Mass Market Paperback, 608 pages
English language
Published June 29, 2004 by Del Rey.
A mythmaker of the highest order, China Mieville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality. Set in the same sprawling world of Mieville's Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, Perdido Street Station, this latest epic introduces a whole new cast of intriguing characters and dazzling creations. Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage--and escape from horrific punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon.For Bellis, the plan is clear: live …
A mythmaker of the highest order, China Mieville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality. Set in the same sprawling world of Mieville's Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, Perdido Street Station, this latest epic introduces a whole new cast of intriguing characters and dazzling creations. Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage--and escape from horrific punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon.For Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new frontiersmen of the colony until it is safe to return home. But when the ship is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers are summarily executed. The surviving passengers are brought to Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating, landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. On Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals to humans, Cactae, and Cray. Yet no one may ever leave.Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show dissent is a death sentence. Instead, she must furtively seek information about Armada's agenda. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes that float undetected miles below the waters--terrifying entities with a singular, chilling mission. . . .China Mieville is a writer for a new era--and The Scar is a luminous, brilliantly imagined novel that is nothing short of spectacular.From the Trade Paperback edition.
An exuberant, barely believeable steampunk world with cactus & mosquito people, underwater & floating cities, and mysterious powers. Very very long, and rather too serious.
I like this shift towards a more politically oriented novel. Not that I didn't like the big science fictional ideas of Perdido Street Station, nor that there are none of them here, but I'm always interested in political maneuverings and this really foregrounds those.
The plot hinges on what you think of Uther Doul, and I'm still parsing that through in my head. I think if I can come up with a clear and satisfying understanding of his motivation, I'll like this more, and if I can't I'll like it a little less. But even with that aside, I definitely had fun all the way through.
I like this shift towards a more politically oriented novel. Not that I didn't like the big science fictional ideas of Perdido Street Station, nor that there are none of them here, but I'm always interested in political maneuverings and this really foregrounds those.
The plot hinges on what you think of Uther Doul, and I'm still parsing that through in my head. I think if I can come up with a clear and satisfying understanding of his motivation, I'll like this more, and if I can't I'll like it a little less. But even with that aside, I definitely had fun all the way through.
This is a book that was recommended to me by a friend. I can understand why they suggested it to me, it's in line with a few things that I'd probably enjoy. Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy this one. It's been a while but I'm new here so if I get a few things wrong it's not intentional.
Anyway.
I like the premise of this book. I like the world that was created. I like a lot of the characters. There's a "Dark Tower" ness to it in the sense that the world has "moved on". Know what I mean? The world feels rough. Ugly. Ruined in some way. Not in a Mad Max kind of way but in a "we sucked all the life out of it" kind of way. In my mind everything, even the water, is gray. Ya follow?
There's pirates, a floating city, …
This is a book that was recommended to me by a friend. I can understand why they suggested it to me, it's in line with a few things that I'd probably enjoy. Unfortunately I couldn't really enjoy this one. It's been a while but I'm new here so if I get a few things wrong it's not intentional.
Anyway.
I like the premise of this book. I like the world that was created. I like a lot of the characters. There's a "Dark Tower" ness to it in the sense that the world has "moved on". Know what I mean? The world feels rough. Ugly. Ruined in some way. Not in a Mad Max kind of way but in a "we sucked all the life out of it" kind of way. In my mind everything, even the water, is gray. Ya follow?
There's pirates, a floating city, a government run agency looking for people, scientists, religion, different races, steam punk cyborgs, a very odd sword that could have come from a Frank Herbert book, a race of people with sphincters for mouths, vampires... Sounds pretty good right? And it really is.
However...
The writing is good but I feel like it's overly showy. I understand that China is a linguist and it felt to me like that was the whole reason for the books existence. To flex the linguist muscle. Imagine a book written by a race car driver. When it comes to talking about the racing it's gonna be great. Everything else... well... not so much. That's how I felt about this book.
I'm not going to spoil anything specific here but for the most part the book trudges along just fine but when there's a change it's very jarring. Some 75% through the book we suddenly shift perspectives completely with no explanation or reason given. It lasts about a page. It doesn't do it ever before that, or again after.
For me the writing felt like it was trying to gatekeep the story from me by giving so little of it so often. There's a few moments in the book where we get a decent plot dump and some character development and then there's a lot of drudgery in between.
I liked it. Not enough to read anything else. I didn't hate it, but it was bad enough for me to not really want to search out more.
China Miéville, in standard practice, creates a sepia-toned and detailed world while telling an intricate story
Another banger of a story. This novel stands mostly alone from Perdito Street Station, but there is no reason not to read them in order. I found the pacing perfect, not revealing too much but not boring you waiting for the good parts.
interminable world-building
I loved this. Fun story, wild characters, cool world. I really enjoy the way Miéville writes.
Great setting, enjoyable world and theme, but the main character was just not very interesting to me, and I found myself wishing for another POV.
The first thing that struck me about this book, as I slipped a bookmark between the pages after reading the first few chapters, was how thoroughly it had enfolded me. Like a thick fog, it muffled, dimmed and slowed the world I sat reading in, and replaced it with something new, something strangely warm and comfortable, yet which I struggled to comprehend.
The second thing I was struck by was how vast and strange Miéville's imagination is. The beings, the places, the magics with which he so densely packs this book are truly fantastic. Yet, they virtually never feel in any way forced. They fit in this world—are necessary to this world.
The third, most striking thing, is how much generosity and love Miéville pours into nearly every character in this book. Characters who in another author's book would be mere caricatures are here fleshed out and made real. Scenes …
The first thing that struck me about this book, as I slipped a bookmark between the pages after reading the first few chapters, was how thoroughly it had enfolded me. Like a thick fog, it muffled, dimmed and slowed the world I sat reading in, and replaced it with something new, something strangely warm and comfortable, yet which I struggled to comprehend.
The second thing I was struck by was how vast and strange Miéville's imagination is. The beings, the places, the magics with which he so densely packs this book are truly fantastic. Yet, they virtually never feel in any way forced. They fit in this world—are necessary to this world.
The third, most striking thing, is how much generosity and love Miéville pours into nearly every character in this book. Characters who in another author's book would be mere caricatures are here fleshed out and made real. Scenes and events that might have been played just to shock, amuse or frighten are given such care that they teach us about the characters experiencing them, and reveal their hidden depths. I cannot find a true villain here. Yes, there are some who do appalling things, unforgivable things, but they are portrayed with such grace that it would be difficult indeed to feel no sympathy at all for them.
For these reasons and more, The Scar is a mightily impressive book, and a worthy successor to Perdido Street Station.
This novel has so much going for it, a complex and unconventional plot line, deep backstory, complex world building, multiple characters with their own motivations, lot's of body horror, many types of interesting creatures...
Yet it is a complete and utter slog to get through.
This novel has so much going for it, a complex and unconventional plot line, deep backstory, complex world building, multiple characters with their own motivations, lot's of body horror, many types of interesting creatures...
Yet it is a complete and utter slog to get through.
I read Perdido Street Station several years ago and loved the worldbuilding and the frantic, multithreaded plotting. The Scar continues to explore the diverse and fascinating world of Bas-Lag, but Miéville's plotting and pacing don't really work as well for me.
The worldbuilding, plot, characterisation, and descriptions feel very out of sync. Main protagonist Bellis Coldwine, passenger on a ship that gets commandeered by pirates from the floating city of Armada, but she spends a great deal of time doing very little aside from absorbing the world around her. It takes the book hundreds of pages to really pick up the main thread that carries through to the end. Along the way, Bellis and another protagonist named Tanner Sack occasionally experience bursts of agency, but are otherwise mostly blown around by decisions that happen off-screen. If they're lucky, some other character will arrive to lecture them about the (genuinely fascinating!) …
I read Perdido Street Station several years ago and loved the worldbuilding and the frantic, multithreaded plotting. The Scar continues to explore the diverse and fascinating world of Bas-Lag, but Miéville's plotting and pacing don't really work as well for me.
The worldbuilding, plot, characterisation, and descriptions feel very out of sync. Main protagonist Bellis Coldwine, passenger on a ship that gets commandeered by pirates from the floating city of Armada, but she spends a great deal of time doing very little aside from absorbing the world around her. It takes the book hundreds of pages to really pick up the main thread that carries through to the end. Along the way, Bellis and another protagonist named Tanner Sack occasionally experience bursts of agency, but are otherwise mostly blown around by decisions that happen off-screen. If they're lucky, some other character will arrive to lecture them about the (genuinely fascinating!) world.
In a way it's nice to have a story that's about small people who aren't in control, because we ourselves are mostly small in the grand scheme of things. But between that and the author's elaborate descriptiveness (which he's very good at, but it does go on), the first half of the book proceeds at a glacial pace. It does pick up, and there are some genuinely stunning passages and enthralling ideas in the closing act, but I couldn't help but feel that some of the most interesting things were happening off-screen, being portrayed at arm's length, or being drip-fed to the reader.
Still, worth reading for more of Bas-Lag's mad inventiveness, and I quite liked Bellis even as I felt bad for her disempowering situation.
Felt somehow a little flatter than [b:Perdido Street Station|68494|Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327891688s/68494.jpg|3221410], and I'm not completely sure why. Maybe just that it wasn't about a city, and therefore didn't resonate with me quite as strongly. I also didn't ever feel like I could really relate to Bellis; I disliked her for her coldness and self-absorption at the beginning, and while I warmed up to her a little over the course of the book, I can't really say I ever felt like I understood her.
What points Miéville loses for the weirdly ambiguous ending, he easily gains back with his incredible world-building, complex characters, and some seriously creepy monsters. Not to mention that everything about his writing is completely delicious... As with Perdido Street Station, I found myself reading pretty slowly, sometimes rereading passages several times, because they were so dense with meaning and rewarding to linger over.
Felt somehow a little flatter than [b:Perdido Street Station|68494|Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)|China Miéville|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1327891688s/68494.jpg|3221410], and I'm not completely sure why. Maybe just that it wasn't about a city, and therefore didn't resonate with me quite as strongly. I also didn't ever feel like I could really relate to Bellis; I disliked her for her coldness and self-absorption at the beginning, and while I warmed up to her a little over the course of the book, I can't really say I ever felt like I understood her.
What points Miéville loses for the weirdly ambiguous ending, he easily gains back with his incredible world-building, complex characters, and some seriously creepy monsters. Not to mention that everything about his writing is completely delicious... As with Perdido Street Station, I found myself reading pretty slowly, sometimes rereading passages several times, because they were so dense with meaning and rewarding to linger over.
Miéville has created and peopled a disturbing, horrific, wonderful world. The real problem I have with this particular volume is that the characters are utterly unsympathetic, evoking no pathos for their suffering. While Perdido Street Station presents protagonists who are flawed but lovable - or at least pitiable - the cold, emotionally detached and isolated states of the characters in The Scar prevents any real connection to them.
Books like The Scar are examples of why people have to read over sitting passively in front of a TV or movie screen. There's no way that this kind of book could be turned into moving pictures without reducing it to cheap tricks that attempt to make the imagery that Mieville brings forth acceptable to a wider audience.
Thankfully, this is not the kind of book that a "wider audience" would enjoy. Mieville is very much a pro at world-building. One of the hallmarks of this high-style of "urban fantasy" is to make sure the reader recognizes the environment both as geography AND as a character in the story. The book isn't overdone with flowery description in the Anne Rice vein, thankfully. It's both the description that we DO have, combined with the cadence of the writing, that sets each scene. These descriptions and the writing style felt very much …
Books like The Scar are examples of why people have to read over sitting passively in front of a TV or movie screen. There's no way that this kind of book could be turned into moving pictures without reducing it to cheap tricks that attempt to make the imagery that Mieville brings forth acceptable to a wider audience.
Thankfully, this is not the kind of book that a "wider audience" would enjoy. Mieville is very much a pro at world-building. One of the hallmarks of this high-style of "urban fantasy" is to make sure the reader recognizes the environment both as geography AND as a character in the story. The book isn't overdone with flowery description in the Anne Rice vein, thankfully. It's both the description that we DO have, combined with the cadence of the writing, that sets each scene. These descriptions and the writing style felt very much like the SCORE of the book.
Fantastic imagination and story telling.
