I would like to read some more anti colonial works. I love Arcane, Hunger Games, Nautilus. Avatar the last air bender and Code Geass.
At the same time I’ve heard that the books is a bit Black and white in regards depicting the oppressed and oppressor. What I like about the works listed is that while they were anti oppression, they didn’t portray the oppressors as generic cartoonish bad guys and the oppressed as completely morally white or the oppressed as willing to dismiss all members of the oppressor as bad.
So would Babel be like that
I have also heard the same about the Poppy War. Portraying the oppressor as cartoonishly evil bad guys.
by InfernalClockwork3
9 Comments
Why not just get it from the library and try it out? If you don’t like it, you don’t have to finish it. Nobody can really tell you if you’re gonna like it or not
Babel is less black and white than Hunger Games and Avatar The Last Airbender, which isn’t necessarily a knock against them because they children’s books movies and shows
I liked Katabasis by RF Kuang,but couldn’t finish Bable. It is not subtle – the oppressers are very much cartoon villains, and just in case the cartoon villains are too subtle, the author explicitely tells you that colonialism is bad. At great length, if not depth.
I liked the Poppy War series a good bit better than Babel, though it’s more of a commitment.
I found Babel to be well researched (apart from the bits that were made-up), but I also found the oppressors cartoonishly moustache-twirlingly evil, like you said. I was rolling my eyes constantly, eventually dropping it about 2/3 of the way through.
It’s all right. The story and premise and “magical” parts are interesting, but the characters are one-dimensional (approaching caricature-ish) and the author lays on the oppression stuff pretty thick. For me it was like “I get it, white man bad, do you still want me to finish reading your story?”
Babel was awful. Completely ham-fisted commentary and very little complexity to any of the characters. There are footnotes throughout including one which addresses the reader directly to tell them that racism is bad.
It really felt like the author was terrified that the readers might not understand what she was trying to say and so she avoided any complexity or nuance that might have made the book interesting.
It’s a shame because the world building was pretty cool and the magic system was compelling
I really disliked it I can’t lie. The writing had no vagueness, no “show don’t tell”, the magic system was awesome but severely underused, the characters were VERY one note, and the pacing was very off. The actual topic of colonialism was very shabbily done, VERY surface level information. The footnotes became patronising and far too biased, and I found it very ironic that Kuang herself was Oxford educated. It was a victim of the “being overhyped by tiktok”.
The vibes were cool! But if you try to read it in any kind of depth, you’ll come up short.
I respect people who liked it! But for me, personally, I really hated this book.
Edit: yes, the villains of the tale are VERY cartoonish. The main villain guy is described as quite literally standing at the back of this gathering, rubbing his hands together, plotting LMAO. Also was a little too “all white people = bad!!!” with no other motivation other than “i’m white in the 19th century so I MUST be racist” you know?
You should read Fanon if you’re into anti-colonial books.