Post by Taika of Narfell on Feb 5, 2007 0:57:26 GMT 1
In my mission to find fantasy novels that do not require you to read 3-5 others in order to get the whole story I have begun to show an interest in the Fantasy Masterworks series published by Gollancz. In that series Michael Swanwick's novel is #42.
In the back cover it says:
"Jane is a changeling child, living a Dickensian nightmare, enslaved in a factory that makes terrible engines of war, the iron dragons. When she discovers a grimoire that holds the secret of the dragons' sentience, it enables her to use one of the beasts to escape.
Now bound, seemingly, to the dragon for ever, Jane's progress as a thief and outsider is set in a world rich in wild magic and sharp-edged technology, a world of sorcery passion and deceit.
Constantly confounding expectation The Iron Dragon's Daughter is one of the finest and most surprising of modern fantasies."
One does not need to have read Dickens in order to appreciate the hard lot in life the children have in the first part of the book. But if one has read Oliver Twist the similarity is clear and lends an extra depth to this story. Thereby it has been revealed that the first part of the story sees Jane among a group of children and the only adult interaction they get is that with their keepers. Aside from this the dragon is introduced as a character to be reckoned with.
After Jane's escape from the factory along with the dragon whose mind is bent on destruction they enter a new scene. New location, new people but somehow still the same in many ways. And not just in a literary way, also in the setting parallels are drawn in terms of simultaneous reincarnation - explanations for which I shan't attempt to reproduce here. Jane's new location sees her in a would-be idyllic town that mixes present-day with fantasy and hi-tech just like the iron dragon factory did it earlier. New and different situations meet Jane here as she has grown older, but the differences aren't all that big.
The third setting we see Jane and the iron dragon in is a futuristic cyber-/steam punk style city, still with magical creatures and magic prevalent but also with high levels of technology and science. we have followed Jane to her enrollment in a university and we are there with her as she grasps at the secrets of the fabric of the universe/multiverse. This is the part in which we start getting explanations (more or less insane) for how the world is put together. This is also where Jane's life culminates with the greatest decision she ever made. A decision that has consequences for... well, exactly how far-reaching those consequences are will be up to the reader.
To be sure the ending of the book is odd, and it is not the kind of happy-ending we're used to seeing in fully resolved fantastic tales. The closest we get to a happy-ending with this, is that Jane has reached a form of clarity when making her decision, and she is therefore content with said decision. But an happily ever after is about as far from this ending as we can get.
A recurring theme in this tale is that of lies and betrayal. Can we trust what people tell us? Can we even trust what our senses tell us? Jane experiences situations in which she decide to trust people who later betray her, but also situations in which she decides not to trust people whom she later finds she ought to have placed some faith in. Through meeting several reincarnations of the same soul Jane goes through many different ways of dealing with the same person. While being a mysterious fantasy story this is also an experiment in human character and interaction.
It is not suitable for younger children as the topic of sex occurs quite frequently. But for anyone interesting in reading a parallel story to Oliver Twist this one is recommended as a quite enjoyable one of its kind. A mere 343 pages it is not an insurmountable task to undertake (and especially not compared to Dickens' writings) and the time is well spent with this tome.
Anyone thinking they know a thing or two about steam punk or cyber punk ought to read The Iron Dragon's Daughter as it is definitely one of the major works in those sub-genres.
In the back cover it says:
"Jane is a changeling child, living a Dickensian nightmare, enslaved in a factory that makes terrible engines of war, the iron dragons. When she discovers a grimoire that holds the secret of the dragons' sentience, it enables her to use one of the beasts to escape.
Now bound, seemingly, to the dragon for ever, Jane's progress as a thief and outsider is set in a world rich in wild magic and sharp-edged technology, a world of sorcery passion and deceit.
Constantly confounding expectation The Iron Dragon's Daughter is one of the finest and most surprising of modern fantasies."
One does not need to have read Dickens in order to appreciate the hard lot in life the children have in the first part of the book. But if one has read Oliver Twist the similarity is clear and lends an extra depth to this story. Thereby it has been revealed that the first part of the story sees Jane among a group of children and the only adult interaction they get is that with their keepers. Aside from this the dragon is introduced as a character to be reckoned with.
After Jane's escape from the factory along with the dragon whose mind is bent on destruction they enter a new scene. New location, new people but somehow still the same in many ways. And not just in a literary way, also in the setting parallels are drawn in terms of simultaneous reincarnation - explanations for which I shan't attempt to reproduce here. Jane's new location sees her in a would-be idyllic town that mixes present-day with fantasy and hi-tech just like the iron dragon factory did it earlier. New and different situations meet Jane here as she has grown older, but the differences aren't all that big.
The third setting we see Jane and the iron dragon in is a futuristic cyber-/steam punk style city, still with magical creatures and magic prevalent but also with high levels of technology and science. we have followed Jane to her enrollment in a university and we are there with her as she grasps at the secrets of the fabric of the universe/multiverse. This is the part in which we start getting explanations (more or less insane) for how the world is put together. This is also where Jane's life culminates with the greatest decision she ever made. A decision that has consequences for... well, exactly how far-reaching those consequences are will be up to the reader.
To be sure the ending of the book is odd, and it is not the kind of happy-ending we're used to seeing in fully resolved fantastic tales. The closest we get to a happy-ending with this, is that Jane has reached a form of clarity when making her decision, and she is therefore content with said decision. But an happily ever after is about as far from this ending as we can get.
A recurring theme in this tale is that of lies and betrayal. Can we trust what people tell us? Can we even trust what our senses tell us? Jane experiences situations in which she decide to trust people who later betray her, but also situations in which she decides not to trust people whom she later finds she ought to have placed some faith in. Through meeting several reincarnations of the same soul Jane goes through many different ways of dealing with the same person. While being a mysterious fantasy story this is also an experiment in human character and interaction.
It is not suitable for younger children as the topic of sex occurs quite frequently. But for anyone interesting in reading a parallel story to Oliver Twist this one is recommended as a quite enjoyable one of its kind. A mere 343 pages it is not an insurmountable task to undertake (and especially not compared to Dickens' writings) and the time is well spent with this tome.
Anyone thinking they know a thing or two about steam punk or cyber punk ought to read The Iron Dragon's Daughter as it is definitely one of the major works in those sub-genres.