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3.37 AVERAGE
3.37 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Michael Swanwick writes good prose and has a big imagination. He is able to conjure up wild mind-bending ideas with seemingly effortless abandon. For example, there is a passage near the end of The Iron Dragon's Daughter, at the point when most authors would be coasting to the finish line, in which he just tosses out a throwaway line about how there are these two windows, one of which shows only the truth, and one which shows only lies, but it is impossible to tell which window is which. This idea alone could be the basis of a pretty good short story.
That is kind of my problem with The Iron Dragon's Daughter. It feels like the work of a great short story writer more than that of a great novelist. I don't think I've ever been so excited to the read the short fiction of an author whose novel I found as unpleasant as this one.
I did enjoy it here and there, in fits and starts. The opening chapters in the factory are great. There you feel the full impact of Swanwick's style and creativity. Then the rest of the book happens, at great length, and the returns keep diminishing. I admire what he does in this book, or tries to do; this is the most thorough attempt I've read to transplant a realistic contemporary coming-of-age story into a fantasy setting. But the plot begins to feel like a carousel of pointless novelty pretty quickly, going around and around to no apparent end until you feel bored and a bit sick. Characters come and go and die all the time without making an impression. The only emotional anchor as such is Jane, who is not a terribly interesting protagonist, though I do appreciate that she is allowed to be a fuck-up. But she also lacks interiority. Increasingly she, and the book, begin to feel like hollow vessels for Swanwick's nihilism.
Which might be at the core of why I did not find this book compelling. In a short story, nihilism is palatable; Thomas Ligotti's stories work because they do not belabor the point. Here, spread out over three-hundred-plus pages, the point is dulled. No matter who Jane meets next, you can predict that they will be some flavor of scumbag, or just generally unpleasant, or that they will die shortly. (Sometimes, woo-hoo, you get a blend of all three.) The only reason to continue reading is for the flashes of style and imagination, which are definitely there, but feel less and less worth the slog.
That I don't entirely regret reading The Iron Dragon's Daughter is a testament to how good a writer Michael Swanwick is. But I don't think his particular gifts are suited for the long form (though gosh, I am almost tempted to try another of his novels), and I wish I hadn't started here with him.
That is kind of my problem with The Iron Dragon's Daughter. It feels like the work of a great short story writer more than that of a great novelist. I don't think I've ever been so excited to the read the short fiction of an author whose novel I found as unpleasant as this one.
I did enjoy it here and there, in fits and starts. The opening chapters in the factory are great. There you feel the full impact of Swanwick's style and creativity. Then the rest of the book happens, at great length, and the returns keep diminishing. I admire what he does in this book, or tries to do; this is the most thorough attempt I've read to transplant a realistic contemporary coming-of-age story into a fantasy setting. But the plot begins to feel like a carousel of pointless novelty pretty quickly, going around and around to no apparent end until you feel bored and a bit sick. Characters come and go and die all the time without making an impression. The only emotional anchor as such is Jane, who is not a terribly interesting protagonist, though I do appreciate that she is allowed to be a fuck-up. But she also lacks interiority. Increasingly she, and the book, begin to feel like hollow vessels for Swanwick's nihilism.
Which might be at the core of why I did not find this book compelling. In a short story, nihilism is palatable; Thomas Ligotti's stories work because they do not belabor the point. Here, spread out over three-hundred-plus pages, the point is dulled. No matter who Jane meets next, you can predict that they will be some flavor of scumbag, or just generally unpleasant, or that they will die shortly. (Sometimes, woo-hoo, you get a blend of all three.) The only reason to continue reading is for the flashes of style and imagination, which are definitely there, but feel less and less worth the slog.
That I don't entirely regret reading The Iron Dragon's Daughter is a testament to how good a writer Michael Swanwick is. But I don't think his particular gifts are suited for the long form (though gosh, I am almost tempted to try another of his novels), and I wish I hadn't started here with him.
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape
Slowed to a halt, lost the will to read. As the book circled and circled so did I. Not the Swanwick to start with.
Not for me
This went from dystopian fey Dickens, to Degrassi, to melodramatic magic college smut, and then any sekaikei mecha anime. "Let's blow up grim YA angst industrial revolution Narnia with quantum coital magic."
This went from dystopian fey Dickens, to Degrassi, to melodramatic magic college smut, and then any sekaikei mecha anime. "Let's blow up grim YA angst industrial revolution Narnia with quantum coital magic."
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick has to be one of the hardest books that I have ever tried to review, simply because it is so in-depth and so full of both magic and machinery, I wouldn’t even know whether to class it as science-fiction or fantasy.
Jane is a changeling, a mortal child brought into a world where elves, dwarves and all other manner of creatures live. Enslaved in a factory, Jane stumbles across what appears to be the ruins of one of the iron dragons. But the dragon is far from destroyed; it is active and ready to make a bid for freedom. Inserting itself into Jane’s mind, the unlikely pair finally manage to escape the factory and leave their devastating lives behind them.
But it is not over. Despite knowing the dragon’s true name and therefore having some limited control over it, Jane finds herself on her own in lands she doesn’t truly know. She manages to blend in and even begin to get an education and have the potential for love enter her life as she begins to grow up. Doing whatever it takes to survive, Jane is forced to lose friends over and over again as she journeys first of all through school, then through university.
But while there is a price to pay for her thieving wrong-doings, Jane finds herself swept into a world of those of a higher power. Every time she falls in love, it is with effectively the same person as their true name is the same. All the while, the dragon is working away in the back of her mind with the most destructive plan of all. Initially, Jane believes that he wants to destroy the Goddess herself.
Then she understands that he just wants to destroy the world, and before she knows what is happening, she is helping him.
There are many elements to this tale. From the very beginning, the idea of magic is mingled with that of machinery. Jane must master certain powers in order to control the dragon, but also must know precisely how his mechanisms work. She believes her calling in life to be alchemy and undertakes various experiments that aim to help not only restore the dragon to his former strength, but aid her to get what she needs when she goes calling on the rich – uninvited.
Despite the split between fantasy and science-fiction, there is also an element of religion involved. Everything to do with the Goddess automatically puts that in our minds as readers, but also the idea of reincarnation and how it is the essence of the same person that keeps emerging time after time. There is a lot of depth to this novel and so many different layers that it is hard to keep track of what is real and what is just another illusion caused by the various drugs that Jane experiments with.
The book was enjoyable to read, yet the ending did leave a sense of frustration at not knowing what had truly happened. A recommendation simply for the genius of the different levels to the plot, but not if you want a neat ending to a story.
Jane is a changeling, a mortal child brought into a world where elves, dwarves and all other manner of creatures live. Enslaved in a factory, Jane stumbles across what appears to be the ruins of one of the iron dragons. But the dragon is far from destroyed; it is active and ready to make a bid for freedom. Inserting itself into Jane’s mind, the unlikely pair finally manage to escape the factory and leave their devastating lives behind them.
But it is not over. Despite knowing the dragon’s true name and therefore having some limited control over it, Jane finds herself on her own in lands she doesn’t truly know. She manages to blend in and even begin to get an education and have the potential for love enter her life as she begins to grow up. Doing whatever it takes to survive, Jane is forced to lose friends over and over again as she journeys first of all through school, then through university.
But while there is a price to pay for her thieving wrong-doings, Jane finds herself swept into a world of those of a higher power. Every time she falls in love, it is with effectively the same person as their true name is the same. All the while, the dragon is working away in the back of her mind with the most destructive plan of all. Initially, Jane believes that he wants to destroy the Goddess herself.
Then she understands that he just wants to destroy the world, and before she knows what is happening, she is helping him.
There are many elements to this tale. From the very beginning, the idea of magic is mingled with that of machinery. Jane must master certain powers in order to control the dragon, but also must know precisely how his mechanisms work. She believes her calling in life to be alchemy and undertakes various experiments that aim to help not only restore the dragon to his former strength, but aid her to get what she needs when she goes calling on the rich – uninvited.
Despite the split between fantasy and science-fiction, there is also an element of religion involved. Everything to do with the Goddess automatically puts that in our minds as readers, but also the idea of reincarnation and how it is the essence of the same person that keeps emerging time after time. There is a lot of depth to this novel and so many different layers that it is hard to keep track of what is real and what is just another illusion caused by the various drugs that Jane experiments with.
The book was enjoyable to read, yet the ending did leave a sense of frustration at not knowing what had truly happened. A recommendation simply for the genius of the different levels to the plot, but not if you want a neat ending to a story.
More like 4 1/2. The book meanders a little bit, but I really liked the protagonist and I loved the world-building.
Jane is a young girl, stolen from the human world to work in a Dickensian plant that services great steam-powered dragons. With a dragon’s help she escapes the factory, only to find that life in Faery is just as bad without a master as with. Although excited by her alchemy classes in school, Jane spends most of her time shoplifting and hanging out with drugged out punks. This is a highly dystopic book, but a very well written one.