After listening to this for over 8 hours I would have expected to at least start to feel some connection to the story and characters. However, this is not the case, and I'm not enjoying the book enough to continue. 

It's pretty much all plot, no character work; and there's so much history and politics involved it feels more like a history textbook than a story. There's SO much history thrown at us at seemingly random times, and I found it difficult to keep track of it all, especially with no emotional connection to the characters.

If I was interested in the plot I wouldn't mind the less fleshed out characters, but I'm not. This book has made me think that I'm not really interested in gang/territory stories, and because there's hardly any actual fantasy in it, the book is ALL about the gang stuff. 

I just don't think this is the book for me. 

Alan Rickman was one of the few celebrities I actually respected. I was hoping to learn more about him reading this, but after reading a few pages, unfortunately I can't see myself enjoying it. 

I was hoping for some more introspection, but it's just descriptions of his day with a load of celebs being name dropped. Completely fine as a personal diary, not so great to read. Also, the entries are so short that it's a pretty jarring read.

I also find it a bit weird that he never actually consented to having his diary shared... I assume it was his wife who decided to share them, and she would know his general feelings on things, but it does still feel weird that he never agreed to his most private thoughts being aired.

I tried listening to the audiobook for this, and it was laughably bad. The narrator sounded like an AI TikTok voice, their inflections and vocal patterns were so weird and unnatural. I know I won't be able to see past their voice and be able to enjoy this book. Looks like I'll have to read it with my eyeballs instead. 

The time has come to DNF this series, at least for now. I never want to pick this up, and at this point I feel like I'm just reading for the sake of it, rather than to truly enjoy the experience. I think the hype around this series made me feel it was a greater work than it is... Just because something is extensive, doesn't mean it's great.
There were some good elements, but they were unfortunately few and far between. The most enjoyable section was when we were learning about the past ages and how there used to be technology and more modern ways of life, as well as different creatures. It made so much sense and I was fascinated to learn more. But it lasted for about 4 pages, apparently never to be seen again. You can't just tease me with that kind of content then stroll right past it without even any acknowledgement. 
I definitely enjoyed Perrin's storyline the most, but it still wasn't anything that special. 
Most of the book (and (I'm slowly realising) the series) so far is so underwhelming and bland.  Everything in Tear was tragically boring, it did pick up a little after they all left, but not by much.
SO MUCH of the Aiel stuff is confusing. Not in an intriguing/mysterious way, but in a badly written way. In particular, Rand's visions in Rhuidean were a complete shambles and so difficult to follow.  
Also, the book is obscenely long, and for why?? Almost nothing actually happens. Everything of note could be condensed onto one A4 page, and the character work and writing style aren't good enough to fill out the plot in a satisfying way.
Most of the characters are infuriating, unlikeable, make bad choices, and are generally unpleasant people (but not enough to be interesting). 
Overall, I've come to realise that these books are maybe not for me. Trying to get through the series feels like such a slog (and I read a lot of high page count, long fantasy series). It's not impactful, and doesn't have many of the things I enjoy in fantasy (beautiful writing, well written battle scenes, compelling character work, high stakes). 
I am interested in how the story ends, but not so much in reading how we get there. Maybe I'll pick the series up again at some point, but for now it's over.  

There's something about this writing style that just isn't clicking for me. I find most books pretty readable, but this one seems so dry and dense, and gave me no reason to want to carry on.
I wanted to give it a go to see how the concept works out, but I think I'll be putting it down for now. Maybe I'll give it another go in the future.

I think I'm going to end up enjoying this, but I want to be able to appreciate it rather than try to slog through it. I don't think now is the right time for me to do it justice. 
I think this will be one for when I'm older and hopefully have a bit more patience! At least I know what it's like now. 

Dear lord I just found this book so pretentious... So many parts are clearly just Kuang wanting to show off all the research she had done for the book, without actually adding anything to the story. It made this an unnecessarily dense read in places.
I also felt really distant from the story. It was a pretty clinical reading experience, and I struggled to care about the characters. 
Reading M.L. Wang's 'Blood Over Bright Haven' at the same time as this definitely did not help 'Babel' out. I was constantly comparing the two as they are both dark academia with some similar themes, and 'Babel' always came out lacking. I'm so annoyed this book has had so much hype around it when 'Blood Over Bright Haven' is SO much better. Maybe I'll pick 'Babel' up again once the 'Bright Haven' dust has settled...
On another note, the asterisks in my copy of this are RIDICULOUSLY small, and I missed them almost every time.
I really want to enjoy Kuang's writing again, and hoped 'Babel' would make up for the disappointment of 'The Burning God', but sadly it did not, and I might have to give up on her, at least for a while. 

I was pretty intrigued when I started reading this because it was both my first 'modern' King, and first non-horror book of his I’ve read. Things like 'The Voice' being mentioned were weird to me as I'm used to 80/90s references of his earlier works, but this did not affect my reading experience. The audiobook narration was also really great, especially in the opening section. 
And this is where the issues lie... The first section in the 'real world' was really good. I loved the dynamics and mystery of the story unfolding, and Mr Bowditch definitely wormed his way into my heart a little. 
But as soon as Charlie stepped foot into the fantasy land it all went downhill. I read in another review that it was like two completely different books sandwiched together, and I definitely agree with that. 
The fantasy elements were SO dull and bog-standard - there were absolutely no original or stand-out ideas. The same repetitive 'journey' narrative just kept GOING and GOING, with nothing of value happening. Maybe if King had tried to write this as a shorter book, cut a lot out and stopped overindulging his ego, it would have been better, but judging from reviews I've read about the end of the book, I doubt it. 
I think I'm coming to realise that King just can't write good long books - 'Insomnia' springs to mind, which had the same vibe of an interesting and intriguing premise, then pages and pages of meaningless nothing. Even my love for Radar (who for some reason I kept imagining as a golden lab) wasn't enough to keep me interested. 
One of the most egregious things is that there's no real drama or tension - Charlie just kept being brilliant and completely capable of everything he ever tries. I’m SO sick and tired of books with no conflict or struggle!
After reading MANY reviews which say that the slow middle section isn’t worth it - that the story just peters out at the end rather than having a satisfying climax -, and that the first section was the best part of the story, I decided to DNF. 
The final nail in the coffin was reading the full plot summary, which has confirmed that trying to finish this book is definitely not worth it. I'm not going to waste 11 more hours on 'meh'. 

Why wHy WHY did Clare choose the name Kel for a main character?? It's such an unusual name, and there are already at least two (Mistborn and Darker Shade of Magic) other well established fantasy series with lead characters named Kel. Personally, I can't help but think of Mistborn when I read the name - just choose a new one!
I started off a bit unsure of this book as the prologue was nothing more than an inelegant info-dump, but I did get more into it once the story got going - how naive I was. 
I got to about half way through and felt that it was just OK, nothing breathtaking or mind blowing, but enjoyable enough to finish. 
Now at 60ish-% I've realised that I don't want to read another 250 pages of this. Nothing is happening. I didn't feel connected to the characters or care about them. The world is so detailed yet the worldbuilding seems fundamentally incomplete and lacking. The story seems unnecessarily complex and some characters aren't defined enough for me to tell the difference between them. The stakes are set so low, and you don't feel any danger because I instinctively know (probably from reading so much of Clare's other work) that everything will turn out alright. 
I'd hoped for a fresh approach/style from Clare to distinguish this new world from the Shadowhunters series, but it's the same writing and vibe, just in a different world.  
I will admit that reading this was relatively fun while I was learning about a large chunk of the worldbuilding, but now that that's over, there's no real plot to sustain my interest, and the things I can tell Clare is trying to do just aren't hitting. The story also feels quite shallow in a lot of ways.
Maybe if I weren't reading 'Blood Over Bright Haven' at the same time as this I would be enjoying it more. But anything compared to M. L. Wang will pale in comparison, and this one certainly did.    

What even is this book??? I am truly baffled by all of the 5* reviews. They must all be from people who have never read a drop of sci-fi in their entire lives, 'cos this. ain't. it. I wish I could enjoy, or even tolerate, such a poor-quality book. 
My first issue is with the memory loss - that's not really how memory loss works is it now? Remembering everything in chronological order and in full detail exactly when you need it? It just felt like a horrifically heavy plot device Weir tried to use to make the book more interesting/give natural info dumps to the reader, but in reality, it was the furthest thing from natural and felt so contrived that it took me out of the story at so many points. 
I was ok with the first 100 pages or so, and was interested while the premise of the book was being established, but by page 150 basically nothing had happened of note. We'd just been spoon-fed information in a 100% telling not showing, completely unnatural/contrived way. The (minimal) plot was dull and I started to get more and more annoyed with the whole thing. 
I also felt like I was being talked down to like I was an idiot for so much of it. e.g. "the model is Sol (Earth's sun)." - even if I didn't already know this pretty basic bit of information, it was BLINDINGLY obvious from the context. Not every single little detail needs to be explained all of the time!! Give your reader SOME credit. And every explanation of something is repeated at least twice and often more in as many pages...
The writing is also just pretty awful e.g. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If Astrophage is your enemy, I'm your friend." Shite writing. Unnecessary. 
After I decided to DNF, I skipped to the last couple of pages and the book had gone exactly where I thought it was going to. I'm glad any didn't waste any more of my precious time on it.