Book: Babel (anti-colonialism, translation-nuance-powered magic)

I'm reading Babel, by RF Kuang (same author as The Poppy Wars) and it is fierce.

It also tackles some parts of Chinese/British history (iykyk) that I rarely see other folks treat with sympathy.

( spoilers )

It's about the time of the Industrial Revolution, except this revolution is powered by the space in between words in translations. Centered around Oxford.

I think one of the things I really hate about stories set in this time-era is that it's usually accepted that white folks in this era are biased. And so if there are any BIPOCs, and everyone else is biased it feels frustrating like I want to stamp my feet and yell and if everyone else is not biased it feels a little fake (though sometimes preferable to the former). And this book manages to avoid both traps by including bias but then centering the BIPOC experience, in a way that I didn't realize I needed until now.

I'm a little nervous about the ending, it could still fall apart, but about three quarters of the way in and it makes me so happy.