The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993)

The Iron Dragon's Daughter is a 1993 science fantasy novel by American writer Michael Swanwick. The story follows Jane, a changeling girl who slaves at a dragon factory in the world of Faerie, building part-magical, part-cybernetic monsters that are used as jet fighters. The plot of her story takes the form of a spiral, with events and characters constantly recurring in new settings.

The novel constantly subverts fantasy tropes and archetypes. Swanwick admits having written it both as a homage to J. R. R. Tolkien and in reaction to a handful of writers he claims exploit Tolkien's milieu and the readers' imaginations with derivative, commercial fantasy:

The recent slew of interchangeable Fantasy trilogies has hit me in much the same way that discovering that the woods I used to play in as a child have been cut down to make way for shoddy housing developments did.

The dragon Melanchthon is named after German theologian Philipp Melanchthon, an associate of Martin Luther. Further references to Lutheranism can be found in Swanwick's novel Jack Faust.

Swanwick has written two other books in the same setting, entitled The Dragons of Babel (published in 2008) and The Iron Dragon's Mother (published in 2019). Excerpts from The Dragons of Babel have periodically been published as short stories. They include King Dragon, The Word that Sings the Scythe, An Episode of Stardust, A Small Room in Koboldtown and Lord Weary's Empire. Most of these were originally published in Asimov's Science Fiction.

Synopsis

The first portion of the story concerns Jane's childhood in a factory that builds iron dragons. Jane and her close friend Rooster, whose true name is Tetigistus, work in a group of indentured child laborers. Jane steals a grimoire, and after reading it, begins to hear the voice of an iron dragon in her head. Jane is taken to entertain an elderly, silent elf called the Baldwynn, but is told not to return after she witnesses a strange phenomenon. The dragon manipulates Rooster into trying to escape, but Rooster dies in the attempt. A distraught Jane forces the dragon to tell her his true name, Melanchthon. They then flee the factory.

Later, Jane attends high school while fixing a dormant Melanchthon, who was damaged in their escape. She discovers that the school principal is none other than the Baldwynn and becomes friends with her classmate Peter and his girlfriend Gwen, who, as the wicker queen, will soon be burned alive as a sacrifice to the Goddess. To Jane's shock, Peter tells her that his true name is Tetigistus. They confess their love and sleep together. Soon after, Gwen is sacrificed and Peter commits suicide out of guilt. Melanchthon disappears and Jane realizes that his manipulation caused these events.

Next, Jane goes to college to study alchemy. She makes new friends: Sirin, a talented alchemist, and Puck Aleshire, to whom she is strangely drawn. Jane discovers that Puck has the same soul as Peter and Rooster did: Tetigistus. She also suspects that Sirin might have the same soul as Gwen. Soon after, the Teind arrives, a night of chaos during which both Sirin and Puck die. Jane reunites with Melanchthon, who shows her that her life constantly spirals around to the same failures and reveals his ultimate plan to destroy the universe. Feeling her existence is futile, Jane agrees to help him.

Jane becomes a minor celebrity and serial killer, using the bodies of her victims as fuel for Melanchthon. She meets a dragon pilot named Rocket, who she realizes is another Tetigistus, and his half-sister Fata Incolore, true name Kunosoura, who shares a soul with Sirin and Gwen. Jane also encounters the Baldwynn, who shows her that her body in the human world is confined to a mental institution. After Jane sleeps with Rocket, she and Melanchthon enact their plan to destroy the universe. Rocket pursues them in his own dragon, and Jane is forced to blast him away, killing Tetigistus yet again. As they approach Spiral Castle, the center of the universe, Melanchthon dissolves around Jane and she realizes that their plan was doomed from the start.

Jane finds herself in Spiral Castle with the Baldwynn, who reveals that he's one of the Goddess's consorts and takes Jane to see her. The Goddess berates Jane for squandering the gift of her connection with Tetigistus and Kunosoura through her selfishness, causing Jane to have an existential crisis.

Afterwards, Jane is returned to the mortal world, unsure of whether or not she is being punished. She is released from the mental institution and goes on to obtain a doctorate in chemistry. While attending a party with a friend, Jane glimpses a man to whom she is instantly and desperately drawn. The novel ends, leaving it uncertain if Jane has finally reunited with Tetigistus and found a chance at redemption.