I think Iron Council is close to ruined by his heavy-handed use of political symbolism. "It's the Iron Council. Council = Soviet. Get it?" "They come back to the city on a train -- just like Lenin did! Get it" "The Council was, the Council is, the Council will be -- just like Lenin! Get it?" I was groaning.
I really liked the first two Bas-Lag books though.
--- wrobert at uci.edu wrote:
> I'll try to respond to this with slightly less
> irritability. Personally I
> think that Mieville's politics are what make his
> books so enjoyable. I'm
> not sure that you would get the complex dynamics of
> the city without his
> engagement with Marxism. On the other hand, the
> Iron Council is
> impoverished by his insistence of reading
> revolutionary struggle in terms
> of the 1905 revolt, rather than imagining a future
> mode of struggle (a la
> the Kim Stanley Robinson Mars trilogy) robert wood
>
Lyubo, bratsy, lyubo, lyubo, bratsy, zhit!
ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ËÞÁÎ, ËÞÁÎ, ÁÐÀÒÖÛ, ÆÈÒÜ!
____________________________________________________________________________________ Now that's room service! Choose from over 150,000 hotels in 45,000 destinations on Yahoo! Travel to find your fit. http://farechase.yahoo.com/promo-generic-14795097