I can't stop crying, I think my life is changed forever after experiencing this novel, because this wasn't simply reading, I feel like I've lived all those years with those characters and now we are parting ways. I don't know how to continue with my life as if this didn't happen, it truly is one of my favourite books now.
Paul deserved better Many ppl said they didn't like this book, that it was too different from dune but I think it needed to be exactly that, it was way more focused on the characters relationships with each other and the political aspects rather than the intense world building that dune brought us. I really enjoyed Alia's chapters, her character is really interesting to me although I hated the age gap between her and Duncan . Anyways I give it 4,75 ⭐
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
kinda boring, the characters fell flat, everyone had plot armor and it felt like it was a book written simply to be said it exists. I couldn't tell the difference between the narrator's until a name was mentioned, the romance felt a bit forced and in the end it was basically "and then they won the war and everyone was happy" which felt poorly written. not to mention tané reads like Rin dupe idk. Also extremely colourblind, you can 100% tell this book was written by a white woman.
wow. just wow. Rebecca is once again responsible for a masterpiece. I've finished the book in less than a day, I couldn't stop reading, I was soaking her words hungry for what came on the next page. the MC's thought process was incredible to witness, her twisted logic was sickenly captivating, i couldn't take my eyes off of the book. I don't think I'll ever not read something written by Rebecca F. Kuang, she really is incredible.
this book left me sobbing in my room, ever since reading the poppy war trilogy I knew that anything written by R.F. Kuang would equally break my heart. this book broke me in ways I never thought were possible and I'm so incredibly grateful for it. Babel is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read and I'm not sure I'll ever recover from it. "Language was just difference. A thousand different ways of seeing, of moving through the world. No; a thousand worlds within one. And translation – a necessary endeavour, however futile, to move between them."