false 68495 10 China Miéville's novel <I>Iron Council</I> 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 (<I>The Scar</I>, <I>Perdido Street Station</I>) 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, <I>Iron Council</I> is a twisted frontier fable cleverly combined with a powerful parable of Marxist revolution that continues Miéville's macabre remaking of the fantasy genre. <I>--Jeremy Pugh</I> 66379 2004 Iron Council total:1096|5:230|4:414|3:337|2:90|1:25| 1096 4022 1625 128 4 8 false false Thu Oct 02 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Mar 25 15:21:22 -0700 2008 Mon Mar 23 08:31:32 -0700 2009 China Miéville's Iron Council is everything I expect to love in great speculative fiction, and nearly everything I know I love in Miéville's work.

Yet, since its publication, I have only read it once, and I still find myse...more...]]> 3 2 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Jun 16 14:29:09 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 02 08:04:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 1 false false Tue Sep 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 09:57:49 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 08 13:54:15 -0700 2009
I found the experience of rea...more...]]> 5 3 false false Sat Jul 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jul 09 09:06:35 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 12 06:20:18 -0700 2008 and speak to the real world, the present. I highly recommend the Iron Council to folks who like femini...more...]]> 2 1 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 06 08:04:36 -0700 2007 Sat Sep 15 12:06:00 -0700 2007 more...]]> 5 1 false false Tue Jul 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 19 07:35:57 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 15 11:07:24 -0700 2008 Perdido Street Station and now I am an even bigger fan and will end up reading everything he has ever written including his doctoral dissertation! Toro's story was fascinating and I'm probably one of the few people who really enjoyed th...more...]]> 4 0 true false Sun Aug 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 13:41:10 -0700 2009 Sun Aug 09 13:59:28 -0700 2009 1 Iron Council
China Miéville

If you're a relatively astute follower of contemporary genre fiction then you are most likely aware of China Miéville. Since debuting in 1998 with King Rat, each of his novels has been nominated for several of the major science fiction, fantasy and horro...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 19 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 14:03:15 -0700 2009 Mon May 25 15:03:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Fri Feb 13 20:38:01 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 21:20:44 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed May 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 08:35:28 -0700 2009 Wed May 06 09:04:45 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Aug 20 11:56:25 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 20 12:11:53 -0700 2009
The first few pages are written in an abstruse style that had me worried it was going to be painful reading, but happily within a few pages he forgets all th...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Oct 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Aug 15 09:07:58 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 26 14:56:23 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun May 24 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Jan 02 19:04:23 -0800 2009 Sun May 24 18:13:34 -0700 2009 more...]]> 0 0 false false Wed Oct 29 17:12:26 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 29 17:18:59 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Wed Aug 06 12:56:32 -0700 2008 Wed Aug 06 13:06:34 -0700 2008 His first three books (even King Rat were better than this cold lifeless lump. In his proceeding stories there have been wonderful fantastic worlds, plots where you must keep turning pages until one in the morning to find out, "what happens next", and characters tha...more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jun 05 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 15 09:45:20 -0700 2008 Tue Jul 15 10:53:00 -0700 2008 In Mieville's usual vein, there are concepts and characters far more unique than anywhere else...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Nov 06 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Mon Jul 14 06:57:23 -0700 2008 Thu Nov 06 07:30:17 -0800 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Dec 28 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jul 12 21:05:19 -0700 2008 Sun Dec 28 23:25:05 -0800 2008 4 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Oct 11 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 31 06:13:41 -0700 2008 Sat Oct 25 07:40:38 -0700 2008 1 more...]]> 5 0 false false Tue Jun 10 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue May 20 08:29:25 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 10 15:34:36 -0700 2008 ...more...]]>