Iron Council (Paperback)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: iron council, cacotopic zone, perpetual train, New Crobuzon, Ann Hari, Spiral Jacobs (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

China Miéville's novel Iron Council is the tumultuous story of the "Perpetual Train." Born from monopolists' greed and dispatched to tame the western lands beyond New Crobuzon, the train is itself the beginnings of an Iron Council formed in the fire of frontier revolt against the railroad's masters. From the wilderness, the legend of Iron Council becomes the spark uniting the oppressed and brings barricades to the streets of faraway New Crobuzon. The sprawling tale is told through the past-and-present eyes of three characters. The first is Cutter, a heartsick subversive who follows his lover, the messianic Judah Low, on a quest to return to the Iron Council hidden in the western wilds. The second is Judah himself, an erstwhile railroad scout who has become the iconic golem-wielding hero of Iron Council's uprising at the end of the tracks. And the third is Ori, a young revolutionary on the streets of New Crobuzon, whose anger leads him into a militant wing of the underground, plotting anarchy and mayhem.

Miéville (The Scar, Perdido Street Station) weaves his epic out of familiar and heavily political themes--imperialism, fascism, conquest, and Marxism--all seen through a darkly cast funhouse mirror wherein even language is distorted and made beautifully grotesque. Improbably evoking Jack London and Victor Hugo, Iron Council is a twisted frontier fable cleverly combined with a powerful parable of Marxist revolution that continues Miéville's macabre remaking of the fantasy genre. --Jeremy Pugh --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

In this stunning new novel set mainly in the decadent and magical city of New Crobuzon, British author Miéville (The Scar) charts the course of a proletarian revolution like no other. The capitalists of New Crobuzon are pushing hard. More and more people are being arrested on petty charges and "Remade" into monstrous slaves, some half animal, others half machine. Uniformed militia are patrolling the streets and watching the city from their dirigibles. They turn a blind eye when racists stage pogroms in neighborhoods inhabited by non-humans. An overseas war is going badly, and horrific, seemingly meaningless terrorist acts occur with increasing frequency. Radical groups are springing up across the city. The spark that will ignite the revolution, however, is the Perpetual Train. Workers building the first transcontinental railroad, badly mistreated by their overseers, have literally stolen a train, laying track into the wild back-country west of the great city, tearing up track behind them, fighting off the militia sent to arrest them, even daring to enter the catotopic zone, that transdimensional continental scar where anything is possible. Full of warped and memorable characters, this violent and intensely political novel smoothly combines elements of fantasy, science fiction, horror, even the western. Miéville represents much of what is new and good in contemporary dark fantasy, and his work is must reading for devotees of that genre. FYI: Miéville has won Arthur C. Clarke, British Science Fiction and British Fantasy awards.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 576 pages
• Publisher: Del Rey (July 26, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0345458427
• ISBN-13: 978-0345458421
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (70 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #105,895 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

75 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Another engaging, challenging read from a remarkable talent, August 17, 2004

By	J. N. Mohlman (Barrington, RI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Iron Council (Hardcover)

First off, for those of you new to China Mieville, I would recommend that you begin with "Perdido Street Station" (or "King Rat"), followed up by "The Scar", and only then tackle "Iron Council". While the three books don't form a trilogy in the traditional sense, they nonetheless draw on shared themes and a common setting and history. As such, while "Iron Council" can certainly be read and appreciated by a newcomer to Mieville's writing, there are numerous small references and commonalities that will be missed.

Fans of Mieville, however, will find in "Iron Council" perhaps his most nuanced and sophisticated writing to date. As usual, the author defies genres, and has produced what would best be described (if one was forced to use labels) as a gothic-western-political-thriller. At the same time, he continues to subvert traditional fantasy elements as well as co-opting elements from other traditions and grounding them in his reality. However, Mieville has also tackled a more challenging structural approach in this novel, as he uses three different voices and two time periods that, while connected by plot threads are separated by decades. Furthermore, the chronologically earlier section comes 130 pages into the book, which in the hands of a less gifted writer would be horribly jarring, but which Mieville pulls of with style.

The primary story (which is elaborated upon by the flashback) is set some twenty years after the events of Perdido Street Station, and finds New Crobuzon at war with distant Tesh, with discontent at home mounting as the casualties mount and the economy falters. It is a time of turmoil and political dissent bordering on civil war; as options are weighed, one man, Judah Low, goes in search of a near mythical construct whose time may be at hand, Iron Council. To say more would risk severe spoilers, but the real joy of "Iron Council" is that the plot is served so deftly by the underlying themes, and vice versa.

And those themes are legion, the most obvious one being New Crobuzon's war with Tesh as a parallel with the Iraq war. Likewise, there are economic factors that are akin to the bursting of the .com bubble of the late 1990's. However, Mieville has made it abundantly clear in numerous interviews that he has no interest in spreading his political views (he is a Socialist who has run for Parliament) through his writing, and that holds true here. Rather, these elements serve to ground the story in a believable reality, which allows the reader to accept at face value the fantastic elements. Moreover, even as he subverts everything that is a "norm" of fantasy, Mieville also casts his own views in a realisitic light. For example, the political activists (with whom he obviously sympathizes) frequently make capricious, even brutal decisions, and display very un-liberal traits such as disdain for homosexuals.

However, as I said, these groundings are mere jumping off points for a much more intriguing exploration, for at its heart "Iron Council" is an exploration of change/history. The groundwork for this is laid in Judah's ability to create golems, which Mieville describes as an intervention, a decision to change the un-living to living. Once the reader recognizes this metaphor, Mieville's intent becomes clear as he considers industry, politics and war (among other things) as interventions into the status quo, as forces for change. In so doing, Mieville quite rightly takes a long view of history in which right and wrong become blurred by the law of unintended consequences. There is a symmetry in his world, almost karmic in its nature, in which actions in the past rebound in unexpected ways in the present. The driving force of history for Mieville is the individual, but as such, he recognizes the fundamental instability this introduces into his novel. People change, there motivations change, and as such, tipping points can never be quite predicted, and will often radically diverge from the expected path.

Which brings me to one of the most intriguing structures in the book, that of the quest. In traditional fantasy, characters will generally band together for a come purpose, and face adversity from outside of the group. Their internal dynamic is largely fixed, and their motivations are common. Mieville, on the other hand, has described two quests in which each character's motivations are different, are often hidden, and sometimes at odds within the group. This far more realistic approach allows him not only to paint a more reasonable view of historical change as described above, but also to consider the power of "truth" as a motivation for said change. Mieville argues that sometimes a myth or a symbol can be more powerful than the truth. However, there is a danger in myths because they can be twisted to mask one's real motivations. Movements for revolutionary change, and one need look no further than the French Revolution, often become dressing for personal vendettas.

Finally, Mieville takes these two intertwined threads, intervention and truth, to ask an ultimate question: can one work for change even as one despises the mechanism of said change. For example, is murder acceptable if it serves a greater good? Or does change always pervert the purest motivations and draw them closer to that which is being rebelled against, in form if not in ideology? Does hating war mean wanting your country to lose?

In conclusion, if I have created the impression that "Iron Council" is nothing by dry philosophizing, I must apologize as nothing could be further from truth. First and foremost, "Iron Council" is an adventure story set in a world that for all it's bizarre and beautifully realized detail is nonetheless disturbingly familiar. However, Mieville is such a gifted writer, who pours so many ideas into his work, even the most literal reader will find themselves drawn into the undercurrents which suffuse the novel. "Iron Council" is another brilliant contribution from a remarkable talent, and I strongly recommend reveling in it.

Jake Mohlman

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Terrific, a worthy Bas-Lag book, July 27, 2004

By	Ian Mccullough "bookninja" (Nashville, TN United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Iron Council (Hardcover)

The Iron Council is not quite as good as The Scar or Perdido Street Station. There, it's been said. But that is a fairly meaningless statement due to the colossal heights Mieville's first two Bas-Lag books climbed. The Iron Council is a marvelous book, with all the imagination, the rich social commentary, the wildly creative monsters, and the textured characters we've come to expect. The plot rips along at high speed, with converging storylines and the "I wonder what happens next?" anticipation that really good, really fun books share in common. The Iron Council is probably the best structured of the three Bas-Lag novels, and there is a real confidence in the writing. Is familiarity breeding contempt for me with Mieville? It must be, because I think he's a better writer and storyteller than Tolkein, who I like. Only time will tell if Mieville is as great a world builder and fantasy architect as Tolkien. But it's time we start thinking of Mieville in terms of how great he is among all fantasy writers in history, not just how good is this or that book.

So with this adulatory review, what is wrong? Nothing really, it is just not quite as amazing as his first two in this world. I'm willing to write this off to knowing Bas-Lag and not being blown away by the sheer audacity as I had before. Some readers will be annoyed by Mieville's overt socialism, but that's a matter of personal taste. Personally I enjoy the change from - well, every other fantasy book I read. There are great ideas (smokestone, the whispersmith), creatures (Inchmen, Handlingers) and characters (Toro, Cutter), but Bas-Lag is becoming an eccentric old friend, rather than that wild guy you had a blast with once at a party. But no matter how wild Mieville got, I was expecting him to top himself at every corner, and he did. Maybe it's the comfort of knowing the book is going to be fantastic that was a slight let down. With Perdido Street Station, I kept thinking "I can't believe how good this is, he can't keep this up." With The Scar it was "Oh my God! It's actually better than Perdido Street Station!" Since I was expecting perfection, there could be no match to my hopes, but I adore this book. There are rich veins of fantasy storytelling here and you would be foolish to pass up reading The Iron Council. I guarantee nothing in your "to read" pile is as good.

If you like Mieville's other work, you will enjoy The Iron council. If you have not liked Mieville before, then you won't like this either. Perdido Street Station was a wonder, The Scar a miracle and The Iron Council a proclamation that Mieville has arrived as a truly great fantasy writer. His career will be fascinating to track starting about now.

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Original... but know what you are getting into, August 6, 2004

By	Ethan M. (Cambridge, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Iron Council (Hardcover)

I really enjoyed this book, as I enjoyed the author's previous efforts. From both an entertainment and SF literary quality perspective, I would consider this to be a solid "4.5" in the inflated Amazon ratings universe (but a "3" if you compare it to its closest progenitor, Gene Wolfe -- more on this later).

This score comes with two warnings, however. China Mieville is deeply original, with more throw-away great ideas per page than almost any other speculative fiction author. The flip side is that his novels are not incredibly tight; they meander from subplot to subplot, with many of the excursions and discursions of little relevance to the main plotline. Indeed, an entire plot at the begining of the book proves of little relevance to the later development of the story. Mr. Mieville's books have always been like this, but the use of flashbacks only heightens the effect. If you like travelogues of the exotic and original purely for their own sake, as I do, this won't bother you. Otherwise, this might be very frustrating.

The second caveat is the language. This book is written in a style that will either delight you or make you shake your head at its pretention. A sample of a description (from a much longer sentence): "[he]... felt the incoming of whatever the thing was, the purveyor of the coming hecatomb; the massacre spirit, the messenmordist, the unswarm...."* Once again, I like this kind of thing, but if you don't, your enjoyment of the book may suffer.

Warnings aside, I would also suggest that, as original as this book is, it has a near precedent in Gene Wolfe's the Urth of the New Sun series. Similar strangeness of language, similar travelogue nature, and similar originality. Wolfe's book holds its own from a non-science fiction literary perspective, developing important and coherent themes and deep characters, while I don't necessarily think that Iron Council does the same. This is not of ultimate importance if you are looking for a good read, which Iron Council is, but suggests that Mieville still has a way to come in living up to some of his most strongly glowing reviews.


* Note: the fact that quoting a dire description like this gives away nothing of the book is a good indicator of the rambling nature of the plotlines in Iron Council -- you won't know what this describes until it is suddenly introduced.