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Jun 05, 2008

Crystal rated it:

It took me two days to get through the last 50 pages of China Miéville's The Scar. Not because I was bored, or because the story was particularly impenetrable, but simply because I did not want the book to be over.

I did finish it, however. And for a good ten minutes after the last sentence I found myself staring into space, stunned and cut adrift and wishing for another 50 pages. When I eventually sat down to begin this review, I realized that I had no idea what made the book so More...

10 comments like (27 people liked it)

Aug 08, 2011

Adam rated it:

The Scar is a wonderful evocation of the macabre adventure stories of Verne and Wells, philosophical treatise on dystopias/utopias, dark steampunk fantasia in the Moorcock vein, grisly spy story, mad quest worthy of Melville, and a language showcase. I think once the shock of the new wore off that caused people to fawn over Perdido Street Station(which for the most part deserved the praise) critics and readers dimissed the other two subsequent books of Mieville’s anti-trilogy. Well, they missed More...

0 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 27, 2011

Lori rated it:

And my marathon of Mielville continues! Again so different than PSS and Embassytown, I'm impressed.

Finito. Actually a few days ago. While reading Mielville I have so many thoughts, I even plan some sentences in my head for my GR review. But usually these thoughts are nowhere in sight when I sit and write! Especially with this book, because I'm still deliberating over the end. It's one of those ambivalent endings, what REALLY happened, there are various other possibilities.

Wh More...

1 comment like (8 people liked it)

Nov 30, 2011

Ryan rated it:

The Scar may be Miéville's best Bas-Lag novel. It's more focused than Perdido Street Station and more ambitious than Iron Council.

Miéville's saga of Armada (an ocean city made up of pirated ships) will sweep readers away as though they've rediscovered their childhood imagination. Equally enjoyable is Miéville's exploration of alternative political systems and structures, such as the vampire protectorate of Dry Fell. The plot, premise, and setting all showcase an unbridled imagination More...

2 comments like (3 people liked it)

Mar 31, 2009

Brad rated it:

I restarted The Scar last night because I needed a dose of Mieville's prose, and was blown away, as I always am, by Mieville's description of place. This time he is describing Bas-Lag's oceans. He captures flavours and temperatures and underwater sounds and the danger inherent in the waters that have no boundaries in a way that is poetry for me. I have heard from other readers that these disconnected, deep descriptions are difficult beginnings for them, that they make it tough to connect early More...

3 comments like (12 people liked it)

Jul 13, 2007

Walker rated it:

Salubrious. Pugnacious. Ossified. Juddering.

These are not words that I am using to describe China Mieville's writing, but words that China Mieville uses to describe, well, everything. The most irritating part of his otherwise excellent Perdido Street Station is still very much in play in The Scar - that is, Mieville is still kinda unsure of himself, he still feels the need to prove himself, and his method of choice is Big Long Vocabulary Words.

The problem is that he l More...

5 comments like (7 people liked it)

Dec 16, 2010

Suna rated it:

Crikey, I was upset after reading this.

Having taken about a week to let the whole reading experience percolate down into calmer waters, I think I now understand why.

I took Bellis' stupidity personally somehow, the way she was drawn clearly struck a major chord in my personality.
Viewed from a distance, I can absolutely see how I myself could end up in a position like that if, like Bellis, I were forced to bereave myself of my roots, my culture and my comfort-zone: Wanting More...

5 comments like (5 people liked it)

Jul 11, 2011

Ben rated it:

I'm not sure how I feel about China Miéville.

On one hand, Miéville is a competent writer and, even better, a superb storyteller. The three books of his that I've read (including this one) are good. People tend to gush about his worldbuilding, often at the expense, I think, of talking about everything else that's great about his stories, but they do it because of his obvious skill in this area. Many great fantasy authors create wonderful stories by taking the traditional elements of f More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

May 13, 2007

Jenn rated it:

Mieville's writing just gets better and better. The Scar continues with the same world introduced in Perdido Street Station, a world of strange turn-of-the-century Londonishness and scientific magics. In this particular story we follow a group of new characters as they find themselves press-ganged into a floating pirate city.

Need I say any more?

Mieville has tightened his writing style, and introduced us to characters that are likeable, while still managing to create an am More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 11, 2008

Elze rated it:

This book could have been a lot more interesting if not for problems with pacing.

"The Scar" is set in the same universe as "Perdido Street Station", but is not a sequel. It follows a very strange journey of a woman named Bellis, as she flees New Crobuzon by boat in the post-Perdido-Street-Station fallout. Her goal is to emigrate to a faraway corner of Bas Lag, but her trip takes a wrong -- or rather, strange -- turn when the ship is hijacked by, and incorporated i More...

2 comments like (4 people liked it)

Jul 21, 2011

Danielle rated it:

As much as I love China's work, and as much as I wanted to love The Scar, this book fell a bit short for me. The prologue managed to grab me and did a good job of holding me for a while, hoping that the excitement I experienced in the first pages of the novel would continue. Problem is, the story seemed to fall flat, not because it didn't have some interesting characters or definite promise, but because China fell victim to the classic writer's disease: deadwood.
The Scar is simply too word More...

0 comments like (4 people liked it)

Dec 23, 2011

Sarah rated it:

The second book in the New Crobuzon series/set in the world of Bas Lag and my second book read by China Mieville. After reading Perdido Street Station and being blown away with the world Mieville had created, his choice of vocabulary and impressed by the imagination used to create such a piece of work, I was totally up for reading another Mieville. When I read the synopsis for The Scar I was not too keen, I wasn't in the mood for a pirate story, I wanted to be back in New Crobuzon, the dirty, co More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jul 30, 2009

Michael rated it:

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 g More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Feb 09, 2008

Chris rated it:

Imagine a floating city, built of stolen and scavenged boats from around the world. A city whose very existence is simply rumor and legend. That city is Armada and it's inhabited by the strangest collection of beings in Bas-Lag - insect-headed kephri women, talking cacti, scarred lovers, Remade people, vampires, nightwalkers and mermen. They take ships and press-gang anyone who is aboard. Once a citizen of Armada, always a citizen of Armada. And its rulers have a plan.

Imagine a great More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Dec 13, 2007

Willa rated it:

The Scar is a vast improvement over Perdido Street Station. Set in the world of Bas-Lag, but not in New Crobuzon, this is a good, solid, entertaining read from beginning to end.

Mieville has overcome most of PSS's weaknesses here. This plot is far more tight and controlled. Don't misunderstand, there are plenty of twists, turns and surprises, but the storyline moves continually forward, not splintering into disparate and confusing arcs that don't ever, in many cases in PSS, come back More...

1 comment like (3 people liked it)

Nov 23, 2011

Taueret rated it:

Again, enough imagination for 100 books, packed into one. The crazy world of Bas-Lag is worth the price of admission alone. Story full of intrigue and adventure, and a lot of interesting, more or less likeable characters. Bellis though, who provides the main point of view? Geez louise, what a narcissistic, stick-up-her-butt bitch! I'm actually really glad the book is almost over- I am enjoying the story but can't wait to part company with the whiny cow! It's like visiting that kid in the " More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 24, 2008

John rated it:

I read Mieville's earlier book, Perdido Street Station, and think The Scar is a vast improvement. The pacing is better, the characters more developed and believable, and the plot is more complex. What is especially enjoyable is the clever and intelligent way that Mieville weaves themes that deal with political authority, power, and socialist ideology into his work, a feat that gives his work not only a realism that is sorely lacking in most fantasy works but also a sense of relevance to contem More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Jan 09, 2012

Chris rated it:

The Scar may be one of the best fantasy novels I've read. The first 100 or so pages were a bit slow going, Mieville has a knack for inundating the reader with exhaustingly detailed descriptions of the world he's created, but it's more than worth the payoff.

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Aug 04, 2011

Tim added it

As with the previous Mieville book, Perdido Street Station. The Scar was like a splash of cold water to the face.

Different, original in a good way, with strong characters, gripping situations and incredibly inventive names.

The blurb on the back does not do the novel credit, which seems to give a central role to the character Tanner Sack, but although he plays an important role the book belongs to Bellis Coldwine, a female running from something, that means she cannot return home to New Crobuzon More...

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Feb 11, 2011

Klytia rated it:

Dopo il labirinto di vie e quartieri che è la città di New Crobuzon, in questo nuovo romanzo ci si perde tra i ponti, le passerelle e i passaggi di una città costruita completamente di navi. Una città vera e propria, con taverne, biblioteche e mercati. Una città che si trascina lenta e temibile nei mari del Bas-Lag con l'intento di raggiungere un unico obiettivo, tanto ambizioso quanto pericoloso.</p>

Le vite dei numerosi abitanti della città, un arcobaleno di razze e lingue, alcune familia

More...

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Feb 09, 2011

Zeruhur rated it:

Bas Lag, atto secondo. Questa volta l’azione si sposta nei mari dello strano mondo creato da Miéville. Che ovviamente non può che essere popolato da strane creature che filtrano da altre dimensioni, su cui si affacciano improbabili civiltà, come quella degli uomini-zanzara. E dove può esistere una città galleggiante, fatta di navi catturate e giuntate tra loro nei secoli a formare una metropoli assurda e semovente.
China Miéville non smentisce le premesse dell’ottimo e criptico Perdido Street St More...

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Nov 13, 2011

Mark rated it:

I wonder if I would have liked this book better if it had said anywhere on the cover or interior that I should have read Perdido Street Station first. I don't know if it would have helped, though. The plot seems like it should be awesome and the execution is so... meh.

For starters, this book is in absolutely dire need of a map. There is no map and thus no frame of reference for the myriad places mentioned within.

Again, this should have been cool. There's mermen and cactus More...

2 comments like

Oct 16, 2011

Megan rated it:

(Re-posted from http://theturnedbrain.blogspot.com)

I bought one of Mieville’s earlier books, Perdido Street Station, for two reasons: 1) The cover appealed to me, and 2) it was very thick. I was a poor uni student at the time you see, with a very limited book buying budget, so doorstoppers represented much better value.

By the end of the day I’d learned two things about the book: The nice smelling German backpacker who was getting off the train as I got on was a big fan ( More...

0 comments like (1 person liked it)

Sep 01, 2011

Andrew rated it:

China Miéville’s The Scar is another excellent addition to his already impressive body of work. It is a novel that is successful at so many layers of narrative that the measure of its true quality approaches with something like stealth and is really only fully revealed in its closing epistolary piece. On a pure story level, The Scar is an extremely satisfying blend of nautical adventure, gritty urban fantasy and monster mash. China’s ability to make the most outrageous creatures seem a natural p More...

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Jul 27, 2011

Bearcatmark added it

The Scar is more accessible and easier to get into from the beginning than Perdido Street Station. Once again Mieville delivers a book full of vivid, descriptive and engaging pros. He shows us many more interesting and creative races and creatures. The Cray, the Grindylow, the Anophelii all fascinating in their own way. the idea of possibility mining and the ridiculously awesome Uther Doul all added immensely to this story. I need to note that I really enjoyed The Scar throughout, but that More...

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Jun 26, 2011

Linda rated it:

Mieville is a spellcaster. I've found (and heard from others) that walking a distance with measured footsteps creates a meditative state. Niewenhuis said that eventually it feels as though each footfall is moving the earth on its way. That's the fugue state Mieville's work conjures. I could feel the wave motion, shivered at the cold depths, sweated the increasing heat of the move south. The characters are so artfully realized, I could see the motion of Uther Doul's fighting, like trails from a s More...

0 comments like (2 people liked it)

Jun 10, 2011

Bearcatmark rated it:

The Scar is more accessible and easier to get into from the beginning than Perdido Street Station. Once again Mieville delivers a book full of vivid, descriptive and engaging pros. He shows us many more interesting and creative races and creatures. The Cray, the Grindylow, the Anophelii all fascinating in their own way. the idea of possibility mining and the ridiculously awesome Uther Doul all added immensely to this story. I need to note that I really enjoyed The Scar throughout, but that it di More...

0 comments like

Mar 26, 2011

Jon rated it:

This is the second Mieville book that I've read, and both have blown me away. Mieville's creativity is astounding in the way that he creates the world of Bas-Lag. After Perdido Street Station I felt like I knew the world, but immediately in the Scar he removes us from New Crobuzon and throws us, literally, in the middle of the ocean, where we stay for the entire novel.

Being a sucker for sea adventure stories, this novel was a great read. Mieville has a fantastic literary style that is More...

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Feb 09, 2011

JenniferRuth rated it:

I would classify this book as leaning more towards fantasy rather than sci-fi - a genre that I am usually not very keen on. This time, however, I was captivated. The book takes a while to get going but the sheer scale of the world Mieville creates cannot help but draw you in. The descriptions of the people and the world are atmospheric and sometimes clever. You can imagine Mieville sitting surrounded by notebooks and paper that he has filled with information on his world of Bas-Lag - it feels li More...

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Jan 18, 2011

Philip rated it:

A bit over-written, to the point that I would wonder who his editor was; but at the same time Mieville can set a wonderful tone with his style, and perhaps it is necessary. His descriptions are wonderful, and he breaks them up with dreadful images and phrases, lots of "anus" and "vomit",to keep you from missing the grittiness of his world.

This is my first of his novels, and I have Perdido Street on my shelf, I read the beginnings and decided on this one first. The More...

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