Babel
- 577
- Pages
- about 11 h
- Reading time
- NYT bestseller · 2 weeks on the list
- Nebula Award for Best Novel
- Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
The strongest idea in “Babel” is its magic, which runs on translation and so makes language itself the instrument of the empire the novel indicts. It is a book about a system more than about its characters, and it argues its case openly. Some readers find the pace uneven and the linguistic digressions, however essential, too long. For those who want fantasy that takes on colonialism directly and enjoy words for their own sake.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Babel, or The Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution is a 2022 novel of speculative fiction by R. F. Kuang set in a fantastical version of Oxford in 1830s England. Thematically similar to The Poppy War (2018–20), Kuang's first book series, the book criticizes British imperialism, racism and capitalism, and the complicity of academia, knowledge, and language in perpetuating and enabling them.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.1 across 1,867 ratings. With that many, the reader vote carries 93% of the weight and the score stays at 8.2 — the Fantasy average of 8.0 barely moves it. A further +0.10 comes from the small bonus for major awards.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.1 | 29 | 2% |
| Hardcover | 8.1 | 1.8K | 98% |
Frequently asked
How long is Babel?
It has 577 pages — longer than 56% of the ranked books in Fantasy.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
The same shelf — Fantasy — and a score of 8.2, the closest to this book.
