Skip to main content

Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution


Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translator' Revolution
, or as we will call it for the remainder of this review. just Babel, was nothing short of extraordinary.

I am not the biggest fan of any book that deals a lot with political and social issues, or that is too long, or, when the books are meant to be a fantasy book it has minimal to no fantasy elements until close to the end. And yet, once I started reading this one it was impossible to stop.

Are you a lover of languages? There is no doubt in my mind that the author spent hours, days, months, if not years researching the many intricacies of languages and translation. I love the study of languages. I am fluent in two, understand somewhat two others, and have studied a dead language (ancient Greek) at university. So needless to say, I was geeking out with the author throughout the whole book. I honestly do not believe this book will suit everyone, if you are not a lover of languages you might find this book very slow and very hard to get into. I just thought it was fascinating.

About halfway through, the story picks us and a little more action starts to take place. A sequence of events you do not see coming starts to unfold and it never stops surprising you, breaking your heart, and exciting you. 

Babel is told almost exclusive from the perspective of its main character, Robin Swift, a Chinese Immigrant in England in the 1800s. The Empire depends on the translations of immigrants, done on silver, to stay rich and keep on working smoothly. Immigrant kids are brought by English sponsors to study at Babel in Oxford and eventually become the translators needed around the country and the globe to keep England rich and prospering. Throughout the entire book Robin must come to terms with the inequality and unfairness of this. He was taken to Babel without a choice, his mother died and his sponsor (who also happens to be his father but never acts as such) brings him to England, gives him all the commodities he never asked for but has grown to enjoy and appreciate. As he gets older, he has to decide if his love for studying languages and the comfortable life he has gotten use to is enough. If he can truly ignore all the suffering and pain caused to others and to his motherland for the riches of the English. His close friends, also brought to the country at a young age, must decide the same.

Babel is passionate, heart breaking, and fascinating. But it is not a fantasy of dragons and slayers, assassins and magicians... it is a slow-paced magnificent work on languages, on the magic of translation, and as the title suggests, on the apparent necessity of Violence. 

Find the book here: Inklings Bookshop - Libro FM - Bookshop.Org



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

A Romance Catch Up!

 It has been a crazy month and I fell behind badly on my reviews! But here are some highlights for you. Barbarian Lover (Ice Planet Barbarians #3) Ruby Dixon  2.75/5 Although I liked this one it is my least favorite in the series so far. The book was going well until a little over the halfway point when it just doesn't read right. She accepts leaving someone behind too easily and although up to this point the book does a good job at dealing with infertility it all of sudden throws it all out of the window. So good, I will carry on with the series, but not great. A Precious Jewel (Stapleton-Downes #2) Mary Balogh  3/5 This was different, unique. And I like that about it. I have not read any other book quite like it. She is a prostitute;  he starts of as just any other client. The story was sweet and interesting . The MC comes across  rather clueless at times,  but it is somewhat endearing. The romance is believable  and they make a very charming couple! The Gunslinger's Guide to

Radiant Sin (Dark olympus) by Katee Robert [arc review]

This is sadly, not going to be a very popular review. I adore Katee Robert. But this one just wasn't for me. It wasn't a terrible book or anything like that, it just left me wanting more and very puzzled. Every one of the books in this series follows a certain trope and/or subplot genre. Neon Gods is very much a Greek Mythology retelling;  Electric Idol  has the plus size influencer and the sweet bad boy, it is a very modern contemporary romance;  Wicked Beauty , and my favorite so far has that hunger games/dystopian vibe. Radiant Sin  is a murder mystery. The 'one house'/'one train' style that has always been so popular. Here lies problem number one for me, because I don't like murder mysteries at all. Even on my teen years when I read a lot of mystery it was never those. Problem two- there were way too many characters in that house, and they all got their time on the page making it one very confusing mess. It was very hard to follow at times. I think this

The Book Hater's Book Club by Gretchen Anthony

The Book Hater's Book Club  at first appears to be about a struggling bookstore and its imminent sale. Elliot, the co-owner of Over the Rainbow Bookstore, started  The Book Hater's Book Club , a newsletter of reading recommendations for the self-proclaimed non-readers of the world, because he believed there was a book out there for everyone. Something I wholeheartedly agree with! For years he and Irma have kept the store going and always had a recommendation in hand. When you finish this book, you will have yet another list of books to read.  However, this book is about more than just books and a struggling bookstore. It is also about grief, the price of secrets, and a little more grief.  You see, Elliot is gone, and his grief-ridden business partner has agreed to sell the store to developers. Problem is, she didn't tell that to anyone until the deal was almost done. Which is making her daughters ask questions. Why is she selling? Is it grief alone? Is there something else