Review: China Miéville: Iron Council

I loved the first two of Miéville's baroque steampunk fantasies, "Perdito Street Station" and "The Scar". Set in a phantasmagorical mix of steam-age technology, D&D magic and cyberpunk attitude, they managed to breath new life into some old cliches, and produce something that was far more than the sum of the parts.

The third novel in this setting, "Iron Council" tells the story of the construction of a transcontinental railway, who's striking construction crew rebelled and struck out on their own across the wilderness, laying down rails in front of the construction train and taking them up again behind. But despite some nice touches, such as the golem magic, I found this book something of a disappointment compared to it's predecessors.

With the action switching between the city of New Crozubon and the rebels in the wilderness, and between present-day and flashback, the whole thing seemed to lack the focus of his two earlier works. This time, Miéville's politics is far more heavy-handed and comes over very preachy. Being shown what's wrong with unrestrained robber-baron capitalism is one thing, but sometimes it felt like being beaten over the head with a hammer-and-sickle. The biggest flaw of all was the weak characterisation, so bad that I found I didn't care what happened to several of the leading characters by the end of the book.

While the book isn't a total failure, Miéville is capable of far better than this.