Eventually, he returns to the railroad, which does indeed wipe out the Stiltspear. Judah attempts to warn the Stiltspear away, but they will not listen and he must settle for making a few recordings and beginning to learn their golemetric arts. While doing so, he spends time with the Stiltspear, a race of indescribable creatures who can conjure golems, living creatures made from unliving matter. Judah was hired as a railroad scout for New Crobuzon, charged with mapping terrain and informing the land's inhabitants of the railroad's coming. Judah's story begins some 20 years before the novel's opening. Against this backdrop, the novel follows the deeds of three main characters-Ori, Cutter and Judah Low. New Crobuzon has for some unknown time been at war with Tesh, and is attempting to build a railroad across the outlying desert, partially as a new means of conducting this war. The novel is set in and around New Crobuzon, a sprawling London-esque city. Although Miéville weaves back and forth between narrative, time and space, this summary will follow each narrative individually, discussing their relation to each other toward the end.

Iron Council follows three major narrative threads that join to form the novel's climax. Clarke and Locus Awards in 2005, and was also nominated for the Hugo and World Fantasy Awards the same year. Iron Council is one of China Miéville's most overtly political novels, being strongly inspired by the anti-globalization movement, and tackling issues such as imperialism, corporatism, terrorism, racial hatred, homosexuality, culture shock, labour rights and war. In addition to the steampunk influences shared by its predecessors, Iron Council draws several elements from the western genre. Iron Council (2004) is a weird fantasy novel by the British writer China Miéville, his third set in the Bas-Lag universe, following Perdido Street Station (2000) and The Scar (2002).

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