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The Iron Dragon's Daughter (Paperback)

~ (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Swanwick's nihilistic tale features a human changeling who tries to make her way in a cutthroat society that mirrors contemporary life. While the players are elves, dwarves, lamies and other "magickal" creatures, they could be 20th-century juvenile delinquents and power politicians in a society ruled by caste snobbery, drugs, a mall culture and child labor. Determined to end her slavery in a steam dragon plant, the young human Jane escapes with the help of a rusted old dragon hulk named Melancthon. Thereafter, she goes to school disguised as a fey in order to learn the magic necessary to repair the ravages inflicted on the dragon by time and battle. But the misfit Jane finds school horrifying, and she turns to shoplifting to gain friends. She falls in love with a young man destined to be the annual sacrifice; when she loses her virginity, her usefulness to Melancthon as a magic-maker is ended. After her lover's tragic death, Jane is taken under the wing of a power-hungry elven lord, Galiagante. Eventually she joins Melancthon once again as he sets out to destroy the Universe. Nebula Award-winner Swanwick ( Stations of the Tide ) develops a powerful, yet dark and hopeless fantasy that should forever shatter charming illusions of Faerie and its folk.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


From Library Journal

When Jane, a human changeling, steals a magical steam dragon to escape the factory/prison that has been her home, she embarks on a life of freedom and normalcy in a world of timeless shopping malls, alchemy classes, and high school "wicker" queens--only to find that her stolen dragon has other, bigger plans that may change her life forever. Swanwick ( Stations of the Tide , Avon, 1992) brings his particular brand of elan to the fairy world, where high tech and magic are interdependent and where the denizens of folklore include leather-clad werewolves, half-elven pilots, and brash dwarven mechanics. Combining cyberpunk's grit with dystopic fantasy, this iconoclastic hybrid is a standout piece of storytelling.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Product Details

  • Paperback: 424 pages
  • Publisher: Eos (HarperCollins) (September 1997)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0380730464
  • ISBN-13: 978-0380730469
  • Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 13.1 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (53 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,095,087 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Michael Swanwick
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Customer Reviews

53 Reviews
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 (23)
4 star:
 (11)
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 (1)
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (53 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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16 of 18 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal, May 14, 2004
By Hillary "jezebelxiii" (abington, ma United States) - See all my reviews
Iron Dragon's Daughter, an amalgam of steampunk and fairy, will have you screaming, laughing, and crying all at the same time.

This is perfected madness, incredible storytelling.

Iron Dragon is one of the smartest books I've read in ages. The story follows a changeling, Jane, who is placed in a factory to work alongside other enslaved fairy children. Their task . . . to build weapons. The conditions are awful, the quality of life is awful, and the future is less than promising. That's until the Dragon, Number 7332, begins to tempt Jane with tales of the outside world. He offers her freedom, but the cost . . .

Honestly, I am going to have to read this novel again. Swanwick has a tendency to jump around, and it's not that it's poorly done, it's just sometimes difficult to follow. I'm sure I missed things, and the quality of this story is so great, that I want to make sure I catch every last detail.

Fans of fantasy, steampunk and fairy stories in general will adore this book. It's worth the investment. I borrowed the copy from a friend, and have since gone out and purchased my own. I don't want to share it!

Happy Reading!

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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars "The Iron Dragon's Daughter" - not EASY book to read., January 29, 1999
By A Customer
Ussually, when I read the stories of fantasy style I find them very dynamic and easy to read. Their goal is to attract reader and to interest him by showing him a fast-changing world of space wars, love, discoveries, brave warriors, high technologies etc. When I saw the name of this book for the first time I thought that this is a typical fantastic story but I was wrong. Author of this book, Michael Swanwick, puts point on emotional part of Jane's relationship with strange world of magic and technology and with other creatures around her including Iron Dragon #7332. In several places I felt little bored, but in the end my patience was rewarded. Looking back, I really enjoyed this book. Here I met a lot of special words and new concetps, so to understand clearly all the things I had to read twice. The content of book, which after first look seems to be strange, is strictly logical even the end of story, when after Jane's death (after failing attempt to destroy a Spiral Castle) she returns to live on Earth with family by the will of the Goddess. So, if you're looking for the easy stories to spend your time i do NOT recommend this book to you. This story is sad and it will make you think a lot.
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A powerful, challenging, and useful book, June 22, 1998
By A Customer
Those who come to "The Iron Dragon's Daughter" expecting a straightforward fantasy story (or even a semi-straightforward steampunk story) are destined to be disappointed. It is a complex and open-ended book that places heavy demands on its readers. However, readers who struggle through the whole thing (and it wasn't a struggle at all for me -- I read the book in a few days, enjoying myself enormously after getting used to Swanwick's deliberate, meditative pace) will be rewarded by a book that is intricate, delicate, and possessing an optimism that completely belies its surface darkness.

Its plot is convoluted and fugal: the same set of themes is repeated three times, and then, in a coda which is _not_ the equivalent of "then she woke up", is repeated as a counterpoint for a fourth, final time. The characters are difficult and often unsympathetic: the changeling child Jane, who sits at the focus of the book, possesses such a weak moral compass (and suffers so much abuse) that by the end of the novel, even the most sympathetic of readers will have given up on her. Finally, the questions posed by the novel are not resolved in any straightforward way: much of the most interesting information in the book is buried in implication, and some things we just aren't meant to figure out.

The surface story is simple: Jane is a changeling girl, a drudge straight out of Dickens who labors endlessly in a large and grimy dragon factory. The dragons are one of the first of many delights in the novel, being sentient and ruthless stealth weapons used by the elven overlords of Jane's world in their endless battles for supremacy. They are, in short, total cyberpunk wish-fulfillment devices. Jane is contacted by an ancient, powerful, and cagey dragon, who outlines a way by which both he and she can escape the factory. His plan brings about the first of many compromises that Jane is pressured into within the book, and from there the book is about the tension between Jane and the dragon, as she reach! es towards maturity and her own flawed understanding of the world and her place within it.

This book can be read as a parable about growing up, an allegory of the tradeoffs necessary to get ahead as a woman in contemporary society (presented in the bleakest, most savage terms imaginable), or simply as a satire of genre fantasy and cyberpunk. I've always thought of Swanwick as being a slightly more accessible Gene Wolfe, and nowhere is that impulse towards virtuosity and subtle command of the English language more evident than in this book. This is one of those books that continues to grow, luminously, in my memory, and one of a very small collection of science fiction novels that I think everyone should read.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly enjoyable sci-fi and fantasy mix
The Iron Dragon's Daughter grabbed my attention from the very first pages. The world that the book takes place in is a crazy mix up of fantasy and sci-fi, full of all kinds of... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Andrius Povilavicius

5.0 out of 5 stars More powerful (but less fun) than THE DRAGONS OF BABEL
If you're like me, you recently encountered and read Michael Swanwick's THE DRAGONS OF BABEL and, having enjoyed it, now want to read THE IRON DRAGON'S DAUGHTER, a book that takes... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Michael Lichter

2.0 out of 5 stars Probably better if you're on acid
Some people don't like to admit that they didn't "get" a book, but I'm secure enough with myself to say that I didn't get this one. Read more
Published 6 months ago by Kat @ FantasyLiterature.com

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Free SF Reader
When a young girl decides to get out of a bad situation (and the same for a dragon) the getting out part works, bad situations are still plentiful. Read more
Published 8 months ago by Blue Tyson

4.0 out of 5 stars Fantasy the way William Gibson might have done it...
William Gibson said "The street finds its own uses for things." In this novel, we see this applied to magick, as we follow the adventures of a changeling (a stolen human child)... Read more
Published 10 months ago by Eric Oppen

1.0 out of 5 stars Only one word for this one: WTF?

I rarely write reviews, bad or good, but this one really got to me. I'm cringe to admit that I haven't actually finished the book yet, but ugh... Why bother?!? Read more
Published 10 months ago by P. C. Gardner

2.0 out of 5 stars Depressing world view, unlikeable characters
The Iron Dragon's Daughter started off as a very interesting read, but quickly degenerated into violence, sex, drugs, death, and general hopelessness. Read more
Published 20 months ago by jules

1.0 out of 5 stars A Failed Effort
Not being a frequent reader of SF/Fantasy, I don't have many yard sticks to compare this novel to. Having said that, this atypical SF/fantasy novel simply doesn't do it for me... Read more
Published on September 14, 2007 by Tristanicus

5.0 out of 5 stars "Bitch of a view, ain't it," said the gargoyle.
As he showed so expertly in _Jack Faust,_ industrialism and medievalism are two sides of the same rusty coin. Read more
Published on July 22, 2007 by Michael K. Smith

5.0 out of 5 stars I loved this book!!! But it is not for kids!
I aquired this book by accident, and started reading it- Wow! It is dark, complex, ispired, and rough. Read more
Published on June 9, 2007 by lightcondor

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