Nila descends into the belly of Michael Swanwick’s beast: The Iron Dragon’s Daughter.
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by Michael Swanwick
Paperback
Published September 1997 (originally published January 1993)
Review by N. E. White.
One of my goals this year is to read more widely. And to me, that means reading from the “backlist”. So, where to start?
I figured I would start with a novel that caught my interest when I read a short story titled King Dragon by Michael Swanwick. The short is in Wings of Fire, an anthology of short stories about dragons. Swanwick’s King Dragon blew me away when I read it a couple of years ago (my review here). And I thought I wanted more of the same. Finally, last month, I bought a used copy and settled into what I hoped would be a great read.
I was disappointed.
But wait. Let me tell you about the story.
The Iron Dragon’s Daughter is about Jane, a young changeling imprisoned in a dragon factory. Rooster, a fey and a fellow slave, who treats Jane barely better than their supervisor, plots to kill him – Blugg, their supervisor, who happens to be a troll. Or maybe he’s a goblin. I forget. There is such a motley mix of species of fantasy creatures, both friend and foe, I have a hard time keeping track of them all.
Suffice to say that Rooster’s plot to kill Blugg sets in motion a series of events that will change their lives forever.
Their plot goes awry, but during the shenanigans Jane finds a book. Not just any book, of course, but a book containing the wiring schematics and detailed specifications for a particular model of a dragon. A dragon that calls to Jane, of pure human blood, in hopes that she will be his salvation.
During Rooster’s plot to kill Blugg, Rooster is terribly hurt. Jane shuns him while learning every nut and bolt that goes into her dragon, and Blugg finds that Jane might be his ticket to upper management. He uses her to win favor from the high-class Elves that own the factory and rule this dark, fairy world.
Soon, Rooster has another plan to take down Blugg and escape, while Jane and her dragon, a damaged and rogue model, make their own plans to escape the factory walls. The two paths are intertwined and when they meet, not everyone survives.
But Jane and her dragon do. As a matter of fact, they soar.
And this is, for me, pretty much where the story turns for the worse.
The next time we meet Jane, she’s going to high-school. She’s living in the broken hull of the dragon, learning from a character named Ratsnickle how to be a proper thief. She falls for a fey named Peter, who in turn is in love with an elf, Gwen, who is slated to be burned as an offering to the Goddess. Peter is Gwen’s ‘sin-eater’. For a year, the two experience a lifetime’s worth of living, but that comes at a cost.
Jane breaks Peter from Gwen’s hold, losing her virginity in the process, and therefore her worth to the dragon. Peter regrets his decision to leave Gwen at the last moment and ends up killing himself. The next section of the book chronicles Jane’s college years where she pretty much goes on a downward spiral of…well…not sure how to put this, but she basically abuses every relationship she manages to forge. And while I think there’s a plot in this later section, it really does seem to get lost in the riots and eerie characters that keep cropping up.
At last, Jane is united with her dragon, but their relationship is toxic. The dragon convinces Jane that the only thing left for them to do, the only thing they can do, is destroy the universe. They fail, but they fail spectacularly.
Part way through, the author drops hints at a revelation that doesn’t come to fruition until the very end. I won’t spoil the story for you, but essentially, nothing is real. Okay, maybe I just spoiled it for you.
Anyway, by the time that revelation is clear (prior to the end), frankly, it just didn’t seem worth it to keep reading. I skimmed most of the last quarter of the book.
Regardless of the crazy, debased story and the let-down of an ending, Michael Swanwick’s writing is amazing. I found myself easily drawn into the story, even when I didn’t want to be. The author has the ability to rut in the mud, taking you to uncomfortable places in one moment, and then turning some perverted scene into sometime wondrous. Every scene, no matter how crazy, is well crafted for maximum impact.
Even so, the story didn’t hold together for me. Why did Jane take so long to figure out she wanted to go home? And how in fairy land did she figure out that her sexual magic could get her back there? And why did Rooster/Peter/Puck/Rocket keep coming back?
In the end, though, none of it really matters.
For the spot-on dialogue and stunning prose, this is a recommended read. If you want a satisfying read, I would stop at about page 409. If you can’t handle some funky sex scenes, a lot of fairy nudity, drug-use, disturbing torture for entertainment, and crotch-grabbing, this isn’t for you.
Final assessment: mixed. Mr. Swanwick definitely pushes boundaries. Boundaries that you may or may not have known you wanted broken, but I just wish he hadn’t taken away the possibility that it might have all been real.
N.E. White, March, 2015.
Copyright © sffworld.com. If quoted, please credit “sffworld.com, name of reviewer”.
This has been on my to-read list for years, too. Industrial era setting, fantasy, wildly imaginative. No wonder the synopsis appealed to me, though sad to see it didn’t live up to that for you. Isn’t there a sequel as well? Maybe that makes up for the parts you didn’t like. Or maybe only makes it worse…
I don’t think there is a sequel, but there is a short story (or two) set in this story world. One of which prompted me to read this novel. I guess, I would have to say I liked the short story better.
Actually I just found it: *Dragons of Babel* published in 2008. That was why it was on my to-read list in the first place. I kept seeing the later book on the library shelf and being intrigued but thinking I needed to read the other first.
Maybe not so, though. They share a setting, but may both stand alone just fine. Wikipedia says, “The Dragons of Babel is a 2008 novel by American author Michael Swanwick, set in the same world as his earlier work The Iron Dragon’s Daughter (1993). It follows the plight of a young man named Will Le Fey after a crippled dragon takes up residence in his town and inside his mind. Like The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, the novel subverts fantasy tropes while it explores the extremely dark and gritty world of Faerie.”
At first, this sounded like it could be a pretty fun and over-the-top read. The synopsis – the start at least – seems very interesting, funny names like Rooster and Ratsnickle, and apparently quite a bit of fantasy creatures. That all caught my attention. But then right were you said it takes turn for worse… things seem like they get a little too over-the-top and weird for me.
Maybe it’d be better to start with another work of his first?
Hey DJ,
Yes, if you are unfamiliar with his work, I would start out with his short stories first. I read King Dragon, a short story set in this world, in the anthology Wings of Fire (available as an ebook and paperback on Amazon). I highly recommend that anthology. Some really great stories in there (along with some okay stories).