What does it take for one to forgo their proximity to empire to fight back against it? What elements of violence are essential to that fight? Where is the balance between violent revolution and political maneuvering? These questions are all explored in a historical fantasy where silver and the translations between languages serve as the main tool of empire.

The not-so-good (aka my only critiques and possibly personal preferences rather than objective critique of the writing):

The pacing, while intentional to distort the reader's perception of time as it reflects the experience of Robin, our main character, is overdone to the point that certain less exciting parts drag on while the excitement and action happens relatively quickly. While I do appreciate the time distortion I don't believe every sentence in the slow sections was necessary and so the slow pacing for me was overdone. I wanted more character development and just more time with the characters. I would have sacrificed some of the lectures on translation if it got me more Ramy, Victoire, and Robin interacting (and I LOVED the linguistic lectures.) Some of the times where characters are really dived into I did feel more often that I was being told who they were rather than shown as well.

The amazing: This book isn't meant to teach you that colonialism is bad - it's pretty specific that everyone in the story already knows this - it's what conveniences one is willing to give up for this knowledge that Babel tackles, and what methods of fighting the injustice are considered valid or effective and how this distorts with what privileges one is accustomed to. This is explored through quite a few different intersections and what this means for different character relationships and decisions. One parallel with today's world is that many people by now know that their smartphones and other technologies are created unjustly and at the expense of the people whose countries we are exploiting for such conveniences. Yet we all still use our devices just as those who know there is injustice in Babel continue their translations and using their silver and separating themselves from the reality of empire. There is no clear answer to what balance between violence and political maneuvering must be struck, this is not an instruction manual to righting the wrongs of empire - it's a recognition that we must do -something- or we will remain in our complicity, shaking our heads and wringing our hands at injustice while believing that there's nothing we can really do as individuals. It's a reminder that this is the world we are in and if we do not take action to choose a side then we will inevitably side with the empire.

This book isn't going to teach you anything about colonialism as a negative force that you don't already know - it's going to make the privileged readers in the imperial core uncomfortable with all they do know and how they move through the world despite this knowledge. It's a reminder that when we choose comfort and convenience in the face of a known injustice that we are serving the empire while we ignore its victims.