The Dragons of Babel by Michael Swanwick has an amazing first half and is consistently inventive through out. I thought I was going to give it a higher rating until the end when a skillful fantasy became an uneven farce. A brilliant book in any case.Reminded me a lot of Gaiman's Stardust and Neverwhere and a bit of Pratchett's Discworld books but far crasser then either. The opening scene where a mechanical,sentient, steampunk dragon crashes into a village is amazing.
