The Scar

I finished both of these books in sequence (though it really isn’t important to read them that way) about eight or nine months ago.  The first book in Mieville’s “Bas-Lag” books, Perdido Street Station, I finished a good while before that.  (What’s funny is that I was really eager to read them — just dragged my ass getting them from Half.com, I guess.)

Like I say, even though these books are part of the same “world,” they’re not really supposed to be read in sequence.  Especially The Scar — it doesn’t even take place in Mieville’s imaginary city of New Crobuzon, but on the high seas (it’s a pirate adventure!).

The Scar

The Scar tells the tale of Bellis, a political refugee from New Crobuzon, who is trying to escape the city by ship (I’m assuming that these events are taking place after the events of Perdido Street Station).  Unfortunately for her, her ship is soon hijacked, and all of her fellow passangers are in a sense press-ganged into working and living on a massive floating island called Armada.

Armada is an ancient pirate stronghold, made from the lashed-together hulls of ships, big and small.  That’s where Bellis gets caught up in a huge, lengthy tale that she is only a small, small part of.

And that’s about all I’ll tell you at risk of spoiling the bloody thing for you.

However, I just love this book.  Love love love.  I love the characters of “The Lovers,” the de facto rulers of Armada.  They are probably two of the most “driven” characters in a book that I’ve ever come across.  They remind me of the character of Roland in Stephen King’s The Dark Tower — driven to the point of excluding all else in the world.

The book doesn’t make it readily apparently why they’re on the course that they’re on (both literally and figuratively, har har), but if you let your mind wander a bit, you’ll probably figure it out.

[That's another thing I love about China Mieville's books -- he doesn't hold your bloody hand through all of the story.  There are plot points and motives that you're only given inklings to -- you have to see them through the main characters.

I also love the little hints and bits of the greater history of Bas-lag that you're given here and there (quite a bit of it is explained in The Scar).  Among these are little hints you were given about The Ghosthead Empire, the Malarial Queendom, and the giant Cold Claw Sea that exists to the north and west of New Crobuzon.]

Iron Council

The story of Iron Council picks up (as I’m able to extrapolate) some 25 or 30 years or so after the events of Perdido Street Station. The story is long and massive, and eventually starts telling a dual-story of events happening “now,” and events that happened to one of the main characters actually before the events of Perdido Street Station (if I’m understanding the map in the front, since there is a “ruined railroad” in the map of Perdido Street Station that I think is being built during the flashbacks of Iron Council).

It tells of a revolution amongst the people of New Crobuzon, brought on by the existence of the “Iron Council,” a group of one-time workers on the great railroad who revolted, stole a train, and went to live their lives  freely.  The allegory of the train is incredible — or incredibly blunt, whatever way you want to look at it (I’ll let you find out about it).

Either way, it’s a great read!  (Plus, you finally get to find out what the hell “Inchmen” are, and learn quite a bit more about the force known as the “Torque.”)

July 14th, 2009 | Book Reviews | No comments

The Faded Sun Trilogy

I finished reading this book last fall — so bear with me if I don’t get all the details exactly right.

Brief Synopsis

The Fade Sun Trilogy is a collection of three novels by C.J. Cherryh — a lot of classic SF that I’ve been reading is like that (I’m guessing it was the style at the time).

They tell the tale of the last two members of a proud an noble race, the “mri.”  The mri are a warrior space-faring species, used exclusively as the mercenaries and bodyguards of a race of creatures called the “Regul” that are have been fighting a war with the forces of Earth for nearly four decades.

The books pick up as the war has ended — Earth has won, the Regul are defeated, and the noble mri have been almost completely eradicated, after having been used as cannon fodder in the last few years of the Earth-Regul war.

The books tell the tale of the remaining members of the mri as they slowly die out, and of one man, Sten Duncan, who is tasked to investigate the mri and who eventually “goes native.”

My Thoughts

Well, it’s classic C.J. Cherryh, and I love it for that.  The mri are like one of C.J. Cherry’s many inceptions of the tall “fair folk” present in her books, be they elves in her fantasy novels, or a species like the “qhal” in The Morgaine Saga.  They are noble and superior to humans, but small in number and in “time left.”  (Kind like the Jedi, I guess.)

There are also many similarities between the mri and the “Fremen” in Frank Herbert’s famous Dune series of books.  They’re emotionless (or just hide their emotions well).  Their existence is hard and daily life is a struggle, leading them to be tough as iron (because of the condition of the planet they have settled on).  They favor simple weapons and hand-to-hand combat but are very proficient in modern technology, though they eschew any technology that might make their life easier.

All in all, a good read!

June 26th, 2009 | Book Reviews | No comments