The Scar
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First edition hardcover
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| Author | China Miéville |
|---|---|
| Cover artist | Edward Miller |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Series | Bas-Lag novels |
| Genre | Fantasy, New Weird |
| Publisher | Macmillan Publishers |
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Publication date
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June 2002 |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 717 pp |
| Award | Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (2003) |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 49692277 |
| 823/.914 21 | |
| LC Class | PR6063.I265 S28 2002 |
| Preceded by | Perdido Street Station |
| Followed by | The Tain |
The Scar is the second Bas-Lag novel, and third overall, written by China Miéville, a self-described "weird fiction" writer from London, England. The Scar won the 2003 British Fantasy Award and was shortlisted for the 2003 Arthur C. Clarke Award. Miéville won both these awards in 2001 for his previous novel, Perdido Street Station, and won the Arthur C. Clarke Award again in 2005 for Iron Council.
The Scar was additionally nominated for the Philip K. Dick Award in 2002 and the Hugo Award for Best Novel in 2003.
Although set in the same universe as Perdido Street Station, The Scar is not a sequel to that novel, though it is set directly after the events described in Perdido Street Station.
The Scar opens with the journey of a small ship which has set out from the city New Crobuzon (the setting of Perdido Street Station). It is heading to the city's new colony, Nova Esperium, which lies across the Swollen Ocean of Bas-Lag. On board the ship are:
Before the ship reaches Nova Esperium, it is captured by pirates, and the passengers, crew and prisoners are all press-ganged into being citizens of Armada, a floating city made of thousands of ships. Tanner uses his newfound freedom to embrace his remaking. He has his body further remade and the earlier, rough work perfected, becoming an amphibious sea-creature. Treated now as an equal citizen rather than a prisoner or slave, Tanner's loyalties fiercely lie in Armada.
Bellis meanwhile despises her new life as a librarian for the city's vast collection of stolen books, and yearns for home (somewhat ironically, as she was originally fleeing it). She gains the attention of the powerful Uther Doul, bodyguard to the Lovers, the mysterious, scarred leaders of Armada. Doul, for his own reasons, involves Bellis much more closely in the city's matters. She soon becomes privy to a plan formulated by the Lovers to raise a mythical sea creature known as the avanc. Simultaneously, she becomes involved with a New Crobuzonian spy named Silas Fennec, who reveals that the grindylow of the Cold Claw Sea are planning war on New Crobuzon. Silas was on his way home to warn his leaders of this war (thus saving the millions of innocents who might be slaughtered by the grindylow) when he was captured by Armada. Bellis and Silas find physical release in each other, and commiserate that they are powerless to save their home city.
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