Babel cover art

Babel

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

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Babel

By: R. F. Kuang
Narrated by: Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Billie Fulford-Brown
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About this listen

THE #2 SUNDAY TIMES AND #1 NYT BESTSELLER

‘One for Philip Pullman fans’
THE TIMES

‘This one is an automatic buy’
GLAMOUR

‘Ambitious, sweeping and epic’
EVENING STANDARD

‘Razor-sharp’
DAILY MAIL

‘An ingenious fantasy about empire’
GUARDIAN

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

Oxford, 1836.

The city of dreaming spires.

It is the centre of all knowledge and progress in the world.

And at its centre is Babel, the Royal Institute of Translation. The tower from which all the power of the Empire flows.

Orphaned in Canton and brought to England by a mysterious guardian, Babel seemed like paradise to Robin Swift.

Until it became a prison…

But can a student stand against an empire?

An incendiary new novel from award-winning author R.F. Kuang about the power of language, the violence of colonialism, and the sacrifices of resistance.

'A masterpiece that resonates with power and knowledge. BABEL is a stark picture of the cruelty of empire, a distillation of dark academia, and a riveting blend of fantasy and historical fiction – a monumental achievement’

Samantha Shannon, author of THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE

Delve into the heart of an alternative UK, where Babel reigns as a top entry among gaslamp fantasy books. It's a great, bestselling read, peppered with the essence of urban exploration and thrilling action, an adventure that will leave you breathless and wanting more. For fans of Rebecca Yarros (Iron Flame), Leigh Bardungo (Six of Crows), Brandon Sanderson (The Way of Kings) and Olivie Blake (The Atlas Six) and Samantha Shannon (The Priory of the Orange Tree).

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2022 R.F. Kuang (P)2022 HarperCollins Publishers Limited Dark Fantasy Fantasy Historical Fiction Thought-Provoking Funny Paranormal Royalty Colonial Period

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Critic reviews

"Kuang has crafted a masterpiece that resonates with power and knowledge. Babel is a stark picture of the cruelty of empire, a distillation of dark academia, and a riveting blend of fantasy and historical fiction – a monumental achievement, from the footnotes to the final page." (Samantha Shannon, author of Priory of The Orange Tree)

"Ambitious, sweeping and epic." (Evening Standard)

"An ingenious fantasy about empire’." (Guardian)
All stars
Most relevant  
Loved the idea of linguistics based magic, this book had really interesting world building but was let down by cut and paste characters with minimal identity beyond their race and a heavy-handed White People Are All Evil Charicatures plot. Toward the end we're introduced to new groups of characters repeatedly without time to get to know them which really reduces emotional impact. I almost DNFed repeatedly but don't regret ploughing through as the pace picks up at the end. Narration was brilliant and really gave the characters and languages life.

Brilliant narration brings life to a disappointing story

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While I do like the narrator’s performance, his Chinese pronunciation is horrible. I actually prefer an inserted audio clip of accurately pronounced Chinese than having to check the book whenever he speaks Chinese, because I, a native Chinese speaker, cannot understand what he’s saying.

Subpar narration

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I’ve read/listened to 150 books this year on my degree, and THIS was my favourite.

Miraculously, earth-shatteringly brilliant.

(This audio is so well narrated, but the patchy edits with varying sound quality levels are a bit clunky and crude, which is a shame given the brilliance of the writing which deserved more technical care I think).

My favourite book I read all year

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When I read some of the reviews I’m confused. Did I just listen to a different book?! I found this story a non-starter. It was flat and not at all compelling. It got to the point I was listening at 2.25x speed just to get through it. Happy for you if you enjoyed it, but for me, this was a waste of an Audible Credit.
(And what were the footnotes all about!!?!)

Flat. Did I listen to a different book?!

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I liked how we learnt so much about the background and heuristics of words.
The silvermaking fantasy angle I feel did not get fleshed out in a way that was.. understandable to me but perhaps that was my own doing.
Might be a better book to read simply as there are different languages - but the audiobook performance was good.

Tower of Babel

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I wish I knew of others like it. Maybe she will write a sequel? Who knows…

What a brilliant book

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what an astoundingly brilliant book that manages to cover being Chinese, Indian, African, Caribbean, British and then the nuances of mixed race, being a white woman, being a black woman, being poor and becoming an academic, the working classes, the industrial revolution, the power of language, workers rights all in one go with etymology thrown in for the mix. Highly recommended.

Absolutely amazing book, the author is a genius.

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instant favourite. loved the story, the narration and immersion of it all. would definitely recommend

Brilliant in every aspect

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The story itself and the storytelling just blew me away. Kuang is a genius, there is no doubt. The genre she has selected to communicate through - profoundly political polemical historical fiction with elements of magic reminding me of both Philip Pullman and Neal Stephenson- will hopefully enable her to reach a vast global audience that needs to know what she is telling us about. Her understanding of language and how that defines our subjective realities and perceptions enables us to cross boundaries that otherwise we could not even imagine. If she could now just politicise the many many millions who have consumed Harry Potter there might still yet be hope for humanity….

Utterly breathtakingly brilliant

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Absolutely incredible, immersive, immaculate, intricate book with no accompanying PDFs which the narrator theirselves say you should look at thanks to a glitch in the audible system.

No Attached PDFs

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