Perdido Street Station
Arthur C.
Book Entry · Fantasy
What is The Scar about?
Fleeing New Crobuzon's aftermath, the translator Bellis Coldwine is press-ganged at sea into Armada: a floating city of lashed-together hulls centuries deep, ruled by the scarred Lovers, whose project escalates from raising a sunken drilling platform to chaining the avanc — a sea-beast from another reality — to hauling their city toward the Scar itself, a wound in probability where every possibility bleeds. Mercenary swordsman Uther Doul, his Possible Sword flickering through might-have-beens, guards the secret; Bellis, used by everyone including herself, files the genre's best unreliable report. Pirate adventure, vampire polities and probability theory: Miéville's most complete novel.
Why it matters
BSFA and Locus winner, widely held the best Bas-Lag book: proof the New Weird could do swashbuckling sweep without surrendering an ounce of strangeness.
Where does it sit in the series?
Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council: Miéville's New Weird world of New Crobuzon, the floating city of Armada and revolution on rails.
In the Guide from Bas-Lag:
- Perdido Street Station (2000)
- The Scar (2002)
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