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Have you read Babel by R.F. Kuang? Did you like it? (lemmy.zip)

submitted 2 weeks ago by howler@lemmy.zip to c/books@lemmy.ml

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I'm trying to find any redeemable qualities that make me feel better for the time I spent reading it. I could have put it down, but the raving reviews made me think that it would get better.

It didn't.

I loathed it. With passion.

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[–] transscribe7891@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

I loved it. Loved the historical setting and its exploration of racism, imperialism, capitalist exploitation at that time and place with the perspectives of diverse characters.

I already enjoy linguistics and learning languages, so I may be biased towards already liking the premise of the novel. (And dark academia is totally up my alley.) The way the author explores the nature of language and how certain parts of ideas always get lost in translation was pretty cool; and using that as a form of magic (that could then be exploited only from native speakers of the language no less) was so cleverly done.

Add in the character conflicts between the four friends, a campus strike, and working class solidarity (with a dash of "be gay do crime")... I was hooked.

[–] howler@lemmy.zip 3 points 2 weeks ago

I did like the magic system, and in fact it was what drew me to the book at first.

Sadly, I found the characters bland and annoying. The footnotes were the cherry on top, as I feel they were extremely condescendent.

I'm very glad to hear that you enjoyed it tho! That's what books are for!