R.F. Kuang was only 19 years old when she published her first novel The Poppy Wars. I discovered her only recently. She has had several books since her debut. I have read two. Yellowface, which I listened to on Audible and found it to be annoying, and Babel which I am reviewing today and enjoyed a lot. Here is my Book Review Babel by R.F. Kuang.

Speculative History

I enjoy the genre of Speculative History, the re-imaging of historical events with a “what if” twist. Often these novels have a magical theme or fantasy theme. Kuang has written several novels that fall into the fantasy theme, including Babel.

I will admit the first quarter or so of this book I couldn’t really grasp what was going on…but once I realized this wasn’t historical fiction, rather re-imagined, it began to make sense.

Oxford 1830

A young Chinese boy is taken to England from Canton to be raised and educated by a wealthy man. The boy takes the English name of Robin Swift. He lives a strange life of intense study often being paraded by his benefactor as Chinese student lucky to be in England. When Robin comes of age, and without any warning, he is enrolled into the Royal Institute of Translation at Oxford.

Silver

Robin’s only friends at the Institute are three other’s who don’t fall into the white male category; a boy from India and two women. Their differences bind them together. But they begin to learn how silver has manipulated everything in British society and created vast wealth, power and colonialism. Through the secretive and magical power of silver, the students become tangled in a dangerous effort to usurp the hierarchy and take control.

Book Review Babel by R.F. Kuang

Some of this book I found fascinating and engaging, particularly as I began to unravel some of the hidden secrets in the story. The amount of research that must have been done to write such an epic novel is incredible. But there were parts I also found fault in, a lot of violence and coincidence. I wasn’t particularly fond in most of the characters.

But if you like history, and fantasy, and a grand saga you might like Babel. Thank you for reading my book review Babel by R.F. Kuang.

****Four stars for Babel by R.F. Kuang.

See last week’s book review The Circle of Days by Ken Follett.

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