magic to allow certain aspects of themes to be easier to comprehend. The writing does something with themes where it makes them recognizable and able to be investigated in more profound ways by shearing off the sides, so to speak. Yet while I noticed this up front, I was surprised how deep the book went as it reached its zenith and turned toward a conclusion. There were comments about colonialism and empire that I recognized, but the way they were delved into thanks to the aforementioned tactic struck me more deeply than I could have expected. The characters, despite being somewhat symbolic in their deployment, also grew on me immensely. It made me think, and it made my eyes tear up a few times. And that's without mentioning all the fun translation, history, and cultural movement details the writing wove in so elegantly! As a professional translator, it captured my intellect, my heart, and my imagination.

A truly amazing book. The voice is powerful, the vibe immaculate. I hate to compare a wonderful work of fantasy to Harry Potter, but it scratches an itch to have a British magical school story that is so well written. Also of note is the way she writes the main characters friendships, it is the most wholesome display of platonic devotion I've ever read. Between that and her descriptions of life on campus I feel like I lived the life of an academic, and experienced things second hand that I've never gotten the chance to before.