After reading this, the last of Mieville's trio of Bas Lag novels, I have to say I was a bit disappointed. Iron Council is definitely my least favorite of the three, despite (or perhaps because of) being the most overtly political. Perhaps because of the focus on revolution, I felt the characters of this novel were much less interesting then the previous two. Unlike Isaac or Bellis, I never really connected with or identified with Cutter, Ori, Ann Hari or any other person or felt drawn into their conflicts (which I was completely with Perdido Street Station and the Scar). In particular, I felt the character of Judah to be fairly bland and I admit to being a bit bored with him and the whole Iron Council saga that took up a majority of the middle of the novel.
However, Mieville does continue with his unique brand of world building, making the blend of a corrupt industrial-magical society seem not only completely alien but also very real, from the bizarre Cacotopic Stain to the various neighborhoods of New Crobozon.
I also liked that, as in his previous novels, there is a bit of genre blending taking place in Bas Lag, which I find interesting. Perdido Street Station, for instance mixed a lot of horror and some noir into its fantasy while the Scar was very much a swashbuckling adventure story. In Iron Council, there is some definite Western stylings showing up, though the extra genre is a little less evident then in previous Bas Lag stories.
In conclusion, I felt that Iron Council was a bit slow moving with comparatively undeveloped characters, though I enjoyed this last exploration of the world of Bas Lag and particularly, the city of New Crobozon and continues with Mieville's brand of genre blending. ( )

The author's biography should inspire one to read this...a book which defines genre...yea ( )

A Book I really wanted to like - but didn't particularly. ( )

Winner of Arthur C. Clarke for Best Novel, Hugo and World Fantasy nominee for Best Novel; this third book set in Bas Lag combines fantasy, sci-fi, and western genres in a dark, dystopian mix. The city-state of New Crobuzon is in turmoil, at war with Tesh, and insurrection blossoms as the Collective takes over a number of districts. A small party sets out to find the Iron Council, an utopian group of races and Remade convicts who 20 years earlier took over a train on a new route across unexplored lands. As the Iron Council makes its way back to the city, the militia regains control and waits to crush the Iron Council and the dreams of freedom and equality it represents for the oppressed citizens of New Crobuzon. Explicit language, graphic violence, sex, including homosexual intercourse, and drug use.

Mieville (no I am not bothering with the stupid accent) seems to have come down with an unfortunate case of Magic ex machina this time around. Perhaps he was bitten by a rabid Steven Erickson? Especially over the last 100 or so pages where you've got, in no particular order, elementals, golems, and magical information monks. Irritating as hell the way the book ends. But also throughout the book, where you get hit over the head with more weird races, creatures, malignant eruptions of hell on earth than anything this side of CS Lewis. Add to that there being a fair bit of his Neo-Trotskyite political beliefs leaking in, at times it felt like being whipsawed between, oh I dunno, an episode of Yu-gi-Oh and a copy of Foreign Affairs magazine.

Yet for all that, all that other stuff he does he does very well indeed. Bas Lag is a truly original world, New Crobuzon almost a real place by itself, and in all honesty, despite what others seem to be saying, characters that I thought all worked quite well.

As an absoultely worthless aside: i started having these weird thoughts of Iron Council as the anti-Atlas Shrugged. Granted the analogy isn't perfect, but you've got your band of savagely suppressed socialists hijacking a train and nipping off for parts unknown. Look at it a certain way and all that was needed was a fifty page speech starting off, "This is Judah Low speaking." Sorry, but I couldn't resist. ( )