There’s a lot here. It’s a story set in 1800s Oxford about academia, privilege, and colonialism, with a bit of fantasy and magic (based on translation), and a revolution. It’s technically fantasy but the fantasy parts are very light. It kind of fails as a fantasy novel actually - it almost feels like you’re reading a non fiction history book at times. Still I loved all the conversations and musings on linguistics and translations and watching the theories on the magic system.
I admit I enjoyed the dark academia parts more than the revolution parts. It was hard to read at points even if it gave you things to think about. And Robin and his cohort are all so well developed.
It was also particularly interesting reading this while traveling through some countries that don’t have English as an official language. I’ve been thinking a lot about words and translations - so this came at a great time.