The Iron Dragon's Daughter
What the F- did I just read?
In broad terms, it's got some interesting concepts.
We have a fae world in which our protagonist human-stolen-as-changeling and several other children are used as forced mechanical labor in the construction of hypertech/magical dragons that seem to serve as a sort of air force. Written in 1993, I actually wonder if that could have influenced a few things in Rym. But the protagonist escapes and settles into a life as a student in this fae world, getting into sex, drugs, magic, and such.
There are elements of fate and repetition as she encounters people who are sort of parallel incarnations of former friends, sharing true names and some facets of how they interact with her life. There's talk of a Goddess behind the fae world. There's bits of crossover with the mundane world, as she sees occasional visions of her mother. And the dragon pushes her toward a nihilistic goal that is more its own.
But damn it's chaotic.
Jane is pulled along through the story more than doing anything with her own purpose. I don't see much of a narrative arc for her as she's still just as frivolous with people toward then end as in the beginning. The world itself is kind of interesting, but doesn't really feel coherent to me. Several people present certain "truths" along the way, and yet none of them are particularly significant (whether they may be right or wrong).
Overall, I'm actually sort of left with the feeling I get from a lot of anime series that just veer off the deep end at the finale and try to appear insightful while really being little more than philosophical babble. I find myself asking what the point of the story was.
So... uhh... yeah. That was a thing, I guess.
In broad terms, it's got some interesting concepts.
We have a fae world in which our protagonist human-stolen-as-changeling and several other children are used as forced mechanical labor in the construction of hypertech/magical dragons that seem to serve as a sort of air force. Written in 1993, I actually wonder if that could have influenced a few things in Rym. But the protagonist escapes and settles into a life as a student in this fae world, getting into sex, drugs, magic, and such.
There are elements of fate and repetition as she encounters people who are sort of parallel incarnations of former friends, sharing true names and some facets of how they interact with her life. There's talk of a Goddess behind the fae world. There's bits of crossover with the mundane world, as she sees occasional visions of her mother. And the dragon pushes her toward a nihilistic goal that is more its own.
But damn it's chaotic.
Jane is pulled along through the story more than doing anything with her own purpose. I don't see much of a narrative arc for her as she's still just as frivolous with people toward then end as in the beginning. The world itself is kind of interesting, but doesn't really feel coherent to me. Several people present certain "truths" along the way, and yet none of them are particularly significant (whether they may be right or wrong).
Overall, I'm actually sort of left with the feeling I get from a lot of anime series that just veer off the deep end at the finale and try to appear insightful while really being little more than philosophical babble. I find myself asking what the point of the story was.
So... uhh... yeah. That was a thing, I guess.
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