Of the three books in the Bas-Lag/New Crobuzon trilogy, Iron Council was by far the weakest, and is the only one that I didn't devour voraciously.

In regards to the writing style, Mieville's is fabulous, and his sentences are usually beautifully constructed. I found many many in Iron Council were lacking and detracted from the flow of the paragraph. This is a minor pet peeve, and all-in-all it was well written.

The author's strength is world-building. Making the preposterous and absurd believable. Perdido Street Station, and the Scar capitalize on these strengths. New Crobuzon and Armada, the cities of the previous books, take on wonderful and fantastic (albeit sometimes morbid) personalities. There was an attempt to make the Iron Council into a type of land-based Armada, but this attempt was poorly executed, and fundamental questions remained unanswered.

I had a hard time getting lost in this book, as I did in the two previous books. It was still a good read, and I was glad to be taken back to New Crobuzon.

The positive qualities of the book were cumulative, as I neared the end of the story, I enjoyed it more and more.

3.5 stars. ( )

Disappointing ending to a largely slow plot. I'm staggered, the first two books of the New Crobuzon were so damn good and this just doesn't give the setting any justice. ( )

Very strong 4.5 stars. Very nearly a 5. Many reviews here are saying this is the weakest of the New Crozubon tales but I enjoyed it more the Perdidio St Station and The Scar. The plot seems better paced and driven and I for one did nit miss the long lists of place names from Perdido St Station. Highly recommended. ( )

Much, much better than Perdido Street Station--very interesting and compelling, but also very confusing. I had to go back and reread long passages in the beginning after finally putting everything together towards the end of the book. Mieville's astonishing imagination is hard to keep up with, especially when he invents vocabulary terms that he only uses once and never defines.

The City and the City is by far superior though, ( )

Ohhhh well. I remain interested in this world and the world-building, the whirlwind of ideas and stories, the writing style even when it irritates me. This particular book is just a lot of battle. Preparing for battle, fighting battles, recovering from battle, anticipating future battle... I find it exhausting. I blame a high school translation project of the Gallic wars for using up my lifetime tolerance for battle description.
I'm also realizing more and more differences in the way our minds work, and while that's not a reason to not enjoy an author, it affects my potential joy in these worlds and ideas. ( )