R.F. Kuang
Apparently I am in a phase of exploring colonization (Civilizations and Sam Adams). Babel is a fantasy novel set in Oxford in the mid 1800's. England is the dominant colonizer in the world and extending the reach of her Empire. The power for this domination comes primarily from the Institute of Translation at Oxford, where magical silver-working is centered. The magic in this world manifests in differences in translated meanings. For example, if the word 'sleep' in English is matched with sleep from another language, but the new 2nd language sleep really has meaning of 'sleep comfortably', when both of these words are engraved on silver, the difference in the translation manifests. In this example, comfort. So applying this magic to a stagecoach ride would make the ride comfortable. Magical shocks. The Institute for Translation spends its time looking for useful translation pairs to do anything from holding up buildings to making war ships travel faster to making guns more powerful. Enter into this world the need for translators in new languages and our protagonist (Robin Swift) is a new student, immigrated from China (or rather, brought from China as the bastard son of a Translation professor). Robin meets his fellow first year students (an Indian boy from Calcutta, a Haitian girl, and an English noble-girl). They each must encounter and struggle with race, gender and cultural oppression while making decisions about their participation in the oppression engine of the translation institute. Really fun, while making you think about all the small ways we participate in the colonization/empire engine everyday.
4 stars (out of 4)
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