Babel, or The Necessity of Violence

Even after finishing it, I'm unsure whether this is an interesting fantasy story burdened with a series of unfinished essays, or an interesting series of essays burdened with a unfinished fantasy story.

The themes are commendable but Kuang's spoon-feeding and footnotes came across as defensive and grating to me, as if the author was watching over my shoulder, butting in after every scene to make sure I definitely, definitely got the message. I wish she'd given the reader more credit and let the story speak for itself.

I liked and disliked it pretty much equally in the end; despite the above, it could also be intriguing, gripping and enchanting. Three stars for ambition and for doing something inventive with its etymology- and translation-based magic, which I did really enjoy.

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(Oh, and one thing that bothered me, for a book that's well-regarded for its research: One character is repeatedly said to specialise in Gaelic, and jokes that she was born too late to have “grown up around Gaelic”. But what's “Gaelic”? Scottish or Irish? Because those languages are not the same. I assumed from her name that the character, O'Neil, is Irish or of Irish descent. O'Neil is later mocked for being “so English” due to serving boring, boiled... potatoes. Um...)