About this title: In this follow-up to PERDIDO STREET STATION, the troubled city of New Crobuzon finds itself amid political turmoil. Fleeing the city for supposedly safer climes, Bellis Coldwine books passage on a ship to a remote colony, but en route her ship is captured by pirates. Forcibly taken to a massive, renegade, floating city, Coldwine is sought by the Lovers, the city's brutal (and bizarre) leaders, who require her linguistic abilities to translate an ancient book.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780345444387ISBN:0345444388
Description: Good. Used item may show library stamps, stickers and marks. Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Description: Acceptable. Book is in good reading condition. Cover has wear at edges and corners, and may have creases. Spine has wear at edges and may have creases. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780345460011ISBN:0345460014
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. No visible creasing to spine, square, binding tight, light shelf/edge wear. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 608 p. Audience: General/trade. No visible creasing to spine, square, binding tight, light shelf/edge wear. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780345460011ISBN:0345460014
Description: New. GoodwillnyBooks is committed to providing each customer with the highest standard of customer service. You may return new items within 30 days of delivery for a full refund. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780345460011ISBN:0345460014
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 608 p. Audience: General/trade. Book is in excellent condition. Cover and pages are clean, binding is tight. We ship daily, Satisfaction Guaranteed. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Ballantine Books, New York
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780345460011ISBN:0345460014
Description: Very Good + a Bas Lag novel. Spine is uncreased, no bumps or scratches, interiors are tight and unread. An excellent reading copy. Second novel in Mieville's astounding Bas Lag sequence of novels, after "Perdido Street Station". "The Scar", broadens the scope of Mieville's world, casting the reader adrift on a pirate utopia named Armada, where we learn of its fragile politics and harsh laws. Very highly recommended! read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780345460011ISBN:0345460014
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. Reading crease, small bumps/chips to all corners. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 578 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Trade Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey, New York
Date Published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780345444387ISBN:0345444388
Description: Very Good. No Jacket as Issued. Very light edgewear to the covers. Otherwise a clean, tight copy with no spine creases. Cover art by Ashley Wood. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780345460011ISBN:0345460014
Description: New. Brand New! Buy with confidence-your satisfaction is guaranteed at B-Logistics! Due to the large scale of our operation, we do not have access to the specific contents/condition of our items. Please note that Expedited shipping is not available at this time. read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Del Rey
Date Published: 2002-06-25
ISBN-13:9780345444387ISBN:0345444388
Description: New. Hardback w/ DJ. You are buying a Book in NEW condition with very light shelf wear to include very light edge and corner wear. Buy it Now! ! ! As always, thank you for buying this book from International Book Source, YOUR ONE source FOR ALL your BOOK related NEEDS. Please remember to CHOOSE carefully how QUICKLY you would like to RECEIVE this material FAST, or standard (on next page). Thanks again! ! ! ! read more
Edition: First edition. First Mass Market Edition; First Printing.
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Del Rey Books
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780345460011ISBN:0345460014
Description: Fine. No dust jacket as issued. Light reading crease on spine. A great copy of a great book. MMPB. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Del Rey Books, New York
Date Published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780345460011ISBN:0345460014
Description: Good. No dust jacket as issued. SIGNED by author on title page (signature only). 1st mass market paperback edition, 1st printing, complete number line. The cover is worn and the edges are rumpled. The edges of the page block are tanned. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 608 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
"The Scar's heroine, Bellis Coldwine, is a translator on the merchant vessel Terpsichoria. When the ship is overtaken by pirates, Bellis is brought to Armada, a floating city made up of stolen ships. The pirates of Armada capture new ships to grow the city, introduce new laborers to its workforce, and free the slaves being transported to far-off colonies. In her new life, Bellis is expected to become an Armadan citizen, to do the everyday things every city-dweller does: walk to work, buy lunch at a restaurant, meet friends and lovers. However, Bellis is desperate to return to New Crobuzon, her home city, and vows never to conform to the floating city's way of life.
That itself is enough plot to fill a normal novel, but Mieville isn't halfway done setting the stage. Human beings Remade into monsters through a combination of surgery and magic? Check. Submarines, blimps, steam engines? Check. A race of mosquito-people trapped on an island to prevent them from sucking the world dry (again)? Check. Vampires? Check. Chthulu-like creatures torn through the fabric of the universe and used for humanity's nefarious purposes? Check. Making all of this yet more terrifying through, of all things, math? Um, check.
Mieville's imagination is nothing short of humbling, and his skill in prosody is more than enough to match it. The plot points above could easily become silly caricatures of horror fantasy (or horror scifi), but Mieville keeps it reined in. His universe is carefully crafted and utterly real. His characters range from cactus-people made of vegetable fibers to fish/men/eel things, but they are grounded in the all-too-familiar human tendency to act in their own self-interest at all times.
I don't know how I've gone this long without even hearing of this dude, but I'm going to go out and read his entire backlist now. Well, maybe after a palate-cleanser, something that won't give me nightmares."
"This has all the things that are great about China Mieville: really nasty monsters, rich & intriguing settings, the gritty realism of life in among astonishing flights of imagination, sleep-depriving unputdownability. And it has all the things that are not so great about China Mieville: not-quite-real characters (though I could stand to find out a great deal more about Uther Doul), show-offy writing style that doesn't add as much as it should to the plot or settings. I think the thing that tipped me to a 3 rather than 4-star rating is that the plot has so much impetus and so much lurking beneath it and so many fascinating strands that when china pulled out the big revelations at the end they were a bit of an anti-climax. Good, sure; but not as good as i'd hoped. And nothing in 'the scar' creeped me out quite like PSS's slake moths."
"I loved Perdido Street Station and was excited to read the second book in the world of Bas-Lag. Mieville didn't let me down. I can't honestly say which of the two books I prefer: they are drastically different from one another, and if one couldn't conveniently think of them both as "fantasy" novels, it would be hard to place them in the same genre.
I don't want to spoil anything about the story, but I will say that The Scar reminded me in some ways of Moby Dick. Only in good ways. There weren't any tedious descriptions of whales, or hundreds of pages of needless extrapolation.
I find it interesting that in The Scar, I found many of the secondary characters very compelling, yet didn't find the protagonist very interesting or easy to sympathize with. In fact, the protagonist is the only aspect of this book that I didn't like. (I also wanted a clearer description of a few beasts, but I understand Mieville's motivation in keeping these monsters mysterious.)
My final analysis: you should read both Perdido Street Station and The Scar. These are both clear examples of how good fantasy can be."
"While The Scar follows Perdido Street Station chronologically, they're hardly sequels. That said, I believe reading them in order is important, simply because PDS spends a little more time in explanation and backstory, making elements and barely-mentioned parts (that are unimportant to the overall story of The Scar) much more colorful.
Ultimately, The Scar is the better book, due to the stronger narrative, the pacing, and the characters. Given the fantastical nature of Mieville's Bas-Lag, a story that is ultimately rather straightforward is refreshing and engrossing, and The Scar ends up being a quick read because of it. It explores some of the far-off lands through some clever characterization and doesn't shy away from the hardships of life at sea (or life in Bas-Lag in general). Some of the revelations towards the end seemed a little too smooth, but not in a jarring way -- just in a "yeah, I should've seen that coming" way. And, thankfully, those moments did not detract from the story or the narrative's momentum.
Definitely recommended, and one I'll likely re-read, but if you haven't read any Mieville, start with PDS."
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