| | The Iron Dragon's Daughter |  | Author: Michael Swanwick
Publisher: William Morrow & Co
Category: Book
List Price: £15.05
Buy Used: £4.07
You Save: £10.98 (73%)
New (3) from £20.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 833824
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 424
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.5 x 1.3
ISBN: 0688131743
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780688131746
ASIN: 0688131743
Publication Date: January 1994
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
 An outstanding feast of creativty September 25, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
The premise of the book is the intriguing if familiar one of a changeling child - a human child brought up in the land of faerie. Yet what makes this book unique is firstly the quality of the writing, which is superb, and secondly the disconcertingly twisted version of faerie that Mr. Swanwick creates - both uncannily familiar yet disconcertingly different to our world. In many ways the protagonist confronts the trials and tribulations of growing up in the 21st century but with a vicious skein of magic laid over everything. Its not a work of tolkeinesque fantasy, with an epic war against some evil lord figure, but instead a coming of age story of a girl who lives in the drugery and misery of a magical world and dreams of escaping to the idylllic 'real' world.
Imaginative and intriguing, The Iron Dragon's Daughter really shows just how lacking in true originality something like Tad Williams' War of the Flowers (which had a somewhat similar theme) is. It fully deserves its place in the Fantasy Masterworks Pantheon.
Mindblowingly inventive, brutally gorgeous June 15, 2005
8 out of 9 found this review helpful
This is probably the purest fantasy novel I've ever read. Nothing is familiar yet everything is recognisable. It is unsettling. It's fantasy, yes, but in a nightmarish way, showing a world every bit as colourful, exciting, amoral and downright terrifying as our own.
The prose is unbelievably elegant, showing more imagination in one short chapter than many books contain in their entirety.
If you are a fan of 'heroic' fantasy, you might not enjoy this book.
On the other hand, if you like authors Gene Wolf, M. John Harrison and Jack Vance, you will find similar quality here and, for me, there's no higher praise than that!
Intriguing and unsettling May 11, 2005
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Having been somewhat put off this book by the previous negative review, I was still intrigued enough to buy it. Having read it, I have to say that I can wholeheartedly recommend it. I like the way magic and science are blended (hence the mixture of steampunk and fantasy). I like the way the usual fantasy conventions are played with (elves are still in charge, but as a malign, distainful aristocracy). I also like the hard-edged use of language. I can see hardcore fantasy fans disliking the way this book subverts the genre. But for the rest of us, this is a great read.
 Very poor for a 'Masterwork' April 28, 2005
6 out of 20 found this review helpful
I absolutely detested this book. It probably did not help that i was co-currently reading another fantasy book, but the pseudo-punk/fantasy merging of the world that Michael Swanwick creates is flawed in its entirety. the start held much promise for me but not even by the midway point it had turned into something else. It is less a work of fantasy than a mis-mash of philosophical statements poorly integrated into a decidedly lacking plotline. The characters and events in this book both lack any meaning or depth. The sudden location changes make an already disjointed tale even more so. in short, i found this book to be one that seemed to hold much potential, but very quickly threw that first impression away.
mind blowing July 31, 2003
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I loved it. a superb book with real inventiveness. the mix of technology and traditional fantasy was stunning - you've never come across dragons like these (or elves for that matter). Why 4 stars out of 5? well I confess I didn't quite understand several aspects of the story - but who cares!! maybe I'm just a bit thick. Recommended to fans of alternate fantasy.
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