Babel by RF Kuang

 

The Babel Institute at Oxford fuels the entire British economy.  It is the place where translators are trained and the most special of these, are trained in the engraving of silver bars that then have magic properties.  Maybe they make a factory's machines run smoother.  Maybe they make a cart horse's load feel lighter.  Regardless, most things have silver installed and only those at Babel can make them.

But not everyone can be a translator.  The best are those who came to England as a child and grew up bilingual.  That is Robin's story.  He was rescued as a child from Canton and brought and raised in England under the guardianship of one of Babel's professors.  Now he is studying at Babel along with Ramy who came from India, Victiore from Jamaica and Letty, who is from a wealthy elite English family.  The four are each other's society and they band together.

At first Robin is excited and feels privileged to be at this place he trained for all his life.  He is wowed by the traditions of Oxford and amazed that he will be one of the elite himself when he finishes his work there.  But he soon hears about a society that doesn't agree with Babel.  It's called Hermes and it's goal is to destroy Babel and the colonization of other countries that it was built to support.  Robin finds he has a half brother named Griffin who attended Babel but now is one of the leaders of Hermes.  He wants Robin to do the same.  Robin becomes more educated about the disparities of British society and he starts to wonder if he is in the right place.  What will he choose?

RF Kuang has been a force in the fantasy world since she burst onto the scene with her Poppy War trilogy, all of which were Hugo nominees.  She attended both Cambridge and Oxford and is currently working on a doctorate in Chinese studies at Yale.  She has worked herself as a translator.  In this novel, she poses the question about whether violence is the only vehicle that can change an entrenched society and whether it is a force for ultimate good.  Readers will follow Robin on his journey from a grateful child to an adult who sees the evil in the world and questions his role in it.  This book is recommended for fantasy readers.