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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Wired and dark, sometime feel like the author was on medication while writing...
I'm not sure what to think of this. The switches between deeply philosophical and sex & drugs in student life are... jarring, at times.
The world itself was interesting, but then a vast majority of the book was based on establishing how awful things are and how both the good and bad things come back around, over and over again. I guess the ending was meant to give me hope, but by that point, I'd stopped caring about Jane because her life was just too miserable for me to want to care, if that makes sense. Not impressed.
challenging
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This book was a fever dream. I have so many questions for Swanwick, and much like Jane, I don’t think I’ll ever get satisfactory answers. I loved the world building (confusing as it was) and the dedication to pushing the narrative forward even when there was little closure from the previous portion.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Sexual content, Xenophobia, War
This was the first adult scifi book I ever read. I snuck it home from the Eugene, OR public library when I was 12...since I wouldn't have been allowed to read it. I remember finding it strange, and confusing, and crude...although I didn't understand the crudity fully, I knew it was bad.
I think I always attributed that opinion to the fact that I was too young to read the book at the time. I had since looked it up online and noticed that it won all sorts of awards.
So, almost 20 years later, I got it through interlibrary loan.
Nope...it is still just as confusing and unclear as it ever was. And now that I understand the crudity, it is WAY more troublesome. Especially because most of it is in no way necessary to furthering the plot. It serves no purpose in the literary arc.
I don't really recommend this book to anyone. If you want dragon books, or post apocalyptic fairy novels, or disturbingly dark scifi...I can make you any number of better recommendations. [b:The Snow Queen|139986|The Snow Queen (The Snow Queen Cycle, #1)|Joan D. Vinge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388298425s/139986.jpg|522872] for example.
I think I always attributed that opinion to the fact that I was too young to read the book at the time. I had since looked it up online and noticed that it won all sorts of awards.
So, almost 20 years later, I got it through interlibrary loan.
Nope...it is still just as confusing and unclear as it ever was. And now that I understand the crudity, it is WAY more troublesome. Especially because most of it is in no way necessary to furthering the plot. It serves no purpose in the literary arc.
I don't really recommend this book to anyone. If you want dragon books, or post apocalyptic fairy novels, or disturbingly dark scifi...I can make you any number of better recommendations. [b:The Snow Queen|139986|The Snow Queen (The Snow Queen Cycle, #1)|Joan D. Vinge|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388298425s/139986.jpg|522872] for example.
Da fuq did I just read?
I picked this up because I saw it on China Mieville's list of sci-fi/fantasy that socialists should read, and only finished it because my Kindle kept telling me I had less than an hour left.
This book was like a gritty reboot of The Silmarillion. There was no internal logic to the narrative, instead using fantasy as a device for introducing and discarding characters and plot threads at will. I realize the author is trying to make a point about the randomness and futility of life, but this book was so tedious and unenjoyable in doing so.
I'm giving it two stars because the author certainly got his Nihilism across. Reading this book was indeed a pointless six hours of my life.
I picked this up because I saw it on China Mieville's list of sci-fi/fantasy that socialists should read, and only finished it because my Kindle kept telling me I had less than an hour left.
This book was like a gritty reboot of The Silmarillion. There was no internal logic to the narrative, instead using fantasy as a device for introducing and discarding characters and plot threads at will. I realize the author is trying to make a point about the randomness and futility of life, but this book was so tedious and unenjoyable in doing so.
I'm giving it two stars because the author certainly got his Nihilism across. Reading this book was indeed a pointless six hours of my life.
I'm sure that there's a good story here. Unfortunately, my memory of this book is filtered through the hormone-addled teenage brain that I was using when I read it.
What I remember about The Iron Dragon's Daughter is sex. Lots of sex. I remember magic that's powered by sex and magic that's meant to affect sex. I have a vague recollection of a techno-magical society that may have been a dystopia needing to be overthrown. I'm not sure how accurate that is, though - it's hidden behind a beast with two backs.
Now that I'm well out of that bizarre mental haze, I may need to revisit this book. This time I should be able to enjoy the story the way it's meant to be enjoyed.
Unless it triggers a relapse...
What I remember about The Iron Dragon's Daughter is sex. Lots of sex. I remember magic that's powered by sex and magic that's meant to affect sex. I have a vague recollection of a techno-magical society that may have been a dystopia needing to be overthrown. I'm not sure how accurate that is, though - it's hidden behind a beast with two backs.
Now that I'm well out of that bizarre mental haze, I may need to revisit this book. This time I should be able to enjoy the story the way it's meant to be enjoyed.
Unless it triggers a relapse...