Iron Council
China Mieville
Pan Macmillan
Trade paperback, R157
Reviewed by Ian Jamieson, 22 November 2004
Weather Wrightby had a dream, a dream to cross the lands with his famous
railroad, but the dream had become a nightmare - the train, with its rails
and crews had gone renegade and vanished into the shadows, eventually becoming
no more than a lost legend.
Now New Crobuzon is at war, both with itself and with the alien city state
of Tesh. Revolutions and counter revolutions, violence and intrigue; these
are the daily happenings to the citizens of the huge metropolis. In the midst
of these terrible conflicts a small group sets out to find the lost
railroad, the "Iron Council" of the title, and find it they do, and
persuade it to return to New Crobuzon. This is their story.
A hugely imaginative story line, full of insane characters of human,
non-human, alien and mythical origin.
This is a raw, brutal story, told in a raw, brutal no holds barred style.
Mieville is an excellent writer of the strange, the weird, the outrageous
and is undoubtedly a leader in his field.
It is a pity that I ended up being glad that the story was over. I didn't
particularly enjoy it as there was just too much violence, hatred and
bigotry for me.
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