China Miéville

A colossal fantasy of incredible diversity and spellbinding imagination. A human cargo bound for servitude in exile . . . A pirate city hauled across the oceans . . . A hidden miracle about be revealed . . . These are the ingredients of an astonishing story. It is the story of a prisoner's journey. Of the search for the island of a forgotten people, for the most astonishing beast in the seas, and ultimately for a fabled place - a massive wound in reality, a source of unthinkable power and danger.

The Scar

En route to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon, a ship carrying prisoners, slaves, and a few travelers, each with their own reason for leaving the city, is attacked by pirates, who bring the surviving passengers to a strange floating city constructed upon the hulls of pirated ships, whose leaders are hiding a sinister agenda. By the author of Perdido Street Station. Reprint.

Michael Springer

I loved Perdido Street Station and was excited to read the second book in the world of Bas-Lag. Mieville didn't let me down. I can't honestly say which of the two books I prefer: they are drastically different from one another, and if one couldn't conveniently think of them both as "fantasy" novels, it would be hard to place them in the same genre.

I don't want to spoil anything about the story, but I will say that The Scar reminded me in some ways of Moby Dick. Only in good ways. There weren't any tedious descriptions of whales, or hundreds of pages of needless extrapolation.

I find it interesting that in The Scar, I found many of the secondary characters very compelling, yet didn't find the protagonist very interesting or easy to sympathize with. In fact, the protagonist is the only aspect of this book that I didn't like. (I also wanted a clearer description of a few beasts, but I understand Mieville's motivation in keeping these monsters mysterious.)

My final analysis: you should read both Perdido Street Station and The Scar. These are both clear examples of how good fantasy can be.

The scar

Apiecalypse Jen

4.5 stars.

CHINA MIEVILLE I HEREBY NAME YOU KING OF ALL THINGS WORLDBUILDING because goddamn you are good at that. This book could have contained no plot whatsoever and I would have been happy as a clam going through this book because I love the world so goddamn much. I'd never want to live in it because it seems 100x more terrifying than earth. But I'll settle for spectating I guess.

I may be exaggerating about being happy even if nothing occurred in the book so I'm glad that stuff DID happen and it was written quite well. Bellis goes down as one of my favorite protagonists because she's so no-nonsense and down to earth. You feel really sorry for her from time to time as the men around her are shitty. She doesn't brush it off in a Mary Sue sort of way but rather she withstands it and her resilience is sympathetically written and you really end up feeling for her. Love this girl.

I read Perdido Street Station a long time ago and I barely remembered how good it was when I finally blasted through this book, so I think I'm going to reread that next.

If you haven't read this yet and want to then stop reading this review now

I knocked off a .5 star because it ended with a very uncertain whimper. I felt like it was all building towards something big, because halfway through they'd harnessed the avanc, you know, and you can't get much bigger than harnessing a godwhale. But for all that prep and all that buildup, there's a fluke of a climax where the crowd surges against the Lovers and then they get everyone to turn around and they never go to the Scar. At least in this universe's Possibility, I guess. And I'm like. Wtf. That's it. That's all I guess. And then the denouement was just rushed and it turns out Bellis does get to go home after all and yay. But yeah I just wasn't a fan of the ending. Everything until that was A+

Jack Baty

I loved this. Fun story, wild characters, cool world. I really enjoy the way Miéville writes.

The Scar

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