The Scar

"What" may very well be the correct word.


But to find out for yourself, you ought to read the First Law trilogy.
 
Yeah well so I gathered/ unfortunatly I'm taking 5 courses in school and working part time so I'm not quite able to read anything for fun these days.

So why not be a real pal and just try to tell me =)
 
I just finished reading The Scar a couple of days ago and here are my thoughts (so everyone knows I won't be shying away from Spoilers for The Scar or Perdido Street Station).

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 did not resonate at the level as Perdido for a number of reasons. For one I think the tension was not as legitimate as it was in Perdido. In Perdido you understood the threat...it was freaky...it was fascinating. The terror of the Slakemoths was one of the most awesome I have ever read. The necessity to shut them down was readily apparent and the tension as a result was strong. In the Scar you never really got a sense of what the tension was about. The battles were cool, the idea of the Scar itself was great, but it never resonated at the same level with me. It seems like the greatest tension in the book was "what might happen if they reach the Scar?" and "can Bellis stop them from making it there and maybe eventually return home?" To me these simply were not as compelling. I also did not find the city of Armada itself as engaging as New Crobuzon and their certainly was no entity to match The Weaver. All in all it was a great read, but just not at the level of Perdido Street Station.
 
I think what I liked about "The Scar" more than Perdido Street Station was that China's impressive world-building skills were fully on display. We got some hint of the world beyond New Crobuzon in PSS, but I enjoyed that he expanded the landscape in "The Scar". And while I agree that PSS was a bit more engaging on a visceral level, I found "The Scar" better plotted and paced all around.

(Of course, I'd read Perdido Street Station or Iron Council -- the weakest of the Bas Lag trilogy, IMO -- a hundred times apiece if I had the chance.)
 
I personally didn't find The Scar as immersing as Perdido Street Station. The story tends to be quite meandering for the first half, though it does pick up in the second. Very few memorable parts for me, such as the island of mosquito women and the battle. Also, not as many genuinely interesting characters (although Tanner Sack is great and Uther Doul could have his own series), and Bellis, the main protagonist, is given little back story and personality which makes it difficult to care what happens to her. Maybe another read would change my mind, but definitely had higher expectations after reading PSS.
 
Thing said:
It does! What's more, the mosquito men, with sphincters for mouths, remind me of a few people I know ... :D
Click to expand...

Lol,saaaaame.I must admit i would always smile imaginning the mosquito men's dialect.
 
Just finished reading it - I raced through it in a day and a half which was amazing as PSS took me over a month to get into and finish. Maybe I'm just used to his style now but The Scar was a lot easier to read for me. I love it, great story, characters and world building.

Not sure if I preferred it to PSS though, weird how they traversed half the World but it feels like PSS had a bigger world to explore. I think I missed the personal relationship that you build up with New Crubouzan in Perdido.
 
Just finished reading The Scar and it is interesting to do a quick scim through this thread afterwards - some very mixed responses in there!

For myself I I did not find this book more accessible than Perdido Street Station. In fact quite the opposite; I found the characters in PSS immediately engaging, despite their many flaws and lets face it they all had enough of them, I found something to like in all of them and I cared about what happened to them. In the The Scar on the other hand I only really got to like and sympathise with a couple of the peripheral characters. I neither liked nor sypathised with any of the main characters, I really didn't find myself much caring what happened to them. Although PSS was certainly a dark book I didn't find it oppressive whereas I definitely found the The Scar to be so, particularly in the first half.

Whilst the city of Armada was a fantastically creative idea I never really felt like I had been there, as I did with New Crobuzon. I have to say that Mieville's wonderful descriptive prose of PSS seemed to be much more subdued in The Scar; I'm sure there are many who prefer the Scar for that very reason but for me it was lacking in something and all the scenes felt very grey.

Bottom line: I felt completely drawn in to PSS, each time I picked up the book I slid into it's world with remarkable ease. With The Scar on the other hand I felt I was struggling through mud to get into it. For me PSS was a far better book and The Scar somewhat dissappointing.
 
I had the same problem empathising with the characters, Vertigo, which meant that I remained an observer rather than becoming immersed in the story. A shame really, because as you say, the book otherwise had a lot going for it**. (It must have had, because I still like the book more than I dislike it, but see it as flawed.)







** - Including suggestions about why Bas-Lag had become the strange place it is.
 
Hmmm yes I think I agree with you on that Ursa - I too like it more that dislike it. I gave it 3 stars in my database whereas PSS got 5. So not as good but the overall scope of his imagination in the Scar was still enough to keep me with it and enjoying it. I guess I just expected more after PSS.
 
Interesting. I actually identified quite a bit with Bellis...I guess you have to be a cold fish to appreciate her character. ;)

Uther Doul remains one of my favorite bad-ass characters in all of science fiction. I love the sharp dichotomy between his cold, cool, almost shy demeanor and the wild beast he is capable of becoming.
 
I just finished it and despite it taking me about a month to read (whereas I read PSS in about 2 weeks) I think I enjoyed it more than PSS.

I'm still not sure how I feel about the ending though I don't know whether I liked it or not which is strange I think I'll have to mull it over.
 
I couldn't stand Bellis. Uther Doul and the Brucolac, however, are my favourite ever of Meiville's characters. I would love for him to write a book just about them.
 
I don't understand why everyone hated the ending so much. I thought it was VERY clever.

SPOILER:
Mieville leaves EVERYTHING as a probability. It's Schrodingers cat - we the reader don't know.

Why did Hedrigall leave? Was it simple fear? Was it all planned out?
Did Doul actually defeat the Brucolac - or did he simply surrender in fear of losing everything? Doul goes to visit the Brucolac once he's released at the end.
Was it all an elaborate scheme to charge the probability sword and devices owned by Doul? Or was it all simply desperate choices made from moment to moment?
Both ways for so many things are possibilities but we learn nothing

He takes a true resolution away from us admittedly, but I've thought about its ending more than most books I've read.
 
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