Reviews

The Iron Dragon's Mother by Michael Swanwick

crisprtheghost's review

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adventurous
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

2.5

The world was far more interesting than the characters and the plot (although, there would have to actually be a plot for it to have an interesting plot in the first place)

aleffert's review

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3.0

I loved the Iron Dragon's Daughter, but the two sequels have just been fine... the setting is still fun, and there are lots of good bits, but they've both suffered from a lack of stakes and interesting characters. They're both really more or less picaresques and it's hard to stay especially interested.

winterreader40's review

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3.0

This was a very disconnected but moderately interesting story, were the heroine is technically 2 different people.

saraupsidedown's review

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2.0

A bit too complicated and convoluted for my taste.

leebill's review against another edition

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3.0

Very very clever. Good writing

nearit's review against another edition

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5.0

The implausibility of happy endings and the nature of the contracts required to procure one.

casella's review against another edition

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4.0

A return to one of my favorite fictional worlds, and marks a sort-of trilogy for Swanwick, I think his first. The Iron Dragon books explore a Faerie that is a kind of mirror universe to ours, where a variety of mythic and magical traditions have gone through their own industrial revolutions. Blends fantastic elements and fairly gritty realism in interesting ways—Swanwick's fantasy work sometimes strikes me as kind of converse to Mieville's Bas-Lag. As with most of Swanwick's work, the blurb doesn't quite match the discourse—Swanwick is tangential, looping out on strange side plots and ideas that are often the most memorable. The Iron Dragon's Mother continues to flesh out and critique this world and its power structures, and has a wonderfully strong thread about death and aging.

u9u's review

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medium-paced

3.0

inemuri's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

brianrenaud's review

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4.0

Again, Swanwick baffles me in a strangely pleasing way.