The Scar

rune

rune

rune
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Jun 3, 2004
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I thought it would be nice to start a thread on this book in the New Crobuzon series :)

I personally dont think you have to read the books for this series in order. I read this book first before going onto PSS which is the first one in the series.

But anyhow, I'm rambling :D

What did everyone think of The Scar?
 
I loved the Scar. Thought it was much better than Perdido Street Station. I know Mieville gets a lot of praise for New Crubozon (and rightly) but PSS was so claustrophobic! The Scar had a much wider scope, and the characters where so much more colourful and enjoyable. Uthor Doul especially is a brilliant character.
The ending was still a let down (Mieville's only flaw, IMHO - he can't write proper endings) but it wasn't as bad as the ending to PSS. And the rest of the book was so awesome I'll forgive him;)
 
caladanbrood said:
I loved the Scar. Thought it was much better than Perdido Street Station. I know Mieville gets a lot of praise for New Crubozon (and rightly) but PSS was so claustrophobic! The Scar had a much wider scope, and the characters where so much more colourful and enjoyable. Uthor Doul especially is a brilliant character.
The ending was still a let down (Mieville's only flaw, IMHO - he can't write proper endings) but it wasn't as bad as the ending to PSS. And the rest of the book was so awesome I'll forgive him;)
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I thought Uthor Doul was my favourite character of The Scar too. I really enjoyed his run ins with the vampires :D

And weren't the Lovers creepy!
 
***SPOLERS****

His (non)fight with the Brucolac was the best fight scene I've ever read;) No really, I thought it was a touch of class.
 
I enjoyed The Scar quite a bit. The piratical city-fleet of Armada is such a bizarre yet compelling creation, and there are a greater variety of interesting characters here, including the closes Mieville has come yet to an 'action hero' type - Uther Doul, the Lovers' strongarm man. I wouldn't say I liked it more than PSS - simply because I revelled in the urban setting so vividly captured in the earlier work. I'm an urban creature after all. I do agree that the ending is a bit at sea - if I may be forgiven the weak attempt at a pun! I actually wanted to discuss the ending and how it impacts the experience of the book in our Book Club discussion, but the discussion itself seemed to have wound by then.
 
I have just finished The Scar and really enjoyed it from start to finish. The ending wasn't such a let down as I had been expecting (from reading this thread!).
This was my first China Mieville book and I have got to say that I loved it. The characters, the descriptions, the creatures and the inventiveness were all spellbinding. The rage and the emotion of the characters as they discover how they have been used seems very real indeed. The story seems to have been written against a rich backdrop of many many other things going on although the endless names of distant nations and races sometimes got a touch confusing though. Several of the characters have fascinating histories which would probably make interesting novels in themselves.
Must go and search out more by the same author.
 
Oddly enough, when I look back on it I'm reminded of the two Sinbad sequels by Harryhausen. I think it's the Mosquito people.
 
This was my first China Mieville book and I have got to say that I loved it.
...
...
Must go and search out more by the same author.
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Good to hear!
Try Perdido Street Station next, if you can. Very different atmosphere to The Scar, but the same plus points. I won't whine to much abou the ending anymore, don't want to put you off it;)
 
I read your review with interest. I agree that the Scar is slow to get going, and once it does it's a brilliant story.

But I dont agree that this book isnt as good as PSS. I personally thought it was better.
 
The Scar presents a more accesible book IMHO to fans of traditional fantasy. particularly because of Uther Doul but IMHO as a complete book although awesome doesn't exhibit the overal brilliance of Perdido Street Station.

My apologies it's very hard for me to disuss without more that the info "I like the Scar better".

If it was intended just as a statement and not just an opinion my apologies.
 
For some reason the edit feature isn't working so I have to double post, my apologies

Mieville's best book in fact, IMHO.
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Those are two different things and are not synonymoous. I respect anyone's opinion but admittedly it is not one shared by most from my observation (which doesn't make it right or wrong). Generally I see a split, most new fans tend to like The Scar more, due to its more aforementioned excessible nature, and most critics, and genre related people tend to favor Perdidio Street Station, and consider it one of the mdoern masterpeices of speculative fiction.

In some ways I may have felt The Scar was mroe entertaining, but IMHO isn't anywhere near as better written as a whole.

Again sorry for the double/post:)
 
Sorry about the delay in replying... I loose track easily;)


I love both books, don't get me wrong. PSS is certainly a masterpiece in almost every sense of the world. And I freely admit that I'm pretty much the only person to hate the ending. Maybe I should read it for the third time some time and see if it improves...
And Mieville's writing style is certainly well suited to a location such as New Crubozon, he generates a great feeling of claustrophobia, and has obviously done a lot of detailed back-work into the city before writing the book, its shown by all the little details he pops in every now and again that lift it above the rest.
The storyline itself is wonderful too, the tension Mieville builds up towards the end and the supporting cast is one of the best ever - The Weaver is unparralelled in any book I've read, and the Machine Council (or whatever its called) isn't too far behind:) Add to this the Moths, the Handlingers, Jack Half-a-prayer, all the human characters, the diplomat of Hell. The list goes on...

In short, I think PSS is a wonderful book, for about the first 844 pages (its 866 long;)).


The Scar, meanwhile, is a whole different kind of book. It's easier to read for one thing, and I haven't encountered that kind of armada city before. The semi-mystery of its origins, and, to start with, its purpose, really draws you into the novel initially. Again, a great cast, though maybe less so than PSS, but Uther Doul and The Brucolac are a great double-act, and the supporting cast is just as good as in PSS. There are obviously less "exotic" creatures, just the Leviathan really... However, I personally felt much more drawn towards Tanner and Bellis in The Scar than I did to Issac in PSS.
And the ending is so much better. It always comes down to this with Mieville for me:(
What I didn't like about The Scar was Mieville's expansion on the something-people theme he started in PSS. It was ok, and just about under control when it was just Bug-people, Bird-people and Cactus-people, but in The Scar it goes on to Mosquito-people and Frog-people too, and this just annoyed me, to be frank. Couldn't really explain why, I just didn't like it...

I'm really splitting hairs to choose between the two, as they are both brilliant books. Think of it as the tortoise and hare analogy; PSS streaks along att completely brillaint until near the end, when it basically stops dead, while The Scar is less all-out for the whole book, but doesn't stop;)



I wouldn't consider myself a "new fan" though. Could you expand a bit more on that?
 
wouldn't consider myself a "new fan" though. Could you expand a bit more on that?
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I didn't call you a new fan, I just made a statement regarding New Fans that correlates with my post. I have found most people that haven't read a lot outsdie of traditional fanatsy, and read both these novels prefer The Scar. As I said before aI think it's more excessible, probably due to the presence of a character like Uther Doul, and as yo usaid it's a bit easier to read.
 
OK, I've read it. And although the beginning was quite painful, I liked it.
Strangely, I've felt no empathy with any of the main characters, but China Mieville is talented enough to let the reader get fascinated by its story anyway. I've felt like an entomologist watching ants replaying the Tempest.
 
Yep, none of the characters are really sympathetic, except a couple of the peripheral ones - in itself an interesting device, I thought. What was your peroblem with the beginning? The absorption into a not very likable person's mental space? I think that's what many readers have complained about.
 
No, I was simply lost as I haven't read Perdido Street Station yet. And it took too long before getting into the real thing : the arrival of Armada.
 
Reading Perdido first certainly helps in the undertsanding of the following books.

Glad you're enjoying Mieville Leto..:)
 
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