The Scar
2002 • 663 pages

Ratings72

Average rating4.2

15

A mythmaker of the highest order, China Mieville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality. Set in the same sprawling world of Mieville'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 Mieville is a writer for a new era--and The Scar is a luminous, brilliantly imagined novel that is nothing short of spectacular.From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Series

Featured Series

3 primary books7 released books

#2 in New Crobuzon

New Crobuzon is a 7-book series with 3 primary works first released in 2000 with contributions by China Miéville.

Perdido Street Station
The Scar
Iron Council
Looking for Jake
Looking for Jake: And Other Stories
A Jake, con amore
W poszukiwaniu Jake’a i inne opowiadania

Reviews

Popular Reviews

Reviews with the most likes.

I feel really sad finishing this book. It was a long journey, it was such a great book that now I'm feeling empty. Oh Jabber, oh gods.

My favorite quote:

“They had never been each other. They had never been doing the same thing. Perhaps it was only chance that they had traveled together so far.”

April 2, 2014
MattOnBooks
MattSupporter
June 29, 2012
emma
Emma GotoSupporter

The first 50 pages were boring but once it got going I couldn't put it down. Great plot, writing - the shit this guy thinks up of is amazing.

July 3, 2019

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