Rating: 
Summary: The Industrial Revolution Comes to Fairy
Review: If Bret Easton Ellis wrote fantasy this could easily be the result. Filled with jaded characters with dark appetites, The Iron Dragon's Daughter slips into the bleak tone of cyberpunk and applies it to land of fairy. Instead of bucholic landscapes we have overbearing cities where death is commonplace and is peopled with dwarves, elves, pixes, nymphs, and host of other fairy creatures. A cynical way of viewing this book would be to say that author was just some Everquest geek trying to convince jaded socialite that he was cool: drug abusing elves, mechanical dragons, S&M, and lots of death... To be less cynical, the book is unique and despite its nihlism entertaining. Swanwick is a great story teller with a good sense of pace, and a lean style of writing that allows the reader's mind to paint the details of Swanwick's world where he has left only broad strokes. The characters feel real, perhaps because they're so flawed. Child slavery, snorting pixie dust, fascist sentient ant colonies, human sacrifice, sexual mind games, and an omnipresent threat of destruction. You could call it fairypunk.
Rating: 
Summary: What's the point of the story?
Review: This book started great: an innocent little girl trying to survive in a cruel and egotistic world factory. I was getting interested in this fictional different world and in the weird characters: a tengu, strange rich elves, dragon machines, etc. but when the girl escaped from the factory the story got a little bit slower and uninteresting, and then in the college I lost total interest in the story. In fact, this was the first book in my whole life that I left unfinished to read (not even boring school novels have I left unfinished). Why? From the middle of the story forward, the story lost its objective. The scenes were irrelevant, like the sex scenes that appeared every ten pages or so for no purpose in the plot. Narration was boring. I just stopped seeing the point of the story. The only reason I gave this book 2 stars was because the protagonist was presented as a human being with good qualities and flaws. If one isn't a sci-fi or fantasy reader and wants to start reading books from these genres, I suggest not to start with this book.
Rating:
Summary: This is a Book to Come Back To
Review: The Iron Dragon's Daughter is a book that stays with you, and it is definitely a book you have to read more than once to fully comprehend. The tale follows Jane, who is introduced to the readers as a forced child laborer in a steam-dragon plant. She is the sole human in an eclectic mix of feys, shifters, giants, dwarves, and other fantastic creatures. She (and all the other children there) dream of escaping, and she manages to achieve that dream with the help of what is thought to be the rusted out hulk of the dragon 7332, or Melancthon. With the dragon's help, Jane is disguised as a fey, and takes up a normal life in the woods 'somewhere else', going, as all young women do, to school. After she loses her virginity to a boy supposed to be a sacrifice, Melancthon abandons her, and leaves her to her fate in the University in the city. Things progress from there, and she eventually meets with the dragon again in a somewhat confusing and wholly surprising ending. The first time I read this book, I was just 15 years old, and I didn't like it. I was a prude little know-nothing, and Swanwick's incorporation of foul language and sexual scenes made me feel, to use his phrasing, "unclean." I was embarrassed to be reading the book. However, I picked it up again a month away from 16, and (with a little more worldly knowledge this time) it made a lot more sense. This book has definitely moved from my "this-book-exists-but-nothing-more" shelf to my "favorites" shelf. Swanwick writes in a style I've never seen before. He takes setting completely familiar to us modern day humans, such as shopping malls, squalid cities, and college, and infuses them with a type of grimy urban fantasy, the likes of which I've never read. Elves snort coke and faerie dust. Wood-mays get drunk. Gryphons fight each other in the air for cans of thrown beer. The familiarity of the settings and situations Jane finds herself in only lend to the overall alien feel of the story. The plot can be a little confusing and hard to follow at times, but this is a book that gets better each time you read it, so even if you don't understand the first time (I certainly didn't) it will become clearer with each time you read it. I highly recommend this!!!
Rating:
Summary: Long and unwieldy..
Review: A fantasy book is modern times. The writing style is wonderful... I had problems following along sometimes.
The story begins in a steam dragon factory with a girl named Jane. Life there is less than spiffy, if you know what I mean. Who wouldn't want escape from that hole? So Jane figures a way to escape... although there are some snags in her plans, it's accomplished with the help of a... questionable comrade.
So she's free! And she makes an identity for herself, and does the one thing everyone is destined to do... go to school. Hm. I get kind of lost from here on in, but from what I can deduce... the life of a girl in a magical world, trying to get by. Yet she is still threatened by the possibility of being found and whisked back to the factory.
This book is not for those with little maturity. There is a lot of sexual content, strong laguage... etc. It's written so well though, it hardly mattered to me ^_^; There's probably a big message you learn about life in the end, but I'm too stupid to see it. I ended up not seeing the point of it all... but it was still a good read, and I'll be rereading it later on in my life.
It was... captivating. I really couldn't stop reading it. It pulls you in O___O Fascninating... Good for rainy days or sunny days. Oh yes. The ending is a a surprise too. It leaves you with a lot to think about. Nice ^_^ If you stay committed to reading it, it will pay off.
Rating:
Summary: Difficult but rewarding dark fantasy
Review: In case you missed it, this is a fantasy novel set (mostly) in a world of elves, dwarves, fairies, etc. -- except that *this* world is industrialized, and all in all not a very nice place. And the heroine, an orphan human changeling named Jane, is not a very nice person. She's a thief, a liar, a murderess, and (by the end of the book) a bona fide belle dame sans merci. But Swanwick shows us how she gets there, so plausibly that we can't help but sympathize and even like her. At the beginning, she's a child laborer in an extremely Dickensian factory. The factory builds war dragons -- monstrous, malevolent cyborg creatures, unpleasantly intelligent, manipulative and cunning. The dragons are supposed to be kept under the tightest possible security, but one has managed to fake his own death and now is ready to escape the factory and begin a truly awesome campaign of vengeance. But he needs a human pilot, immune to cold iron, to fly. And so an improbable alliance is born... It's a very episodic book, and one with serious literary ambitions... which is pretty odd, considering the material (I mean, elves with cell phones?). It definitely bogs down at points, and some of the episodes are barely relevant to the (sometimes rather tenuous) plot. But then, a lot of the bits are so darn good that you can forgive Swanwick his occasional turgidity and wandering. The electronic riddle-duel between the dragon and the child-catcher is a classic, right up there with Bilbo's match with Gollum. The essay on the mating habits of gargoyles is almost as good. And if you start thinking "Liebestod" -- the intimate connection between love and death -- a lot of stuff that seemed senseless or pointless suddenly falls into place, too. Fair warning: not an easy read, especially the second half. Much of the book is pretty grim and depressing, and you have to pay close attention to follow some of the subplots. Still, well worth a look if you're interested in an unusual and intelligent dark fantasy.
Rating: 
Summary: Phenomenal
Review: Iron Dragon's Daughter, an amalgam of steampunk and fairy, will have you screaming, laughing, and crying all at the same time. This is perfected madness, incredible storytelling. Iron Dragon is one of the smartest books I've read in ages. The story follows a changeling, Jane, who is placed in a factory to work alongside other enslaved fairy children. Their task . . . to build weapons. The conditions are awful, the quality of life is awful, and the future is less than promising. That's until the Dragon, Number 7332, begins to tempt Jane with tales of the outside world. He offers her freedom, but the cost . . . Honestly, I am going to have to read this novel again. Swanwick has a tendency to jump around, and it's not that it's poorly done, it's just sometimes difficult to follow. I'm sure I missed things, and the quality of this story is so great, that I want to make sure I catch every last detail. Fans of fantasy, steampunk and fairy stories in general will adore this book. It's worth the investment. I borrowed the copy from a friend, and have since gone out and purchased my own. I don't want to share it! Happy Reading!
Rating:
Summary: A cruel and challenging world
Review: I would not have enjoyed this book when I started reading science fiction in my early teens. I didn't want to read about a harsh, unfair society with unfathomable rules and awful consequences back then-- I already had junior high school to cope with, thank you. Overall, it is a powerful story of a resourceful girl who conquers adversity, grows up and achieves her goals-- making a fair number of mistakes along the way. Although this book has many moments of surreality, multiple themes and plots are successfully woven together by the end. It contains my favorite nutshell description of undesirable college roommates, made hilarious by being transplanted into a magical world. And it finally explained for me the relationship between sexuality and magic. (Duh.) This is a book that will stay with you. Swanwick is a terrific writer for mature readers.
Rating:
Summary: dark fantasy meets cyberpunk
Review: It's an absolutely impossible task - to take two mass-cult genres and mix a high-art object out of them! Somehow Michael Swanwick manages to complete this feat, produsing highly enjoyable reading, which you'd love to re-read again and again. Worth to buy a hardcover copy.
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Summary: Where the World of Fantasy meats the World of Science
Review: In Swanwick's fairy-setting, there are all sorts of things.. elves, fairies, magice, and dragons... Now of course most fantasy stories are not complete without dragons, but in thise case, they aren't what you think. Here, dragons are a machine flown in wars by halflings and humans. Problem is that in the rely of the fae, humans don't naturally live... so they have to be 'imported.' The story centers around Jane... at first a little human girl serving as an indentured servant at a dragon factory. Here she dreams of escaping.. nothing more than that. However a thought-to-be scrapped dragon picks up on Jane's emotions and forges an agreement with her that her will help them escape if she promises to eventually repair him in the future. After a sucessful escape, Jane goes back on her word unintentionally, thus going into adulthood where she leads a very destitute life searching for somone to love... and partially realizing that she is not of this world. The dragon returns to her, with the promise of glory... if she will fly him one more time to destroy the core of thier world... Spiral Castle and the Goddess. The story paints vivid pictures. And just because this is a "fairytale" dosen't mean it's for kids. Quite the contrary, you do have to have a bit of a mature mind since the book is also what I'd consider a comming of age story. The book blends science with fantasy, splashes in mideval lore, and then some truly pyschotic characters and events. I'd largly reccomend this book for anyone who's a fan of fantasy... especially sci-fantasy, or anything that has dragons.
Rating: 
Summary: Ugh...
Review: This book made NO sense, whatsoever. I honestly do NOT understand what its readers are ranting and raving about. I couldn't stomach the thought of actually finishing it. Once Jane escapes the Iron Dragon factory, the plot falls into non-existance and is instead filled with sex and random side stories. It was a waste of my money, in my opinion, and I'm definitely getting rid of it as soon as I can.
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