I think this book is beautifully written. I think it shares important messages about imperialism, colonialism, and revolution. I don’t however like that that suspension of belief with silver had to exist in this book? It seems as though the author is a strong enough writer to simply write a historical fiction book making all these points while also remaining in the realm of reality. In my heart that would make this book 10x more valuable. The silver really throws me for a loop when it’s brought up, it seems so unnecessary to tell this story. The world she creates here, the England built on imperialism and empire building is real, and there is little to no stretch if the story was still about translators taken from their homes as an English resource for simply trade purposes and so on. She could’ve done so much with that and it would be more REAL, more authentic to the truth of the evils of colonialism and capitalism. But the silver, while it was clearly an analogy for many many things (guns, technology, etc.) just didn’t aid me personally in caring for this story. There are real actual resources that could’ve stood in for silver to make this story that much more impactful, and the use of the fantastical, the magic; made it far less appealing to me in the end.