Michael Swanwick's 'The Dragons of Babel' is an October paperback release from Tor and when I got the email I have to admit that I spent a little while just gazing at what is a rather lovely cover. Feels like ages since I've seen a dragon on a book cover, I've missed them... For those of you who are after the whole 'what's on the back of the book as well as the front' experience, here's the blurb for you...
A war-dragon of Babel crashes in the idyllic fields of a post-industrialized Faerie and, dragging himself into the nearest village, declares himself king and makes young Will his lieutenant. Nightly, he crawls inside the young fey's brain to get a measure of what his subjects think. Forced out of his village, Will travels with female centaur soldiers, witnesses the violent clash of giants, and acquires a surrogate daughter, Esme, who has no knowledge of the past and may be immortal.
Evacuated to the Tower of Babel--infinitely high, infinitely vulgar, very much like New York City--Will meets the confidence trickster Nat Whilk. Inside the Dread Tower, Will becomes a hero to the homeless living in the tunnels under the city, rises as an underling to a haint politician, meets his one true love–a high-elven woman he dare not aspire to.
I'd just finished reading this blurb when it struck me that I've never read anything by Michael Swanwick, nothing at all. That's not really a big deal I hear you say, I'll bet there's loads of books that you haven't read. Well, that's true but Swanwick is supposed to be a pretty big deal in terms of books like 'The Iron Dragon's Daughter'. What have I been missing out on? I'm hoping that you can tell me.
I can't see myself reading Swanwick anytime soon (you haven't seen the size of the reading pile...) but give me a little something to be going on with in the meantime. Have you read 'The Dragons of Babel' already? What about 'The Iron Dragon's Daughter', what's that like? Comments in the usual place please :o)
4 comments:
Read In The Drift and/or Vacuum Flowers first....
Troy
I haven't read anything by him either. Though the blurb for this novel really makes me want to!
I read The Iron Dragon's Daughter. I liked Swanwick's writing style and the novel started off well, but it fell apart, becoming chaotic and nihilistic and just plain unpleasant.
I read this book in HC. It has a kind of Steampunk feeling to it and I liked the lead character. It was not an outstanding book but was good enough to make me want to finish it. It's been awhile and I can't remember many dragons being in it but there was a twist ending, I think.
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