The Dragons of Babel
core novel 2008 The Iron Dragon's Daughter
Record
| First published | 2008 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.74 (1,396 ratings, collected 2026-10-26) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780765319500 |
| Internal chronology | 2 |
Synopsis
A war-dragon of Babel crashes in the fields of a post-industrial Faerie and, dragging himself into the nearest village, declares himself king and makes the young orphan Will le Fey his lieutenant, crawling nightly inside the young fey's brain to learn what his subjects think. Forced out of his village, Will travels with female centaur soldiers, survives an internment camp, witnesses the violent clash of giants and acquires a surrogate daughter, Esme, who has no knowledge of the past and may be immortal. In the many-miles-high city of Babel he falls in with the confidence trickster Nat Whilk, rises as an underling to a politician and falls in love with a high-elven woman he dare not aspire to.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Iron Dragon's Daughter
- Series: The Iron Dragon's Daughter core; position 2 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Michael Swanwick
Notes
- From the series record (The Iron Dragon's Daughter): Three standalone novels in one setting.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Iron Dragon's Daughter: position 2 of 3: previous The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993) · next The Iron Dragon's Mother (2019)
Sources
- Wikipedia: Michael Swanwick (The Iron Dragon's Daughter, The Dragons of Babel, The Iron Dragon's Mother in one setting)
- Kirkus Reviews: The Dragons of Babel (Tor, January 2008, ISBN 978-0-7653-1950-0)
- Bookshare: The Dragons of Babel (publisher synopsis)
- Angus & Robertson: The Dragons of Babel (publisher description)
- Publishers Weekly: The Dragons of Babel review
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Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.