Iron Council
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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 influences shared by its predecessors, Iron Council also draws several elements from the western genre.
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, culture shock, labour rights and war.
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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.
Judah’s story begins some twenty years before the novel’s opening, though for sake of continuity I will start there. 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 disuade 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 museum exhibit, 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-emerses 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 lead 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, another group of revolutionaries, threatens to finally wrest New Crobuzon from the hands of its corrupt parliatment 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 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 another sorcerer called Qurabin (and you thought War and Peace was confusing), though 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:
- Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, by Lewis Carroll
- The Dark Domain, by Stefan Grabinski
- 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.
Further reading
- Joan Gordon, "Reveling in genre: an interview with China Miéville." Science Fiction Studies 30 (2003). 355-373.
- Lou Anders, "Inteview With China Miéville." (http://www.believermag.com/issues/200504/interview_mieville.php) The Believer (April 2005).