Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
London: MacMillan, 2004
Pages
471
Description
Following Perdido Street Station and The Scar, acclaimed author China Miéville returns with his hugely anticipated Del Rey hardcover debut. With a fresh and fantastical band of characters, he carries us back to the decadent squalor of New Crobuzon--this time, decades later. It is a time of wars and revolutions, conflict and intrigue. New Crobuzon is being ripped apart from without and within. War with the shadowy city-state of Tesh and rioting on the streets at home are pushing the teeming city to the brink. A mysterious masked figure spurs strange rebellion, while treachery and violence incubate in unexpected places. In desperation, a small group of renegades escapes from the city and crosses strange and alien continents in the search for a lost hope. In the blood and violence of New Crobuzon's most dangerous hour, there are whispers. It is the time of the iron council. . . . The bold originality that broke Miéville out as a new force of the genre is here once more in Iron Council: the voluminous, lyrical novel that is destined to seal his reputation as perhaps the edgiest mythmaker of the day.… (more)
Media reviews
Aside from his high-end prose style, Miéville’s characters, with their conceits and weaknesses abraded as moral choices play themselves out, secure their author’s place among the top-flight novelists of today.
Awards
Hugo Award (Nominee — Novel — 2005)
Locus Award (Finalist — Fantasy Novel — 2005)
World Fantasy Award (Nominee — Novel — 2005)
SF Site Reader's Choice (2004)
Gaylactic Spectrum Award (Nominee — Novel — 2005)
SF Site Editor's Choice (2004)
Arthur C. Clarke Award (Winner — 2005)
Kurd Laßwitz Preis (Winner — Foreign novel 2006)
Locus Recommended Reading (2004)
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
2004
Physical description
471 p.; 9.8 inches
ISBN
03333989724
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User reviews
LibraryThing member alexdallymacfarlane
Iron Council was a very very good book, I could tell that, but it was not very very good book for me. I am not a Socialist. My political views come from all over the spectrum, but I am not a Socialist and definitely not a revolutionary. And seeing as this book was chiefly about the people seizing
The characters didn't help matters much. They weren't awful -- I could find things in them all that I liked -- but they're the weakest set of Miéville characters I've encountered so far. I liked the characters in Perdido Street Station enough that the ending hurt and I absolutely loved Bellis and Uther in The Scar (which goes to show that I don't need sympathetic characters in the "traditional" sense; in fact, I'm all for anti-heroes). I was somewhat less fussed about the cast of Iron Council.
Judah was far too much of a Jesus-figure for me to identify with him, right until the very end when he did something so fundamentally seflish that I loved him then.
Cutter was such a fawning disciple that he annoyed me; while I appreciate it when characters don't get everything they want, he went beyond that to the point that I wanted to shout at him to give it up already, Judah doesn't love him above anyone else. What I did like about Cutter was his indifference to the Iron Council.
I quite liked Ori, because he falls for Toro's plan and Spiral Jacob's plan, but I couldn't completely connect with him, probably because of his Socialist views.
My favourite character by far was Drogon. Maybe because, with his weird abilities and cold, withdrawn personality, he reminded me a little of Uther Doul. And because of why he does what he does.
The plot worked very well, though I felt it sagged a little in the middle -- too much seizing-of-power stuff, too much Iron Council hacking its way through the wilderness stuff. The ending was excellent, twisting just enough for surprise but fitting the setup and the characters perfectly. I predicted Drogon wasn't quite what he seemed, but didn't know quite how, and the same with Spiral Jacobs. The wrap-up of Weather Wrightby's sub-story made me smile. Dealing with the Teshi was over quickly, but it worked and tied up Qurabin's story neatly (and was preferable to another long, drawn-out monster hunt as in PSS). And as for the fate of Iron Council, well. I thought it was excellent. I heard from someone that the ending of Iron Council is the most hopeless/pessimistic of all Miéville's books'. I suppose that depends on where your political alignments.
I love China Miéville chiefly because he is an ideas-writer. Iron Council was much less an ideas-novel than PSS or TS, but where Miéville's imagination poked through it did so excellently. The cacotopic stain and its effects -- the carriage that turns into an amoeba-thing, for instance -- are great, as are the Teshi weapons, the stiltspear, the golemtry, Drogon the whispersmith, and the things encountered by Cutter's group while they track down Judah -- in particular the vinhogs: cattle with symbiotic vines growing from them, reared for wine. Where these ideas appeared they were great, but they didn't appear often enough to prevent me from geting bored at times. And, as already stated, the characters weren't quite compelling enough to prevent some stagnation.
When I started reading the book, I complained about the lack of waffling in Miéville's prose. I came to like this different style quickly enough -- clipped, but scattered with amazing descriptions. It worked for the story. The comparable lack of infodumping does mean that someone who has not already read at least PSS might find this book difficult in places (the handlingers, for instance, aren't very well explained, nor is the Weaver, nor are other things infodumped about in PSS, and I think it might be a little confusing for some people).
In all, I did enjoy this book, but not nearly as well as PSS and TS. Had it been a little shorter, with some of the politics-y stuff trimmed, I might have liked it more. I'll readily admit that it's a very good book. Just, as I said above, not quite for me.
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power, I felt a little distanced from what was happening. The government was corrupt , the railway administrators were corrupt, and I could understand the need the do ~something~, but I couldn't completely identify with what happened. The characters didn't help matters much. They weren't awful -- I could find things in them all that I liked -- but they're the weakest set of Miéville characters I've encountered so far. I liked the characters in Perdido Street Station enough that the ending hurt and I absolutely loved Bellis and Uther in The Scar (which goes to show that I don't need sympathetic characters in the "traditional" sense; in fact, I'm all for anti-heroes). I was somewhat less fussed about the cast of Iron Council.
Judah was far too much of a Jesus-figure for me to identify with him, right until the very end when he did something so fundamentally seflish that I loved him then.
Cutter was such a fawning disciple that he annoyed me; while I appreciate it when characters don't get everything they want, he went beyond that to the point that I wanted to shout at him to give it up already, Judah doesn't love him above anyone else. What I did like about Cutter was his indifference to the Iron Council.
I quite liked Ori, because he falls for Toro's plan and Spiral Jacob's plan, but I couldn't completely connect with him, probably because of his Socialist views.
My favourite character by far was Drogon. Maybe because, with his weird abilities and cold, withdrawn personality, he reminded me a little of Uther Doul. And because of why he does what he does.
The plot worked very well, though I felt it sagged a little in the middle -- too much seizing-of-power stuff, too much Iron Council hacking its way through the wilderness stuff. The ending was excellent, twisting just enough for surprise but fitting the setup and the characters perfectly. I predicted Drogon wasn't quite what he seemed, but didn't know quite how, and the same with Spiral Jacobs. The wrap-up of Weather Wrightby's sub-story made me smile. Dealing with the Teshi was over quickly, but it worked and tied up Qurabin's story neatly (and was preferable to another long, drawn-out monster hunt as in PSS). And as for the fate of Iron Council, well. I thought it was excellent. I heard from someone that the ending of Iron Council is the most hopeless/pessimistic of all Miéville's books'. I suppose that depends on where your political alignments.
I love China Miéville chiefly because he is an ideas-writer. Iron Council was much less an ideas-novel than PSS or TS, but where Miéville's imagination poked through it did so excellently. The cacotopic stain and its effects -- the carriage that turns into an amoeba-thing, for instance -- are great, as are the Teshi weapons, the stiltspear, the golemtry, Drogon the whispersmith, and the things encountered by Cutter's group while they track down Judah -- in particular the vinhogs: cattle with symbiotic vines growing from them, reared for wine. Where these ideas appeared they were great, but they didn't appear often enough to prevent me from geting bored at times. And, as already stated, the characters weren't quite compelling enough to prevent some stagnation.
When I started reading the book, I complained about the lack of waffling in Miéville's prose. I came to like this different style quickly enough -- clipped, but scattered with amazing descriptions. It worked for the story. The comparable lack of infodumping does mean that someone who has not already read at least PSS might find this book difficult in places (the handlingers, for instance, aren't very well explained, nor is the Weaver, nor are other things infodumped about in PSS, and I think it might be a little confusing for some people).
In all, I did enjoy this book, but not nearly as well as PSS and TS. Had it been a little shorter, with some of the politics-y stuff trimmed, I might have liked it more. I'll readily admit that it's a very good book. Just, as I said above, not quite for me.
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LibraryThing member Spoonbridge
After reading this, the last of Mieville's trio of Bas Lag novels, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. Iron Council is definitely my least favorite of the three, despite (or perhaps because of) being the most overtly political. Perhaps because of the focus on revolution, I felt the characters
However, Mieville does continue with his unique brand of world building, making the blend of a corrupt industrial-magical society seem not only completely alien but also very real, from the bizarre Cacotopic Stain to the various neighborhoods of New Crobozon.
I also liked that, as in his previous novels, there is a bit of genre blending taking place in Bas Lag, which I find interesting. Perdido Street Station, for instance mixed a lot of horror and some noir into its fantasy while the Scar was very much a swashbuckling adventure story. In Iron Council, there is some definite Western stylings showing up, though the extra genre is a little less evident then in previous Bas Lag stories.
In conclusion, I felt that Iron Council was a bit slow moving with comparatively undeveloped characters, though I enjoyed this last exploration of the world of Bas Lag and particularly, the city of New Crobozon and continues with Mieville's brand of genre blending.
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of this novel were much less interesting then the previous two. Unlike Isaac or Bellis, I never really connected with or identified with Cutter, Ori, Ann Hari or any other person or felt drawn into their conflicts (which I was completely with Perdido Street Station and the Scar). In particular, I felt the character of Judah to be fairly bland and I admit to being a bit bored with him and the whole Iron Council saga that took up a majority of the middle of the novel.However, Mieville does continue with his unique brand of world building, making the blend of a corrupt industrial-magical society seem not only completely alien but also very real, from the bizarre Cacotopic Stain to the various neighborhoods of New Crobozon.
I also liked that, as in his previous novels, there is a bit of genre blending taking place in Bas Lag, which I find interesting. Perdido Street Station, for instance mixed a lot of horror and some noir into its fantasy while the Scar was very much a swashbuckling adventure story. In Iron Council, there is some definite Western stylings showing up, though the extra genre is a little less evident then in previous Bas Lag stories.
In conclusion, I felt that Iron Council was a bit slow moving with comparatively undeveloped characters, though I enjoyed this last exploration of the world of Bas Lag and particularly, the city of New Crobozon and continues with Mieville's brand of genre blending.
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LibraryThing member -Eva-
It's about 20 years after the events in The Scar and New Crobuzon is at war with Tesh, to the detriment (as is always the case) of its citizens. We follow Ori on his quest for revolutionary social justice, Cutter on his quest for Judah Low, and Judah Low on his quest for the Iron Council, the
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socialist train and people that he hopes will save New Crobuzon. As this is a Miéville story and its writer never a one-trick-pony, the reader will be treated to huge pieces of the social awareness cake along with breakneck speed steampunk action sequences, discussions about love (and how far one goes for it), Manifest Destiny, trade unionism, labor rights, racism, and imperialism. Although not quite as enthralling as its predecessors, Iron Council is a true Miéville story, so fasten your seatbelt, make sure you have a dictionary close at hand, and enjoy the ride. Show Less
LibraryThing member Fence
This is the third of Mieville’;s books to be set in the wonderful world of New Crobuzon, and so far my favourite of this ‘verse. I enjoyed Perdido Street Station, admired more than liked The Scar, but Iron Council surpasses both of them. I was a little doubtful at first, not really getting the
The ‘verse Mieville has created is simply fantastic, in both sense of the word. A variety of characters, races, and peoples all battle for the reader’s attention, and just when you want to read more about some one in particular another comes along to steal your attention.
There are three main storylines. Cutter and his wanderings as he attempts to track down Judah Lowe. Then there is Ori, back in the city of New Crobuzon and his desire for revolution, for a better world. The third strand is set in the past, and centres on the character of Judah Lowe and the origin of the legendary Iron Council.
Mieville is a socialist, and there is quite a bit of politics in this book. The social reform the people of the Collective yearn for. The strikes that helped bring about the creation of the Iron Council. And while it is impossible to ignore this political aspect, nowhere does Mieville’s political belief turn into a sermon or a rant. The characters live, and die, they act as characters, not as proponents of a particular theory.
There are no real bad guys in this book. Sure, there are the authorities and the railroad managers, but they are more in the background. Few of them are actual characters that appear in the book. Instead it is the realities of life that create the situations that the other characters must react to. For just as there are no bad guys, there are no good guys. There are simply characters, acting according to what goes on about them.
Utterly original, with its Remade, flesh elementals, Cactae people and Khepri women among many many more, Iron Council makes for a great read. You’ll never look at a train in the same way again. And the ending! well. I’ll let you find out for yourself.
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character of Cutter. But once the story began it sucked me in.The ‘verse Mieville has created is simply fantastic, in both sense of the word. A variety of characters, races, and peoples all battle for the reader’s attention, and just when you want to read more about some one in particular another comes along to steal your attention.
There are three main storylines. Cutter and his wanderings as he attempts to track down Judah Lowe. Then there is Ori, back in the city of New Crobuzon and his desire for revolution, for a better world. The third strand is set in the past, and centres on the character of Judah Lowe and the origin of the legendary Iron Council.
Mieville is a socialist, and there is quite a bit of politics in this book. The social reform the people of the Collective yearn for. The strikes that helped bring about the creation of the Iron Council. And while it is impossible to ignore this political aspect, nowhere does Mieville’s political belief turn into a sermon or a rant. The characters live, and die, they act as characters, not as proponents of a particular theory.
There are no real bad guys in this book. Sure, there are the authorities and the railroad managers, but they are more in the background. Few of them are actual characters that appear in the book. Instead it is the realities of life that create the situations that the other characters must react to. For just as there are no bad guys, there are no good guys. There are simply characters, acting according to what goes on about them.
Utterly original, with its Remade, flesh elementals, Cactae people and Khepri women among many many more, Iron Council makes for a great read. You’ll never look at a train in the same way again. And the ending! well. I’ll let you find out for yourself.
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LibraryThing member edgeworth
Embassytown and The City & The City appear to be the books that are giving Mieville his reptuation as the Literary Saint of Speculative Fiction, but before reading those I wanted to finish off his Bas-Lag trilogy. His previous outings – Perdido Street Station and The Scar – both displayed
Iron Council is Mieville’s most overtly political book, and he’s never been a writer to shy away from politics. It opens with a group of characters searching for the legendary Iron Council across the hostile landscapes of Bas-Lag, and then throws the reader into a flashback to show how the Iron Council was formed. A wealthy industrialist from New Crobuzon is sending out railways across the continent, in a long and relatively enjoyable section of the book that’s a sort of crazy fantasy Wild West. After some strikes and demonstrations, the workers revolt and steal one of the trains, tearing up the tracks behind them and laying them down again ahead, to create a perpetually moving train, a free and equal society called the Iron Council. The story jumps around in space and time, linking back with events in New Crobuzon, where many decades of secret rebellion have culminated in open warfare against the tyrannical government.
As I said, it’s Mieville’s most political book, but I think it’s for precisely this reason that it fails. I remember thinking in the early sections that his ability for prose had developed (taking clear inspiration from Cormac McCarthy) but later in the book it shifted from descriptions of the landscape and bizarre creatures, and became solely dedicated to building a sense of drama and importance about the characters and events. There’s not even any of the simple slice of life stuff we saw in Perdido Street Station and even The Scar. Everything the characters say and do is weighted down with attempted emotional anguish. People are rising up against cruel governments or struggling with their misgivings about doing so or arguing about what’s best for the people they’re trying to protect. I could pick almost any random line of dialogue out of this book and see it being acted out by a grizzled-jaw American hunk narrowing his eyes, looking into the distance and intoning something cheesy like, "People need somethin' to believe in." I never cared. I’ve read three of Mieville’s books now, and found not a sympathetic or memorable character in any of them, so I frankly don't give a fuck if they all have to live underneath a dictatorial regime.
You can tell that this is the book he really wanted to write, that he couldn’t wait to write about an open struggle against an evil government, but he lost control of himself and got too swept up in it. He forgot that not everybody else is going to be as invested in that as he is. I liked Iron Council even less than the previous two Bas-Lag books, because those were about characters just trying to get by and handle their own business, people who got swept up in events rather than orchestrated them. Iron Council is weighed down by its political baggage and sense of self-importance. I can understand what Mieville was trying to do here, and it’s nice to see some left-wing content in an inherently conservative genre, but I found Iron Counvil was one of those books where I was wearily counting how many pages were left until I was done with it.
I’ll still check out The City & The City at some point, but if I don’t like that, I may give up on Mieville and forget about Embassytown.
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tremendous worldbuilding and a capacious imagination, but fell short in areas like plot, characters and dialogue, and demonstrated Mieville’s irritating love of flowery prose.Iron Council is Mieville’s most overtly political book, and he’s never been a writer to shy away from politics. It opens with a group of characters searching for the legendary Iron Council across the hostile landscapes of Bas-Lag, and then throws the reader into a flashback to show how the Iron Council was formed. A wealthy industrialist from New Crobuzon is sending out railways across the continent, in a long and relatively enjoyable section of the book that’s a sort of crazy fantasy Wild West. After some strikes and demonstrations, the workers revolt and steal one of the trains, tearing up the tracks behind them and laying them down again ahead, to create a perpetually moving train, a free and equal society called the Iron Council. The story jumps around in space and time, linking back with events in New Crobuzon, where many decades of secret rebellion have culminated in open warfare against the tyrannical government.
As I said, it’s Mieville’s most political book, but I think it’s for precisely this reason that it fails. I remember thinking in the early sections that his ability for prose had developed (taking clear inspiration from Cormac McCarthy) but later in the book it shifted from descriptions of the landscape and bizarre creatures, and became solely dedicated to building a sense of drama and importance about the characters and events. There’s not even any of the simple slice of life stuff we saw in Perdido Street Station and even The Scar. Everything the characters say and do is weighted down with attempted emotional anguish. People are rising up against cruel governments or struggling with their misgivings about doing so or arguing about what’s best for the people they’re trying to protect. I could pick almost any random line of dialogue out of this book and see it being acted out by a grizzled-jaw American hunk narrowing his eyes, looking into the distance and intoning something cheesy like, "People need somethin' to believe in." I never cared. I’ve read three of Mieville’s books now, and found not a sympathetic or memorable character in any of them, so I frankly don't give a fuck if they all have to live underneath a dictatorial regime.
You can tell that this is the book he really wanted to write, that he couldn’t wait to write about an open struggle against an evil government, but he lost control of himself and got too swept up in it. He forgot that not everybody else is going to be as invested in that as he is. I liked Iron Council even less than the previous two Bas-Lag books, because those were about characters just trying to get by and handle their own business, people who got swept up in events rather than orchestrated them. Iron Council is weighed down by its political baggage and sense of self-importance. I can understand what Mieville was trying to do here, and it’s nice to see some left-wing content in an inherently conservative genre, but I found Iron Counvil was one of those books where I was wearily counting how many pages were left until I was done with it.
I’ll still check out The City & The City at some point, but if I don’t like that, I may give up on Mieville and forget about Embassytown.
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LibraryThing member AHS-Wolfy
A rail link to span the continent. Make New Crobuzon the hub of Bas-Lag. That was the idea when it started but with conditions worsening and money running out it didn't quite make it. When the pay starts drying up then the workers start getting disgruntled and a revolution occurs. The train that's
Back in New Crobuzon there's a war with Tesh to deal with and rebellion is also in the air. Not content with Runagate Rampant meetings where all they seem to do is talk, Ori manages to insinuate himself into a rebel group led by Toro. Could Toro be the natural successor to Jack Half-a-Prayer? There's certainly plans afoot to change the order of how things are run in the city and Ori becomes a part of that.
With insurrection brewing, Judah Low sets off to find the Iron Council and having learned that's where he's gone Cutter and a small band of others follow after to catch him up and continue on their journey. Can they make it through to where the Iron Council is purported to be and does it still even exist or has it passed into nothing more than legends and rumours after all that time?
Although this was the shortest of the 3 novels in the series it was, at times, feeling like the longest. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it (how can you not enjoy Mr Miéville's work?) but I didn't pick it up as often as I could have done. Still, a good story that was told with all the imagination that the author brings to his work and worth the effort of reading. 4★'s
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leading the way with supplies and equipment gets taken. Off into the wilds it goes and becomes the legend that is the Iron Council. A place where even the Remade are treated as equals.Back in New Crobuzon there's a war with Tesh to deal with and rebellion is also in the air. Not content with Runagate Rampant meetings where all they seem to do is talk, Ori manages to insinuate himself into a rebel group led by Toro. Could Toro be the natural successor to Jack Half-a-Prayer? There's certainly plans afoot to change the order of how things are run in the city and Ori becomes a part of that.
With insurrection brewing, Judah Low sets off to find the Iron Council and having learned that's where he's gone Cutter and a small band of others follow after to catch him up and continue on their journey. Can they make it through to where the Iron Council is purported to be and does it still even exist or has it passed into nothing more than legends and rumours after all that time?
Although this was the shortest of the 3 novels in the series it was, at times, feeling like the longest. It wasn't that I didn't enjoy it (how can you not enjoy Mr Miéville's work?) but I didn't pick it up as often as I could have done. Still, a good story that was told with all the imagination that the author brings to his work and worth the effort of reading. 4★'s
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LibraryThing member jonathon.hodge
A Book I really wanted to like - but didn't particularly.
LibraryThing member worldsedge
Mieville (no I am not bothering with the stupid accent) seems to have come down with an unfortunate case of Magic ex machina this time around. Perhaps he was bitten by a rabid Steven Erickson? Especially over the last 100 or so pages where you've got, in no particular order, elementals, golems, and
Yet for all that, all that other stuff he does he does very well indeed. Bas Lag is a truly original world, New Crobuzon almost a real place by itself, and in all honesty, despite what others seem to be saying, characters that I thought all worked quite well.
As an absoultely worthless aside: i started having these weird thoughts of Iron Council as the anti-Atlas Shrugged. Granted the analogy isn't perfect, but you've got your band of savagely suppressed socialists hijacking a train and nipping off for parts unknown. Look at it a certain way and all that was needed was a fifty page speech starting off, "This is Judah Low speaking." Sorry, but I couldn't resist.
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magical information monks. Irritating as hell the way the book ends. But also throughout the book, where you get hit over the head with more weird races, creatures, malignant eruptions of hell on earth than anything this side of CS Lewis. Add to that there being a fair bit of his Neo-Trotskyite political beliefs leaking in, at times it felt like being whipsawed between, oh I dunno, an episode of Yu-gi-Oh and a copy of Foreign Affairs magazine.Yet for all that, all that other stuff he does he does very well indeed. Bas Lag is a truly original world, New Crobuzon almost a real place by itself, and in all honesty, despite what others seem to be saying, characters that I thought all worked quite well.
As an absoultely worthless aside: i started having these weird thoughts of Iron Council as the anti-Atlas Shrugged. Granted the analogy isn't perfect, but you've got your band of savagely suppressed socialists hijacking a train and nipping off for parts unknown. Look at it a certain way and all that was needed was a fifty page speech starting off, "This is Judah Low speaking." Sorry, but I couldn't resist.
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LibraryThing member roxy
This was my first experience of Miéville's work which I'd heard the most wonderful praises about... disappointement... couldn't even finish it... did go about 200 pages... 200 pages of boredom...
LibraryThing member jdmiller
I think this was the most challenging book that I've ever read. Very lyrical and beautiful, in a gritty way.
LibraryThing member tronella
Compared to the other two Miéville books I've read, I didn't think this was as good - I didn't connect with the characters as much, I think, and I thought the ending was a bit too abrupt (and left a lot of questions unanswered). However, I still really enjoyed the writing itself -- the author is
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clearly a man who loves words, and I like books where that comes across. I'm also still impressed by the level of world-building he manages to do. You learn a lot about the politics, history and geography of the world without any tedious info-dumps to slog through. But still, I much preferred the previous two novels. Show Less
LibraryThing member sara_k
Iron Council by China Mieville. Why did it take so long? Well, it's a dense book with lots of action, description, and characters to keep straight and it was so good that I was trying to make it last as long as I could. My endeavour ended as it always does late at night tragically trying to make
Just lately I've been struck by how different authors use and introduce interesting vocabulary. Lemony Snicket, in the series "A Series of Unfortunate Events", uses a word and then explains in an aside to the readers what the word means in this instance. "Klaus's glasses were hanging askew, a phrase which here means "tilted to one side from leaning over logs the entire morning."" Cornelia Funke, in Inkheart, uses the entire sentence and the context that the word is used in to define the word. "The entire room was red. The walls, the columns, even the ceiling were vermilion, the color of raw meat or dried blood." China Mieville uses the words as a matter of fact and scatters in words native to his fantasy world. If I don't already know the word, I can guess that it is part of his world or I can go look it up. "Coruscant" was a word that sounded familiar but I looked it up to be sure. (It means "glittering" or "light flashing".)
China Mieville's stories are set in and out of the many levels of cities and cultures. Don't expect pretty people though there is great beauty and a certain grace in the deep passion that his characters have for their lives and missions.
One of the great things about Iron Council is that the people in the story know only what they know, they do not see the big picture, and the reader only knows what each character knows and that bias keeps the reader from knowing exactly what the big picture is until it is revealed by the author. Sure, I may think that Ori is being lead astray from his revolutionist activist group and into something darker but I feel and hope that this will be something greater, something more than talktalktalk. As Toro's group seems to be turning thuggish, I wonder if the means will justify the end and at that end I feel the betrayal that Ori suffers. He's been used! What kind of person uses that passionate desire to make things better for the world for their own desires? The answer is real people, real people who finally get some power and focus more on themselves than on the good that could be done for the community.
One of the great struggles in Iron Council is the need to get a group to work for some collective good while not sacrificing the valid lives and desires and passions of the individuals AND not letting an individual take over responsibility of the group. This works out different ways in New Corbuzon and on the Iron Council and nobody is immune from the corruption that power can bring, especially the mistake of assuming that one person knows the will of the group.
Another thing to think about: How powerful is myth? Can myth change the way a people work and think? If that myth comes back into our interactive world, will the flawed reality destroy the power of the myth or can seeing the strength of the reality make the whole thing even more powerful?
(sigh) Lovely.
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the story last but unable to stop reading. Just lately I've been struck by how different authors use and introduce interesting vocabulary. Lemony Snicket, in the series "A Series of Unfortunate Events", uses a word and then explains in an aside to the readers what the word means in this instance. "Klaus's glasses were hanging askew, a phrase which here means "tilted to one side from leaning over logs the entire morning."" Cornelia Funke, in Inkheart, uses the entire sentence and the context that the word is used in to define the word. "The entire room was red. The walls, the columns, even the ceiling were vermilion, the color of raw meat or dried blood." China Mieville uses the words as a matter of fact and scatters in words native to his fantasy world. If I don't already know the word, I can guess that it is part of his world or I can go look it up. "Coruscant" was a word that sounded familiar but I looked it up to be sure. (It means "glittering" or "light flashing".)
China Mieville's stories are set in and out of the many levels of cities and cultures. Don't expect pretty people though there is great beauty and a certain grace in the deep passion that his characters have for their lives and missions.
One of the great things about Iron Council is that the people in the story know only what they know, they do not see the big picture, and the reader only knows what each character knows and that bias keeps the reader from knowing exactly what the big picture is until it is revealed by the author. Sure, I may think that Ori is being lead astray from his revolutionist activist group and into something darker but I feel and hope that this will be something greater, something more than talktalktalk. As Toro's group seems to be turning thuggish, I wonder if the means will justify the end and at that end I feel the betrayal that Ori suffers. He's been used! What kind of person uses that passionate desire to make things better for the world for their own desires? The answer is real people, real people who finally get some power and focus more on themselves than on the good that could be done for the community.
One of the great struggles in Iron Council is the need to get a group to work for some collective good while not sacrificing the valid lives and desires and passions of the individuals AND not letting an individual take over responsibility of the group. This works out different ways in New Corbuzon and on the Iron Council and nobody is immune from the corruption that power can bring, especially the mistake of assuming that one person knows the will of the group.
Another thing to think about: How powerful is myth? Can myth change the way a people work and think? If that myth comes back into our interactive world, will the flawed reality destroy the power of the myth or can seeing the strength of the reality make the whole thing even more powerful?
(sigh) Lovely.
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LibraryThing member clong
I enjoyed Perdido Street Station quite a bit, and thought The Scar was even better, so I came to Iron Council with high expectations. This one left me very disappointed.
The plotting felt contrived and forced, and the characters felt shallow and uninteresting. With the exception of the young Judah
Having said all of that, the novel did have some strengths. The big central “Perpetual Train” chapter would work pretty darn well as a stand alone novella. The concluding section had a couple of nice surprises, including the revelations about Drogon, and Judah’s final golem (although as I thought more about this, I had serious reservations about it). The imagery of this fantastic world and its denizens is much more hit-and-miss than the first two books, with a few brilliant new concepts scattered among less inspired ones.
The plotting felt contrived and forced, and the characters felt shallow and uninteresting. With the exception of the young Judah
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Low, I never really connected with any of these people either as individuals (especially Cutter and Ori) or as groups, so I never much cared what happened to them . Mieville has given us what should have been an interesting cast of characters, but many of them play only bit parts, they often act irrationally, and we rarely have any understanding of why. Ann-Hari feels more like a caricature than a real person. When we got the big revelation about Toro’s identity and motivation my reaction was, “so what?” The story felt choppy, bouncing back and forth among three storylines and never developing much sense of momentum.Having said all of that, the novel did have some strengths. The big central “Perpetual Train” chapter would work pretty darn well as a stand alone novella. The concluding section had a couple of nice surprises, including the revelations about Drogon, and Judah’s final golem (although as I thought more about this, I had serious reservations about it). The imagery of this fantastic world and its denizens is much more hit-and-miss than the first two books, with a few brilliant new concepts scattered among less inspired ones.
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LibraryThing member Sungold
The Washington Post quote on its cover says "Mieville has reshaped modern fantasy," and I couldn't agree more. This outing, however, I found much less accessible than his others, with characters that I never could quite relate to. Worth a read, surely, if you are a fan of his other works, but not a
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great first introduction to his work. Show Less
LibraryThing member faganjc
The first China Mieville book I read was Perdido Street Station, and I was blown away. The Scar made an excellent follow up. For me, Iron Council was a real let-down by comparison, and if I'd read it first, I might not have read more Mieville.
Part of it might be that I just didn't resonate with
Unlike King Rat, I liked the very ending of Iron Council. It seemed to take forever to get there, though.
Part of it might be that I just didn't resonate with
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the subject matter; the Western railroad setting; the messiah-type, the Collective idea. But I don't think so, because Perdido was so strange that I don't think I could say I "resonated" with it, either. Unlike King Rat, I liked the very ending of Iron Council. It seemed to take forever to get there, though.
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LibraryThing member maledei
i really loved that book. not only is this one of the few political works in contemporary fantasy/science fiction literature, but also very progressive with gender and sexuality issues.
LibraryThing member nasherr
I did not enjoy this book as much as Mieville's other work. Very little time was spent in the fantastic creation New Crobuzon. I felt it would have been great to return there after the the previous book was spent entirely at sea (The Scar). However this title is still a good read where Mieville
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really focuses on the politics of his world. Show Less
LibraryThing member JapaG
Iron Council is the third book in Mieville's New Crobuzon saga. And the most disappointing one.
The book has great ideas. The Iron Council itself is a wonderful creation, and the parts of the book describing its journey the best in the book. But the book is too long. Way too long. If the length of
Mieville certainly has a beautiful voice, but he becomes too infatuated with it. Most of the descriptions go on too long. I think that it might be called the Stephen King syndrome. :)
The ending is great, very befitting to the epic of the book. If only the epic was shorter.
The book has great ideas. The Iron Council itself is a wonderful creation, and the parts of the book describing its journey the best in the book. But the book is too long. Way too long. If the length of
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the book was cut in half, the result would quite probably be one of the greatest fantasy books of the last decade.Mieville certainly has a beautiful voice, but he becomes too infatuated with it. Most of the descriptions go on too long. I think that it might be called the Stephen King syndrome. :)
The ending is great, very befitting to the epic of the book. If only the epic was shorter.
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LibraryThing member sgarnell
I really liked this. It's full of interesting characters which populate a rich world full of New Weird detail. Moreover, it uses various literary devices that you don't see that often. Wonderful wordsmithing in my opinion. Of course, some people take exception with the author's style. China does
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tend to lean towards narration and long monologues, and dialog's can be anemic at times. But it's not really a problem, just style.If you give it try, you'll get hooked on it like I did. I consider this a must read for anyone who's a fan of the New Weird. Show Less
LibraryThing member bragan
The third book set in Miéville's bizarre world of Bas-Lag, which sees the city of New Cobruzon experiencing a difficult time of war, unrest, and insurrection. It's a good story, but as always it's the world itself that truly captures the imagination, with its casual strangeness, its horrors and
I suspect this may be a minority opinion, but I think I may like this book the best of the three. Unlike Perdido Street Station or The Scar, it never dragged for me, even for a moment. And while I can imagine that some might find the ending unsatisfying, I thought it felt very, very right.
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wonders. I think Miéville is as good at this particular kind of slightly surreal world-building as anyone ever has been. He seems to have an excellent instinctive sense of how much to explain and how much to leave mysterious, and he blends the familiar and the uncanny together as seamlessly as a recurring dream.I suspect this may be a minority opinion, but I think I may like this book the best of the three. Unlike Perdido Street Station or The Scar, it never dragged for me, even for a moment. And while I can imagine that some might find the ending unsatisfying, I thought it felt very, very right.
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LibraryThing member jessicariddoch
I so loved the city and the city. But this book just does not have the capacity to hold my interest. I was not able to cnnect to the main character or even seem to follow the flow of what was happening.
Perhaps it was just that i was not in the mood for this kind of book, I may return and give it
Perhaps it was just that i was not in the mood for this kind of book, I may return and give it
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another try but as for the moment a dissapointing I could not be bothered to finish it! (those who know will understand how seldom that ever happens Show Less
LibraryThing member davros63au
I was keen to catch up with the last of the Bas-Lag trilogy, and revisit Miéville’s amazing imagination, full of ingenious ideas and fantastic races and their cultures, like the khepri, vodyanoi and the Remade.
The story is the complex saga of a group of revolutionaries looking for the legendary
The story is the complex saga of a group of revolutionaries looking for the legendary
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Iron Council, who they believe will bring them their ultimate success. Along the way you get the background and politics of this world and its characters and as I often find with Miéville, a perceptive insight into many political and social situations in our own reality. I find his writing challenging but ultimately rewarding. Having read the first 2 books gave me the background, particularly Perdido Street Station, and consequently a more complete appreciation of the story. Show Less
LibraryThing member kaipakartik
I enjoyed the book immensely. Mieville is inventive as usual. The other reviews said that this book is overtly political but I never found it to be so. I always thought it was being taken to its logical conclusion.
The story contains three separate threads which of course converge at the end. The
This is a challenging book but the sort of challenge that one enjoys(or at least one that I enjoyed).
Mieville seems to have an insanely keen grasp of characters and he writes like one possessed. There is lesser exposition than his previous works. A lot of the creatures are described with economy and precision with words that sends one hunting for the dictionary (but then you find that the word that has been used could have been replaced by none other).
Mieville is adept at entrenching images in your head. The characters, the races, the monsters are all etched, better than the way any movie could depict them.(I hope they never film these books because so much would be lost and no matter how good a job they do, they cannot be better than the actors in our heads.). The sheer number of races that interact with each other is a delight in itself.
What I don't understand is the mixed reception that Iron Council received. It is a riveting and magnificent tale full of fantastic characters. This is writing of the highest quality, a work of pure art that transcends genre and defies classification.
Despite the above praise I would recommend the book only to fans of Mieville or those who liked Perdido Street Station. This is a heavy read and I was exhausted(but pleased) at the end of it.
The story contains three separate threads which of course converge at the end. The
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city of New Crobuzon is at war with Tesh. They are building a railroad to conduct the war. The workers aren't getting paid, they strike, they fight and eventually break away across unknown frontiers. It is against this backdrop that the tales of the Judah, Cuter and Ori unfold.This is a challenging book but the sort of challenge that one enjoys(or at least one that I enjoyed).
Mieville seems to have an insanely keen grasp of characters and he writes like one possessed. There is lesser exposition than his previous works. A lot of the creatures are described with economy and precision with words that sends one hunting for the dictionary (but then you find that the word that has been used could have been replaced by none other).
Mieville is adept at entrenching images in your head. The characters, the races, the monsters are all etched, better than the way any movie could depict them.(I hope they never film these books because so much would be lost and no matter how good a job they do, they cannot be better than the actors in our heads.). The sheer number of races that interact with each other is a delight in itself.
What I don't understand is the mixed reception that Iron Council received. It is a riveting and magnificent tale full of fantastic characters. This is writing of the highest quality, a work of pure art that transcends genre and defies classification.
Despite the above praise I would recommend the book only to fans of Mieville or those who liked Perdido Street Station. This is a heavy read and I was exhausted(but pleased) at the end of it.
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LibraryThing member Harlan879
Of what I've read so far, this was to me Mieville's most satisfying work, if slightly uneven. Mieville is remarkably good at coming up with creative ideas and settings and characters, but less good at building a plot that ends in a consistent and deus-ex-machina-free manner. In this case, I think
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he succeeds in tying together the clever framework of the Iron Council and the hope it inspires in a frustrated people, along with a compelling story of individuals, magical powers, and realistic personal and political challenges. Very much recommended, but read the other New Crobuzon novels first, in publication order! Show Less
LibraryThing member chosler
Winner of Arthur C. Clarke for Best Novel, Hugo and World Fantasy nominee for Best Novel; this third book set in Bas Lag combines fantasy, sci-fi, and western genres in a dark, dystopian mix. The city-state of New Crobuzon is in turmoil, at war with Tesh, and insurrection blossoms as the Collective
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takes over a number of districts. A small party sets out to find the Iron Council, an utopian group of races and Remade convicts who 20 years earlier took over a train on a new route across unexplored lands. As the Iron Council makes its way back to the city, the militia regains control and waits to crush the Iron Council and the dreams of freedom and equality it represents for the oppressed citizens of New Crobuzon. Explicit language, graphic violence, sex, including homosexual intercourse, and drug use. Show Less