Book Review: Babel; or, The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution by R. F. Kuang

I had never heard of this book until it won this year’s Nebula Award for best novel from the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association. Since then it has won several other awards, and since awards season is not over, there will probably be more. It is a terrific book; it well deserves the accolades. Seldom have I read a fantasy so intelligent, complex, absorbing, character-driven, nuanced, surprising, and yet despite its fantastical elements so grounded in the world in which we actually live.

Babel is an alternate history novel set in the 1800s at the height of the British Empire. In it, the crown jewel of Oxford University is a literal tower of Babel, a linguistics center that creates the magic that runs the empire. The magic is based on the use of the element of silver combined with codes matching words from two or more different languages. To create the effect that powers the magic, silver workers must be able to know the languages they use so well that they can think in them. Since they require this level of expertise in diverse languages, magical silver workers are scarce; professors from Babel search the world for suitable candidates.

The main protagonist, Robin Swift, is a half-Chinese and half-British young man born in Canton, China. His mentor, who turns out to be also his father, Professor Lovell, transports Robin from Canton to England and arranges for tutors for him so that he can qualify for the language school at Babel. Once he begins, he becomes close to the other first-year students: Ramy, from Calcutta, India; Letitia, or Letty, from an aristocratic English family; and Victoire, from Haiti. Reading about these four teens learning to interact and trust one another in the midst of their studies and discoveries at Babel, I was reminded of the group of kids who get together in the Harry Potter series (which, I must admit, I have watched in films but never read). However, in Harry Potter the magic is presented simply and straightforwardly, while in Babel the approach is much more complex, being dependent on principles of linguistics. It turns out that when they arrive, European languages are becoming less effective in bonding with English to create magic; this is the reason for recruiting Robin and Ramy and Victoire from the more distant reaches of the empire.

Speaking of the empire, though, the students eventually find out that there are more sinister reasons for their recruitment than the mere making of magic. Babel’s true purpose, besides self-enrichment, involves strengthening Britain’s oppressive hold on its colonies so that aristocrats and capitalists can get rich at the expense of everyone else. When Robin’s cohort accompanies Lovell on an excursion to China, they discover that Babel is intent on assisting the empire in making war on China to ensure that the lucrative Chinese market for the debilitating drug opium remains open. This, of course, causes Robin and his friends to question their roles as Babel linguists.

I am only skimming over a few highlights. The story is meticulously researched both in history and in linguistics. Kuang obviously knows her languages. When she references a Chinese word, for instance, she not only gives the phonetic pronunciation but also the character in Chinese. These details are often included in footnotes, which give the story additional verisimilitude. While reading the novel I was often amazed at the depth of research and scholarship the writer must have gone through to get it all right.

Concerning the evil of empire and the negative effect that conquering nations have on their colonies, I was reminded of another book I have read recently: Power and Progress: Our Thousand-Year Struggle over Technology and Prosperity by Daron Acemoglu and Simon Johnson. The authors point out that over the last thousand years of history technology has invariably been used not to benefit all of humankind, but rather to enrich very few at the expense of the multitudes. Kuang uses the highly profitable silver-working magic in her novel as a devastatingly effective metaphor of this principle.

All in all, it has been years, perhaps decades, since I have so thoroughly enjoyed a fantasy novel. Don’t miss this one. It’s a sure classic.