The Scar (Bas-Lag Book 2)

not as good as preceding book

I’m a great fan of Meivilles work because of the innovative concepts he brings to fiction. The Scar continues the weirdness of Perdido Street Station (although this isn’t a typical sequel.) The City of Armada is one of my favourite city ideas in fiction and the concepts that follow towards the climax of the book are so mind bending that it instantly became one of my favourite books (along with the other 2 in the Bas-lag series.)

My only beef is that the characters were hard to relate to, some were not developed enough and one of them wasnt even punished at all, just ask the Brocoulac.

This is the middle volume of Mievilles trilogy of novel about New Crobuzon. I think the easiest way to describe these books is as fantasy novels, or a sort, which are highly politicl, and set in a steam punk type world, of a sort, which elements of horror. Mieville likes to refer to these books as weird fiction and I guess that suits as well as any other description. Anyway you look at it, all three books are well worth reading. I think this is my favorite of Mievilles trilogy of novels set in the world in and surrounding New Crobuzon. I cant say why I like this one best, I think because the monsters in Perdido Street Station were too... monstery, and the socialism in the Iron Council was too... socialist. Plus, I am a total sucker for sea stories, and this one is a sea story. Here we have a floating armada of misfits and strange creatures guided by a strange couple, on their way to the end of the world. It a fast and gripping read. I wish Mieville would quit writing childrens stories and get back to writing really smart weird fiction.

Wow! Great way to build a world. The main character, Bellis, wasn’t very likable, but that fit with the story. A lot of points of view and a lot of reasons for what’s going on. I really enjoyed watching this story unfold. I’m not going to give you a synopsis because one comes with the main description. I’m just going to say China Mieville is an outstanding author who pays attention to detail. This is well worth the read.

The Terpsichoria leaves New Crobuzon bound for a colony with convicts, slaves, and a few paying customers needing to leave the city by any means possible on board. Among the passengers is desolate Bellis Coldwine. The astringent woman has been exiled from the great city. The seafaring voyage turns nasty when pirates board the ship. Most of those sailing on the Terpsichoria are worthless to the pirates and killed. However, some including Bellis are taken prisoner to the corsairs haven, the floating island of ships, Armada. There they will either die or help the evil leadership with magic that could destroy all humanity. However, Bellis finds allies and tries to develop a third option. THE SCAR may be the fantasy tale of the year as the dark story line makes the reader feel as if he or she has entered Armada, so graphically described that the weird civilization seems real. The plot consists of plenty of action, but it is the leagues and depths of the water world and its strange yet authentic feeling populous that makes the novel so entertaining. Award winning China Mieville (see Perdido Street Station) is bound to more than just receive nominations; she is going to win many trophies for this strong story. Harriet Klausner

After reading this book, a new scar appeared on the deepness of my skull; marking forever one of the best books Ive ever read, taking this wonderful and macabre world of BasLag and its characters, into the place where the unforgettable is stored. Armada, an evolving ever-changing city, is a place where renegades find a place to live, an order to anarchy, but as any big city, it doesnt escape to the corruption of decadence. This is an enthralling book, way better than Perdido Street Station, and that, is to say a lot. The characterization is superb. The geography of the place, the intricate politics, the magic of the vast ocean, the cacophony of its diverse ecology, takes you to a place that you have never seen before. Literary richness, The Scar is gold among the dirt of the superfluous market-oriented fiction available; worth of mining and deep study. This is not a fast paced book and as any good wine, it will need time in your mouth before you feel the satisfaction of a delicious and unique experience. For those readers wanting something to read on the airplane, another soft cover to exchange on a hotel, this book is NOT for you. This novel will build, and build, and build, for the first couple of hundreds pages, and is your duty to pay attention to the details, because when the end is coming, you wont be able to stop reading, things will start happening FAST, and you will be spell bounded until the end of the book, its final momentum reaching with a strenuous explosion of revelation that will steal your breath.

I grew up reading Tolkien and The Lord of the Rings is still my favorite book so when I use his name I dont use it lightly. The imagination that goes into Bas-Lag is astonishing to me and pulled almost whole cloth from his head. Ive read almost 40 years of Tolkien-derivative fantasy and finding the Bas-Lag books was a breath of fresh air. The story I hope the Miéville continues to flesh out this world and would dearly like to be taken on a tour of High Chromlech or the Cacotopic Stain.

Sorry, it did. Big time. After an almost 600 page leadup, with the drama and the characters and rich detail and the adventure of it all carrying me along and immersing me in this wonderfully drawn universe, it was a huge anti-climax, flat, it ruined everything. Thats why I give this book 3 stars, and not 5, which it would (imho) otherwise have deserved. Maybe youll feel differently. This is only my feeling, although I notice a few other reviewers have also mentioned being disappointed with the ending. Apart from that, here are the good and bad points pros o excellent worldbuilding. Bas-Lag is described in such detail as to seem as real as our world. And Armada is just cool! o fascinating characters. Too often in books characters are 1 dimensional cardboard cutouts. Not so here. o some wonderfully bizarre images and concepts o good exciting pace o making a very unsympathetic character the main protagonist, no cliched hero (or antihero for that matter) cons o the ending (need i say it again...?) o the Grindylow seem to be wayyyy too powerful, if even three of them can do what they do in the book, they have nothing to fear from New Crobuzon (which makes a whole big element of the plot irrelevant or absurd) o The downside of limiting worldbuilding to a single planet. Bas-Lag is too crowded with too many things. Were this a medieval fantasy I could understand, but its steam-age fantasy: they have steamships, they have rail, they have dirigibles. These mysterious forbidden places on the boarders of the known dont make sense, they would have been explored long ago. o Gratuitous use of the f-word. If it was only the coarse sailer types who speak like that, sure, definitely. But - especially later in the book - it is everyone, no matter how refined or educated. So rather than enhancing the colourful nature of certain characters, it just became an ugly peppering of the narrative. Try reading the dialogue without the numerous f**k(ing), it reads more quickly, and better. o with so many giant sea monsters referred to the marine ecology is absurd (you cant have so many top preditors in any foodchain). Okay granted it is fantasy (thaumaturgy, vampires, re-made, etc ...), and it is just my interest in marine biology that makes me think in this way, but in other regards Mieville seems to be trying to write about this in a more realistic manner. Will I read any of Mievilles other books? Perhaps. I love the way he paints his surreal universe. But the failure of nerve that constitutes the ending of this book does not endear me to his manner of writing a story

On the plus side, the world building in this novel is wonderful. On the negative side, the characters were all unlikable, and main point of view character, Bellis, was actively unpleasant, being self-involved to a remarkable degree. The plot only seems to exist as an excuse to show off different parts of the world. In a way it is like a road movie, where the journey is the point, except that in this case the characters are also incidental, and showing off the world is the point. A friend recommended to me that I regard the actual characters in the book as the cities, not as the people living in them. Keeping that in mind I was able to finish the book, otherwise I would have given up. All in all I am glad that I read it, because the imagination in the world building is great, but I was only able to read in short bursts (normally I read books cover to cover in one go).