Iron Council (Bas-Lag)

Although nobody knows why, the city-state of New Crobuzon has been at war with the Tesh for years; both sides use men and sorcery to gain an inch of land in a conflict that never ends. Within New Crobuzon, the militia keeps a tight control on the people, newspapers print all the party deems fit to print, workers have no right to appeal, and those deemed criminal by the state are killed or magically turned into part human, part something else to live as slaves until they die.

The war is not going well and all the restrictions from the central government fail to keep the news from the people. Everywhere underground groups spring up to fight the militia and topple the government. When the government finds the Iron Council, Judah and his followers travel to the north to warn the people that their train3 must leave the area. They decide to travel back to New Crobuzon, a symbol to the people to throw off the chains of their oppressors.

IRON COUNCIL takes place in the same world of PERDIDO STREET STATION and although there is a different set of characters, there is a sense of homecoming as readers revisit a world they have come to appreciate. There are two main sub-plots that tie seamlessly back into the main storyline, told from the viewpoint of different characters. With flashbacks, the audience comes to understand how New Crobuzon evolved into a fascist state and how the rebellion grew into a vast resistance movement. China Mieville is a great world builder who is on the brink of superstardom.

Harriet Klausner

Almost completely unreadable. The author's prose obscures the landscape rather than describes it. The characters are stock figures from role playing games. The rhythm of the prose never varies, always landing on the downbeat. The author doesn't seem to want to share his vision as much as he wants to impress the reader with his vocabulary. He neglects the purpose of storytelling.

The novel is filled with scenes of vividly described violence that do not further the plot, and sometimes characters seem to exist simply to provide bodies for the author to mutilate. The reader is left with a hazy landscape populated by two-dimensional characters that die in awful ways for no discernible reason than to acquire experience points.

I agree with another reviewer - this novel should never have gotten past the editor.

After reading Perdido Street Station and The Scar, I was disapointed by Iron Council. The story is devoid of meaning. The realm is painted with broad creative strokes but in the end just appears too weird and disconnected. It feels like the creative juices were squeezed a bit too hard here. I like to finish the books I undertake, but I didn't enjoy this one.

I had trouble with the beginning of Perdido Street Station, but by the end of the book had to admit that it had been fun. I thought the Scar was excellent. This book just didn't do it for me. I don't think there was a single character for the reader to identify with. Reads more like a history book than a novel. No real plot, no real action. I'll ask around carefully before I buy Mieville's next book.

Once again, China Miéville creates an amazing world and weaves a brilliant story within it. The concept, character development & writing are all excellent! Fans of China Miéville will LOVE this!!

Iron Council is a well-written and interesting book with a rich fantasy setting. However, before embarking on this epic journey you will need some equipment: an unabridged dictionary and several boxes of Kleenex. Why? Because the author is fond of using words like quotidian and evanesce and the plot is unremittingly depressing. It is a shame that such a good story is mired down with spelling bee pretentiousness and heavy handed tragedy.

This is a good book, however there are some weaknesses in it.

1) You need to have read Perdido Street Station before reading this book. The explanations and background that he has in his first two Bas-Lag books are not included in this one.

2) The first one hundred pages or so are on the weak side. Get through those and the book finds its legs.

3) The characters in this book are not as developed as those in the first two Bas-Lag novels. In both PSS and The Scar he focused on one main and one supporting character. In Iron Council he splits his attention between three characters for the duration of the story.

That said, it is a good novel. The world is richer than ever, and the setting is well integrated into the events from his other novels. If you enjoyed the first two, you'll like this one, and if you didn't like them avoid this like the plague.

The long awaited third installment in the author of the Bas-Lag books has finally arrived, and the final verdict? Meh. The fact is, after the glory that was Perdido Street Station and The Scar, it's hard to follow up, and until 300 pages had passed the books wasn't that great. Don't get me wrong, it was really good, expecially the last 300 pages. Definitly read it if you liked Perdido or the Scar, but read one of those first to smooth into Mieville's style.

I keep finding myself wandering away from this novel after devouring the first two bas lag novels. For me, his description of the outlands really lacks the texture of New Crobuzon and the story is missing the drama of the earlier titles. While the novel tries to dramatize revolutionary impulse growing at the edge of a civilization, I think it may be too intellectual an exercise - too abstract.

If you like big, "epic" (I hate this word) worlds with multiple storylines, characters and things going on you will really like this.

oh and people who say this books is alllll abouuut communism probably thinks that Harry Potter is about witchcraft and supporting the downfall of christianity.

I loved Perdido Street Station, and thought the Scar was quite good, but this one is a real slog. There's very little suspense, and it seems more like a musing rumination than a novel. I sure hope his next will be better.

This is my second attempt at a Mieville. While some of it was a compelling read, it's two stories and, as stated by others, the other story in here is BORING. Further, the entire tale teased us with really interesting bits (some fascinatingly freaksome creatures, the cacatopic zone, etc.), but didn't deliver where it might have been the most effective and intriguing. Worse yet, I disliked all of the main characters--was this an exploration of shallow, meagerly-equipped folk in a rough-and-tumble future? I sure don't know. Mieville is literarily capable of creating whatever comes into his mind--and he ought.

This novel is a beautifully conceived and composed orchestra of language and fantastic thought. While some object to what I have heard described as its "spelling bee pretentiousness," well, I can only say that if you require an unabridged dictionary to understand words like "quotidian" and "evanesce," then perhaps you should stick to the Young Adult section of the store.

Perdido Street Station was incredible, and The Scar even more so, so Iron Council was just a little bit disappointing in the sense that it wasn't as great as the other two, but still an amazing read in its own right.

It did begin a bit slowly, but by about one-third of the way into it, I began to get more intrigued because I just knew it would get better, and I wasn't disappointed. What this book has done better than the other two is the ending (not to say that the others had bad endings), which had great mythic elements to it and was in some ways very uplifting and optimistic. It also had the usual high dosage of the outré (a word Mieville would probably use, given his Lovecraftian thesaurus) and horrific, naughty bits aplenty, multiple examples of human behaviour at its worst, and a generous heaping of anti-heroes. Those of a delicate nature should keep away, those who like their fiction grittier and frighteningly imaginative will love it, but reading at least Perdido Street Station first would help.

What is best about Mieville's books is the imagination and ideas that he throws into the mix, many of which don't advance the plot, but make the world of Bas-Lag so much more interesting. Motions demons, shadowphages, some of the golems, even Inchmen all stand out from the goblins and boogeymen which populate most fantasy fiction.

Some people have complained about the Mieville's politics being so prominent in this book, but I'd say to those critics they're simply ignorant of history. Mieville's descriptions of the Collective manning the barricades should sound familiar to anyone who has ever read about the Paris Commune of 1871.

A fine addition to the Bas-Lag collection, and worth reading by anyone who likes well-written fantastic fiction, and can accept that human nature can be more evil and darker than any fictional creation.

Sheer and utter. This hardly can be called a work of fiction. Had this been his first work, I could understand the grammatical mistakes, but this is inexcuseable. The publisher should be fined for this book and the editor fired.