Michael Swanwick returns with The Dragons of Babel, the sequel to The Iron Dragon's Daughter. The
man Gene Wolfe calls a genre all to himself proves that with this new book.
As the story opens, young Will hears the dragons coming, their jets roaring! These are not exactly living,
breathing dragons. They are half-machine, half-magic. Only elves who have human blood can fly them. The elf
blood gives them magic, the human blood lets them tolerate the close proximity of large amounts of the cold
iron from which the dragons were made.
As Will watched, one of the dragons was attacked by a basilisk. It crashed, killing Will's great-great-great
grandmother and his best friend, Puck Burysnatcher.. When Puck was brought back he wasn't the same. For some
reason, their friendship was over.
Then, one day, the wrecked dragon crawled out of the hills and into the village square. He was wingless now
and his pilot was dead. If he was to survive, he had to have another human to care for him. He chose Will.
Will's only relative in the village was an elderly, blind aunt. He'd been told his parents had died shortly
after his birth. He had no one to keep him from the clutch of the iron dragon who'd proclaimed himself king of
the village.
The Dragons of Babel is a fantasy unlike any I've ever read. It has all the required elements,
witches, elves, trolls, giants, dwarves, magic and more. With the dragons, it has a touch of science fiction. And
it's all put together in a truly unique way. The outcome is totally unexpected, for when Will finally kills the
dragon to free the village from its tyranny, the villagers cast him out. However, this isn't the end of his
strange story. Read both novels, and enter a world only Michael Swanwick could create. If you can ignore the
profanity and unnecessary sex, you'll have a great read.