The Dragons of Babel is a 2008 novel by American author Michael Swanwick

Michael Swanwick

Michael Swanwick is an American science fiction author. Based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, he began publishing in the early 1980s.-Biography:...

, set in the same world as his earlier work The Iron Dragon's Daughter

The Iron Dragon's Daughter

The Iron Dragon's Daughter is a 1993 novel by writer Michael Swanwick that combines fantasy and science fiction. The dark and nihilistic tale follows Jane, a changeling girl who slaves at a dragon factory, building part-magical, part-cybernetic monsters that are used as jet fighters; until she...

(1993). It follows the plight of a young man named Will Le Fey after a crippled dragon

Dragon

A dragon is a legendary creature, typically with serpentine or reptilian traits, that feature in the myths of many cultures. There are two distinct cultural traditions of dragons: the European dragon, derived from European folk traditions and ultimately related to Greek and Middle Eastern...

 takes up residence in his town and inside his mind. Like The Iron Dragon's Daughter, the novel subverts fantasy

Fantasy

Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 trope

Trope (literature)

A literary trope is the usage of figurative language in literature, or a figure of speech in which words are used in a sense different from their literal meaning...

s while it explores the extremely dark and gritty world of Faerie.

The Dragons of Babel was nominated for the Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel in 2009.

Plot

Following the same time period as the Iron Dragon's Daughter; a crippled dragon crawls to a village in Avalon, somewhere in Faerie minor, and crowns himself king. He makes young Will his lieutenant and by night, he crawls in the young fey's mind to get a measure of what his subjects think. But, the dragon’s arrival sets Will on a life-changing adventure where he will encounter danger, deceit, and a truth that was conceived with his birth.

Later on, Will travels with Centaur

Centaur

In Greek mythology, a centaur or hippocentaur is a member of a composite race of creatures, part human and part horse...

s, acquires a surrogate daughter named Esme who has no memory of her past and may be immortal, witnesses the clash of Giant

Giant (mythology)

The mythology and legends of many different cultures include monsters of human appearance but prodigious size and strength. "Giant" is the English word commonly used for such beings, derived from one of the most famed examples: the gigantes of Greek mythology.In various Indo-European mythologies,...

s, and travels to Babel

Babylon

Babylon was an Akkadian city-state of ancient Mesopotamia, the remains of which are found in present-day Al Hillah, Babil Province, Iraq, about 85 kilometers south of Baghdad...

 as a refugee. There, Will rises as underground politician, and finds his one true love, a high elven

Elven

Elven may refer to:* Elf* Elven , a 1994 four issue comic book written by Len Strazewski and drawn by Aaron Lopresti* Elven Legacy, a 2009 PC video game* Elven, Morbihan, a town in Morbihan, France* Elven-languages created by J. R. R. Tolkien...

woman to whom he dare not aspire.

Related links

• Tor Books information page.
• The Dragons of Babel at Worlds Without End