The Scar

I was glad to see a return to the Bas Lag world. _The Scar_ is not a sequel to _Perdido Street Station_ but picks up tangentially where the first book left off. Instead of setting the action again in New Crobuzon, Mieville instead turns his attention to the great oceans that surround the city. When linguist Bellis Coldwine decides that pressure from the authorities necessitates an extended trip to the colonies, she doesnt expect exactly how extended its going to be. I was not expecting to love _The Scar_ as much as I did. I had problem with the first novel in that while I found the imagination to be masterful I found the plotting less satisfying. This book corrects any deficiencies that the first book might have had and then some. I was fascinated by the details of Armada, found the characters more than clever gimmicks, and simply could not stop reading to find out what was going to happen. Great book. Recommended.

This new novel is set in the same world as Perdido Street Station, Bas Lag, and as such fits loosely into that vague subgenre sometimes called "Science Fantasy". The Scar opens with mysterious doings in the ocean, and then we meet the noted linguist Bellis Coldwine, who is fleeing New Crobuzon to the colony city of Nova Esperancia. The ship carrying Bellis Coldwine (as well as ocean biologist Johannes Tearfly and a group of Remade prisoners including a man named Tanner Sack) does not get very far, though, before it is overtaken by pirates from the mysterious floating city Armada. Bellis, Johannes, and the other passengers and prisoners are taken to Armada, where they are informed they will live the rest of their lives. They cannot leave the floating city, but they will otherwise be allowed full citizenship. Tanner Sack and Johannes accept fairly eagerly, but Bellis is desperate to have a chance to return to her beloved home city. Soon she falls into league with the mysterious Silas Fennec, a spy from New Crobuzon who is as desperate as she to return home, in his case because he has information of a coming attack on their city. It becomes clear that the leaders of Armada are engaged in a mysterious project, and Bellis becomes a key figure when she finds a crucial book in a language that she is a leading expert in. She learns that Armada is planning to harness a huge sea creature called an avanc, and to have the avanc tow the floating city to the dangerous rift in reality called the Scar, where it might be possible to do "Probability Mining". More importantly to her and Fennec, her new influence gives her the chance to get a message Fennec has prepared back to New Crobuzon.The story takes further twists and turns from there -- it's very intelligently plotted, with the motivations of the characters well portrayed, and with plot elements that seem weak later revealed, after a twist or two, to make much more sense. But it's not the plot that is the key to enjoying the book. The characters are also fascinating. Besides Bellis and Tanner and Fennec, there are such Armadan figures as the symetrically scarred Lovers; Uther Doul, their dour and enigmatic bodyguard; and the Brucolac, a vampir, and a fairly conventional one, but still strikingly portrayed. As in Perdido Street Station, Mieville invents fascinating part-human species, hybrids of humans and other forms, in this book most strikingly the anophelii, mosquito men, and, more scarily and affectingly, mosquito women. In the end it is Mieville's fervent, sometimes overheated, imagination, that drives the book. His descriptions of cruel and dirty places, and odd creatures, are endless intriguing. Yes, he sometimes luxuriates overmuch in grotesquerie, but I suspect any application of discipline to his imagination would lose us more neat visions than we might gain by avoiding the occasional silliness or vulgarness. The book is also a bit too long -- some of this is the author's delight in showing us this

China Miéville proved himself a master of atmospheric dark fiction with his previous two novels, and the award-winning British author just keeps getting better. THE SCAR, set in the same world as PERDIDO STREET STATION, introduces the coolest setting ever--the floating, libertarian city of Armada. New Crobuzoners Bellis Coldwine and Tanner Sack--two of the best antiheroes in modern fantasy--are pressganged by Armadan pirates and put to work on a strange plan that forces them to confront terrifying mosquito-people, delve into thaumaturgical secrets, and parlay with a deadly killer wielding a sort of quantum sword. Miéville reveals the whole truth of what's going on with Armada achingly slowly, letting the reader soak luxuriously in a bath of grotesque detail and internecine intrigue as vast as the ocean. The book's titular theme--scars--is woven throughout, in character, setting, and plot, with a subtle touch. Miéville perfectly blends material horror, complex characters, and a delicious steampunk milieu to create another brilliant novel.

For anyone who spent days in the nightmarish thrall of Perdido Street Station, China Mieville's breathtakingly literate and imaginative monstravaganza, the first question about The Scar must be, was he able do it again? The answer is no, but this turns out to be a good thing.Particularly in its opening, this sea quest tale disappoints in relation to Perdido Street: though the floating city of Aramada is a marvelous creation, it lacks the incredible density of detail and heights of grotesquerie of New Crobuzon, which here plays a supporting, offstage role. One appreciates Armada without loving and fearing it like New Crobuzon.Yet as the novel picks up steam we find these feelings precisely mirrored in perfectly named protagonist Bellis Coldwine. As the wickedly sharp plot begins to twist and turn, Mieville again conjures tales of wonder from the far corners of Bas-Lag, provides us with lovingly bizarre set-pieces and characters, and his story begins to fascinate.The Scar isn't the once in a lifetime book of nightmares Perdido Street Station was, but it is a better novel. The characters are far stronger: Coldwine, Uther Doul, Tanner Sack, Sheckel and Angevine, drive the story rather than vanishing beneath it. The narrative is purposeful, surprising and satisfying. Mieville has taken his protean talents of worldbuilding and description and harnessed them to a serious, adult story. Perdido Street, for all its genre-blending, was a horror story at heart. The Scar is less gruesome and nihlistic, though still refreshingly far from sentimental. It's palette and worldview are broader, its characters its heart. One could argue that among its few flaws, the book is too brief -- I could have gladly learned more of The Lovers, the Brucolac.With this intelligent, exhilarating adventure story, Mieville stakes his claim as a first rate novelist -- no apologizing for genre -- he's the real thing.

In "The Scar" China Mieville has proven that "Perdido Street Station" was no fluke, he is a force to be reckoned with in the literary world. Once again he returns to the world of Bas Lag, although this time he journeys outside the confines of the city of New Crobuzon. In fact, his characters travel the length and breadth of Bas Lag, as they are the occupants (willing and unwilling) of the floating pirate city, Armada. It would be nearly impossible to recount the plot here, both because of its complexity, and the risk of spoiling it. However, there are a few general points that I think bear mentioning. First, while this is not a sequel to "Perdido Street Station" it does reference events in that book; there are no common characters, but the protagonist, Bellis Coldwine, is fleeing the city as a direct result of the happenings in the prior novel. While one could easily read "The Scar" without any knowledge of "Perdido Street Station" I would still recommend reading it first, as your appreciation of "The Scar" will be greatly enriched as a result. Second, "The Scar" is a darker, more ambiguous novel than its predecessor (which was by no means cheery to begin with). It is not an easy beach read for the summer; while it is immensely entertaining, it is also monstrously complex and intensely thoughtful. This is really a novel that needs to be read without distractions and with a great deal of thought as to what is going on. There are a lot of subtle themes and messages in this book, and it needs to be approached in a manner more befitting "literature" rather than your average "sci-fi" (I use quotes because SF can obviously be literature, I'm just speaking in stereotypical terms). Which brings me to the writing; anyone who read "Perdido Street Station" would have to agree that Mieville is a master of his craft. There are few writers today who have the same grasp of the English language; Mieville absolutely revels in the descriptive abilities of the written word. I would read an atlas if Mieville wrote it just to see how he described the landforms contained therein. He is also intensely interested in exploring human nature across its entire spectrum. From compassion to cruelty, Mieville is fascinated by our motivations. If one reads an interview with him, it becomes obvious that Mieville wouldn't mind being cast as the anti-Tolkien. While giving a nod to Tolkien's creation of an entire world down to the smallest details, Mieville revels in his characters' moral ambiguity and indecision, as opposed to Tolkien's characters who always know where they stand. Furthermore, while Tolkien used his races to highlight different ideals, Mieville uses his vast panoply of creatures to highlight the absurdities of racism and the nature of "humanity". Finally, Mieville is a master of the metaphor. I can say, without, giving anything away, that the Scar, of the book's title, is an actual place, but also a recurring theme throughout the novel. All of