swingbeat 6/26: Iron Council by China Mieville

OK, my last China Mieville book before I move onto other genres! This book dragged on and on, unlike The Scar. Mieville was kind of creative in this book, but the book was just not as riveting as his last one. This story takes place in the same world as New Crobuzon, but decades after the events of the last book. Mieville always seems to have a social justice message to go along with his books, and it gets a little bit tiring.
This story just doesn't know where to end. It's divded into a few parts, and each part is a ministory that culminates in one anti-climactic climax (although it was not predictable). First there are bunch of people searching for the Iron Council, running away from oppression in New Crobuzon. Then there are a bunch of people still back at New Crobuzon who are looking to incite trouble; guerilla militia uprisings. Then there is a flashback to how the Iron Council got formed. Then the people in the first part find the Iron Council and they head back to New Crobuzon. Etc etc etc. I can go on. This book just took me forever to read because I never felt compelled to keep it in my hands. Then again, my sleep schedule could have something to do with it :).
As for whether I recommend it or not, that's kind of tough. In general I like Mieville's writing to continue reading his works, so it biases me. But I'd recommend just skipping this one and see how the next one turns out. Has he run out of steam in his steampunk?