The Scar by China Miéville might actually be a more successful novel than the related Perdido Street Station, having a more varied storyline; the protagonist, Bellis Coldwine, comes across as cold and unpleasant at first but mostly because she is on a journey she resents; she really doesn’t want to be there, so is inclined to hate everyone and everything. Miéville’s other characters are often more sympathetic.  There are fewer odd small jokes like the ‘frightening a lump of cheese’ scene in Perdido. However there is a dig at CS Lewis (whom Miéville objects to not because Lewis was a Christian but because of his “particular type of rather leaden moralism and the way it intersects with narrative and fantasy”): a New Crobuzon warship is called the Morning Walker (‘Dawn Treader’?) and its captain’s name is very nearly Prince Caspian. Miéville is also quite uncomplimentary about whales (‘stupid’) and dolphins (there’s one called ‘Bastard John’). The seacity of Armada is a baroque monstrosity even if it is slightly contradictory: presumably all the boats are pointing in the same direction (whether forwards or backwards)? It would be hard to make a ship go sideways. And if Armada’s location is secret, this must make it quite difficult to trade, but it apparently lives by trade. Also the character of the Brucolac is not only a vampire, he’s Dracula. Then the anophelius are odd inventions: the females seem to make sense as blood-drinkers, but the males are vegetarians, so why do they have ‘sphincter-like’ mouthparts? These are odd niggles though and the book is quite a creation.