The Scar

[Brys]

Actually, I read the Scar first and didn't feel lost at all. There were a couple of references to the Midsummer Nightmares, but you didn't really need to know more than he tells you in the Scar about them.
As for characters - I preferred that there weren't sympathetic characters, overall. It made them more believable, and it was certainly better than having unambiguous characters.

For some reason the edit feature isn't working so I have to double post, my apologies



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

I'm one of the few who doesn't fit that mold - but then I'm a relatively new reader, yet I try to recommend Gormenghast at every opportunity. What I would say is that Mieville has some truly excellent writing in the Scar - better than Perdido in parts - and it's more tightly written, he keeps to the narrative better than in Perdido - but it cuts back slightly on the excellent description.

 

[Shoegaze99]

And I freely admit that I'm pretty much the only person to hate the ending.

Not at all. I found the ending of Perdido Street Station to be, well, almost amateurish. Talk about your deus ex machinas! I really got the sense that Mieville didn't know exactly where he was going when he started the novel, and realized 100,000-plus words into the writing that he needed to find a way to wrap things up and bring his tale to an end. It's like he sought out to describe his newly created city over the course of a few hundred pages, cramming in as many ideas as possible before realizing that he had a narrative to finish. Story threads he had cast out were never reeled back in for the finale, making them seem like wasted dead ends. Characters we had never met appeared for no discernible reason to save the day. And the whole tone of the writing changed.


Mieville's creative achievement with Perdido Street Station can't be denied. It's a wonderful blend of steampunk, Victorian horror with Lovecraftian tinges, and fantasy. The world is dense with life and shadow; it's dense; it breathes. He crafts mood and creates atmosphere like few others. Despite a too strong love for “bit words” for their own sake, his prose dances across the page with a cadence all its own


But he also meanders a bit more than needed, sometimes unable to distinguish when his mood-setting should stop and storytelling should begin. And the ending felt terribly thrown together.


When I first read Perdido Street Station, I was instantly prepared to proclaim it a masterpiece. As time wore on, however, niggling bothers tickled my brain, flaws I was all too eager to ignore at the time of reading because I was so absorbed in his world, but which in retrospect sapped some power from an otherwise great work. Self-indulgent to a fault, it needed a more heavy-handed editor.


None of which is to say that I don''t think Mieville is the real deal, because I do. He's got a great vision, a cacophony of sound snatched from a thousand different songs, cut up and reassembled into something totally unique. The world he created is compelling and engaging, a rich tapestry I devoured, and then devoured again in The Scar, and can't wait to devour again in Iron Council. I can't wait to see what he does as the years roll on and his craft improves.

 

[Milk]

I read Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council after reading most of Neal Asher's books. I enjoyed the Scar the most out of China's books, and I enjoyed The Skinner the most out of Neal Asher's books. Maybe I just enjoy pirate stories. The Skinner for anyone who hasn't read it, is one of my favorite Sci-fi/Fantasy books so I highly recomend it, I also would be suprised if British people who read modern Sci-fi havent heard of Asher.
Neal Asher and China are both English and contemporary, and my favorite books by both authors are about pirates set in a Sci-fi or fantasy setting, but their politics and outlook could not be more opposite.
It was interesting reading one author's works after reading another. Neal Asher is extremely cynical, and China Meiville seems optimistic to the extreme.

China seems to be warning us about the misuse of technology, or that technology has an inherant fascist element and what saves the day are rebels of an oppresive government forming socialist collectives to fight the tyrany; while Neal Asher seems to think that the very same technological rule is the only thing that will save mankind from itself which are the corrupt 'collective' rebels China loves. One author's protagonist is the others enemy and vice versa. It was interesting reading one authors works right after the other.



China is a socialist and Neal seems to me to be slightly more of a right wing conservative. I'm not of either thought, but I find Neal Asher's cynicism more refreshing since most Sci-fi to me seems to be extremely humanist, but that doesnt matter one bit because Ive enjoyed reading both their works very much. I dont have to agree with an Authors outlook if their writing transcends their opinions about human nature and government.

 

[Jen526]

Just a quick pop-in from a first-time Mieville reader.

Loved the book, and seeing comments about it being the most accessible for a traditional fantasy reader, I'm glad I picked this one first. I'm not usually a urban fantasy/steampunk sort of gal, so I'm afraid PSS might have turned me off, from the sounds of it.

Anyway, I'm very impressed. Some of the action bits, in particular, sucked me in more than I've been by a book in quite some time. The pirate attack sequence with Bellis observing from her hiding place, and seeing just glimpses of what Uther Doul was capable of, was so vivid...

 

[GOLLUM]

I'm not usually a urban fantasy/steampunk sort of gal, so I'm afraid PSS might have turned me off, from the sounds of it.

But but...PSS is the first in that 3-book "Series" (loosely said) and set in the same world. Huh?

 

[Brys]

It's not a series - each book is more or less entirely standalone. There is no need to read any other book to understand the story in any of them. They are just set in the same world in roughly the same time period. I think for traditional fantasy fans, the Scar probably is the best place to start - and while it's in the same world, it's got less of the urban horror element of PSS. Anyway, I still think PSS is the best of Mieville's books so far.

 

[GOLLUM]

Why I said "loosely" with tongue firmly in cheek.....

Brys is correct, the books are essentially like stand-alones, PSS is definitely the best of the 3 though, no arguments from me.

 

[vurtperson]

I just finished reading the Scar and frankly, I was blown away.
However, I do have some questions and I was hoping someone would answer them for me. (Please highlight the following text)

Spoiler

First of all what happened to the female lover? Did she find the Scar? Is she ever mentioned again in one of China's other books?
Also, I never stood what Uthel Doul really wanted. Wasn't he the one who wanted to find the Scar? Why did he go through everything he went through, only to make the ship return to the Swollen Ocean while sending the lover to the Scar alone?
That part really confused me.

 

[ravenus]

I can say that people who liked PSS will find an equally engrossing and immersive experience here. If I feel it to be a little less powerful in terms of emotional impact, it is only because I felt more attached to the lead characters in PSS and was therefore more deeply impacted by the fates that befell them. I also hold PSS dearer because it stuck more faithfully to the steampunk setting while The Scar gets a little more into 'magic' territory; nothing inherently wrong with that, it's just a personal preference. On the other hand, Mieville here displays a more “onward to the action” style of prose and we are less bogged down by verbose descriptions that jar the flow of the narrative. Characters like Tanner Sack and Johannes Tearfly are memorable as ordinary human beings rendered into heroes/villains by their unique circumstance, and the setting is so unique that, obvious spectacles like the massive sea battles, the expedition to the mosquito-people's village and capture of the gargantuan avanc aside, even descriptions of daily life on the Armada make for captivating reading.

 

[tantric]

where do they get water to drink from????? arggggrrr. yeah, so what, i'm an ecologist. it just bugged me. you can't have LIVESTOCK breeding on a floating city - it's silly. even if they eat seaweed, they need even more water to flush the salt. i just assumed there was some thaumaturgic hex thingy desalinator that just so absolutely ubiquitous to be not worth mentioning?

 

[Rane Longfox]

Water was partially purified, and partially bought from traders, iirc. And why can't you have livestock? The scale of the city is enormous, it's not just a few boats cobbled together

 

[Karsa Orlong]

Haven't posted for a while, but I'm getting back in the mood.

I've just finished The Scar, and I was just wondering to myself whether I enjoyed it more than Perdido Street Station, and I'm finding it a difficult question to answer. I think that Perdido Street Station felt more unusual to me, it was less accessible but perhaps more ambitious. I read it in a week as well, so it certainly wasn't a struggle to get through, and all in all I loved it. That said, there were parts where the book really did lull, in particular much of the stuff involving the constructs. A few ideas were too gimmicky, and the way things came together was also a little haphazard in places, though not as much as some of you are claiming methinks. I liked it when the character we'd never met popped up to save the day for example, I actually thought that was a nice touch.

I also really liked the way the book violently changes a couple of hundred pages in, and I don't think many authors could've managed that so successfully. I thought the pervasive sense of dread and horror that the moths induced was absolutely incredible, the city was wonderfully imaginative yet believable with a bizarre claustrophobic atmosphere as others have said, and all the stuff with the Garuda was fascinating - I loved his first person broodings. Oh, and it has the Weaver.

Still, The Scar might just be even better. Halfway through I would've said otherwise, I think the environment, writing style and atmosphere are all less *different* than they are in Perdido... for much of the story, and thus less impressive initially. But at some point, a very strong bond seemed to grow between me and the Armada. I thought the sections written from an omniscient standpoint were excellent and really captured the mood of the place. The characters, meanwhile, were consistently more interesting and complex in this one, Bellis always held my interest (and empathy - I'm surprised more people don't feel the same way), Doul is obviously utterly cool and very intriguing, the vampyrs were a great surprise (I usually don't like it when conventional *races* are found in books where everything else seems so different, but somehow he pulls it off without a hitch), the Lovers are morbidly fascinating, etcetc - even the less interesting characters seemed somehow necessary (Shekel and Angevine, for instance).

Take nothing away from the characters in PSS, I still think they were damned interesting and stayed well away from stereotypes, but I related to the cast in The Scar just a little more. All the plot twists were unexpected, yet had a feeling of inevitability about them at the same time - he structured the story more effectively than PSS I think.

The Scar also has its weaknesses for sure - for example I don't like the way Miéville ends a segment then starts the next segment in virtually the same conversation, it felt awkward to me. I don't remember him doing that in PSS (correct me if I'm wrong). Writers like Erikson pull this off better, mostly because they usually use breaks in the text in order to jump either to a different character or a different time period, rather than throwing them about willy-nilly.

One thing that I didn't think was weak was the ending. I'd like someone to explain why they didn't like it - for me it wrapped things up very fittingly.

Great book anyway, he's quickly established himself as one of my absolute favourite sci-fi/fantasy authors.

 

[Karsa Orlong]

Why the hell can't you edit posts after 60 minutes? That's seriously annoying, the structure of that post was awful because I was pressed for time, and I was only half done improving it. Oh well, I guess you'll get the gist.

Anyway, I was going to add that Miéville's one of the better writers in the genre for creating characters who will do very strange, surprising, and even conventionally immoral things, that are nevertheless grounded in very understandable, human emotions (albeit complicated ones, especially in Doul's case). It's difficult to maintain a balance between the bizarre and the relatable, the alien and the human, but that seems to be his forte.

 

[ravenus]

Nice review, Karsa. I like PSS more for the reasons I outlined here, but The Scar is also a great book and testament to Mieville's awesome imagination.

 

[speedingslug]

The Scar was great, it was slightly read different to PSS, but embellished more of the world and creatures that exist there. I still wonder where they xenian's come from is it from the torque the wanders the world is this something to do with the Ghosthead Empire ?

I started to feel more emphatic to the Remade in this book, New Crobuzon is a terrifying place indeed, with no morals at all.

 

[kaelcarp]

It's been a few years since I read The Scar, but it has stood as my all-time favorite book since I did, knocking Geek Love from that perch. I just thought it was pretty much perfect. Unlike many people, I loved the ending. I thought it was great. The thing for me is that I can't stand endings that wrap things up neatly or explain everything. I find them contrived and unrealistic. I think Mieville's endings are so much better than most.

Iron Council was a slight let down, though I still liked it a lot, and Un Lun Dun restored Mieville in my mind as the best young writer out there. I look forward to following his career and reading anything he puts out.

 

[digs]

The Scar was easily my favourite of the 'trilogy'. While I enjoyed Perdido Street Station, I always had this strange claustrophobic feeling while reading it - which is perhaps a testament to Mievelle's skill at constructing his hectic world. Similarly I always feel slightly apprehensive whenever I begin a Mieville novel - not because I think I'm going to be disappointed, but because I dread that darkness in his writing (at the same time as I relish it). I think it's masterful that he's created a fascinating world that I love to explore at the same time as I'd hate to ever live there.

 

[Red 13]

Hallo! The Scar was the first book i read by China Mieville. I remember i was in the library browsing through the Fantasy section and i picked up "the Scar" and started reeding the first chapter. Three chapters later i was still standing in the fantasy section completely absorbed by this really amazing and original fantasy book. Since then i've gone on to reed every China Mieville book i can get my hands on. I must admit that "The Scar" has been my favourite so far.

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Best book he's written so far. Simply outstanding...

 

[Dornish First Sword]

Just finished this book. Overall a fantastic story and amazingly well written as I was expecting from China, however the ending was a major let down. After an entire 740 or so pages they just turn around????? come on... it has left me feeling very unsatisfied after such great story.