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BlackVoid · 07-08-2009, 10:22 AM

Caution, some minor spoilers ahead.

Just gave up on Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick. The book starts out interesting in a steam dragon factory where technology meets magic. But then the protagonist escapes with a steam dragon. You would expect that some kind of adventure would follow, BUT NO. The next scene is shoplifting in a mall. WHAT???

It is lame. I skimmed ahead in the book and checked some (negative) reviews to see if anything interesting would happen, but it seems not.

Another nicely built world that has a bad story (just like Perdido Street Station). Is it a feature of the steampunk subgenre? Anything steampunk I read starts out with a very interesting world, then disappoints with the story in a BIG WAY. In PSS I just could not care about the characters and it was boring. The Difference Engine by William Gibson was so drawn out and boring that I gave up on it halfway through.

I am also reading the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. This starts out very good, but by the 4th book I was skipping entire segments. This book runs on 3 threads:
- the actual military action - pretty good all the way. The author considers some of the physical limitations of space combat - NICE. It is a shame that other aspects of physical reality are ignored (spaceships cannot turn in space like airplanes or ships on water).
- a love triangle - its awkward, unrealistic and should have been left out. I felt cringing at the dialog relating to this. Just plain unbelievable.
- a mutiny / treason theme in the fleet - this is just not believable at all, especially since the protagonist does not do much about it. I was hoping in book 2 that this theme would be resolved and dropped, but unfortunately this is not the case. The mutiny just drags on and on and on. The protagonist should get his act together and act on it.
Repetitions in the last two threads are getting very boring by book 4. I think this is a case where a series should have been shortened to 3 books instead of 5 (and still 1 upcoming book).

Also the book gets way to hollywoodish in my eye. Still its a good, light read if you are willing to skip the repetitions.

07-08-2009, 10:22 AM	#2169
BlackVoid Evangelist Posts: 415 Karma: 510423 Join Date: Nov 2006 Device: Sony PRS-505	Caution, some minor spoilers ahead. Just gave up on Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick. The book starts out interesting in a steam dragon factory where technology meets magic. But then the protagonist escapes with a steam dragon. You would expect that some kind of adventure would follow, BUT NO. The next scene is shoplifting in a mall. WHAT??? It is lame. I skimmed ahead in the book and checked some (negative) reviews to see if anything interesting would happen, but it seems not. Another nicely built world that has a bad story (just like Perdido Street Station). Is it a feature of the steampunk subgenre? Anything steampunk I read starts out with a very interesting world, then disappoints with the story in a BIG WAY. In PSS I just could not care about the characters and it was boring. The Difference Engine by William Gibson was so drawn out and boring that I gave up on it halfway through. I am also reading the Lost Fleet series by Jack Campbell. This starts out very good, but by the 4th book I was skipping entire segments. This book runs on 3 threads: - the actual military action - pretty good all the way. The author considers some of the physical limitations of space combat - NICE. It is a shame that other aspects of physical reality are ignored (spaceships cannot turn in space like airplanes or ships on water). - a love triangle - its awkward, unrealistic and should have been left out. I felt cringing at the dialog relating to this. Just plain unbelievable. - a mutiny / treason theme in the fleet - this is just not believable at all, especially since the protagonist does not do much about it. I was hoping in book 2 that this theme would be resolved and dropped, but unfortunately this is not the case. The mutiny just drags on and on and on. The protagonist should get his act together and act on it. Repetitions in the last two threads are getting very boring by book 4. I think this is a case where a series should have been shortened to 3 books instead of 5 (and still 1 upcoming book). Also the book gets way to hollywoodish in my eye. Still its a good, light read if you are willing to skip the repetitions.