The Iron Dragon’s Daughter

Michael Swanwick

The fourth Swanwick book I've read, and the first fantasy. I also discovered after the fact that it was a Clarke shortist candidate. I'd consider such a status deserved, this was one of the more compelling fantasy sagas I've read in awhile. It's just so purpusefully bizarre and interesting, taking apart a lot of stock fantasy elements and rebuilding them into an awesome new setting. Above the environment, though, what I like the most about this piece is how the situations get conveyed, with a lot of major weird encounters and exchanges. This work is also one that makes better use of extreme continual sex than Bug Jack Barron, mixing in a lot of play on it which builds to the situation. In the story, I'm particularly impressed with how seamlessly the plot goes from a forced-labor camp to a surreal magic university. A little difficult to organize my thoughts coherently on this one, I do plan to reread this book a few years down the road, and it also moves up my interest in reading Swanwick's other work.

It works particuarly well by playing with conventions on fantasy, taking a lot of very familiar elements and completely demolishing the whole post-Tolkien convention on what they’re supposed to behave like and want. The society that emerges is a lot more chaotic, diverse and alive than the typical fantasy setting, and it’s also a lot more interesting. Even more believable, within the confines of a very weird mix of college antics, apocalyptic dragon-oriented intrigue and shadowy quasi-religious forces. Particularly enjoyable is the way the account largely doesn’t halt for exposition, instead it dives on following its protagonist through a weird array of circumstances that are funny and bizarre enough to be appealing even when there’s no context, and to pick up the sense of large understanding later.

Better than: Un Lun Dun by China Mieville
Worse than: Iron Council by China Mieville

In the Drift

by Michael Swanwick

The second time I tried to read this, and the first I succeeded. Quite engaging. The science background for the radiation mutations in the fashion they appear is beyond absurd, and at times weird enough to be jarring for the story, but the way the characters' corruption and resistance folds is engaging, and the final narrative structure is quite nice in scale. This is a case of science fiction where the story is stronger than the wider setting and delivers a better-than-it-sounds work. Swanwick shows off his ability to tie together weird extreme details to great effect, pushing in a potent novel that after about the thirtieth page fully captured my attention up through the end.

In particular the family narrative that develops, with all the mutation, vampire child and political compromise involves proves to be unexpectedly emotional. I told you it was better than a plot description makes it sound.

Worse than: The Algebraist by Iain M. Banks
Better than: Transition by Iain M. Banks