In an ever-so-slightly alternate 1830s, Oxford’s translators produce the magical silver bars that power the British Empire. New student Robin Swift is enthralled by his university experience, but as he sees the effects of his words Robin begins to question how a single person can act morally in a world controlled by impersonal and oppressive systems.

I have to start by admitting that I’ve never read Les Misérables. I’ve seen the musical on stage and film and watched the 10th & 25th filmed concerts, but so far I haven’t made time for the original book. Even so, Babel reads like both a love letter to the student revolutionaries of Les Misérables and real-life revolutionaries worldwide, and a letter of inspiration to 21st-century readers who feel small, isolated, and helpless in the face of entrenched forces like racism, sexism, imperialism, colonialism, toxic/libertarian capitalism, and prestige academia. There’s also repeated callouts for using passive-aggression to secure obedience through imposed guilt and other micro-aggressions, so Kuang is taking on injustices at both the macro- and micro- levels.

Kuang’s prose is beautiful and incisive, and I marked quite a few sentences and paragraphs that I thought were powerful. In fact, the sections without markings are more an indicator of whether I had a pen handy or not than how a particular stretch of pages compares to its neighbors. The characters and story are compelling; from the beginning I was heavily invested in Robin and his cohort, wanting the best for them and feeling their anger and hope as they confront the inertia of the system of the world.

In addition to being a powerful story, the last fifth or so of the book is also an inspiration for Robin’s 21st-century counterparts who look at the way things are and despair. It’s hard not to read the scholars’ strike as “what if some AWS workers started simply shutting things down to strike against U.S. imperialist oligarchy?” The characters argue on the page about the ethics of violence in pursuit of justice, and though Robin finds his answer I think that Kuang leaves the question open for the reader to wrestle with.

I cannot recommend Babel highly enough; I will be absolutely shocked if we don’t see it on the awards shortlists next year. Most readers of fantasy will find something to like, but especially readers of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, The Baroque Cycle, and other historical fantasies.

Babel is available for purchase; you can find it in print and support a local bookstore via IndieBound, or as an ebook at Kobo (or presumably most other ebook distributors).