Further Insights (and Revelations)

For about as long as I can remember, my favorite book has been The Iron Dragon's Daughter by Michael Swanwick. At least as far as fantasy is concerned. Apparently it has a sequel and I definitely need to check that shit out.

Its not the best book per se, and I'm not even sure there is a "the best book ever" for me. It has a good story that I like, plus some elves (or faeries) and dragons and magic and all that stuff I really dug when I first read it. I still like a lot of what its selling to this day.

I picked up a copy of the book from the library at that age where I'd finally discovered there was a cool portion of the Bible called Revelations where fucked up shit happens almost as much as it did in The Old Testament. I had just read about Behemoth and Leviathan and had started reading Dragonlance and generally was at that age where dragons were swell. My interest in the book boiled down to the following: It had a dragon on the cover, neat, I'm in.

Now, I was youngerish, so a lot of the stuff about the drugs and sex went over my head. I didn't know what cunt was or why Jane had named it Little Jane, but whatever, you encountered a lot of weird shit in fantasy novels. I certainly didn't understand Swanwick's commentary about suffering and reincarnation and the current state of fantasy literature and whatnot. What I did pay attention to and understand was the fact that Melanchthon was a dragon and dragons were awesome. So I began reading it. Read, read, read, process, process, proce..s...s....wait. Ok, Jane is an enslaved changeling working in a...factory that builds weapons for the Elf Lords or something? Melanchthon is a dragon, a really old dragon...made out of iron? He also has stealth capabilities like a stealth fighter jet?

What. The. Hell.

I understood magic, and I understood magic objects that could do shit, I even understood talking magic items. What I hadn't ever encountered before was a sentient stealth bomber made out of iron and built into the shape of a dragon. It blew my mind and altered my perceptions of what fantasy literature could be and what magic as a force could be in such books.

The Iron Dragon's Daughter is my favorite book because it made me the writer and GM I am today, as least style-wise. Understanding that fantasy could be something other than gruff, vaguely Scottish dwarves, forest loving elves, and knights in plate, or that magic could be more than fireballs and lightning bolts is a lesson I learned at a very young age. I am incredibly thankful that I had the opportunity to learn that lesson before even the idea of writing had ever remotely entered into my head.

So thanks Michael Swanwick. Thank you as well, mom. If not for your utter lack of interest in what I read I might never have learned what I know today. Something ironic I guess, my mom spent so much time keeping DnD out of my hands but never really monitored what I was reading and for a while all I was reading was Dragonlance and Forgotten Realms. Two rather popular and venerable DnD settings. Heh, life is funny and interesting I guess.

Thinking about it that way, my mom is directly responsible for my dedication to DnD and the quality (if you choose to call it that) of my current campaign setting.