Not your average Lord of the Rings

[_fustian]

Current Music: Orbital -- I Wish I Had Duck Feet

I've just finished the third of China Miéville's New Crobuzon books, Iron Council (2004). Why wasn't I told it was his best? I wouldn't have waited so long

Comments

[_fustian]

Iron Council seemed a bit too much true believer wish fulfillment.

Wish fulfillment how? I mean, it seemed to me that nothing happened in the end that the reader might have wished for. I was particularly impressed (moderate spoiler alert!) by the reinforced sense of the inevitability of the Status Quo, of the powerlessness of the individual, and the whole "history hasn't been planned" theme. It fulfilled none of my wishes, and yet was better for that.

Miévilles love of the D&D monster manuals roars off the page to me.

I've sometimes wondered whether he's set himself an "encounter table challenge"-selecting obscure humanoids at random and seeing whether he can lever them into the setting-or whether it's a more considered thing, concentrating on the folkish and the archaically bizarre like the cock-riding hotchimen and the catoblepas. But then, he really goes beyond even that; I mean, cactus people? Roach-headed dryads? Moon elementals? To me, this is more of his Anti-Fantasy, meant to undermine expectations and push hard against the comfortable Fat Book Epic.

[accy]

Well there is an awful lot of socialist chest something in Iron Council. So mush so that it probably put me off a bit. I like The Scar better personally. I found the ending quite good as well.

[_fustian]

an awful lot of socialist chest something

Chest-thumping, you mean? I thought it was a powerful commentary on the quaint ineffectiveness of much of it-which made for some biting pathos.

[accy]

Arrgh, brain no worky, yes thumping or beating choose you word-thingy. All I know is that the not even subtle at all positioning of the novel seemed to get in the road of what could have been quite a good story. To me the narrative felt forced, that the story was subordinate to the propaganda.

[ext_2025]

I was particularly impressed (moderate spoiler alert!) by the reinforced sense of the inevitability of the Status Quo, of the powerlessness of the individual, and the whole "history hasn't been planned" theme. It fulfilled none of my wishes, and yet was better for that.

Yes, that's my favourite aspect of the book too. The Tesh subplot was a bit superfluous in retrospect, I'm not sure what point having another threat to the city made. *continues 5am journal-hopping*

[_fustian]

The Tesh subplot was a bit superfluous in retrospect

Indeed; although it did generate a kind of Orwellian nationalism subtheme. And it did help position New Crobuzon as an actual place within Bas-Lag, which played off the hero's return from the wilderness stuff.