Subject: THE CITY OF THE IRON FISH by Simon Ings

From: [email-masked] (Glen Cox)
Date: Sat, 11 Mar 1995 00:19:15 GMT

=== Review of Simon Ings' CITY OF THE IRON FISH
=== Copyright (c) 1995 by Glen E. Cox

Not since reading Lewis Shiner's first two novels have I 
come across an author who has changed style, content, and 
direction with such dexterity as Simon Ings has done between 
his first novel, HOT HEAD, and this novel.  HOT HEAD was a
proto-cyberpunk novel as if written by a young J.G. Ballard 
with a hip adventure plot, but proved ultimately disappointing 
because the sum of it didn't add up to the excellent nature of 
the individual parts.  CITY OF THE IRON FISH, however, is a 
M. John Harrison pastiche that deftly walks that same tightrope 
between fantasy and science fiction that only Harrison and Gene 
Wolfe have been able to manage before.  While the whole is still 
not as satisfying as the parts, THE CITY OF THE IRON FISH is an 
impressive achievement, made even more so by the knowledge that 
Ings is only starting his career.  If people are wondering where 
the stars of the 90s in SF are, they need look no further than 
Simon Ings.

Thomas Kemp is the curious scion of a minor academic in one of 
the strangest cities to come along since Todos Santos or 
Gormenghast.  The City reinvents itself every twenty years 
through an arcane ceremony involving the year-long creation of a 
sculpture of an iron fish, culminated by a processional feeding
of the sculpture with bits and pieces of art, poems, and pamphlets 
created by the City's inhabitants.  What kind of city is this, 
with a huge bridge that spans a granite "river" upon which boats 
on wheels ply their trade, where gulls are metallic and must be 
fed by the populace, where nothing exists except for the city 
itself.  What does it all mean?  That's Thomas' question, and
his attempts and failures at answering it make up the "plot" 
of the book.

The scenes and descriptions that are involved here rival some of 
Gene Wolfe's mysterious creations in The Book of the New Sun.  
Unfortunately, Ings isn't able to draw everything together and 
provide an underpinning to the world that he's created.  While 
parts are most enjoyable, the plot doesn't satisfy.

Ings' first stories in Interzone carried a true promise of someone 
to watch, and he has yet to disappoint that prediction.  I look 
forward to his next novel and the obvious leap in skill and content 
that it will have.  Until then, THE CITY OF THE IRON FISH exists as 
a promise of even better things to come.

%A   Ings, Simon 
%T   The City of the Iron Fish
%I   Harper Collins
%C   London
%D   1994
%G   ISBN 0-00-647653-8
%P   314pp
%O   paperback, GBP4.99