Babel : Or the Necessity of Violence

This is a hard one to review.

Not for the mechanics. It's beautifully written (if the pacing is a bit slow to start and jumpy) and there are a lot of footnotes.

The silver working magic is a neat idea. The setting is rich.

The subject matter is *hard*. It's a *hard* read. You feel guilty and sad and angry.

Carry the silver to today's equivalents: mining for minerals for phones. Coffee beans. Beef farming in South America.

I mean, pick something and some part of it will have a root in something problematic. How do you live with that? Denial like L? Violence like R and G? Survival like V?

Hard reading.