It takes place in a fantastic world replete with magical swords, arcane magics, impossible beasts, but it is also a world of industry, class struggle, elyctricity and chymicals. It has no clearly defined heroes or villains. The Scar, conversely, focuses on a solitary, unsympathetic woman, who sails across the world against her will and has no goal, no higher purpose, beyond returning home. The typical epic fantasy features a plucky band of heroes who journey across the patchwork kingdoms of their pre-industrial world in order to save it from ultimate doom, all the while harried by the forces of darkness. This, however, is the least of his deviations from the norm. Rather, it introduces a new cast and expands the horizon of Bas-Lag, taking us from the dense metropolis of New Crobuzon (the memorable setting of Perdido Street Station) out into the vastness of the oceans, to far-flung islands and half-forgotten realms.īy choosing to create an entirely new story rather than using the basic materials of Perdido Street Station as the building blocks of an indefinite number of sequels, Miéville distances himself from the standard practices of many successful fantasy writers. The Scar is related to the earlier novel, but is not a continuation of its story. The Scar, like its award-winning predecessor, Perdido Street Station, is set in the imaginary realm of Bas-Lag, an alternate world which may, if we are lucky, usher in a new era in epic fantasy. In so doing, it galvanizes its chosen genre, and it confirms Miéville as one of our most important practitioners of speculative fiction. Instead, The Scar subverts our expectations of fantasy. Put like that, it sounds like the archetypal epic fantasy, but unlike most fantasies of this kind, it is not modeled on The Lord of the Rings.

The Scar, China Miéville's third and perhaps best novel, tells the tale of a world-spanning quest for a mythical, mystical source of power.

The scar china mieville review