Babel, or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang
Traduttore, traditore: An act of translation is always an act of betrayal.
- Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is …
My favorite books in the Stormlight Archives are the first 3. The series really shines at "EPIC" character moments, and snowballing through them towards the ending. However, as the series has progressed, characters have gotten especially powerful and that makes conflict much harder to showcase. There's not much that can scare or threaten the characters by the start of the 5th book, and that results in the conflicts coming from headspace instead of meatspace.
As a result, the strongest arcs in this book are from the "weakest" characters - Adolin and Venli. Kaladin and Shallan's arcs cover much of the same ground we see them tread in the previous book - dealing with trauma, self-reflections, (self-sabotage in the case of Shallan). Dalinar's arc is that of learning, and Navani doesn't get to do much. Szeth's arc is lovely to read, and the most telling.
However, at times it feels like we're rushing through plot at too fast a pace to make sure that the reader gets all the knowledge they need. Felt like some of the flashbacks (Dalinar/Szeth) should have been part of previous books somehow.
I was unprepared for the time-dilation twist at the end, and that gives me hope for the series - it keeps everyone on their toes, with Roshar rushing towards war.
