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. 1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, …
The Wheel of Time was kind of a big deal for me: the first big fantasy series I really got into as a teenager. I never read this prequel, and I guess with the release of the TV it was time. It's strange to go back to the world.
On the one hand, this is an exciting adventure story that hooked me in and I enjoyed reading. It's great to spend time in the world, and to learn some important background.
On the other, Robert Jordan's writing is... I expected the overwrought excessive adjective, mail gaze-y descriptions. I knew the gender essentialism would be ever present.
I'd forgotten / hadn't noticed the constant ethnic stereotyping: "stubborn even for an Andorian" and the like.
Likewise the extent of the authoritarianism in the book. I mean, I knew he has a slightly obsession with characters being punished, but the extent to which …