Iron Council
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
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| Author | China Miéville |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Bas-Lag novels |
| Genre | Steampunk, Western |
| Publisher | Del Rey |
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Publication date
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2004 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback), E-book |
| Pages | 576 pp |
| Award | Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (2005) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 55019061 |
| 823/.914 22 | |
| LC Class | PR6063.I265 I76 2004 |
| Preceded by | The Tain |
| Followed by | Looking for Jake |
Iron Council (2004) is China Miéville's fourth novel and his third set in the Bas-Lag universe, following Perdido Street Station (2000) and The Scar (2002), although each can be read independently of the others. In addition to the steampunk influences shared by its predecessors, Iron Council also draws several elements from the western genre.
Iron Council is perhaps the most overtly political of China Miéville's novels to date, being strongly inspired by the anti-globalization movement, and tackling issues such as imperialism, corporatism, terrorism, racial hatred, homosexuality, culture shock, labour rights and war. The novel won the Clarke and Locus Awards in 2005, and was also nominated for the Hugo, and World Fantasy Awards that same year.
Iron Council follows three major narrative threads that join to form the novel's climax. Although Miéville weaves back and forth between narrative, time, and space, this summary will follow each narrative individually, discussing their relation to each other toward the end. The novel is set in and around New Crobuzon, a sprawling London-esque city. New Crobuzon has for some unknown amount of time been at war with Tesh, and is attempting to build a railroad across the outlying desert, partially as a new means of conducting this war. Against this backdrop, the novel follows the deeds of three main characters–-Ori, Cutter, and Judah Low.
Judah's story begins some twenty years before the novel's opening. Judah was hired as a railroad scout for New Crobuzon, charged with mapping terrain, and informing the land's inhabitants of the railroad's coming. While doing so, Judah spends time with the Stiltspear, a race of indescribable creatures who can disguise themselves as trees and conjure golems, living creatures made from unliving matter. Judah attempts to warn the Stiltspear away, but they won’t listen and he must settle for making a few recordings and beginning to learn their golemetric arts. Eventually, he returns to the railroad, which does indeed wipe out the Stiltspear. Shortly afterward, Judah, a prostitute named Ann-Hari, and a Remade named Uzman lead a revolution in which the rail workers drive the overseers away, free the Remade, and hijack the train, transforming it into a moving socialist dwelling.
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