Babel by R.F. Kuang

Join our avid band of Steampunk readers on January 21st at 4:30 PM Pacific (Seattle) in our virtual tea parlour on zoom or follow along with our live stream on Facebook. Become a subscriber on our Patreon to support our monthly book club and be part of the ongoing conversation.

Our first book of the new year is Babel by R. F. Kuang. This is an absolutely brilliant novel, filled with intrigue and meditations on 19th century empire building. Filled with magic, mysterious technology, and incredible characters, this steampunk adjacent read is a real page turner! It is, of course, so much more than that, and I am so excited to discuss it with you.

A happy reminder that you do not have to finish the book to attend book club but there may be spoilers Also, starting this month, I am now a Bookshop.org affiliate. Books purchased through the link above will provide a small commission.

Bookshop.org Blurb:
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation–also known as Babel.

Babel is the world’s center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working–the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars–has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?