The Iron Dragon’s Daughter: proof that The Matrix could have been cool…
by - Written: Apr 13 '08
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Product Rating:
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Pros: exoteric and esoteric
Cons: same as above
The Bottom Line: Weird and wonderful. Probably will be better upon a second reading.
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| Greatpilgrim's Full Review: Michael Swanwick - The Iron Dragon's Daughter |
Picture this: a human girl, a “changeling” who’s been brought into a strange dark universe, is a drudge for the monstrous industrial factory where sentient iron dragons are churned out by a cross-section of enslaved magickal beings: shifters, dwarves, trolls, and other miserable souls. Jane’s course as a human breeder is forever changed when she gains the ability to communicate with 7332, a junk-heap dragon who has Machiavellian plans for the universe and needs her help to do it. Upon escaping the horror of her old life though, Jane finds that a “normal” existence in a magickal universe is just as much of a struggle, as she tries to make sense of decaying cultures and hostile relationships, while her subconscious seduces her with erotic and mystical desires. Perhaps 7332 has the right idea after all…
~My take~
Once you’ve read Michael Swanwick’s The Iron Dragon’s Daughter, try to categorize it. Just try. Your head will explode. It’s such a genre-busting and unique novel that you can’t get comfortable in the tropes and conventions of fiction’s usual pigeon-holes. Certainly, the sci-fi overtones of its science-oriented, alchemy-worshipping storyline were easy to spot, but I got a much different overall vibe from this book: one of deliberate and persistent satire in its darkest sense, taking the Victorian industrial foreshadowing of Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy and running with it to an extreme conclusion.
What you end up with is a murky, intense, and edgy story that plays as much with your psyche as it does with your inner beach-reader. (Yes, I read this one on the beach. Everyone feel free to hate me.) As a novel, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter has the quality of your most vivid and unpredictable dream, its plot less directional than exploratory and shape-shifting. It often seems less dreamlike than nightmarish, the fantasy elements exploited to give a mystical and uncertain aura to the hard edges of iron and steel which dominate its landscapes.
The beginning and were the most effective parts for me, while the narrative in between drifted with apparent wanderlust through scenes of punky elves, academic metaphysics, and sensual hedonism, waiting for our heroine to finally figure it all out. We later find that Michael Swanwick used this method of storytelling intentionally as a device, with an ending that is eerily believable rather than corny (which it easily could have been). Marred with occasional plot holes and continuity problems – the ease with which the characters achieve things or reach certain conclusions, for instance – the novel is nonetheless highly effective in communicating a rusting universe of cold nihilism.
Thankfully, Swanwick’s heroine is personable and intimate with the reader, almost uncomfortably so (despite the aloof third-person narrative). When we finally find out Jane’s story at the end, I felt it like a punch in the gut, because I had followed her through such dark times, and her personal apocalypse felt like my own. I didn’t realize how much I cared about Swanwick’s characters until they either died or were taken away – and then I realized how successful he was at getting me into their heads without fanfare or overtness. Irony and dark humor permeate the guest list, particularly in 7332 (“Melancthon,” based on a theologian contemporary of Martin Luther’s) and the reincarnation of Jane’s multiple love interests.
But you get the sense that The Iron Dragon’s Daughter is not really about the characters – that it is trying to convey some larger-than-life search for existence and meaning, without quite knowing if it ever found such a thing or not. It certainly makes the case for where such fulfillment is NOT to be found – in the march of industry! Swanwick’s brutally poetic style zooms in on the philosophy behind his nihilistic universe rather than just the physical trappings of its twisted value system…and that’s what really hit home for me. In the middle of the screaming missiles of dragons that fill the skies, you have characters experiencing their own mental breakdown from a life devoid of meaning. It reminded me a little bit of The Matrix, but with a less pop-culture feel and more ironic/philosophical depth.
~Bottom line~
While this 1993 novel is intense, no doubt there, its sarcastic lampoon of fantasy (and sci-fi and action and high-school flicks, for that matter) gives it the saving grace of entertainment that keeps it from imploding with its own awareness. Often confusing and always edgy, The Iron Dragon’s Daughter by and large works as a piece of thoroughly creative fiction, in addition to all the deep stuff in it. So even if you aren’t up for a complex metaphysical brain trip, you can still have fun (in a warped kind of way) traveling through Swanwick’s dystopias.
Recommended:
Yes
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