The Scar

The Scar

by
China Mieville

Synopsis of The Scar

A mythmaker of the highest order, China Mi...ville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality. Set in the same sprawling world of Mi...ville's Arthur C. Clarke Award-winning novel, Perdido Street Station, this latest epic introduces a whole new cast of intriguing characters and dazzling creations.

Aboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage...and escape from horrific punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon.

For Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new frontiersmen of the colony until it is safe to return home. But when the ship is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers are summarily executed. The surviving passengers are brought to Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating, landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. On Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals to humans, Cactae, and Cray. Yet no one may ever leave.

Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show dissent is a death sentence. Instead, she must furtively seek information about Armada's agenda. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes that float undetected miles below the waters'terrifying entities with a singular, chilling mission. . . .

China Mi...ville is a writer for a new era...and The Scar is a luminous, brilliantly imagined novel that is nothing short of spectacular.

Reviews of The Scar

72%

Mieville strives mightily to fill a huge canvas, unafraid of big page counts, outlandish characters and extravagant set pieces. -- Michael Berry, San Francisco Chronicle

Sloppy prose, didactic dialogue, overlong or missing scenes keep the reader at a distance. -- Jeff VanderMeer, The Washington Post

...The Scar eventually demonstrates enough invention and brutal energy, firmly ruled by a calm architectonic intelligence, to show that Mi...ville is one of the most imaginative young writers around in any kind of fiction. -- Steven Poole, The Guardian

His latest effort offers not only a captivating romp through a richly imagined universe, but one that reverberates meaning back at so-called reality. -- D.J. Morel, The Seattle Times

Mi...ville is an original and distinctive Author. -- David Dalgleish, January Magazine

Characterization is scant, even in the case of Mieville... -- Michael Harris, LA Times

A work that should solidify the Author's reputation, if not necessarily significantly advance it, The Scar marks another prodigious effort on the part of the Author, one that is likely to be acknowledged come award and best list time. -- William Thompson, SF Site

Like Mi...ville's first two novels, The Scar is a feat of the imagination, a rich reclamation of the pleasures of every genre. -- Kim Newman, The Independent

Mi...ville's world is a concatenation of wonders... -- John R. Alden, The Philadelphia Enquirer

While the Book gets off to a bit of a slow start, and Coldwine takes awhile to warm up to, the payoff is there, and the persistent reader will wind up both fulfilled and satisfied with this eventful cruise to New Crobuzon -- Dan Bogey, Pittsburgh Tribune

Although the plot itself is flaw -- ever really understand the basic motivations that drive Doul, the critical actor in the entire novel--I found myself nevertheless entranced by the novel." -- BooksForABuck.com