The Scar: Unsatisfied with the ending !?!

[Umar]

Just finished reading The Scar and thoroughly enjoyed it (after having read Perdido Street Station earlier). However, I felt somewhat cheated by the ending.
Have other readers felt the same... an almost anticlimactic end!? It's not that the ending wasn't good; rather, several story arcs were left open, such as what happens to the characters Silas Fennec, the Lover, Uther Doul and the rest. I'm not sure if their stories are followed up in The Iron Council.

[E.P.]

I think I vaguely remember wishing for a sequel for similar reasons. (I read the book years ago and I have a bad memory.)

There is no follow-up on those characters in Iron Council.

Yes, now that you mention it, I remember waiting for Iron Council with baited breath for just that reason, and it took forever to get released (in subjective, booklust time, of course.) And then there was no follow up. Yup, its all ringing a bell.

[Adam]

i had the same problem reading perdido street station and moving on to the scar, hoping to hear more of isaac and the rest. in retrospect, i actually think i prefer it this way; we are just watching a larger world that continues to move on even though we've just popped in for a story or two and nothing further could really compare to the epic events that had already taken place.

what happened to silas was fitting enough - captured by the grindylow? *shudders* we probably don't need any more details as it's pretty apparent good things aren't in store for that trickster.

we can be fairly certain that the lover will continue on armada, pirating, etc, but now as a captain (of sorts) with a tortured past full of betrayal.

what i thought was more of a "open end" was more about uther doul's motives. if he really wanted the plan not to succeed (since he's sabotaging it virtually the entire way), did we really have to take it this far? or was he just responding to what he was seeing in armada (realizes the people don't want to go and he serves them, not the lovers)? maybe he enjoys being the power behind the power?

thoughts? maybe i'm just dense?

[Yefim]

I think the characters' endings are pretty clear (unlike PSS). Bellis returns to New Crobuzon, Tanner Sack escapes Armada. The male Lover continues to rule Garwater, but he's a figurehead at best now, and doesn't last very long before someone (most likely the Brucolac) usurps him. The female Lover's fate is left deliberately unclear. Doul continues as he had, serving whatever master he can. Silas Fennec lives a very long, and very unpleasant life with the grindylow.

I too thought that the ending is somewhat anti-climactic, but I can see why Mieville, a long-time socialist, would have Armada turned not by intrigues or violence, but by spontaneous mass action by the people.

I also found it amusing that for a self-proclaimed revolutionary, both PSS and the Scar are really about preserving the status quo.

[Heritor]

Sometimes a book ends and leaves you feeling hollowed out, yet with a feeling that your chest is under a great pressure. This is what happens when a book build tension and engrosses you so fully that by the end of the book you are physically responding.

Most authors release this tension during a climax, and you achieve some sort of completion and end the book sated and satisfied. But occasionally the author denies you a climax. This is not the same as an anticlimax, as the author has not made obvious and deliberate attempts to dodge your expectations. Instead the book more or less stops.

I've come to see this as a great artistic achievement, because done correctly it leaves you with a memorable and haunting sensation. At the same time, as others have said, it makes you long for the next book by the author, if not a sequel.

I read The Scar crouched on a beanbag in the corner of a room, back to back with another book in a single day. Strangely, the other book did the same thing.

All in all, it was a very good day.

And Doul and The Brucolac were great.

[[deleted user]]

I suspect that it's very much a deliberate thing. After all, Mieville gives us several lines where things seem to be designed to show us the flaws of thinking in terms of neat stories (Fennec's lies about saving the city, Bellis' mistaken belief that the Grindylow are there for the statue). It's a book where things throughout start off appearing grand, but actually hinge on much smaller things. The ending reflects that, taking a great quest and showing us that ultimately, it's just one woman's madness.

[Andrew]

It's a 'weird' ending for a weird book, but as Stuart says it's probably deliberate becasue it seems to chime with Mieville's desire to unbalance the reader, and make large events turn on small circumstances. The Scar is a brilliant book but the reader has to embrace the weirdness of the whole thing, and I think especially the ending which in the classic sense of story telling is a bit of an anticlimax, but somehow true to the way life is

[Saul]

I'm not sure that Mieville is driven by standard plot devices all that much. I believe he's more interested in the emotions conjured up by the prose and characters. As far as I can tell he has only one goal in mind, it must read beautifully.

And it does.

Must the book follow all the protocols of writing, or have a thoroughly satisfying ending/cliffhanger that makes us want to buy another book? Must it be a another earth shattering thriller? I don't think Mieville is one that subscribes to following the rules. Rather I think he enjoys breaking the rules, just to see how we react as readers.

In the final analysis, here is an amazing author who is writing something different. I for one find it refreshing as all hell.

But...that's me.

[Stefanie]

The ending for me, like the Scar itself, was all about possibilities. In order to understand the power at the center of the quest, you have to experience a moment when all possibilities are manifest and none has yet solidified. And in that way, the reader fulfills the quest, even if Garwater and Armada do not.

[Tina]

I loved this book. Mieville's prose is the best in the genre.

[Zoran]

I was unsatisfied with the fact that Tanner had no tentacle sex with anyone.

[Josie]

It's a great world he gives us in "The Scar", it's so well done that it's impossible not to want more.

[Joanne]

I found the ending unsatisfying, not because it was anticlimactic or open-ended, but because it all seemed a bit arbitrary, quite different from the ideal of 'unexpected yet inevitable'. I had been hoping the ending would shed some light on the Lover's and/or Doul's motives, particularly the former, since it's her desire to reach the Scar that drives much of the plot, directly or indirectly. What is it that drives her to risk her life, all of Armada, even her Lover? The whole plot is predicated on her being absolutely determined to harness the power of the Scar, but there isn't the slightest hint of what she wants to do with that power.

Doul isn't as bad, but it still seems pretty ridiculous that, even though he could have blocked the Lovers' plans himself at several points, he instead came up with an elaborate plan requiring months of forethought, subtle manipulation, and a good dose of luck, in order to trigger a mutiny, just because he likes the security of being a mercenary.

It's kind of ironic, given that the grindylow mocked Bellis for thinking that they crossed oceans to recover a stolen statue when their real motives were far more practical and mundane, yet at the same time we're supposed to accept that the Lover harnessed an avanc and drove her city almost to the edge of the world simply for some abstract desire for power, and that all of Doul's plans were born out of his reluctance to be seen acting independently.

I did actually enjoy reading the book, although it probably doesn't sound like it, but I expected more from the ending and these things just seemed like glaring flaws to me.

[Gina]

Heritor wrote: "Sometimes a book ends and leaves you feeling hollowed out, yet with a feeling that your chest is under a great pressure. This is what happens when a book build tension and engrosses you so fully th..."

Heritor, I absolutely agree with you. It's fairly obvious what will happen to the major characters, although not in great detail. You were spot-on regarding how, if it's done CORRECTLY, a slightly ambiguous ending can be much more memorable, and for me, seem much more realistic than having everything, and everyone, tied up in a neat little bow. I feel like Mieville respects our intelligence and writes accordingly. I think he's everything a science fiction author should be. The fun part is, when your friends come over and see one of his books laying about and ask "So what's that about?"! LOL!

[Jim]

Brilliant writing at times, worth taking down from the shelf and reading a few pages at a time. Unhappy with the ending. As they say..a flawed masterpiece.

[Stephen]

I found the ending a bit of an anti-climax. Great book, though. I just shrugged and moved on to Un Lun Dun.

[Ken]

I love this kind of writing. I respect Mieville for not shying away from telling the story he wants to tell.

Not everything has to be Hollywood. In fact, the less so the better. We don't need to tie up every loose end and find out the fate of every character with some ride-into-the-sunset kind of credit roll chapter with a singalong.

A bit harshly stated, but I feel strongly that so many stories fail on this point. Real life is not Beginning, Middle, End. Real life is that you chance upon some people in your time, travel with them for a while, and part ways without knowing what will happen to them.

[Charles]

Not everything has to be Hollywood. In fact, the less so the better. We don't need to ..."

I agree. Each New Crobuzon book was basically written as a "slice of life". We enter the story, we follow along for awhile, and then the book ends, and their stories continue on without us, leaving the resolution of the storylines up to the reader's imagination.

I dearly, dearly loved The Scar, and other than Embassytown, I think it's his finest work to date.

[Pickle]

Charles wrote: "Not everything has to be Hollywood. In fact, the less so the better. We don't need to ..."

I agree. Each New Crobuzon book was basically written as a "slice of life". We enter the story, we follow..."

I have to agree that The Scar is so far his best book

[Shaith]

Stuart wrote: "I suspect that it's very much a deliberate thing. After all, Mieville gives us several lines where things seem to be designed to show us the flaws of thinking in terms of neat stories (Fennec's lie..." completely agree.... I felt sad of possibly not getting the true narrative of what The Scar's power had to offer, but maybe Hendrigall's testimony was true and he saw the possibility they were heading for.... otherwise, I like the open-endedness... I like the possibilities...