History Literature / TheScar

* HazardousWater: Gigantic armoured sharks are [[ItGetsWorse not even close]] to being the worst things to be found in the sea of The Scar.

** The artifact that Silas has [[spoiler:is the Magus Fin, which turns out to [[MacGuffin not be very important]] (say it out loud and quickly if you're confused).]]

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

* AttackOfTheMonsterAppendage: The avanc's anatomy is unknown even to the researchers who summoned it. Only a section of its back is ever shown, although the shape of its harness suggests it has at least one limb. [[spoiler: Hedrigal's story at the end claims it has a head also, but it's unclear whether his description is A) a lie, or B) from a might-have-been alternate history in which the avanc might've looked different than the factual one.]]

** The reason that Bellis has to flee New Crobuzon being The Plague of Nightmares. AKA the effects of [[spoiler: six slake moths]] being loose in the city.

* FridgeLogic: The question of where Armada gets its fresh water is never addressed. The scarcity of water on the ''Therpsichora'' is mentioned early on, but there's no mention of Armadans using desalination techniques, or even setting out catch-basins during the rainstorms.

* {{Kaiju}}: The avanc is an unusual variant, as this gargantuan marine creature didn't destroy a city by stomping through it, but by dragging the floating city of Armada [[spoiler: to its doom in the titular Scar.]] [[AlternateUniverse Or not. YMMV.]]

* PyrrhicVictory: Bellis fails in almost every endeavor she sets out to accomplish, which includes [[spoiler: preventing the avanc from being summoned, saving New Crobuzon from an attack (which actually [[UnwittingPawn didn't exist]]), and preventing a civil war from breaking out between the citizens of Armada.]] She does manage to [[spoiler: get back to New Crobuzon]] by the end, and she has shuffled off a lot of her unconscious, self-interested naivety in the process. As a plus, she's pretty much the only character who interacts with the [[MoreTeethThanTheOsmondFamily Grindylow]] and doesn't end up brutally murdered. [[{{YMMV}} Arguably]], this is the happiest ending of the three novels.

* StoryboardingTheApocalypse

* EstrogenBrigadeBait: Uther Doul. Even within the novel.
* EverythingIsEvenWorseWithSharks

* DolphinsDolphinsEverywhere: Armada has sapient dolphins aiding the security forces of the floating pirate settlement, as well as a small mention of sapient whales. Inverting typical presentations the main dolphin character is a sadist named Bastard John, while the whales are all extremely stupid dupes of the book's primary antagonists.

[[{{ptitlen9ir3dhv}} China Miéville's]] second book in the ''[[{{Literature/Bas-LagCycle}} Bas-Lag Cycle]]'', first published in 2002. Despite being a stand-alone novel, [[{{Sequel}} it takes place immediately]] after the events of ''PerdidoStreetStation''.

* SpamAttack: Justified in with Uther Doul's Possible Sword. Proof that [[{{ptitlen9ir3dhv}} China Miéville's]] has read up on quantum mechanics, charging this weapon with current causes it to deliver every possible strike it ''could'' deliver, all at the same time. The more possible a strike is, the more solid the sword's edge will be for that strike. Targets of the Possible Sword come out looking like they've been run through a mincing machine.

** [[{{YMMV}} It is debatable]] whether the author did a positive thing by having such a unique and complicated female protagonist, or whether he secretly treated her with contempt. To those who identify with Bellis, the manipulations of her and the consequences she faced may have seemed particularly harsh.

** The names of all the ships that make up the pirate city of Armada have a connection with other works of literature involving ships. There's the ''Arronax'' (after the narrator of ''TwentyThousandLeaguesUnderTheSea''), ''Wintershaw Market'' (after the protagonist of WilliamHopeHodgeson's ''Boats of the Glen Carrig'') etc.

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

* Didn't See That One Coming: [[spoiler: The New Crobuzon fleet pays a high price for Fennec's having overlooked the tugboats' potential as explosive ramships.]]

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

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

* SchrodingerFu: Uther Doul has a probability-altering sword that's this trope at its most literal. It passes through all the paths it could potentially have taken with each swing, and he's taught himself a random, uncontrolled style to maximize the effect.
** Although, it's not a totally random and uncontrolled style. Complete randomness would cut himself up as much as his enemy. Complete control would leave too few alternate possibilities to be effective. It has to be somewhere in the middle, controlled but not precise.