Like
many I suppose, I was blown away by Michael Swanwick's The Iron
Dragon's Daughter, and years later by its (seeming) bookend The
Dragons of Babel. Intelligent,
imaginative, dynamic, human—the books tell coming-of-age
tales of a young woman and man (respectively) in the most enticing,
unique milieus of something that is generally fantasy/science fiction
but so unidentifiably genre as to be almost magic realist or
slipstream, something beyond taxonomy. If indeed bookends, this leads
to a very valid question: what does Michael Swanwick think he can
accomplish with 2019’s The Iron Dragon’s Mother?
Daughter
to an aristocrat, Caitlin, pilot to one of her lands special
sentient, robotic dragons lives according to the female pilot code
which forbids, well, practically everything a free person considers
the good life. Familial tragedy leading her in a new direction in
life, however, Cat finds herself on the run, trying to clear her
name, and—suddenly, in one moment—with the consciousness of a
nursing home patient calling herself Helen floating in her mind.
Caitlin's redemption taking her to all manner of places—corporate
to faery, it's a story that can only be Swanwick's. (Playing to his
strengths, there is something about the Babel setting which brings
out the best in Swanwick...)
Firstly,
if the first two novels in the Babel world are taken as something
personal, then The Iron Dragon's Mother must be taken as
something a bit more political. For certain it does not lack the
personal, rather the story feels to have an undercurrent intended to
have impact beyond the main characters' lives. Swanwick retaining
the glorious style of said first two novels, Caitlin's tale has tones
of feminism, particularly the seizure of agency and deployment of
confidence to make one's own way through life. The sentience stuck
in her head does not form a counter-point, rather a kind of driving
force from a greater age that nicely complements Cat's adventures.
Another way of putting this is: if The Iron Dragon's Daughter is
about a
young woman running away from the demons of self, Mother
is
about a young woman running away and ultimately confronting the
demons of her culture.
I was very wary that Swanwick would tarnish the luster that is the first two Babel novels. But I needn't have been. Despite going the more political route and revisiting a familiar setting, readers are in safe hands. Like Atwood's return to the setting of The Handmaid's Tale, The Iron Dragon's Mother proves there is still a lot of room left for poignant, decisive storytelling without the SJW fluff that comes with some victim-crowning feminist narratives these days. Mother is superb storytelling exactly in the style of Daughter and Dragons but with fresh, new coats of paint—perhaps something Frido Kahlo or Remedios Varos inspired. What I’d thought of as bookends for so long has become, of all things, a trilogy, which is, in fact, a great thing. This will be on my short list for book of the year...
I was very wary that Swanwick would tarnish the luster that is the first two Babel novels. But I needn't have been. Despite going the more political route and revisiting a familiar setting, readers are in safe hands. Like Atwood's return to the setting of The Handmaid's Tale, The Iron Dragon's Mother proves there is still a lot of room left for poignant, decisive storytelling without the SJW fluff that comes with some victim-crowning feminist narratives these days. Mother is superb storytelling exactly in the style of Daughter and Dragons but with fresh, new coats of paint—perhaps something Frido Kahlo or Remedios Varos inspired. What I’d thought of as bookends for so long has become, of all things, a trilogy, which is, in fact, a great thing. This will be on my short list for book of the year...
No comments:
Post a Comment