Iron Council
Cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	China Miéville
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Steampunk, Western
Publisher	Del Rey
Publication date	2004
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback), E-book
Pages	576 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-345-46402-8
Preceded by	The Tain
Followed by	Looking for Jake

Iron Council (2004) is the fourth novel by China Miéville, set in the same universe as his previous books Perdido Street Station (2000) and The Scar (2002), although they can all be read independently of each other. In addition to the steampunk influences shared by its predecessors, Iron Council also draws several elements from the western genre. Image File history File links IronCouncil. ... China Tom Miéville (born September 6, 1972, Norwich) is a British fantastic fiction writer. ... For other uses, see Country (disambiguation). ... The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ... For the comic book, see Steampunk (comics). ... Cover of a book by Louis LAmour, one of Western fictions most prolific authors. ... A publisher is a person or entity which engages in the act of publishing. ... Del Rey Books is a branch of Ballantine Books, which is owned by Random House. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Hardcover books A hardcover (or hardback or hardbound) is a book bound with rigid protective covers (typically of cardboard covered with cloth, heavy paper, or sometimes leather). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article may require cleanup. ... A user viewing an electronic page on an eBook reading device An e-book (for electronic book: also eBook, ecoBook) is the digital media equivalent of a conventional printed book. ... ISBN redirects here. ... This article is about The Tain, a novella by China Mieville. ... Looking for Jake (UK edition cover) Looking for Jake is a collection of science fiction and fantasy stories by British author China Miéville. ... China Tom Miéville (born September 6, 1972, Norwich) is a British fantastic fiction writer. ... Perdido Street Station (US edition cover) Perdido Street Station is the second novel written by China Miéville, and the first set in New Crobuzon. ... The Scar is the third novel written by China Miéville, a self-described weird fiction writer from London, England. ... For the comic book, see Steampunk (comics). ... Cover of a book by Louis LAmour, one of Western fictions most prolific authors. ...

Iron Council is perhaps the most overtly political of China Miéville's novels to date, being strongly inspired by the anti-globalization movement, and tackling issues such as imperialism, corporatism, terrorism, racial hatred, homosexuality, culture shock, labour rights and war. Anti-WEF grafiti in Lausanne. ... Cecil Rhodes: Cape-Cairo railway project. ... Historically, corporatism or corporativism (Italian: corporativismo) refers to a political or economic system in which power is given to civic assemblies that represent economic, industrial, agrarian, social, cultural, and professional groups. ... Terrorist redirects here. ... An African-American drinks out of a water fountain marked for colored in 1939 at a street car terminal in Oklahoma City. ... Homosexuality refers to sexual interaction and / or romantic attraction between individuals of the same sex. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Labor rights are laws created in order to always have fairness and keep peace between employees and employers. ... For other uses, see War (disambiguation). ...

The novel won the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2005, and was also nominated for the Hugo Award and the World Fantasy Award that same year. The Arthur C. Clarke Award is a British award given for the best science fiction novel first published in the United Kingdom during the previous year. ... The 2005 Hugo Award with base designed by Deb Kosiba. ... First awarded in 1975, the World Fantasy Awards are handed out annually at the World Fantasy Convention (WFC) to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of fantasy. ...

Plot

Iron Council follows three major narrative threads that eventually meet by the novel’s climax. Although Miéville weaves back and forth between narrative, time, and space, this summary will follow each narrative individually, discussing their relation to each other toward the end. The novel is set in and around New Crobuzon, a sprawling London-esque city. New Crobuzon has for some unknown amount of time been at war with Tesh, and is attempting to build a railroad across the outlying desert, partially as a new means of conducting this war. Against this backdrop, the novel follows the deeds of three main characters–-Ori, Cutter, and Judah Low. New Crobuzon is a fictional city-state created by China Miéville. ...

Judah’s story begins some twenty years before the novel’s opening. Judah was hired as a railroad scout for New Crobuzon, charged with mapping terrain, and informing the land’s inhabitants of the railroad’s coming. While doing so, Judah spends time with the Stiltspear, a race of indescribable creatures who can disguise themselves as trees and conjure golems, living creatures made from unliving matter. Judah attempts to warn the Stiltspear away, but they won’t listen and he must settle for making a few recordings and beginning to learn their golemetric arts. Eventually, he returns to the railroad, which does indeed wipe out the Stiltspear. Shortly afterward, Judah, a prostitute named Ann-Hari, and a Remade named Uzman lead a revolution in which the rail workers drive the overseers away, free the Remade, and hijack the train, transforming it into a moving socialist dwelling.

Iron Council, the perpetual train, moves through the desert, gathering track from behind and laying it in whichever direction its citizens decide. The Council keeps moving to avoid the New Crobuzon militia, who are anxious to reclaim the train and destroy the rebellion-inspiring Council. Judah returns to New Crobuzon, where he immerses himself in esoteric golemetry literature, emerging as a master of the art. Eventually, Judah returns to the Iron Council, having spread its word throughout New Crobuzon, and intent on using his golemetry to protect it.

Cutter, whom the reader joins at the novel’s opening, was a friend, disciple, and lover to Judah during Judah’s return to New Crobuzon. Cutter leads a group consisting of other disciples of Judah in search of the Iron Council, to warn of the impending attack of the New Crobuzon militia. Although the militia was initially defeated by Iron Council, it has amassed a force now capable of destroying the “perpetual train.” After living and working with the Council for a while, Cutter returns with Judah and others to New Crobuzon to inspire revolt with the news of Iron Council, which has decided to return to the city and confront the militia on its own turf. After learning of the failed uprising by the Collective, Judah sends Cutter back to dissuade the citizens of the Council from returning. He is unsuccessful, and at the novel’s climax, Judah conjures a time-golem to freeze the train in time, thus saving it at the point of attack from destruction by the militia. As the novel ends, Iron Council has become a public monument of sorts, poised on the verge of attacking New Crobuzon’s exterior until the undisclosed time in which Judah’s time golem will dissipate. Judah is murdered by Ann Hari for halting the Council’s attack, and Cutter re-immerses himself in New Crobuzon’s underground resistance movements, revitalizing the protest publication Runagate Rampant.

Happening somewhat simultaneously with most of the preceding summary are the deeds of Ori, a dissatisfied revolutionary who cannot abide the endless talk of his fellow Runagaters (so named for the above-mentioned publication). Seeking action, Ori is led by Spiral Jacobs, a half-crazed homeless old man, to join the militant gang of Toro. Committing robberies, raids, and even murder, Toro’s group proceeds mercilessly on its quest to assassinate the mayor of New Crobuzon, a plan which is later revealed to be personal rather than political. During Ori’s struggles with and against his new gang, an uprising by The Collective, a union of revolutionary groups, threatens to finally wrest New Crobuzon from the hands of its corrupt parliament and militia. After several days of fighting, however, the Collective is destroyed. Shortly after the fall of the Collective, Ori learns that Spiral Jacobs is in actuality a powerful sorcerer (A Tramp-Ambassador alluded to very briefly early in the novel) sent from Tesh to introduce a dark, destructive force into the midst of New Crobuzon. Here Judah, Ori, and Cutter finally cross paths as they unite to stop Spiral Jacobs, which they finally manage with the help of Qurabin, a disciple of a Teshi religious tradition whom Cutter and Judah met on the journey to Iron Council. Ori is killed in the confrontation. Cutter and Judah then leave to rejoin the thread of the Iron Council, depicted above.

Related books

What follows is a list of books that inspired or are referenced in Iron Council:^{[citation needed]}

• Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
• The Anubis Gates, by Tim Powers
• Blood Meridian, by Cormac McCarthy
• The Dark Domain, by Stefan Grabiński
• The Dark Tower series, by Stephen King
• The Gormenghast novels, by Mervyn Peake
• Uzumaki, by Junji Ito
• The Viriconium cycle, by M. John Harrison

This novel is also in some ways a pastiche of the Western genre. Alice in Wonderland redirects here. ... Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (IPA: ) (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by the pen name Lewis Carroll (), was an English author, mathematician, logician, Anglican clergyman and photographer. ... The Anubis Gates (1983) is a time travel fantasy novel by Tim Powers. ... Tim Powers at the Israeli ICon 2005 SF&F Convention Timothy Thomas Powers (born February 29, 1952) is an American science fiction and fantasy author. ... For the Canadian band, see Blood Meridian (band). ... For the musician, see Cormac McCarthy (musician). ... Stefan Grabiński Stefan Grabiński (February 25, 1887 - November 12, 1936) was a Polish writer, author of horror fiction, sometimes called the Polish Poe. Grabiński worked as teacher in Lviv and Przemyśl and is famous for his train stories collected in Demon ruchu (The Motion Demon). ... For other uses, see The Dark Tower. ... For other persons named Stephen King, see Stephen King (disambiguation). ... Gormenghast Castle in the BBC miniseries The Gormenghast series is a series of books written by Mervyn Peake that is centered around the castle Gormenghast and the character Titus Groan. ... Mervyn Laurence Peake (July 9, 1911 – November 17, 1968) was an English modernist writer, artist, poet and illustrator. ... Uzumaki is a horror manga by Junji Ito. ... Junji Ito (伊藤潤二 Itō Junji, July, 1963 - ) is an author of Japanese horror manga. ... Viriconium is a fictional city created by M. John Harrison and also the name of the cycle of novels and stories set in and around it. ... Michael John Harrison (July 26, 1945, Warwickshire ), is a UK science fiction author, fantasy author and literary fiction author, who writes as M. John Harrison. // Biography and writing career Harrisons first story was published in 1966. ... The word pastiche describes a literary or other artistic genre. ... Cover of a book by Louis LAmour, one of Western fictions most prolific authors. ... A genre [], (French: kind or sort from Greek: γένος (genos)) is a loose set of criteria for a category of literary composition; the term is also used for any other form of art or utterance. ...

Note that Judah Low is named after Judah Loew ben Bezalel, a rabbi who was rumored to have created golems. Judah Lew ben Bezalel (Judah Loew son of Bezalel, also written as Yehudah ben Bezalel Levai [or Loew, Löw], 1525 – 17 September 1609 or 18 Elul 5369 according to the Hebrew calendar) was an important Talmudic scholar, Jewish mystic, and philosopher who served as a leading rabbi in Prague...

Further reading

• "Debating Iron Council." at Crooked Timber (11 January 2005).
• Joan Gordon, "Reveling in genre: an interview with China Miéville." Science Fiction Studies 30 (2003). 355-373.
• Lou Anders, "Interview With China Miéville." The Believer (April 2005).

Crooked Timber is a widely-read political weblog run by a group of (mostly) academics from and working in several different nations, including the USA, the UK, Ireland, Australia and Singapore. ... is the 11th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Cover of The Believer, April 2005 The Believer is an intellectual yet playful magazine mainly about literature. ... April 2005 : ← - January - February - March - April - May - June - July - August - September - October - November - December - → Hamas and Islamic Jihad have declared, in principle, their intention to join the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO). ...

External links

• Review of Iron Council at SFFWorld.com
• Iron Council publication history at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database