Bellis Coldwine, an embittered, lonely woman, exiled from the great city of New Crobuzon, is merely one of a host of people accidentally trapped in Armada's far-flung net, but she soon finds herself playing a vital role in the byzantine plans of the city's half-mad rulers. Armada, a floating city made up of the hulls of thousands of captured vessels, travels slowly across the world of Bas-Lag, sending out its pirate ships to prey on the unwary, gradually assembling the supplies and captive personnel it needs to create a stupendous work of dark magic.

In this stand-alone novel set in the same monster-haunted universe as last year's much-praised Perdido Street Station, British author Mi ville, one of the most talented new writers in the field, takes us on a gripping hunt to capture a magical sea-creature so large that it could snack on Moby Dick, and that's just for starters. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes that float undetected miles below the waters-terrifying entities with a singular, chilling mission.Ĭhina Miéville is a writer for a new era-and The Scar is a luminous, brilliantly imagined novel that is nothing short of spectacular.īONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from China Miéville’s Embassytown. Instead, she must furtively seek information about Armada’s agenda. Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show dissent is a death sentence. On Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals to humans, Cactae, and Cray. The surviving passengers are brought to Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating, landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. But when the ship is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers are summarily executed. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleashed a nightmare upon New Crobuzon.įor Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new frontiersmen of the colony until it is safe to return home. Among them is Bellis Coldwine, a renowned linguist whose services as an interpreter grant her passage-and escape from horrific punishment. They are joined by a handful of travelers, each with a reason for fleeing the city. Clarke Award-winning novel, Perdido Street Station, this latest epic introduces a whole new cast of intriguing characters and dazzling creations.Īboard a vast seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to the fledgling colony of New Crobuzon. Set in the same sprawling world of Miéville’s Arthur C.

A mythmaker of the highest order, China Miéville has emblazoned the fantasy novel with fresh language, startling images, and stunning originality.

The Scar by China Miéville