Book Review: Babel, a literary and etymological masterpiece

This is a unique, engaging, and extremely well-written book by the author of the Poppy War. An alternative history with interweaving themes of translation, colonialism, etymology, student relationships, and the human condition, presented in a complex plot and subplot Narrative in a world that displays the author’s in-depth research.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

This book reminds me a bit of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (see my review here) and N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season (see my review here). But the inventiveness and the complexity and depth of the setting, plot, and characters exceeds those excellent books.

Having taught ancient Greek and Latin, and possessing reading proficiency in French, German, and ancient Hebrew, a book about translations, Etymologies, and the power of words is going to interest me. But the brilliant Fantasy alternative history of this book, Where etymologically related words produce magical powers, an incredible delight to read.

The characters are full, complex, with conflicting elements and varying levels of good and bad. Even though the author is attempting to display the evils of colonialism, she also presents Alternative views of colonialism, and can have her characters adopt an opposite but compelling viewpoints. Most authors cannot do this, they simply present characters with their one-sided view and opposing views as blind and wrong. Thus, this Novel feels genuine And realistic, even though it is set in an alternative history that includes magic.

Here are a few of my favorite passages to give you a flavor of the novel:

“He quashed his memories too. His life in Canton – his mother, his grandparents, a decade of running about the docks – it all proved surprisingly easy to shed, perhaps because this passage was so jarring, the break so complete. He’d left behind everything he’d known. There was nothing to cling to, nothing to escape back to. His world now was Professor Lovell, Mrs Piper, and the promise of a country on the other side of the ocean. He buried his past life, not because it was so terrible but because abandoning it was the only way to survive. He pulled on his English accent like a new coat, adjusted everything he could about himself to make it fit, and, within weeks, wore it with comfort. In weeks, no one was asking him to speak a few words in Chinese for their entertainment. In weeks, no one seemed to remember he was Chinese at all.”

“Language does not exist as a nomenclature for a set of universal concepts,’ Professor Playfair went on. ‘If it did, then translation would not be a highly skilled profession – we would simply sit a class full of dewy-eyed freshers down with dictionaries and have the completed works of the Buddha on our shelves in no time. Instead, we have to learn to dance between that age-old dichotomy, helpfully elucidated by Cicero and Hieronymus: verbum e verbo and sensum e sensu…”

“Professor Lovell’s mouth quirked up in a smile. ‘It’s a bit much, isn’t it?’
Robin sighed. ‘Just a tad, sir.’
‘But that’s the beauty of learning a new language. It should feel like an enormous undertaking. It ought to intimidate you. It makes you appreciate the complexity of the ones you know already.”

I am stunned by the amount of research the author must have done to write this book, And has used that research properly and effectively without overwhelming the reader.

If you love words, alternative history, and languages, and appreciate finely-researched literary and beautiful prose, you will find this book highly engaging in quite a delight.