Review: The Scar by China Mieville (2002)
Richard Horton
a review by Rich Horton
The Scar is China Mieville's third novel. His second, Perdido Street
Station, was a major success, garnering him a Hugo nomination as well
as plenty of critical acclaim and, unless I miss by guess, healthy
sales. This new novel is set in the same world as Perdido Street
Station, Bas Lag, and as such fits loosely into that vague subgenre
sometimes called "Science Fantasy". That novel was set in the huge,
corrupt, city of New Crobuzon. This novel opens with mysterious doings
in the ocean, and then we meet the noted linguist Bellis Coldwine, who
is fleeing New Crobuzon to the colony city of Nova Esperancia. A
tenuous linkage to the events of Perdido Street Station is provided by
Bellis's reasons for leaving: she was a former lover of the hero of
Perdido Street Station, and she fears being rounded up as a potential
witness after the rather catastrophic happenings in that book.
The ship carrying Bellis Coldwine (as well as ocean biologist Johannes
Tearfly and a group of Remade prisoners including a man named Tanner
Sack) does not get very far, though, before it is overtaken by pirates
from the mysterious floating city Armada. Bellis, Johannes, and the
other passengers and prisoners are taken to Armada, where they are
informed they will live the rest of their lives. They cannot leave the
floating city, but they will otherwise be allowed full citizenship.
Tanner Sack and Johannes accept fairly eagerly, but Bellis is
desperate to have a chance to return to her beloved home city. Soon
she falls into league with the mysterious Silas Fennec, a spy from New
Crobuzon who is as desperate as she to return home, in his case
because he has information of a coming attack on their city. It
becomes clear that the leaders of Armada are engaged in a mysterious
project, and Bellis becomes a key figure when she finds a crucial book
in a language that she is a leading expert in. She learns that Armada
is planning to harness a huge sea creature called an avanc, and to
have the avanc tow the floating city to the dangerous rift in reality
called the Scar, where it might be possible to do "Probability
Mining". More importantly to her and Fennec, her new influence gives
her the chance to get a message Fennec has prepared back to New
Crobuzon.
The story takes further twists and turns from there -- it's very
intelligently plotted, with the motivations of the characters well
portrayed, and with plot elements that seem weak later revealed, after
a twist or two, to make much more sense. But it's not the plot that is
the key to enjoying the book. The characters are also fascinating.
Besides Bellis and Tanner and Fennec, there are such Armadan figures
as the Lovers, male and female leaders of Armada's strongest "riding",
who scar each other symmetrically during their S&Mish lovemaking;
Uther Doul, the dour and enigmatic bodyguard with a sword forged by
the creatures who made the Scar, a sword that flickers through
multiple possible outcomes, possible paths, at once; and the Brucolac,
a vampir, and a fairly conventional one, but still strikingly
portrayed. As in Perdido Street Station, Mieville invents fascinating
part-human species, hybrids of humans and other forms, in this book
most strikingly the anophelii, mosquito men, and, more scarily and
affectingly, mosquito women.
In the end it is Mieville's fervent, sometimes overheated,
imagination, that drives the book. His descriptions of cruel and dirty
places, and odd creatures, are endless intriguing. Yes, he sometimes
luxuriates overmuch in grotesquerie, but I suspect any application of
discipline to his imagination would lose us more neat visions than we
might gain by avoiding the occasional silliness or vulgarness. The
book is also a bit too long -- some of this is the author's delight in
showing us this or that cool gross notion he has had, but also I think
his sense of pace is weak. A fair number of scenes, I think, could
readily have been excised or shortened. (Such as most of the grindylow
"interludes".) The other weakness is one fairly common in certain
fantasy: when so many weird magical things are allowed, on occasion it
seems that things happen, or characters gain powers, for reasons of
the plot only. But though the book is a bit overlong, it remains
compelling reading, and though the magical happenings aren't always
fully consistent, they really don't strain suspension of disbelief too
much: on the whole, this is another outstanding effort from Mieville.
I'd rank it about even with Perdido Street Station, and perhaps
slightly better on the grounds that the plot really is worked out
quite well, with plenty of surprises and an honest, satisfying,
resolution.
%A China Mieville
%T The Scar
%I Del Rey
%C New York, NY
%D June 2002
%P 800 pp.
%G 0-345-44438-8
%O Large Sized Paperback, US$18.95
--
Rich Horton | Stable Email: mailto://richard...@sff.net
Home Page: http://www.sff.net/people/richard.horton
Also visit SF Site (http://www.sfsite.com) and Tangent Online (http://www.tangentonline.com)
Niall McAuley
"Richard Horton" <rrho...@prodigy.net> wrote in message news:TYsA9.9268$qP3....@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com...
> The Scar, by China Mieville (2002)
> The book is also a bit too long -- some of this is the author's delight in
> showing us this or that cool gross notion he has had, but also I think
> his sense of pace is weak. A fair number of scenes, I think, could
> readily have been excised or shortened. (Such as most of the grindylow
> "interludes".)
Those scenes often had a sudden cut in viewpoint, too, as I said
after reading it:
"In particular, Miéville carefully establishes viewpoint characters
and follows them obout in close third person, but then suddenly jerks
out to omniscient when there's a scene that's just too cool to leave
out which can't have any of his viewpoint characters present. [Thinks:
the bathyscape trip, for example]."
The POV control was better than in _Perdido Street Station_, but still
a bit too jerky for me.
--
Niall [real address ends in se, not es.invalid]
Richard Horton
<Niall....@eei.ericsson.es.invalid> wrote:
>
>"Richard Horton" <rrho...@prodigy.net> wrote in message news:TYsA9.9268$qP3....@newssvr19.news.prodigy.com...
>> The Scar, by China Mieville (2002)
>
>> The book is also a bit too long -- some of this is the author's delight in
>> showing us this or that cool gross notion he has had, but also I think
>> his sense of pace is weak. A fair number of scenes, I think, could
>> readily have been excised or shortened. (Such as most of the grindylow
>> "interludes".)
>
>Those scenes often had a sudden cut in viewpoint, too, as I said
>after reading it:
>
>"In particular, Miéville carefully establishes viewpoint characters
> and follows them obout in close third person, but then suddenly jerks
> out to omniscient when there's a scene that's just too cool to leave
> out which can't have any of his viewpoint characters present. [Thinks:
> the bathyscape trip, for example]."
Very good point, actually, and the bathyscaphe trip, in particular,
jarred me because of the egregious POV shift.
Richard Shewmaker
> The Scar, by China Mieville (2002)
>
> a review by Rich Horton
>
> The Scar is China Mieville's third novel. His second, Perdido Street
> Station, was a major success, garnering him a Hugo nomination as well
> as plenty of critical acclaim and, unless I miss by guess, healthy
> sales. This new novel is set in the same world as Perdido Street
> Station, Bas Lag, and as such fits loosely into that vague subgenre
> sometimes called "Science Fantasy". That novel was set in the huge,
Miéville refers to it as "Weird fiction," a synthesis of science
fiction, fantasy, and horror elements. I heard him talk about this in
person but there may be more info on his site at
http://runagate-rampant.netfirms.com/
<snip>
> In the end it is Mieville's fervent, sometimes overheated,
> imagination, that drives the book. His descriptions of cruel and dirty
One reader's overheated is another's brilliant. I've never felt he went
overboard, was unnecessary or found myself "grossed out" by anything. It
would take something like a Brian Lumley Wamphyri novel to do that for
me (and I'd appreciate it -- you get what you pay for). I most
definitely do NOT purchase Miéville for the gross-out factor.
> places, and odd creatures, are endless intriguing. Yes, he sometimes
> luxuriates overmuch in grotesquerie, but I suspect any application of
> discipline to his imagination would lose us more neat visions than we
> might gain by avoiding the occasional silliness or vulgarness. The
> book is also a bit too long -- some of this is the author's delight in
> showing us this or that cool gross notion he has had, but also I think
> his sense of pace is weak. A fair number of scenes, I think, could
> readily have been excised or shortened. (Such as most of the grindylow
Same with this. In both PSS and The Scar I wished the book had been
longer. I felt he could have gone further with some items and distinctly
got the impression in The Scar that at times things had been "reduced"
to make the overall length less.
<snip>
> I'd rank it about even with Perdido Street Station, and perhaps
> slightly better on the grounds that the plot really is worked out
> quite well, with plenty of surprises and an honest, satisfying,
> resolution.
Initially after reading The Scar I felt I liked PSS better. (I'd guess
I've read that three or four times by now.) After re-reading The Scar, I
decided that I felt equally about them, due to the way some things were
handled differently in the two (structure, character development). He's
one of the few authors I can read without stumbling over poor or clumsy
English; indeed, I often find myself noticing the writing itself because
I find it so beautiful.
If you have not read King Rat, I'd highly recommend that also. Not a Bas
Lag novel, it's set in contemporary London, and the less you know about
it, the better it will be. If you hated either of the above, don't bother.