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The Scar 118

Posted by timothy from the now-in-hard-cover dept.
ajm writes "The Scar is China Mieville's second novel set in the world of Bas-Lag. His first, Perdido Street Station, has already been reviewed on Slashdot. However, The Scar is not a sequel. Though the events it describes take place after those in Perdido Street Station, they don't depend on them. The setting isn't the city of New Crobuzon, and the story of Issac Dan der Grimneblin, Lin, and Yagharek is not continued in The Scar." Read on for the rest of ajm's review.
The Scar
author China Mieville
pages 638
publisher Del Rey
rating 9
reviewer ajm
ISBN 0345444388
summary genre-breaking steampunk fantasy - a must read

I'll try not to reveal too much of the plot in this review. It doesn't spoil the book if you know what's going to happen next (I've read it a couple of times myself), but watching it all unfold through the language of China Mieville is far better than reading my bland precis here. I'll just say that it's gripping enough to make you want to keep reading, and to linger over the marvelous settings. It's also a more straightforward narrative than Perdido Street Station, so if you found the twists in that one a bit confusing don't let it put you off The Scar. To get my biases and preferences on the table, I'm normally a straightforward science fiction reader of the usual suspects, for instance William Gibson, Neal Stephenson, some David Webber, Peter Watts (you've got to read Starfish), Ken Macleod, and Richard Paul Russo.

Bas-Lag, the setting for The Scar, is a strange world. Physically it's not clear it's even spherical. Technologically, it's steampunk, with punch card-driven calculating engines, steam-powered heavy industry, and airships. Magic, referred to as thaumaturgy, works in this world, but the understanding of it is like late 19th Century physics. The scientists of Bas Lag know there is a physical underpinning to thaumaturgy, and they understand some of the particles and forces involved. It is manipulated by calculation and machines, not spells and wands, but some are more skilled in its use than others. The inhabitants themselves are of many different races. Some (the beetle headed kepri, the cactacae, and the remade) will be familiar if you've read Perdido Street Station. Others, for instance the ab-dead, the anophelii, and the grindylow, are new. None seems out of place in Bas Lag, and all have a part to play in the story. The richness of the setting, with all of its excellently described details, really brings Bas-Lag to life.

The story is told mostly from the point of view of Bellis Coldwine, a linguist fleeing New Crobuzon on the first vessel she can get passage on, a prison ship taking a cargo of remade prisoners to one of New Crobuzon's colonies. She and the other main characters in the book are interesting -- not just for their strangeness, but for how they adapt themselves to and deal with the situations they find themselves in. For instance, there's Uther Doul, born in the city of High Chromlech, where the reanimated high-caste dead rule over the living; Tanner Sack, remade in New Crobuzon's punishment factories with tentacles grafted to his chest; and the Lovers, the scarred rulers of the most powerful part of a very strange city.

As in Perdido Street Station, China Mieville uses language wonderfully, particularly descriptive language. All the small details have the perfect names, from pubs called "Unrealized Time" and "The Clock and Cockerel" (now isn't that an excellent name for a pub?), to ships called "Grand Easterly" (shades of Isambard Kingdom Brunel) and "Terpsichoria," to the Witchocracy, Hive of the Jet Sorrow. His descriptions of places and characters are just as good. In other reviews of his work, you'll see comparisons to Charles Dickens and Stephen King, and in fact just about every other descriptive writer you could name.

For me, the main theme of the book is scarring -- physical and emotional -- what it means and what its effects are. All of the main characters in the book, and even the land of Bas-Lag itself, have been scarred. For some, as a chirgeon says, "Scars are not injuries, Tanner Sack. A scan is a healing. After injury, a scar is what makes you whole." For others, like the Lovers, scars are a source of power while for the scabmettlers they are protection.

I'd highly recommend The Scar to just about anyone, apart from hard-core space opera fans perhaps. It's an enjoyable read, but it's also a good book in a larger sense. The first two thirds are perhaps superior to the last third but when it's all so good who am I to quibble? It has great descriptive passages combined with a interesting plot involving compelling characters, set in a fully realized world. The only problem is, how is China Mieville going to top it in his next book?

You can purchase The Scar from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
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The Scar

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  • more reviews (Score:2, Informative)

    by kaan ( 88626 )
    Here's the amazon link [amazon.com] which provides a bunch of formal reviews as well as the usual customer reviews.

  • Perdido was horrible. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kid zeus ( 563146 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:05PM (#7475358)
    Unreadable, actually. I forced my way through a hundred pages before I had to toss it down and move on to something well written. It's overloaded with gratuitous 'ambient detail' in an effort to give it this crazy, unique world feel. Unfortunately it ends up resembling a mish-mash of just about all the modern fantasy fan fic on the web. Which is not a complement. The characters and the situations just don't read true. Everything's way too contrived.

    No way in heck I'm trying the sequel. I wish I could get my money back for the first.

    • God forbid I post an unflattering opinion on the book and explain why I felt that way. I didn't realize having different tastes was grounds for Flamebait.
    • I can't believe the parent got flamebait either...

      I read about half of Peridido. I also did not like it enough to finish it. Though some of the concepts were neat, the characters were totally unbelievable and I never empathized with any of them.
    • Why is this "Flamebait"?

      I think its an honest, well-reasoned opinion which is somewhat close to a real review.

      I would mod it as "Interesting" because it has a different view point worthy of reading.
    • kid zeus,

      I personally found Perdido one of the better written books that I've ever read. However, for me, the pleasure is all in the manner of telling, not in the story. Yes, I am a form over substance guy when it comes to fiction. I thrive on the ambient details. Some of my favorite authors: Gene Wolfe, John Crowley, Peter Straub (only for Shadowlands and Ghost Story; I detested Floating Dragon), Thomas Wolfe, Philip Pullman, Mary Gentle, Sheri S. Tepper, Garth Nix, and Ray Bradbury.

      My list of least
    • I have to say I had similar issue with the book - I made it further through, about half way if I recall, before it all got to be to much effort. All the "fantasy" elements just seemed far too forced. Rather than seeming to fit together in some nice semi consistent world it felt more like a mishmash attempting to place lots of artificial detail in. Detail alone does not create a well constructed fantasy world. Consistent well thought out detail - well now, that helps a lot. Perdido just seemed very much
    • The Scar is much faster paced than Perdido.. borrow it from the library if you're concerned about getting ripped.

      I read Scar first and was moderately disappointed by Perdido.

      I also had trouble getting into Perdido and getting through it though I kept reading hoping to see some of Scar come through in his writing and it did but not until 2/3rds of the book was behind me.

    • I thought both books were wonderful and bought and read King Rat ( his first book ) as soon as I saw it in the shop.

      King Rat is not IMHO in the same league as The Scar or PSS but still worth a read.

      I am not surprised that some posters couldn't get on with these novels though.

      Mieville's style is really quite unusual and extreme.

      In a way his writing reminds me of Jack Vance. The books are worth reading simply for the language and the bizarre plots, characters and ideas are a bonus.

    • Perdido Street Station was brilliant, an aggressively ambitious and inventive work. Don't listen to the naysayers, give it a chance. I haven't read something so original in a long time.

  • Ha! I just read this!! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Fux the Penguin ( 724045 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:06PM (#7475361) Journal
    How come /. only reviews books I've already read? Oh well. Still, I have to say, while Perdido was an excellent book in its own right, I was impressed by how much better The Scar was. Mieville has an excellent ability to make you want more by throwing out snippets of descriptions of people and places and civilizations inhabitaing bas-Lag that invariably made me want to learn more.

    One of the creepiest and most striking images from the book was Doul's description of his home city of High Chromlech, with its quiet streets full of shuffling high-caste dead, with their lips sewn together. Only a fine writer could pack so much imagination and imagery into a few short pages, and The Scar is full of this, It's part Dickensian (though less so than Perdido), part Lovecraftian, part Moorock, but transcends all those sources. The main character is a bit of a dud (the supporting characters are far more interesting), and the ending fizzles just a little, but the ride getting there justifies the trip. I really enjoyed it, and I highly recommend it to Slashdot!!
    • Yeah, I have just read both Perdido Street Station and the Scar and I have found both volumes to be very interesting indeed.

      Mieville manages to do a mixture of genres an ideas without falling for the old cliches of "to find something new, just mix some of the old". Surprisingly enough, the author manages to surprise the reader with a few snippets of worlds not yet visited, of tales yet untold.

      The ideas seem to have been trimmed down just for the sake of being too large to fit on the book and have crumbled
      • You have written much about the narrative and writing skills inherent in The Scar. Essentially, those who read "traditional" fantasy will struggle with the ambiguities that present themselves. We never find out the answers to some very pertinent questions (although we do find out some). What Mieville has done is transformed the story structure of fantasy. For some, this "new structure" is not new. It is a common theme in the traditional stories of many Indigenous Peoples. It is, however, something quite da
    • How come /. only reviews books I've already read?

      so that you may post comments about the book. otherwise, it may say 5 of 10 comments. 5 of which have been moded down troll or flamebait. the other five, focused on the day's SCO story,goatse,soviet russia, and welcoming our new overlord of the hour. (2 links to goatse.)

    • Yup, The Scar is better than Perdido St. Station. It's a great read.
    • Same here, its one of the few books reviewed here that I have actually read and love. The thing I love about The Scar and Perdido Street Station, are the settings. PSS is set in a gargantuan, stinking, almost Victorian city interlaced with railways and skyrails. The Scar is set on a flotilla of vessels, kind of a patchwork city of boats, ships and pontoons. Each is so beautifully imagined and described, it is difficult not to imagine what it would be like to live there. Take Bellis Coldwine's house for exa
  • I'd highly recommend The Scar to just about anyone, apart from hard-core space opera fans perhaps

    Damn..

    well that pretty much counts me and all MY friends out...

  • $3.75 cheaper at amazon (Score:3, Informative)

    by zontroll ( 714448 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:09PM (#7475377)
    Starting today, I will be posting non-referral links only...

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0345444388/ [amazon.com]
    Amazon has this book for $3.75 cheaper than bn
    Spend $11.75 more to get free shipping.



    If you want to support my efforts to provide prompt Amazon pricing information, add ccats-20 to the end of the above URL. Thanks.
    • Why bother with Amazon? It's $8 on Half.com

      The Scar on Half.com [ebay.com]

  • Don't forget to go to your public library (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Trolling4Dollars ( 627073 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:11PM (#7475391) Journal
    My local library [clevnet.org] has it.

    Remember folks, we wouldn't all be geeks if there wasn't a public library around. Support your public library. Support library levies. The more money they make, the better materials and services they can have.

  • Not Amazing (Score:2, Interesting)

    by TwistedSquare ( 650445 )
    While The Scar does have some original imagery, you should be warned that none of the main characters are very sympathetic so it can be tough going unless you really love the world around them.

    Then again I bought this (hardback) for 4 quid in a bargain bookship to held prop up a bowing bookshelf, so I didn't mind!

  • China Mieville is one of SF's new wonders (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:17PM (#7475445)
    We've been losing so many of the original generation of Golden Era SF authors. It's a common lament among my friends whenever we read another obit ( I think Hal Clement died recently).

    The only thing that cheers me up is seeing that every now and then another amazing writer hits the scene. China Mieville is one of those, IMHO.

    His stuff is just about the most original I've seen in the last 10yrs, at least. I can't even put it in a genre. The reviewer mentions steampunk, but that's not complete... there are so many elements and .... aaiigghh... I love authors that can show me something NEW !!!

    It's not for everyone. One poster mentioned he couldn't read the book, and set it down after 100pp.

    I actually think that might be a common reaction. There are a lot of folks who seem unable to read stuff that's written in a original style, (i.e. not blandified for mass readership)

    Reminds me of a friend that I loaned Samuel Delaney's Dhalgren to. He gave it back a few days later, and said he coldn't make it past the first 10pp or so, because it was messing with his head too much.

    Of course, that guy (my friend) had a tendency to have bad trips, so it may not entirely have been Delaney's awesome writing.
    • I can read Joyce, Faulkner and have lapped up generations of Sci Fi writers who dabble in stream of consciousness and radical visions.

      Not being able to read 'truly original work' isn't the problem here. The problem I found that Mieville was far more interested in proving how 'utterly charming' his world was than crafting a good story. I don't need (or even prefer) traditional narratives. What I need and prefer is good prose instead of the amateurish stuff I found in Perdido. As well as characters who's acti

      • Second reply to you in about 15 mins...

        As is ay above I like PSS and The Scar, and respect your dislike. And I absolutely lurve Gun With Occasional Music, wonderful little book. Maybe both sides of the debate should read it.

        Well, that was about as pointless as my last comment, but I felt I needed to say it.
        • No problems here with your posts. I definitely respect diversity of tastes and I don't mind people not agreeing with me. I just wanted to put my two cents in as a dissenting opinion, but then was amazed that some people just wanted to discount it as some kind of sour grapes that must come from an underdeveloped brain. Hell, I've been known to watch pro wrestling at times, so I'm definitely not one to cast aspersions on the quality of other people's taste.
    • You haven't read Iain M. Banks yet, have you? Highly recommended, start with Consider Phlebas and work your way through to his masterpiece, Use of Weapons.
      • When I first discovered Banks, I went on a huge jag, reading all his sci fi books. Some of them are really great. I think Excession is truly fantastic Sci-Fi. Player of Games is a great read as well, if not quite as creative in my opinion.

        If you like Consider Phlebas a lot, I'd recommend the first book by a fairly new author. It's called Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan. Great hard-boiled style. In fact it's the book I picked up when I put Perdido down, and it washed the taste right out.

        • If you like Consider Phlebas a lot, I'd recommend the first book by a fairly new author. It's called Altered Carbon, by Richard K. Morgan. Great hard-boiled style. In fact it's the book I picked up when I put Perdido down, and it washed the taste right out.

          We seem to have similar tastes; I finished reading _Altered Carbon_ a week ago and loved it.

          Have you read Morgan's other book set in the same universe, _Broken Angels_?

          I hear different, in a good way, and *even better*!
          • Sorry to say I didn't think it matched up. Not that it was bad, mind you. Just not Altered Carbon good. You may like it more, I dunno. But you may want to keep your expectations a bit lower, so it doesn't come off as a disappointment. Second novels seem to have difficulty following first ones it seems.

            But another one you may really like is Jonathon Lethem's first, 'Gun, With Occasional Music.' Very similar in certain ways (gritty future, hard-boiled styled detective story). Not as exciting, but even more cr

        • Iain M. Banks is arguably the best living SF writer, and (minus the M.) one of the best mainstream fiction writers in the world right now.

          As for "Perdido Street Station", I found the world to be wonderfully realized, but the unrelenting nastiness pretty much wore me down, the same problem I had with Peter F. Hamilton's "Night's Dawn" trilogy. And this considering Iain Banks is not averse to pretty strong imagery himself.

  • I snortled your chir-blek! (Score:4, Interesting)

    by Fnkmaster ( 89084 ) * on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:17PM (#7475450)
    A long, long time ago, in a zilblex far far asnog, a chir-blek named Firby snortled a zamphod.


    Sorry, I'm not attacking the book, since I haven't read Perdido, nor any work by this author, but if the review is an indication, this falls into the category of sci-fi author who feels the need to throw strange terminology out there to make it feel "different". In my experience, this is what happens when an author can't make the story compelling enough on its own merits - I mean, every sci-fi or science fantasy work has strange, inexplicable elements. And, sure, some of them will have odd and unusual names. But it should be done where it's important to the plot, the storytelling and the characters, not just because it sounds cooler to call it a "sneebleblex" than a "car". And generally nonstandard words that at least convey an image to the target audience are substantially better than random combinations of non-standard phonemes.


    Anyway, this isn't intended to be a flame against this author, just a general gripe I have with a type of sci-fi. I'm going to go back to snortling my chir-blek now.

    • I think that Nightfall had this sort of disclaimer to address this at the beginning of the book. Even though it was about an alien world, earth terms like hours and miles were used for readability sake.

    • Re:I snortled your chir-blek! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by qengho ( 54305 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @02:41PM (#7475595)


      this falls into the category of sci-fi author who feels the need to throw strange terminology out there to make it feel "different".

      Not at all. The "strange terminology" is used mainly to refer to alien species. The rest of the language is ornate, but based on English and Latin derivations for the most part. The milieu of Perdido Street Station is so odd and wonderful that the author could refer to the various races by numbers and still the city of New Crobuzon would dazzle readers.

      I was a bit disappointed by The Scar, mainly because it didn't give me the same Shock Of The New that PSS did[1], but it's a far better work than most of the stuff in bookstores.

      [1] I experienced the same let-down when I read Gibson's Count Zero, because Neuromancer was a hard act to follow. When I re-read his cyberspace triology, however, I realized that the other two books were every bit as good as the first.

    • To some extent your opening sentence indicates the problem. There really is a world of difference between the words you've invented and the words, especially the names, China Mieville invents. Sure, it's easy to parody, just as it's easy to parody the names Dickens used, but it's very hard to get right. Anyway, it's really not the biggest part of Mieville's appeal. The words he chooses certainly do convey an image to the audience though.

      Give the books a try. If you approach with an open mind I think you'll
    • I read Perdido Street Station and although the language was often alien, I thought that this was one of the few places its use was justified. So often when SF writers try to write about creatures that are outside of human experience they end up being humans in other guises, but Perdido Street Station managed to make some of those characters the best realized because they were so strange.

      Unfortunately, I found I didn't care enough for the more human characters to give a damn what happened, so in the end I t
  • Reminded me of a more poetic/descriptive Gibson/Sterling in the Difference Engine.

    I'd ordered it, and then read some of the Amazon.com reader-reviews, and wondered if I'd made a mistake. I didn't - was an amazing book.
  • The world of Bas Lag?

    Is that where all the LPBs come from?

  • The setting isn't the city of New Crobuzon, and the story of Issac Dan der Grimneblin, Lin, and Yagharek is not continued in The Scar.

    Anyone who got past this nonsense has my bemused respect. No wonder nobody reads sci-fi. Yagharek indeed.

    • Re:pathetic (Score:2, Funny)

      by Sulihin ( 612608 )
      I have to say, I hope the wonderful irony of this post is intentional. Boromir indeed.

    • Re:pathetic (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by DLWormwood ( 154934 )
      Anyone who got past this nonsense has my bemused respect. No wonder nobody reads sci-fi. Yagharek indeed.

      Let's see, in honor of your .sig and handle...

      "The setting isn't the Shire, and the story of Gandalf The White, Frodo Baggins and Samwise is not continued in The Simarilion. Balrog indeed."

      (-:

    • Son of Faramir? (Score:2, Offtopic)

      by revividus ( 643168 )
      Since we're all referring to the .sig anyways, here... Uh, Boromir was the son of Denethor. So was Faramir. They were, like, brothers.

      Right, then.

      But his post explains they .sig; I guess he didn't read LOTR, either.

  • I see it in the same class as some of Iain M. Banks & Jeff Noon. I'd appreciate suggestions of other similar writers from /.ers who have read these three.

    And for those have to get a joke in: what is the name of this subgenre?
    • I'd call it "good". Genre is bogus.

      I haven't read any of Noon's work, but I've read all the Banks I can get my hand on (don't forget the 'non-M' books, published under the name 'Iain Banks'; they're not inevitably SF as the 'M' books are, but they're also rich and surprising). Also, I'd suggest Michael Swanwick and Tim Powers. Both write similarly convoluted and packed novels.

      And of course you've read Vernor Vinge's 'A Fire Upon the Deep' and 'A Deepness in the Sky', right? Those are also pretty heavy, wi

  • My review (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Hobbex ( 41473 ) on Friday November 14, 2003 @04:03PM (#7476201)
    I wrote a short review of The Scar for my blog. Here goes:

    This is something as unusual as a fantasy book that I enjoyed reading. Except for Tolkien I postively loath fantasy - all that Eddings and Shananananana crap - which seems mostly to be stupid D&D induced masturbatory escapism recorded and published for God knows what reason. Interestingly, I read something by Mieville describing how much he hates Tolkien - I love it, especially The Silmarillion, but I can see why disliking Tolkien is probably a necessity for producing good fantasy.

    This isn't about kings and dwarves and dragons, but rather set in a fantasy world with technological level fixed in early industrial, rather than medieval, times. Mieville uses this as a basis for a fastasy in the true sense of the word - not just picking off Tolkien and folk stories, but imagining a completely different world what I've read anywhere else. He has fun doing it, and so does the reader.

    Still, there are things about the book that don't work out completely. Some things about it aren't really credible (most of the book is set in a floating city made up tethered ships - at times you are left wondering why one of the characters doesn't just light a match and say goodbye to the whole place. There is a reason fireships were feared in maritime combat when most hulls were wooden). The main character achieves very little, which is fine but ultimately she is completely forgetable, which is unforgivable. And while I don't mind that the book doesn't come to a text-book conclusion one is left wondering by the end of the six hundred pages why one didn't just stop reading two hundred pages earlier. It doesn't help that Mieville writes out the most compelling characters much earlier.
    • This is something as unusual as a fantasy book that I enjoyed reading. Except for Tolkien I postively loath fantasy - all that Eddings and Shananananana crap - which seems mostly to be stupid D&D induced masturbatory escapism recorded and published for God knows what reason.....

      This isn't about kings and dwarves and dragons, but rather set in a fantasy world with technological level fixed in early industrial, rather than medieval, times.

      Isn't this rather like criticizing science fiction by dismissin
  • claiming perdido street station was horrible and the characters lacked development is just silly. had you paid any attention you would have realized that the city was the main character of the book and everyone else was supporting cast.

    i, for one, immensely enjoyed his longish descriptions of new crobuzon and the myriad species that lived there. comparisons to dickens in this regard would not be unjustified.

    to classify perdido, or the scar as SF is really the heart of the problem though. mieville himself
  • Perdido Street Station impressed me with its well-crafted descriptions of unique places and characters, but what really impressed me was the way it sucked me into the story and made me feel the horror, anguish, and excitement of the characters. The monsters in the story were truly terrifying, and Lin's situation hit me especially hard.

    The Scar has much of the same ornate yet gritty texture as PSS, and the prose is equally well-crafted, but I didn't have a strong emotional response to it. I found the bad
  • Fair or not, when reading _Perdido Street Station_ I couldn't help but think about how, in both structure and style, it seemed to have the sensibilities one would appreciate in a graphic novel. Some of the things that I found tiresome after a spell -- e.g., baroque descriptions, indulgently detailed environments, thinly-drawn characters -- would actually work quite well in an illustrated trade.
    • Both Perdido Street Station and The Scar contain a lot of detail, as you say it has been "baroqued". I had thought about how it could be excised. Really it can't be because it adds texture to the book. You come out of it with a feeling for a complex and deep back story which you only glimpse here and there.

      The characters in The Scar were somewhat thinner, but I wouldn't say that of Perdido. Even the Slake Moths had character there.

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