Michael Stanwick

The Iron Dragon's Daughter

This story is an odd blend of fairy tale, erotic fiction, science fiction, and realistic fiction, creating an alternate world tenuously linked to the real one. In this world, changelings (children stolen at birth) are the only real humans among the goblins and sprites. This is no pastoral story, though, for the goblins have a powerful magic--that of machines which take the form and personalities of flying dragons. The dragons are controlled by knowledge of the symbols of the engineering required to create and maintain them, just as the goblins are controlled by their true names, which are meant to be secret and are the one thing humans cannot share. The society, however, is much like our own, with its own brands of corruption and politics blended in with common institutions like public schools and university life.

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