Babel
Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators’ Revolution
by R. F. Kuang
In an alternate 1830s Britain, Robin Swift, an orphan brought from Canton, is trained at Oxford's Royal Institute of Translation, known as Babel. There, translators power the Empire's magic by engraving silver bars with pairs of words whose meanings don't quite match. As Robin learns what his work is used for, he has to choose between Babel and the people it helps exploit.
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Jim's Review
Dark academia for language nerds: magic powered by the gap between a word and its translation, which might be the most bookworm-friendly magic system ever invented. Kuang builds Oxford in loving detail, then turns the novel into a fierce argument about empire and complicity. The footnotes are a treat, though the lectures sometimes slow the story to a crawl, and the final act is grim. Four worms — brainy, angry and unforgettable.
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