Iron Council is a novel of war and revolution. Set in and around the urban melting pot of New Crobuzon, it is filled with action, ideas, and an extraordinary cast of characters, both human and other.

As the novel begins, New Crobuzon is engaged in a long-running war with the rival city of Tesh. When the city’s leaders decide to build a railroad across the surrounding desert, an act designed as a tactic in that ongoing war, the narrative takes an unexpected turn. Revolutionary forces, faced with the endemic corruption of New Crobuzon’s Parliament, take over the railroad and hijack the train that will come to be known as Iron Council. That “perpetual train” will become the seat of a mobile revolution aimed at eliminating a power structure that has dominated new Crobuzon for much too long. Iron Council is an overtly political novel.

This edition concludes with “Jack,” the only short story set in the Bas-Lag universe. The tale of a renegade “remade” who brings a measure of hope to the poorer denizens of New Crobuzon, “Jack” sheds light on the nature of life in the Bas-Lag universe.