The Perks Of Being A Book Addict discussion

A novel that grapples with student revolutions, colonial resistance, and the use of language and translation as the dominating tool of the British empire.

Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.

1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek, and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation—also known as Babel.

Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. Silver working—the art of manifesting the meaning lost in translation using enchanted silver bars—has made the British unparalleled in power, as its knowledge serves the Empire’s quest for colonization.

For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion. When Britain pursues an unjust war with China over silver and opium, Robin must decide…

Can powerful institutions be changed from within, or does revolution always require violence?

Buddy Read for this book!

The plan: read at your own pace; indicae how far you are when you post, and hide for spoilers please :)

Time to finish up my current audiobook, then will be getting started on this.

Excited for this!! Haven't done a group read in a while, plus the book can stop gathering dust on my TBR
I'm aiming to start it this weekend

I'll probably start it this weekend too! My sister bought me a copy for my birthday last week, so I'm sure she'll be happy to see it get picked up so fast :P

Happy belated birthday!!
My sisters birthday was on the 22nd so I made her a cheat sheet for all the books for her book club that she never gets around to actually reading LOL. She begrudgingly accepted it

I’m 36th in line for this at the library so I may need to hit a bookstore and just buy a copy.

So, I started this over the weekend and have finished the first part - loving it so far! I'm finding the characters interesting and the world-building great - the silver-working stuff has sprinkled in nicely. plus, I love good footnotes!

Excited to see what happens in Book 2.....

How's everyone else doing?

I hope to start soon! It fits in for turf in a couple of places this battle, so I'm motivated to get to it this week. Trying to read too many things at once is getting in the way...

I'm listening to all the stuff at the beginning justifying any changes he's made to historic Oxford. While I understand why he's got the disclaimer there, I also take depictions of places I know with a piece of salt for artistic licence (having lived in Cambridge for 6 years I know how the university system and the city there can be creatively viewed).

Yeah, but you are a sensible person Sophie! I'm right with you, but...

Too many people will lean into the "but that's not right about Oxford! So she can't be right about the anti-colonialist bits too" arguements. Like the authorial choices on one part being wrong invalidates all their other points.

I just started it, I’m on chapter 2 now. Granted I haven’t gotten far, but I’m really liking it so far. I love books about languages so this is right up my alley

Cat wrote: "Yeah, but you are a sensible person Sophie! I'm right with you, but...

Too many people will lean into the "but that's not right about Oxford! So she can't be right about the anti-colonialist bits ..."

Argh male narrator skewed my opinion on identity of the author - lazy Sophie! I'm enjoying that they have the footnotes read by a female narrator so you can easily distinguish them and don't miss out.

Cat - I know, I don't like knowing that it's necessary but it definitely is.

Frida - that's where I've got to as well. Intrigued by the silver bars and looking forward to hearing more about why Robin looks like Mr Lovell.

@Sophie I'd be surprised if Lovell ISN'T Robin's bio dad. The physical similarity aside, the whole comment on how he didn't want Robin to take the last name Lovell because then "people might think I'm your father" seems like some pretty solid foreshadowing... we shall see!

I'm also just finishing chapter two, and really liking it so far. It has a feeling of A Memory Called Empire, which I loved; excellent writing, all about language, and empire from the point of view of the colonised. Never mind the fact that it's historical fantasy rather than space opera, I love both genres.

@Sophie, I loved that intro about how the author adapted Oxford/history, and although I wouldn't have known enough about the real geography or history to notice any inaccuracies, I'm now ready to forgive anything, after such a thoughtful explanation and notice that she cared about the details.

It really bugs me when an author makes silly mistakes that 30 seconds on Google would fix - it pulls me out of the story and is just lazy writing. It is usually towards the more self-published/KU type of book that does this the most, though. I would've had higher hopes for a book with a well known publisher and hopefully better editing.

@Frida - totally agree with you about the foreshadowing about Lovell. And isn't he a piece of work?

Lovell is SUCH a piece of work! yuck yuck yuck!

I just read up a bit more on the author and it's blowing my mind that she's 26. That's the same age as me. I wouldn't even be able to write a half decent children's book let alone something like this

Also @Sophie - I'm with you, I automatically assumed R.F. was a male.... I need to give myself a good long lecture about ingrained sexism (although if I was an author I would also go by initials.. unfortunately people (and by that I mean males) do tend to take male authors more seriously than female ones, especially in non-romance genres)

Frida wrote: "@Sophie I'd be surprised if Lovell ISN'T Robin's bio dad. The physical similarity aside, the whole comment on how he didn't want Robin to take the last name Lovell because then "people might think ..."

That was my feeling initially, but events in chapter 3 have made me question it a bit.


Lovell has gone down in my estimation the further through I get. All the stereotypes and violence are hard to read at times and it bothers me that I don't think we have moved as far past these attitudes as I would like to imagine.

Frida wrote: "I just read up a bit more on the author and it's blowing my mind that she's 26. That's the same age as me. I wouldn't even be able to write a half decent children's book let alone something like th..."

Nice to know I'm not the only one casually making sexist assumptions despite knowing better. Must do better on this and recognise and counter my biases when I find them. N.K. Jemisin is another incredible sci fi/fantasy author who has needed to use initials to be taken seriously in a predominantly white male field. The wealth of different voices and perspectives coming through is making for some excellent and exciting times for my reading.

I knew the author was a woman from reading her first books (The Poppy War), so that helped, but I do also try to default and assume that a writer using initials is female because of the historical sexism in the industry. Interestingly, I read a while ago that some male writers (esp in the self-pun romance arena) are starting to use initials to fool people into thinking they are female (!!)

Cat wrote: "I knew the author was a woman from reading her first books (The Poppy War), so that helped, but I do also try to default and assume that a writer using initials is female because of the historical ..."

Interesting that it works out the other way for the romance industry.

So, I've finished chapter 6, and am on a slow down so as to use this for the mini. Thoughts so far:
I liked the whirlwind tour of Oxford and meeting the other students, and the deeper insight into the silver-working rules.
I'm getting a bit tired of ALL the English characters being imperialist snobs - it would be nice to meet some who are challenging from within.
Doppleganger meeting was fun - not sure I'd've made the choice that Robin did that night. I was also surprised at how (view spoiler)[quickly Robin was radicalised to join Griffin and mark his cross. Definitely pacey through the plot mechanics! (hide spoiler)]

I've been reading other things at the same time, but have now finished chapter 9 - and already (view spoiler)[we're on to the second year at Oxford. This speeding through the years is reminding me of The Poppy War - which was half academia and half war - and I'm getting a bit nervous about how violent the revolution (it's in the title, it must be coming) is going to be. (hide spoiler)]

@ Cat re ALL characters being imperialist snobs - that was hard to read, and I was relieved when the focus shifted away from that. Gave me something to think about my white privilege though; that people have had to deal with that kind of emotional trauma constantly and I can just stop reading for a bit and leave it behind. I really, really, hope the world is easier for anyone who finds themselves in a minority than it was in the 1830s.

Re the spoiler (view spoiler)[That was a quick process, wasn't it! Although the imperialist snob/racist characters all did a good job of preparing the ground for Robin to find it worth rebelling. (hide spoiler)]

@Sarah: yep, it's pacy, for sure!

spoilers up to chap 10 here.

I wondered (view spoiler)[about the Chekovian Gun mention of using "translate" pairs to explode & contaminate silver as being some massive foreshadowing - is this something to watch for, or too obvious? (hide spoiler)]

Griffin (view spoiler)[comes off oddly - I feel for him, being used and discarded and not great for much in the Babel line of work, but feel like there's a lot more to uncover about him. (hide spoiler)]

Sophie wrote: "I'm listening to all the stuff at the beginning justifying any changes he's made to historic Oxford. While I understand why he's got the disclaimer there, I also take depictions of places I know wi..."

I agree Sophie I either would not notice the changes or wouldnt be stressed by them

I started today and Have got to chapter 4. I am enjoying it and love the world building. It feels like a good balance between description and narrative. (view spoiler)[I am not sure I understand why Prof Lovell was in Canton or why he chose Robin but I am sure it will become clear. I am a bit of a wuss at times and I really dont like violence in books the beating the Prof gave Robin seemed extreme and I really didn't like that Mrs Piper did not react (hide spoiler)]

I am now at chapter nine. I am combining the KU 99p book and audio which was on scribd. The audio is really good I like the fact that the footnote are spoken by a different voice - is it the Author?

(view spoiler)[Did I miss something though Professor Chakravarti refers to Griffin as "Griffin Harley" I thought he was Lovell. I love the idea that Portugues has "outstayed its welcome" and I liked the description of instant friendship among the 4 Babblers (hide spoiler)]

Marie - That was the name he initially chose, similar to Robin choosing Swift. I suspect he changed it when he left Babel.

Sophie wrote: "Marie - That was the name he initially chose, similar to Robin choosing Swift. I suspect he changed it when he left Babel."

thanks Sophie i knew i missed something

I am just about half way. Still enjoying the read. (view spoiler)[ wondered if Anthony and Evie were both in Hermes with Griffin - I guess that was answered by Lovell in his interrogation of Robin. I am with you Cat about Griffin I think there is something we have not seen yet in his history. (hide spoiler)]
I only started this book because of the group read nature I wasn't sure if it would be too Fantastical for me but it is a very realistic imaginable world.

Cat wrote: "@Sarah: yep, it's pacy, for sure!

spoilers up to chap 10 here.

I wondered [spoilers removed]

Griffin [spoilers removed]"

I was wondering the same thing about the pairs (Chap 9 or 10) while I listened. (view spoiler)[Seems a pretty big weaponisation of the bars to just leave hanging. Especially the way it spreads to other bars it touches. (hide spoiler)]

Marie (UK) wrote: "I am just about half way. Still enjoying the read. [spoilers removed]
I only started this book because of the group read nature I wasn't sure if it would be too Fantastical for me but it is a very..."

Glad you are enjoying it despite it being outside the normal for you. I love GR and all the people on it for pushing my reading in directions I'd normally avoid.

I hadn't expected such deep passages about the nature of language and its colonising effect - probably my fault for not doing any research before starting to read. It's definitely making me think about a lot of the issues it brings up in a new light.

@Sophie - yes, I really enjoyed the mix of really thoughtful, academic ideas as well as the lived-experience layer and the action. Overall - loved the book

I have finished and really enjoyed this book