Helpful Score: 3
A marvel of dark fantasmagoria and a most colorful collection or potpourri of intriguing ideas.. It may be worth heeding other reviewer's warning - the first half of the book are truly fantastic. As others have said, the action in the second half, while moderately intriguing and competent, flattens and simplifies the marvelous portrait. Nevertheless worth reading.
Helpful Score: 1
Really good - even better than Perdido Street Station. Disturbing, tense and unpredictable.
Helpful Score: 1
China Mieville writes a good book. The plots and subplots are all tied together well and resolved properly. His imaginative world of Bas-Lag is excellent--incredible creatures, good and bad characters, and impressive cities. His writing is descriptive and sometime overly so. The book will keep your attention for the most part but sometimes is too dense in description and ideas that don't move the plot. Overall, an excellent book--I recommend reading Perdido Street Station first but it is not necessary.
Helpful Score: 1
Mieville is the consummate world builder. What great creativity. Recommend this highly along with his Perdido Street Station.
Helpful Score: 1
2nd novel set in the same world as Perdido Street Station and Iron Council; not as terrifying as the first, but fascinating nonetheless. Great writing style - lush and Dickensian.
great steampunk continuation of Perdido Street Station. The Scar follows Bellis Coldwine's misadventures as she gets inadvertantly diverted from her effort to escape the inquisition forlloing the events in Perdido Street Station. This a very entertaining story set in a rusty cruel world powered by basically anything the occupants can cobble together from whatever happens to be handy. including each other. the book has intrigues galore, and craven self awareness, heroism, and a untapped realm of "possibilities". who can say what might happen? who can say what in fact DID happen? when history has such an odd way of not matching the present. so, yeah, go to the scar with Bellis. i would re read this book, and thats nuff said.
Mieville's works have become popular in the last few years - I think I understand why. Although this book didn't seem to have a typical, conflict-resolved-by-the-end plot, the world building and genius-level characters kept me interested. The action was continuous, and the machine-adapted characters were repulsive but interesting all at once. The world describe in the novel was mysterious, totally fascinating, and ugly. But Mieville worked in an appreciation of little pieces of beauty. There's the genius - finding the beauty in the repulsive.
Absolutely great! Can't wait for more from Mieville. Filled with awesome descriptions and story plots. A true can't put it down. Mieville comes across as a little strange sometimes, but is an extraordinary read!
