Babel is my most anticipated release of this year... and it is amazing! This historical fantasy novel tackles the darker side of academia: colonialism and racism (plus a bit of elitism, slavery and sexism). This book describes and criticises a darker side of the dark academia genre, which happens surprisingly little. But even if we would take this away, we have a great story. The magic system works with language, especially the differences between languages. It's unique and interesting. The author has put a lot of work into this aspect alone already. The writing is really good and I love the usage of Chinese in this book. The plot is great, I was hooked on it and read like 3/4 in one day...I absolutely loved it and would highly recommend it!

Interesting story. Dragged a bit in the middle. I did often find myself wishing the author followed the ‘show don’t tell’ principle a bit more

Absolutely, profoundly enthralling, heart-wrenching, phenomenal

The amount of research the author has put into this book is incredible. This book was somethings else and I loved it! It's so well written and I couldn't put it down. Though I would have liked it if there was a bit more focus on the magic system.

Very nice listening experience. Great story, very smart. Very original storyline. Overall really really enjoyed it. Great new fantasy novel!!

The first 60% was quite boring, felt like listening to a textbook (despite the excellent narration), hated all the footnotes. After that it got better but it was too late to get me to really like the book.

It was a good book! The narrator truly brought the characters to life and did really good accents, which added to my enjoyment of the book.

Dacht heel lang dat ik het beste boek van het jaar las, maar de tweede helft vond ik beduidend minder dan de eerste.

Wat een belachelijk goed boek zeg!

Simply loved it! What a story! 10/10 recommend 👌