This book has taken the SFF world by storm, and I’m not surprised. All the blurbs compare it to dark academia darling The Secret History and modern fantasy classic Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell, but it also takes on issues of colonization and imperialist injustice. Robin is a Chinese student pulled between Babel, the world’s center of translation and a utopia of knowledge, and the Hermes Society, which is trying to sabotage the silver-working that enables the British Empire to stay in power. He has to decide where his fight belongs, and how a colonial power can best be brought down.