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Iron Council
by China Mieville


8.0

based on 10 reviews
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based on 2 votes
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Violence, racism and acts of terror flourish in the streets of New Crobuzon. The only hope is the Iron Council, abused railworkers who have stolen a train and are headed off into the unknown, destroying the tracks behind them.

Del Rey, 576 pages
07/27/2004
$24.95

ISBN: 0345464028

Fiction
Science Fiction & Fantasy

All reviews are classified as one of five grades: Outstanding (4 points), Favorable (3), Mixed (2), Unfavorable (1) and Terrible (0). To calculate the Metascore, we divide total points achieved by the total points possible (i.e., 4 x the number of reviews), with the resulting percentage (multiplied by 100) being the Metascore. Learn more...

Publishers Weekly

Full of warped and memorable characters, this violent and intensely political novel smoothly combines elements of fantasy, science fiction, horror, even the western.

Washington Post Michael Dirda

In myriad ways, China Mieville's New Crobuzon is an unweeded garden of unearthly delights, and Iron Council a work of both passionate conviction and the highest artistry.

Library Journal Jackie Cassada

In his hardcover debut, the award-winning author of Perdido Street Station assaults the reader's senses with a cornucopia of sights, sounds, smells, and tastes, bringing his brilliantly imagined world to life. [July 2004, p. 75]

The Guardian Steven Poole

Fantasy fiction is usually fabulously conservative, and Iron Council - with its implicit trade unionism, as well as the fact that many characters are casually bisexual - stands as a rebuke to the genre's medieval politics.

The New York Times Book Review Gerald Jonas

[A] challenging but deeply rewarding novel.

Village Voice John Giuffo

Iron Council challenges, and in some very uncomfortable ways, comments on this reality we'd all occasionally like to escape.

Booklist Ray Olson

[Mieville's] verbal and imaginative largesse may throw some readers while utterly engrossing others. No doubt about it, he's an original. [1 June 2004, p. 1670]

Daily Telegraph Ruth Killick

This is a powerful, intelligent novel. As the Iron Councillors would say: long live.

Kirkus Reviews

Prodigiously inventive -- Mieville dreams up and throws away more astonishing ideas in a paragraph than most writers manage in a lifetime -- but bogged down with sheer tonnage; the hardworking experimental prose doesn't help.

Flak

Mieville's phantasmagoric story is eclipsed by a glut of flawed heroes and an invented vernacular that impedes its own progress.

The average user rating for this book is 8.0 (out of 10) based on 2 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Bill H gave it a9:
This is a tough one to start reading. His style is very vague and leaves a lof to your own imagination, but after 50 pages you get used to it and then the story grips you. His ideas are incredible and some of them would be used as the premise for an entire book, he uses them for a paragraph. Its not for everyone, you will need patience at the start and be willing to take his often very short descriptive prose and flesh it out into what you se the characters and ideas are yourself. It is different, creative and unlike anything out there.

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Iron Council by China Mieville

Iron Council
by China Mieville