321. & 322. The Iron Dragon's Daughter & The Peshawar Lancers
The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick - this book was recommended to me somewhere along the way and also appears as part of one of the 'Fantasy Masterworks' series, so I expected it would be good.
The basic premise of The Iron Dragon's Daughter is of a world alongside ours where human children have been stolen to work in the great foundries where dragons are made. Our protagonist, determined to know a different life from the one she is currently leading, makes plans to steal one of the dragons and flee - her plan works well in some ways but not in others, as she is forced to take refuge among the people who enslaved her kind.
The idea of changelings being taken for a particular purpose was an interesting enough one, and the initial setting of the foundry was well-drawn and dark, but after the escape my interest began to wane. Add to that the author's apparent obsession with sex - not in itself a bad thing, but hardly a substitute for plot - and I got about two-thirds of the way through before I decided I really didn't care any more.
There's a sequel to this now, written many years after the original publication of this book: the follow-up is The Dragons of Babel, but I can't see myself bothering with it...
The Peshawar Lancers by S.M. Stirling - this was a bookswap book, by a writer I hadn't previously heard of, taken pretty much on the basis of the blurb.
It's an alternate history tale, where Victorian London (and significant parts of the northern hemisphere) are struck by meteors that leave desolation in their wake, forcing a mass emigration south. The Empire still exists, but its heart is in India, not London, and the ruling families have taken Indian culture and religion on board, amalgamating them seamlessly into their former way of life.
Our protagonists are brother and sister: Athelstane King, officer of the eponymous Peshawar Lancers, and Dr Cassandra King, eminent physicist. Attempts are made on both their lives, throwing them into esteemed company as Cassandra finds herself employed as a tutor to the Emperor's daughter, while Athelstane and his sidekick try to track down the source of the threat to themselves and the Empire.
In general, The Peshawar Lancers is an entertaining read, although Stirling does suffer badly from the 'my loads of research, let me show you it!' problem, leading to serious info-dumps at times. It's clear he has done his research, particularly into the culture of his setting, but it does start to get a little tedious at times when the reader is regularly reminded of how thorough the author has been in this regard. I'm not sure I'd actively seek out Stirling's other alternate history books, but I wouldn't hesitate to pick one up if I came across it, so that must say something!
The basic premise of The Iron Dragon's Daughter is of a world alongside ours where human children have been stolen to work in the great foundries where dragons are made. Our protagonist, determined to know a different life from the one she is currently leading, makes plans to steal one of the dragons and flee - her plan works well in some ways but not in others, as she is forced to take refuge among the people who enslaved her kind.
The idea of changelings being taken for a particular purpose was an interesting enough one, and the initial setting of the foundry was well-drawn and dark, but after the escape my interest began to wane. Add to that the author's apparent obsession with sex - not in itself a bad thing, but hardly a substitute for plot - and I got about two-thirds of the way through before I decided I really didn't care any more.
There's a sequel to this now, written many years after the original publication of this book: the follow-up is The Dragons of Babel, but I can't see myself bothering with it...
It's an alternate history tale, where Victorian London (and significant parts of the northern hemisphere) are struck by meteors that leave desolation in their wake, forcing a mass emigration south. The Empire still exists, but its heart is in India, not London, and the ruling families have taken Indian culture and religion on board, amalgamating them seamlessly into their former way of life.
Our protagonists are brother and sister: Athelstane King, officer of the eponymous Peshawar Lancers, and Dr Cassandra King, eminent physicist. Attempts are made on both their lives, throwing them into esteemed company as Cassandra finds herself employed as a tutor to the Emperor's daughter, while Athelstane and his sidekick try to track down the source of the threat to themselves and the Empire.
In general, The Peshawar Lancers is an entertaining read, although Stirling does suffer badly from the 'my loads of research, let me show you it!' problem, leading to serious info-dumps at times. It's clear he has done his research, particularly into the culture of his setting, but it does start to get a little tedious at times when the reader is regularly reminded of how thorough the author has been in this regard. I'm not sure I'd actively seek out Stirling's other alternate history books, but I wouldn't hesitate to pick one up if I came across it, so that must say something!
