RF Kuang’s Babel, one of our favorite fantasy books, is just $2 on eBook

RF Kuang’s Nebula and Locus Award-winning fantasy novel Babel: Or the necessity of violence is widely worshipped. Polygon is considered one of the best SFF novels of 2022. For example, my colleague Sadie Gennis loved it enough to buy the hardcover version for herself and as a gift for two of her friends, even though she already had a Kindle copy. Although I’m very late to the party, I’m finally jumping on board thanks to a fantastic deal on the eBook version on Amazon, Barnes & EdelAnd Kobo that knocks the price down from $15.99 to just $1.99.

I don’t want to spoil the full plot for myself, although I know just enough about the book to dive in, thanks to Polygon’s Nicole Clark, who wrote a juicy excerpt about Babylon for those 2022 SFF novel rankings:

While studying in Babel, Robin and his cohort gain access to abundant resources they could never have dreamed of. At the same time, they see Oxford’s ugly agenda, and how even their native languages ​​are becoming tools of British imperialism. Their professors and classmates see value in the silver they can produce, with their knowledge of such ‘exotic’ languages, but view those living abroad as less than human and ultimately expendable. Robin and his friends must choose between two paths presented to them: comfort and wealth in the bosom of the crown, or simply burn everything down.

It’s also hard not to be intrigued by the drama this title has endured since its debut. Although it seemed like a leading contender to win the prestigious Hugo Award in 2023, Babel was disqualified during the voting process. It was speculated that this was the result of Chinese state censorship, or the Hugo Awards committee’s self-censorship to appease the Chinese government, as much of Kuang’s work relates to Chinese history and culture. Kuang was given no reason for the novel’s disqualification, and Babylon was far from the only novel to receive a controversial ruling on exclusion from the prize that year. Now you can review the book for yourself for a few dollars.

{“default”:false,”name”:”Shopkeeper”,”slug”:”retailer”,”listId”:”Shopkeeper”,”title”:”Shopkeeper”,”promoText”:”Polygon’s hand-picked deals on games , movies, books and more.”,”frequency”:”weekly”,”image”:439313}