I want to be a pirate librarian in the worst way. It would then be acceptable for me to wear stripy tights, carry a parrot on my shoulder, and holler, “AAARRRGGGHHH! No grog near the card catalog, ye lily-livered scallywag!” And I’d get to work in a library.
Best job ever.
Bellis Coldwine, the main character of The Scar by China Mieville, doesn’t agree with me. I suppose that’s why I don’t find her to be sympathetic: she’s just not enthusiastic about her pirate librarian job. And she’s rather whiny.
Despite the irritating protagonist, The Scar is an amazing book. Set in a steampunky world called Bas Lag, it’s full of monsters, cactus-men, mosquito-men, alchemy, thaumaturgy, science, vampires, airships, and Armada, a floating pirate city built from press ganged ships. All that, rather than Bellis, is what carries this book.
The premise is this: Bellis starts out on one journey and winds up on another with Armada. Some of the leaders there are up to something.
And that’s all I really want to tell you. I feel like going into more detail would just ruin it.
Be warned, though: there is a lot going on in this novel. In addition to multiple plots and subplots and layers of espionage, Mieville tosses new concepts out to the reader at a breakneck pace with little description or exposition. The pieces are scattered throughout the book, there to reconstruct as you go along, but readers who don’t have the patience for this sort of thing will get frustrated quickly.
But, the world of The Scar is so bizarre and engrossing that it demands to be read. I stayed up far too late on a few school nights because I wanted to read just one more chapter (and then another and another. . . ). Then when it was done, I missed it.
Get your hands on The Scar. Then join me in a hearty AAARRRGGGHHH!
Lisa Fary is a graduate of the creative writing program at Florida State University and holds an advanced degree in Special Education. Her earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She’s angry that it’s 2010 and she still doesn’t have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram.
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Lisa Fary's earliest influences are Princess Leia, Rainbow Bright, Astronaut Barbie, and her 6th grade teacher, Ms. Palmer. She's angry that it's 2011 and she still doesn't have a hovercraft, but will accept a jetpack as consolation. That jetpack had better be pink with a rhinestone monogram. 
I adored this book! And I agree, it's the incredibly detailed world that will keep you up at night to try to see just a little bit more. I remember being in bed very late one night, and being startled out of the book by a train, and looking around my room for a full second and being completely disoriented about where I was, and even *who* I was– I was so *in* the story that I just couldn't understand for that heavy moment that my room wasn't part of that armada. I actually thought I felt the pressure of the room being halfway underwater, part of a submarine or something– it was insanely weird. I haven't felt that kind of immersion in a book since I was a little kid, reading an abridged version of David Copperfield and looking up to wonder why no one was wearing a tophat. Mieville is an astoundingly amazing writer– his work is magical.
I have got to be one of the only people I know who didn't like this book. Actually, I got about halfway through it and finally just quit because I didn't care about the characters and the interesting world wasn't enough to hold my attention. I want to try another Mieville book to see if it was just that one, but I haven't gotten there yet.
Rosalind