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Title: The Iron Dragon's Daughter
Author: Michael Swanwick
Number of pages: 352
Genre: fantasy
Book Number/Goal: 13/50
My Rating: 5/5

Review:
This is a story of a human girl growing up in a magical world, struggling to survive by any means possible. The universe is unlike anything I've ever encountered. It's a dystopian society which seamlessly combines magic and technology. Everyone except for Jane, the main character, is non-human - there are elves, faeries, dwarves, nymphs, gargoyles, sentient machines and all kinds of traditional and non-traditional creatures. The environment basically mirrors our contemporary life except that it's more dark and brutal. Characters go to malls (where the time flow is stopped so the customers can enjoy shopping as much as they want), study for exams (the lowest 10% of students are killed off), make sex (unless virginity is essential for doing their jobs) and so on.

I love how the author describes numerous customs such as sacrifices, slavery and periodical purging of population in a mundane way without attaching any moral or emotional judgement to them besides what the protagonist feels about them (and her ethics is shaped by her environment). Jane is a sympathetic character, because she refuses to be a victim and uses everything to her advantage in spite of odds stacked against her. A lot of puzzling things are left unexplained but it doesn't spoil the story for me - to the contrary, it emphasizes the twisted, nightmare-like atmosphere. There's also a fair amount of sex which is not violent enough for my taste but still sufficiently depressing and dirty to fit the mood.

In short, it's an awesome book and I loved it to bits. Highly recommended to fans of elaborate and morbid fantasy.