Books

It's been a while, but I've just started reading a book that I wanted to comment on. The book in question is China Mieville's The Scar. Admittedly, I'm only three chapters into the book. It is interesting on the whole. The steampunk-fantasy combination works well and keeps this fantasy fan interested. That said, it took a fair amount of confusion and some web searching to realize that The Scar is set in the same setting as Perdido Street Station, which I have not read.

However, this explains some of my confusion. A number of reviews I've read stated that one does not have to read Perdido first to understand the story. This is indeed true, so far. But, I think one does have to read Perdido first to understand the setting. I say this because I've spent the last three chapters plus prologue completely confused about what the non-human characters look like. Sadly, for all his talent and whatnot, Mieville doesn't do a particularly good job describing his non-humans (most of whom are more or less original species) in this book. I assume they are at least moderately well described in Perdido.

Otherwise, I'm finding the setting concept intriguing (as someone who is very interested in world building - almost did a dissertation on it) and well executed on the whole.