The Scar (Bas-Lag Book 2)

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 -- its 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 its 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 Mievilles 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 authors delight in showing us this or that cool gross notion he has had, but also I think his sense of pace is weak. The other weakness is one fairly common in certain fantasy: when so many weird magical things are allowed, on occasion it seems that things happen, or characters gain powers, for reasons of the plot only. But though the book is a bit overlong, it remains compelling reading, and though the magical happenings arent always fully consistent, they really dont strain suspension of disbelief too much: on the whole, this is another outstanding effort from Mieville. Id rank it about even with Perdido Street Station, and perhaps slightly better on the grounds that the plot really is worked out quite well, with plenty of surprises and an honest, satisfying, resolution.

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.

Having read some of Mieville’s other works, I knew the level of detail and world-building would be astounding. In all of the works I’ve read by Mieville, the setting is one of the most intriguing aspects of the story, and the city of Armada is no different. One of the most vivid battle scenes I’ve ever seen rendered in a work of fiction comes in the latter third of the book, and it is worth putting the time aside to get through it in one sitting. Probably with a drink in hand. The cast of characters are headlined by two unlikely protagonists in a linguist, Bellis Coldwine, and a criminal being sent to indentured servitude, Tanner Sack, while the remaining individuals will bend your expectations of pirates, spies, and vampires. The cast adds entire genres of characters you hadn’t thought possible. I can’t think of higher praise other than saying I thoroughly enjoyed every moment reading The Scar, and am still mulling over that ending, wanting more from this world.

I loved this book as much as Perdido Street Station. It helps if you read that one first because it familiarizes you with the different species, which also show up in Iron Council. It is easy to lose yourself in Mievilles books.

The Scar is another massive work of contemporary urban baroque fantasy by the extraorinarily talented if rather undisciplined China Mieville. Set in the same world as Perdido Street Station, the protagonist, Bella Coldwine, is captured whilst fleeing the great city of New Crobuzon by sea, and made an unwilling citizen of the legendary floating pirate city of Armada. This extraordinary place is made up of the remains of captured ships lashed together into a fantastically varied marine metropolis, each district built around a particular large vessel, which seems to lend its character to the government and culture of the district. And what variations they are! From democracies through dictatorships to an area that voluntarily pays for its security in blood to its vampire master, the variety of political systems is both crucial to the plot and provides rich and complex lessons for our own societies. The whole ungainly melange is given some sense of unity through the ultimate leadership of the enigmatic Lovers - whose strange hold on the city is combined with a publically visible sado-masochistic scaring. The mysterious plans of the Lovers for Armada involving the harnessing of a mythical transdimensional Leviathan form the basis for the plot, along with Bellis own attempts to escape the flottila. In this she becomes involved with the machinations of underground politics and espionage and inevitably strays way beyond her depth. As in Perdido Street Station, the sheer inventivenes of Mieville is crazed and marvellous: an island of mosquito people whose mindless thirst for human nourishment sometimes outweighs their rationality; humans remade to work underwater; terrifying leech-like beings from other dimensions who can swim through air... and above all the great ramshackle mass of Armada itself, a city even more edgy and dangerous than New Crobuzon. Mievilles writing is rich and luscious, and the breadth of his invention is matched by the depth of his intelligence. As previous reviewers have pointed out, this book is saturated in metaphors of scars, and the characters are diverse, dangerous and flawed with wonderfully evocative names that echo the melodrama of Dickens and the eccentricity of Mervyn Peake. So whats wrong with it? The ending. The same thing that marred Perdido Street Station. It is almost as if Mieville charges headlong through his plot with invention scattering in his path and then... he just stops. This could be conceived of as subverting traditional fantasty plot structures, but I think he just cant think of satisfactory ways to resolve a narrative yet. Still, a brave and magnificent book.

Bellis Coldwine is fleeing New Crobuzon. She has taken passage on a ship to the colony of Nova Esperium and hopes to find refuge among the criminals and Remade and other dregs of society unfit for New Crobuzon. The events of Perdido Street Station were only the beginning of more horror for the city and Bellis is escaping something that we are left in the dark about, some punishment. Before the ship can arrive at Nova Esperium it is attacked by pirates, the ships officers slain. The captives are brought to a floating city called Armada. Armada is made up of hundreds and perhaps thousands of other captured ships that have been connected by bridges and chains and welded together in places to form a great city. Armada is more than a graveyard of ships, it has a society and culture and a flow to it just as much as any other city. Only, in Armada humans live next to Remade and vampire and kheperi and cactus men and all manner of creatures. While in other cities there may be intermixing, nowhere it is it more pronounced than Armada. Many prisoners adapt to life in Armada fairly quickly as it is often a better chance at life than what they had been offered in the past. It is through the eyes of Bellis Coldwine that we learn of the plans to raise a mythical sea creature of massive proportions, and this only hints at what is really going on in The Scar. The story is much, much deeper and with levels of imagination that I can only hint at. Whatever the reader thinks is going on in this novel only scratches the surface as Mieville continues to change our expectations and understanding as he reveals more and more of the plot. Reading Perdido Street Station I was impressed by China Mievilles imagination in creating a world that felt very real and very alien and also by how dark and creative he was in telling the story. PSS goes to some very dark places that I could never have imagined if Mieville didnt get there first. I was impressed and I admired his craft. I didnt like it, though. Its a nebulous term, I know, but what Im saying is that Perdido Street Station failed to connect with me on an emotional level or a storytelling level. I was unable to truly engage with the characters or the story. A year or two passes and I decide to pick up The Scar knowing this was likely the last chance I would give Mieville. There was no instant connection like I find with other novels, but slowly the story grows on me. The exploration of what Armada is up to and who some of these characters are is engrossing. From the scarred freakishness of The Lovers (not the title Scar), to the otherworldly deadly calm of Uther Doeul, to the Remade Tanner, to the New Crobuzon spy to plots within plots within secrets, I wanted to know what happened next and what is going on. Once again Mievilles imagination is on in full force with The Scar and this time there was a connection and engagement. The Scar does not go to such dark places as Perdido Street Station, but it is still dark and grimy and dirty and violent. It is also shockingly creative and original and fascinating. This is more of a showpiece for China Mieville and one which has given me reason to read more of his work. Still, this does not count as one of the best (or favorite) books which I have read this year in terms of my holding the book up and saying Yes! This is what reading and writing is all about!, but Mieville does a damn fine job here. -Joe Sherry

The foremost key to success has always been timing, and China Mievilles world of Bas-Lag arrived exactly when fantasy fans were hungry for it. In other words, rest assured that the Bas-Lag novels, whatever else they may be, are not another Lord of The Rings rip-off. You wont find any generic fantasy races or high feudalism between their covers. Instead, youll get a bizarre mix of steam punk and strange creatures. I genuinely believe that Mievilles chief talent lies in his ability to never give up on his ideas. For example, one of the most common beings in his world is a race gigantic cactus people; nope, not making that up. Now, a lesser author, perhaps in the middle of brain storming, may come up with something similar and immediately throw it out. Cactus people! He may say to himself, thats just dumb! and he would move on to write a story about dwarves, elves, and whatever other cliches he could think of. Not Mieville. He never shrinks from adding bizarre critters and inventing plausible cultures and settings for them. Ever wonder how a society women with human bodies and insect heads would work? Or maybe youd like to know about carnivorous mosquito women and their vegetarian husbands? Or perhaps youre curious about talking frogs that can make sculptures from water? How about a neighborhood ruled by vampires? A guy with tentacles growing from his chest or a girl whose lower half was replaced with tank treads? Look no further than the works of China Mieville. If youre reading this review, you more than likely have read Perdido Street station and want to know if you should continue. I recommend that you should; The Scar is a much better book. I should also say that I actually, against my better judgement, read The Scar first, since its plot looked more intriguing, and it is the only Bas-Lag novel that I actually enjoyed. The other two only served to amplify its flaws. The setting of The Scar is probably the best thing about it. As mentioned above, Mieville is excellent at world-building. Most of the book takes place in Armada, a floating pirate city, centuries old, and made up of hundreds of captured ships. The city is divided into factions, and every neighborhood has a unique flavor to it. The most powerful faction, for instance, is ruled by two lovers who are addicting to cutting one another. Another part is ruled by cranky scholars. Another by a vampire. Mieville, like a painter, is adept at giving his setting the feeling of depth. Wherever he takes the reader, there is a feeling of history that pervades. You always want to know more because Mieville makes you really feel that there is more. His world feels real and that is the most difficult thing to do well when writing fantasy. As usual with Mieville, the plot takes second place to the setting but theres some good stuff here. The novel follows a refugee from the city of New Crobuzon, a powerful and magical city-state featured in Mievilles other two Bas-Lag books, who is captured by an Armadan ship on her way to one of New Crobuzons colonies. She is forced to work a dull job as a librarian in her new home, but soon, because of her affinity for languages, gets caught in the machinations of Armadas rulers plans to harness the powers of a leviathan and then travel to the Scar, a place at the end of the world where anything is possible. Very cool. It seems as though people either love or hate Mievilles writing. I personally like it but can understand why some wouldnt. His prose is Baroque and elegant, and he has a genuine love of language. This can sometimes take a bad turn. For example, Mieville has favorite words that he sometimes works in just to do it. There are more costermongers on Armada than I care to know about and just about everything is desultory. Nevertheless, a modern author who has a real appreciation of artful prose for its own sake is a rare and beautiful thing. Still the work is not without its flaws. Our protagonist is Bellis Coldwine, a personification of the phrase nomen omen est. If world-building is Mievilles greatest strength, then populating his novels with unlikeable characters is his Achilles heel. Bellis is selfish, deceitful, and arrogant. She also is somehow able to pull off being incredibly promiscuous and incredibly frigid at the same time. No mean feat. Still, she is probably the most likable major character that Mieville has ever created. All the same, dont expect to fall in love with her. Like I said: its just not Mievilles strength; hes too interested in ugliness to create someone you honestly want to cheer for. (mild spoilers) Also, and this extends to the other two books, Mieville loves to treat his villains as cannon fodder. Throughout all three novels, the main antagonist is the (quite literally) faceless police force and army of New Crobuzon, known simply as the militia. These guys have the success rate of the storm troopers from Star Wars. They have to be the most incompetent army in all of fiction. By the time I read the third Bas-Lag book, I never had any serious expectation that they would ever defeat anyone or even kill a major character. It sucked a lot of the tension out of the reading experience (spoiler over). Last, although Mieville has said that he tries to keep his political views out of his books, theyre definitely there (hes a devoted Marxist-Leninist). You never quite feel like youre being preached to, but sometimes Mievilles assumptions about religion, the nature of power, class conflict, or what motivates human beings can be a little annoying if you dont share his views. A small point, but one any new reader should be aware of. But these are all forgivable faults, and fans of Mievilles books have more or less come to expect them. So, if youre in the mood for a fantasy novel thats a little different, give Bas-Lag a chance. It may not be for you, but you wont forget it any time soon.

While I enjoyed The Scar, I cannot recommend it as heartily as many here have. Yes, China Mieville has a way with words. But I feel he stretched in this outing. The style that lent such depth and texture to Perdido Street Station seems overloaded in The Scar. Yes, he can tell a story. But the ending was flat, and contained what could be considered either a gaping plot hole or just a rather inconsequential end to an interesting character (for those who have read and are wondering, remember the reason why Armada needed its rather unique engine, and the lack of any such engine on a certain characters boat in the end) Anyone who enjoyed Perdido Street Station will enjoy The Scar. Bas Lag is a fabulous world, and one that I hope China Mieville will give us more of. The Scar was good, but after tasting Perdido Street Station, I find this meal vaguely unsatisfying.

In addition to building the world Mieville introduced in Perdido Street Station, The Scar builds on the themes of that book. In so doing, the author is getting closer to delivering a truly expemplary speculative fiction/fantasy novel. For fans of world building, Mievilles Bas-Lag is a wonder. A rich, detailed, diverse world that operates in a way that is as familiar as it fantastic. Unfortunately, this also has a tendency to make portions of the books set there hard to attach to emotionally. Character development takes longer in these books than in most, and for that reason the first 100 or so pages of The Scar and its predecessor felt like a bit (but not too much) of a chore. Once were given enough of the characters to form connections to them, the novel really takes off and the author does a great job of presenting the immigrant/expatriate experience through those characters. In Perdido Street Station, we only began to glimpse this theme. With The Scar, as we are introduced to another but different kind of melting pot city and a wider variety of characters who are there for different reasons or who feel different ways about it, we can really become immersed in it. This allows for multiple points of view into this strange, amazing world, and in the long run creates a warm atmosphere that serves to affirm the human condition and our drive towards discovery, but also how money and power corrupt that drive and how the few can lessen the experience for the many.

I thought this was better than Perdido Street Station. Interesting story. I liked the main character even though some reviews Ive read didnt care for her. Great continuation of the Bas-Lag world.