The Scar (Bas-Lag Book 2)

Hugely creative, breahtaking prose, frequently grotesque, always captivating.

THERE ARE NO SPOILERS WITHIN! This is a book like no other...and forgive me for going on a bit with my honorifics. Indeed, China Mieville is unlike any other author I have ever read. He writes with the ease of a bird in flight, conveying the remarkable verbal agility of a high wire act. Reading a book by him is like taking a trip that somehow involves senses you never knew you had, going places and meeting beings you never even imagined existed. He is a wordsmith who has both an immense vocabulary and a slipstream ease at creating terms that suit his characters and their actions. THE SCAR is a wonder; in it you will meet characters who will crawl under your skin and live inside. It is a book that takes some time to tell its tale, but it does so with uncanny poise and beauty. In Bas-Lag he has created an immense and preternaturally living world within the text of three novels - the first was

Just finished The Scar yesterday...simply stated, its a hypnotic read that combines a gripping action/adventure motiff with nicely understated character psychologies and recurring story metaphors. Although not as wildly ambitious as Perdido Street Station, its a great novel, and certainly the best I have read so far this year. Wow.

Its best to start with Perdido Street Station so you have a good foundation for the world Mieville has so masterfully created. This turned out to be my favorite of the Bas Lag books. Exciting and really gets helps you stretch your imagination.

It was such a great story, but it seems like Mr. Mieville got sick of writing the book and just kinda ended the story.

Plot in a very small nutshell: Travellers, prisoners, and slaves (many of whom have been biologically modified against their wills) are on board a sea vessel bound for the New Crobuzon colony. Pirates seize the ship and take the survivors to their floating city Armada to become a part of that rather unorthodox society. The characters and the society and culture of Armada are very detailed and well thought out. There are bizarre characters, monsters, magic, secrets, and intrigue. The language and descriptions are effective and beautiful. I have not yet read PERDIDO STREET STATION (though I plan to remedy that very soon), but that did not hamper my reading of THE SCAR in any way that I was aware of. THE SCAR is one of the most unusual books that I have read in a long time and it is one I will read again.

Back to Bas Lag, and onto the Swollen Ocean with ye! The Scar takes place after Perdido Street Station, but it isnt necessary to read Perdido Street Station to understand whats going on in The Scar. Like his other works, the writing in The Scar is excellent. Other reviews give a better description than I could ever give, but you really cant go wrong with this book.

Very good, showing an author that succeeds at basically everything theyre aiming for, and is aiming for the right things. Hes one of the truly great worldbuildings, on the level of Vance or Le Guin. Casual little details are thrown in that make for an very compelling and believable setting. Economy, politics and daily life appear clearly, this isnt just a background with a convincing set of dynasties but one that feels inhabited by a whole order of classes. Mieville is the other type of urban fantasy writer--rather than take the existing world and put a slice of the fantastic over it he weaves a fictional city in great detail. Moreover, in the Scar this city is Armada, multiple levels of pirate ships on the water, the whole structure slowly drifting across the globe. Multiple species, a giant mythological beast to pull it, yet the structures of internal trade and partisan politics are comprehensible. This book has as well wonderful moral complexity, a rich cast with a range of attitudes and desires. As a revealing incident, at one point major plot emerges from the vampire overlord of part of Armada launching an attempted coup of the city, aligned with Eldritch sea monsters. Hes an antagonist, but rendered sympathetically, along with much of the cast. The one faction in this novel shown as monstrous is also the one with the most banal focus, the city aiming at strategic transit and commerce. A very effective and unique work. Similar to and better than: Jack Vances Blue World Similar to and worse than: David Mitchells Cloud Atlas. Not particularly similar, mind you, but the ocean-centered segments are broadly comparable.

I was recommended this as a science fiction book, but it is clearly a fantasy book, with vampires, mosquito-men, magic, and no explanation (or even any reason?!?) for any of it. Given that, Ill rate it as a fantasy book. The world is very richly textured and the story is mostly consistent, but the writing itself is heavy and the author uses a lot of 25 cent words. I classic line like it was a dark and stormy night would take several long sentences and at least five words over 10 characters if written by this author; and because of that, it can be a tedious read at times, requiring one to read many words to get just a little meaning or information. Mind you, Im not against big words or crafty descriptions, but the writing in this book seems more like an attempt to fill out a minimum word count on a homework assignment. The plot itself is not very deep and does not explore anything new, so dont buy it for that reason. The primary value is in the strange steampunk work and its strange inhabitants. But why do some of them exist, and why do some of them act like they do? Thats not really explored much. Its just telling a strange story in a strange world.

I highly recommend Meiville to anyone interested in new wave sci fi and weird fantasy. Really excellent stuff, and the only person Ive seen successfully pull off steampunk elements without looking cheesy.