The Scar [Deckle Edge] [Paperback]

Comparing any fantasy novel to Mieville's mighty Perdido Street Station invites a bad review. But it can't be helped, in the case of The Scar. After all, it's the sequel to Perdido Street Station. It's not surprising that it doesn't measure up; what is surprising is how close it comes to doing so.

Not long after the events of Perdido Street Station, Grimnebulin's sometime-girlfriend, Bellis Coldwine, flees New Crobuzon when she feels the militia closing in. Boarding the Terpsichoria, she heads off for the colonies on the other side of the world, stopping at Salkrikaltor Cray on the way for some negotiations. Not long after they leave Cray, however, they are ambushed by pirates from a nation who are completely unconcerned with New Crobuzon's might, and taken prisoner. Things go, to put it mildly, downhill from there.

It seemed to me throughout that much of Mieville's impetus for writing The Scar was to explore and flesh out some of the places that were just mentioned in Perdido Street Station. All well and good, as much of what was praised about the former novel was Mieville's ability to build a world with an awe-inspiring amount of descriptive realism. So it's no surprise that the same happens here, as Mieville takes us thousands of miles north and west of New Crobuzon, jumping around the map and filling in pieces of it we didn't get to see before. Mieville's descriptive talents are as strong as ever.

The plot's got a good deal going for it, as well. The pirates are not your normal brand of pirate, and Bellis spends much of her time trying to figure out what's really going on as a possible means of somehow winning her freedom from her captors. She, and her various co-conspirators, are just as expertly drawn as the batch in Perdido Street Station.

Where the book sometimes flags is pace. Perdido Street Station is compelling reading, the kind of book for which foregoing food and sleep often seems like a good idea. Not so in parts of The Scar. Only parts, mind you, but there are passages here and there where the pace flags. That Mieville previously achieved a perfectly-paced novel in the midst of the vast amounts of thick description therein is the only reason for criticism here; with most authors, we'd be amazed it moves as swiftly as it does.

A worthy, if (very slightly) inferior, successor to Perdido Street Station. **** 

However, if you like characters who set out to make a positive difference in their world and succeed, don't get this book. Mieville likes to write about good guys who aren't really good and who lose even when they win. If he had to do a Churchill biography he'd write about everything except World War II. If he had to do a Presidential biography he'd choose Clinton over Lincoln or Washington every time.

I think he prefers to close his eyes to heroes.

But the world he creates in THE SCAR is gorgeous. It's wonderful. A floating city, a whale as a steed, two different kinds of underwater civilizations, battles with magic and ironclads and airships, an isle of mosquito people, catcus pirates, a magic based on probability theory and oil drilling as a means of magical power--there's just so much stuff in this book. If you want a world you haven't seen before, one wonderfully written, full of life, completely different and completely believable--this is for you.

It's got drama, too, plenty of it, even if Mieville likes to put lots of depressing bits in alongside the successes. There's heroism and war and titan-scale engineering and mysterious magic.

Did I mention that this book is packed full of stuff? And that the world is wonderfully original?

THE SCAR is set in the same universe as PERDIDO STREET STATION, but it goes leagues beyond that in quality. It's the tale, more or less, of a woman who gets hijacked to a fantastic city whose rulers are embarked on an even more fantastic quest, a quest she gets caught up in and that puts half the rest of the world at war with the city -- not to mention the battles within the city itself...

If you want a book that'll leave you smiling, go find some other book. Mieville's too in love with misfortune. His main characters are pretty ordinary people, and even if he lets the good guys more or less win, he leaves you feeling that the characters you were reading about have been left used and broken and mostly defeated. He can't stand to imagine triumph as a good thing. But if you want a world that will absolutely blow your mind and plenty of scenes to leave you breathless, get THE SCAR.