History Literature / TheScar

Creator/ChinaMieville's second book in the ''Bas Lag Cycle'', first published in 2002. Despite being a stand-alone novel, [[{{Sequel}} it takes place immediately]] after the events of ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation''.

** Bellis was described briefly in Perdido Street Station as Isaac's lover before Lin, a brilliant linguist who had grown bored with Isaac's "rambunctiousness" and broken his heart.

%%* PressGanged: Many of Armada's inhabitants.

* EverythingsEvenWorseWithSharks: Armada guards underwater locations and underwater entrances to restricted areas with trained Guard Sharks.

* SidenoteFullStory: Bellis gets a one-line mention in ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation''.

* RealityEnsues: Tanner Sack has himself Remade to breathe water so as to be at home in the ocean. However, encountering the Grindylow shows him in no uncertain terms the difference between a ''real'' creature of the deep and a human being with gills and tentacles.

* MermaidProblem: [[AvertedTrope Averted]] with the khepri, who have a bug head and a human body, but played straight with the Cray, who are basically crayfish centaurs (crayfish/lobster bodies with human faces and torsos).

* NotSoDifferent: [[spoiler: Uther Doul and Silas Fennec, as Bellis realises at the end. They both are Manipulative Bastards, and both were using Bellis, but never felt anything for her.]]

* DifficultButAwesome: Uther Doul's Probable Sword makes every possible cut on every stroke. If you are not a skilled swordsman, this will include the cuts that hit ''you.''

* SeaMonster: The avanc.

In the aftermath of [[Literature/PerdidoStreetStation The Plague of Nightmares]], [[SugarAndIcePersonality Bellis]] [[TheStoic Coldwine]], a [[CunningLinguist brilliant linguist]], knows that it will just be a matter of time before New Crobuzon's terrifying SecretPolice drag her away for a questioning that she will [[ReleasedToElsewhere undoubtedly never return from]]. Bellis negotiates her way on to the ''Terpsichoria'', a ship heading to escape to the colony Nova Esperium, acting as a translator to the captain when liaising with the Salkrikaltor Cray.

* AlienGeometries: [[spoiler:The grindylow Magus Fin empowers its user to interact strangely with regular space. Fennec uses it extensively to sneak invisibly through Armada and breeze through its most heavily locked and guarded sections.]]
* AlienInvasion: The now-defunct Ghosthead Empire.

* AlwaysChaoticEvil: Subverted, the Grindylows are set up like this, but it is revealed they are merely zealous defenders of [[spoiler:hearth and home]].
** Doesn't make the [[ColdBloodedTorture measures]] [[MoralEventHorizon they take]] to get the job done any less horrifying, though.
* AmplifiedAnimalAptitude: Dolphins are much smarter than their earth counterparts. They hold jobs and give themselves names.

* BadassBookworm: Uther Doul, as well - despite being possibly the most deadly thing alive, he is an archaeologist, THE authority on the history of the Ghosthead Empire, and a master of probability theory.
* BeePeople: The Anophelii.

** While the remade have enough BodyHorror for all three books, Tanner Sack gets a special mention for willingly getting himself remade a second time to make himself amphibious.

** The description of what [[spoiler: Silas Fennec's Magus Fin-empowered saliva]] does to a person's flesh is the stuff of nightmares.
*** Additionally, there's [[spoiler: what the statue is doing to Fennec's body.]]

* TheChessmaster: Bellis realizes that [[spoiler: Silas Fennec]] is one and hates him for it. At the end of the novel, she theorizes that [[spoiler: Uther Doul]] might also be one.

* DidntSeeThatComing: [[spoiler: The New Crobuzon fleet pays a high price for Fennec having overlooked the tugboats' potential as explosive ramships.]]

* EvilPlan: [[spoiler: Silas Fennec's]] ultimate plan.

* FishPeople: The aquatic races, most notably the Grindylow.
* {{Foreshadowing}}: While reminiscing about New Crobuzon, Tanner Sack mentions a vagrant by the name of Spiral Jacobs. Who would eventually go on to be a major character in ''Literature/IronCouncil''. [[spoiler: As the Tesh Ambassador and primary antagonist of the story.]]

* GreyAndGrayMorality: Unlike ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation''. With the only possible exception of [[spoiler:Silas Fennec]], no one faction is portrayed as wholly evil. Uther Doul, The Lovers and The Brucolac all follows their different ideas of what is good for Armada; the Grindylows just wants to [[spoiler: protect their home]]; the Anophelii are victims of their own nature; and New-Crobuzon Navy are simple soldiers following orders.

* HazardousWater: Gigantic armoured sharks are not even close to being the worst things to be found in the sea of The Scar.
* ImprobableWeaponUser: Uther Doul uses a sword with an attached "probability engine," which causes every strike he makes to be every possible strike he ''could'' have made. (Hence "improbable" may not be the word for it, but....)

* IntrepidMerchant: Silas Fennec.

** Bellis ''Cold''wine

* MrFanservice: Uther Doul. Even within the novel.

* OceanPunk: This book, very much.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: Uther Doul's fight with The Brucolac. [[spoiler: We don't even know was it a real fight or The Brucolac was simple curb-stomped by Uther Doul.]]

** The [[FishPeople Grindylow]] are [[NightmareFuel much less friendly]] mermen shaped like anglerfish with MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily and a brand of thaumaturgy (magic) that is completely alien to most humans.

* [[YourVampiresSuck Our Vampires Suck]]: Vampires are described as having a reputation as "junkies" among the other undead, and are considered to be the lowest of the low in High Cromlech, the city of the dead.
* {{Pirates}}: The inhabitants of Armada basically.
* PlantAliens: The cactacae are cactus-people, though not alien.
* PressGanged: Many of Armada's inhabitants.
* PostModernMagik
* PunyEarthlings

* SmugSnake: Silas Fennec.
* SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler: The nigh-Hedrigall, if indeed that's what he was.]]

* TheSummation: Bellis tries to do one at the end of the novel, but admits she can't make heads or tales of [[spoiler: Uther Doul's]] motivations, nor what he was actually planning.
** She comes up with three very plausible theories about what actually happened. All of them are frustrating to her because all three scenarios involve her being manipulated by [[spoiler: Uther Doul]], so she doesn't bother verifying which is correct.
* ThatsNoMoon: Bellis finds out what it is Armada is [[KrakenAndLeviathan looking for]] by means of a drawing in a book:
-->''She still did not take her gaze from the picture she held: a little man in a little ship on a sea of frozen waves that overlapped in perfect sequince-like fish scales, and below them deeps rendered in crosshatched and tightly spiraled ink, and at the bottom, easily eclipsing the vessel above, a circle in a circle in a circle, vast no matter how vague the perspective, unthinkably big, with darkness at its center. Looking up, looking up at the fisherman hunting his prey.\\

* WorkingClassHero: Tanner Sack.

* ZeppelinsFromAnotherWorld: Armada has a number of airships, and [[spoiler: alternate-universe Hedrigall]] manages to escape on one.

In the aftermath of [[Literature/PerdidoStreetStation The Plague of Nightmares]], [[SugarAndIcePersonality Bellis]] [[TheStoic Coldwine]], a [[CunningLinguist brilliant linguist]], knows that it will just be a matter of time before New-Crobuzon's terrifying SecretPolice drag her away for a questioning that she will [[ReleasedToElsewhere undoubtedly never return from]]. Bellis negotiates her way on to the ''Terpsichoria'', a ship heading to escape to the colony Nova Esperium, acting as a translator to the captain when liaising with the Salkrikaltor Cray.

* TheNecrocracy: High Cromlech. The ruling class is made up of [[OurLichesAreDifferent liches]], served by zombies and living humans. Some vampires also reside there, but curiously they're at the absolute bottom of society, as the liches don't allow them to feed on their servants and regard them as pathetic junkies.

* TheUnreveal: We never find out [[spoiler:what is in the eponymous Scar, or how much of the events were due to Doul's ministrations and how much were chance, or indeed whether the character who warned that going over the Scar would lead Armada into certain doom was making the whole thing up]]. Even Tanner Sack's original crime, for which he was Remade, is never stated or even referenced.

* TheUnreveal: We never find out [[spoiler:what is in the eponymous Scar, or how much of the events were due to Doul's ministrations and how much were chance, or indeed whether the character who warned that going over the Scar would lead Armada into certain doom was making the whole thing up]].

In the aftermath of [[Literature/PerdidoStreetStation The Plague of Nightmares]], [[{{Kuudere}} Bellis]] [[TheStoic Coldwine]], a [[CunningLinguist brilliant linguist]], knows that it will just be a matter of time before New-Crobuzon's terrifying SecretPolice drag her away for a questioning that she will [[ReleasedToElsewhere undoubtedly never return from]]. Bellis negotiates her way on to the ''Terpsichoria'', a ship heading to escape to the colony Nova Esperium, acting as a translator to the captain when liaising with the Salkrikaltor Cray.

* {{Kuudere}}: [[MeaningfulName Bellis Coldwine]] in ''The Scar''. Possibly a StealthParody of [[MarySue "strong, beautiful, and forceful"]] female protagonists in contemporary fantasy literature.

* NotSoStoic: Bellis [[{{Kuudere}} hardly ever shows any outward emotion]], except for one scene where she suddenly breaks down and starts crying upon the realization that she won't be able to get a message to her home [[spoiler: warning them of an invasion]], much less be able to return there. The character who discovers her breakdown is completely stunned.

* [[spoiler:StoryboardingTheApocalypse: A big part of the climax; narrated by a minor character.]]

* [[ThatsNoMoon That's No Moon]]: Bellis finds out what it is Armada is [[KrakenAndLeviathan looking for]] by means of a drawing in a book:

* {{Foreshadowing}}: While reminiscing about New Crobuzon, Tanner Sack mentions a vagrant by the name of Spiral Jacobs. Who would eventually go on to be a major character in IronCouncil. [[spoiler: As the Tesh Ambassador and primary antagonist of the story.]]

* TheNecrocracy: High Cromlech.

** The ab-dead live in secrecy throughout Bas-Lag except in Armada and High Cromlech. In Armada, the Brucolac and a cadre of his closest allies are the resident ab-dead and run the Dry Falls riding. Dry Falls is an area and political standing within the governing structure of Armada; residents of Dry Falls enjoy more political weight, subsidized entertainment and lighter disciplinary actions than other ridings, but pay for this with the gore-tax, a routine collection of blood from Dry Falls residents. In High Cromlech, the city of the dead, the ab-dead live in the open, but make up the lowest class, even below that of the living. The dead of High Cromlech protect the living from the predations of the ab-dead, and therefore, ab-dead are reduced to begging for handouts from the living and are considered to be junkies.