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Babel #4
Babel, Vol. 4: The End of the Journey to Restore Language
言葉と人間を巡るロードファンタジー、堂々完結。
キスクでの激動を経てファルサスに帰還し、子供用の言語教材を作成する仕事についた雫。エリクと協力して引き続き日本帰還の手立てを探り続けていたが、その鍵となるはずの外部者の呪具、秘された歴史を記した本の一冊が予想外な場所から見つかることに。
一方、もう一冊の呪具を保持する邪悪な魔法士アヴィエラは、突如として大陸全土に向けて宣戦布告する。
「私の名はアヴィエラ。七番目の魔女。時代の終わりと始まりでお前を待っている」
決戦の地は、禁呪によって異界化した亡国ヘルギニス跡地。ファルサス王ラルス率いる連合軍が結成され、呪具の片割れを所持する雫も否応なく戦いに巻き込まれていく。
神話の時代に遡る言語の由来、子供達が言葉を失う流行病、この世界を観測する外部者の存在、そして現代日本からやってきた雫が言葉を解する意味。その全ての謎が一点に収束して明かされていく。長い長い旅の果てに、少女が知る真実とは――。
言葉と人間を巡るロードファンタジー、堂々完結。
キスクでの激動を経てファルサスに帰還し、子供用の言語教材を作成する仕事についた雫。エリクと協力して引き続き日本帰還の手立てを探り続けていたが、その鍵となるはずの外部者の呪具、秘された歴史を記した本の一冊が予想外な場所から見つかることに。
一方、もう一冊の呪具を保持する邪悪な魔法士アヴィエラは、突如として大陸全土に向けて宣戦布告する。
「私の名はアヴィエラ。七番目の魔女。時代の終わりと始まりでお前を待っている」
決戦の地は、禁呪によって異界化した亡国ヘルギニス跡地。ファルサス王ラルス率いる連合軍が結成され、呪具の片割れを所持する雫も否応なく戦いに巻き込まれていく。
神話の時代に遡る言語の由来、子供達が言葉を失う流行病、この世界を観測する外部者の存在、そして現代日本からやってきた雫が言葉を解する意味。その全ての謎が一点に収束して明かされていく。長い長い旅の果てに、少女が知る真実とは――。
言葉と人間を巡るロードファンタジー、堂々完結。
- GenresLight Novel
372 pages, Paperback
First published July 16, 2021
1 person is currently reading
8 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 11, 2025
The fourth book was not out immediately afer I had read the third, so I bought it while I was in the middle of other projects. It took a while, therefore, to get around to this. An additional procrastinatory point is that I never like diving cold turkey back into a series when the information and the lore are not as clear as they would have been in a continuous read. That problem did occur a few times, maybe more than would usually be the case for this series, which is very detail-oriented and at times nerdy. On that subject, when I was reading the first few pages, I was thrust right into some discourse on the way pronouns work in the formal written language of this world and why that might be. I loved that as a way to come back to the books about language. Write me a whole book that is just a treatise and I will probably enjoy it. Not coincidentally, the next book I will read is Rousseau's Emile, after which I might get into Unnamed Memory because I had a good time with these.
The villain of this book - and of all of the books, mostly from the shadows - actually has a point, which is refreshing to see. Many villains are inexplicable, just single-minded purveyors of death and destruction. Those kinds of people do exist - see our current reality in the USA - but it makes for a lacking narrative. A villain with a cause requires in the hero an equal and opposite cause, which conflict elevates a story from a mere telling of events to a discussion, an exploration of a subject. We have all heard the extremely tired adage: those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. There is of course some truth in that, else it would not be so often repeated, yet to wield it as a cure-all is naive, which is the central theme of this book. I have unfortunately become aware of an exemplary case. A former Obama speech writer, a zionist hack, said that she has soured on holocaust education because it was too effective in making students see all genocides as wrong, and specifically the ongoing genocide in Gaza. People can't see past the wall of children, she says, while supporting the continued murders of said children. She knows all about the holocaust of the jews and other minorities by the nazis, but that alone is not enough for her to learn that never again means never again for anyone. Merely knowing about history is not enough to prevent insane interpretations to fit existing narratives and preconceptions. In other cases, racists who know about the same history want to not only fail to learn from it, but to emulate it. Zionists and nazis abound in this very normal country. I have seen Republican congressmen hate on gays until they find out their kids are gay, after which they switch their tunes. There are times when it seems the only way to get an idea through to someone is to have them experience it directly. The gap between knowledge of information and deeper understanding of that knowledge may only be capable of being bridged by experience. If that is so, maybe another world war really is inevitable, since the people who experienced the last one are dying off and now edgelord youths are taking up the cause of antisemitism while the Israelis are turning to genocide, having apparently forgotten the meaning of what was done to them. If I had a red book that I could use to force the lessons of history onto present peoples, there would be at least a tiny little temptation. The jadedness is understandable in the year of our lord 2025. Whether the author was trying to speak to the present political moment across the world or not I don't know, but he succeeded.
This is purely subjective: I enjoy the writing style, at least in this translation. I would recognize zero kanji, so there is no hope of me reading the original to see how things were translated and formatted between them. Occasionally there are little spaces where a few lines of text in almost a narrator's voice are dropped between ordinary paragraphs, lending a feeling similar to a fairy tale at times and enabling questions to be posed directly to the reader rather than left as subtext. Maybe it's a bit blunt, but I like a story that can come out and say what it's saying sometimes. Start to finish I was very engaged, staying up too late trying to read just one more bit, and I was glued to my bed to finish the ending even when my neck was hurting from being in that position for too long. I had to see how it went down.
I always and indeed in this instance appreciate an ending that wraps around to the beginning. A detail I had forgotten all about from the first part of the first book becomes the means by which the end can occur. That shows planning from the author, an idea of where the books were going, which is evident in how they played out.
In short, I had a great time with this finale and am glad I found the series when I did. I even got the first review of the first book. I was here before it was cool. No big deal or anything.
The villain of this book - and of all of the books, mostly from the shadows - actually has a point, which is refreshing to see. Many villains are inexplicable, just single-minded purveyors of death and destruction. Those kinds of people do exist - see our current reality in the USA - but it makes for a lacking narrative. A villain with a cause requires in the hero an equal and opposite cause, which conflict elevates a story from a mere telling of events to a discussion, an exploration of a subject. We have all heard the extremely tired adage: those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it. There is of course some truth in that, else it would not be so often repeated, yet to wield it as a cure-all is naive, which is the central theme of this book. I have unfortunately become aware of an exemplary case. A former Obama speech writer, a zionist hack, said that she has soured on holocaust education because it was too effective in making students see all genocides as wrong, and specifically the ongoing genocide in Gaza. People can't see past the wall of children, she says, while supporting the continued murders of said children. She knows all about the holocaust of the jews and other minorities by the nazis, but that alone is not enough for her to learn that never again means never again for anyone. Merely knowing about history is not enough to prevent insane interpretations to fit existing narratives and preconceptions. In other cases, racists who know about the same history want to not only fail to learn from it, but to emulate it. Zionists and nazis abound in this very normal country. I have seen Republican congressmen hate on gays until they find out their kids are gay, after which they switch their tunes. There are times when it seems the only way to get an idea through to someone is to have them experience it directly. The gap between knowledge of information and deeper understanding of that knowledge may only be capable of being bridged by experience. If that is so, maybe another world war really is inevitable, since the people who experienced the last one are dying off and now edgelord youths are taking up the cause of antisemitism while the Israelis are turning to genocide, having apparently forgotten the meaning of what was done to them. If I had a red book that I could use to force the lessons of history onto present peoples, there would be at least a tiny little temptation. The jadedness is understandable in the year of our lord 2025. Whether the author was trying to speak to the present political moment across the world or not I don't know, but he succeeded.
This is purely subjective: I enjoy the writing style, at least in this translation. I would recognize zero kanji, so there is no hope of me reading the original to see how things were translated and formatted between them. Occasionally there are little spaces where a few lines of text in almost a narrator's voice are dropped between ordinary paragraphs, lending a feeling similar to a fairy tale at times and enabling questions to be posed directly to the reader rather than left as subtext. Maybe it's a bit blunt, but I like a story that can come out and say what it's saying sometimes. Start to finish I was very engaged, staying up too late trying to read just one more bit, and I was glued to my bed to finish the ending even when my neck was hurting from being in that position for too long. I had to see how it went down.
I always and indeed in this instance appreciate an ending that wraps around to the beginning. A detail I had forgotten all about from the first part of the first book becomes the means by which the end can occur. That shows planning from the author, an idea of where the books were going, which is evident in how they played out.
In short, I had a great time with this finale and am glad I found the series when I did. I even got the first review of the first book. I was here before it was cool. No big deal or anything.
November 29, 2025
Wow. This story was a masterpiece.
Instantly went to my favorites book 1, and continued getting better and better. The tiny epilogue had me squealing, but that was the bare minimum for the author making me genuinely SOB and tremble that last chapter. Goodness. I haven't shed tears for a story in a while, and this got me good. Absolutely love Shizuku and Erik. The most precious fictional couple to ever exist.
Instantly went to my favorites book 1, and continued getting better and better. The tiny epilogue had me squealing, but that was the bare minimum for the author making me genuinely SOB and tremble that last chapter. Goodness. I haven't shed tears for a story in a while, and this got me good. Absolutely love Shizuku and Erik. The most precious fictional couple to ever exist.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 10, 2025
A delightful ending to a very good story.
Though it took me a bit to straighten out the order of the books, I am glad it popped up on my suggestion to finish a series. I also follow the author, and that helped.
If you have been following the books I am sure you will appreciate this book as much as I did.
Though it took me a bit to straighten out the order of the books, I am glad it popped up on my suggestion to finish a series. I also follow the author, and that helped.
If you have been following the books I am sure you will appreciate this book as much as I did.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews