Full
Steam Ahead...
This is China Mieville's first novel after winning
the Arthur C. Clarke Award. And like Clarke, he has decided to take us on
an odyssey - not to the Stargate, but to the Scar.
Bellis Coldwine (whose name sounds like a
Joanne Harris character), has decided to abscond from New Crobuzon after she
gets into a spot of bother, even leaving her beloved Perdido Street Station
(although she is not quite pursued by a bear). Since she is adept at
learning languages, Bellis has decided to hire herself out as a translator on a
New Crobuzon ship headed for the colony of Nova Esperium. But Bellis has
resolutely decided not to get her hopes too high, and regards her destination
with something more akin to Nova Tedium. She is determined that her
escape will only last for a little time, since like Dorothy, she still
believes that there is no place like home. Unlike Dorothy, Bellis is
determined that she will not pick up any stragglers along the
way. But she is headed for a storm, whether she likes it or not.
The whirlwind is coming...
Like a character in a Robert Louis Stevenson
novel, Bellis finds herself kidnapped by pirates. Not just any
pirates though, these are the denizens of Armada: not one ship, but a
multitude, comprising an entire city. Bellis's fellow passengers were
looking for life in a new place, and although land is a bit more difficult to
claim here, those who are willing to accept their fate are allotted their own
berth. Some are more willing than others to fit in: the Remade (the
human/slave cargo of the New Crobuzon ship Bellis was travelling on), are
positively welcomed and liberated. Punished for unknown
crimes, labelled as criminals by genetic and mechanical brandings, the
Remade are released into the community. However, even some of these find
that their shackles to New Crobuzon are not quite so easily
shattered. For others on the New Crobuzon ship, Armada's intervention
proves to be far more fatal. Bellis, as her name would suggest, is quite
hostile to her abductors, and yet, unlike so many other unwilling passengers,
she is left to roam the streets of Armada freely. Some parts of Armada
are perplexingly like home: there is still bureaucracy and red tape,
nightclubs, and trendy winebars. However, these pirates are like Robert
Louis Stevenson pirates in other ways: for they are after a huge treasure
- almost an 'X' marks the spot... AAnd there is a character as immortal as
Long John Silver (although not quite as jolly): Uther Doul. Though he is
called 'Uther', the sword he wields is not Excalibur: it might be so much more.
Like a scar, this novel criss-crosses many
genres. I suppose it could be labelled 'Steam Punk': there are certainly
quite a few steam engines in the novel, some redundant, others endlessly
famished (this is a novel where cosmetic surgery is regarded as a punishment
rather than a luxury - the one character who does voluntarily choose
enhancement does not go for liposuction). In some respects,
this is a good example of the British post-colonial science fiction
novel. No other nation ever really quite ruled the waves as good old
Britannia, and there is something quite eighteenth century about the New
Crobuzon navy, with its officers and pressganged crew. Mieville does a
Melville, although the motives for hunting the whale are not exactly the
same as Ahab's (but there are a fair few cannibals/bloodsuckers on
board). The Wicked Witches of the West (New Crobuzon), dispatch winged
monkeys/golems in their attack. China Mieville skilfully bends space to
even let some popular science in. Treasure Island itself proves to be a
bit more bloody than usual, and Captain Nemo cannot be swayed from his
dangerous and hopeless quest. Mieville does not quote from other texts or
even covertly allude to them, but such archetypes do spring to mind
nonetheless. Armada is fashioned from the coupling of many different
boats, after all, and I am sure that Mieville would agree that no writer can be
truly original. Having said that, there is a vibrancy in the text, a
beating pulse, that China Mieville has fashioned all himself with clinical
skill. This may be a science fiction novel, but it is very much a work of
its times. An old naval nation that's unsure of its future direction,
whose leaders are those who can spin the best lie, and whose taxes are really
goring... This novel surveys the rise and fall of Communism - hidden
spies abound, all kinds are people are embraced behind the Iron Curtains of the
ships, but if you dare cross the wall, you may well be shot.
More than just Armada revolves in The Scar (one of the main protagonists has a
truly apt name). In his depiction of the Lovers, the rulers of Armada,
China Mieville scratches at the pus of modern love in a most discomforting
way. The nuclear family has been blown away, Romance is truly doomed in
this dystopia.
China Mieville, like a
chirurgeon, sews several disparate plots together, but no matter how
skilful he is, he cannot but help leave a few ugly scars: why would the
Quick of High Cromlech offer their veins to beggar vampires and risk
infection? Although Hedrigall like Mieville is an excellent story teller,
some of his vocabulary seems to have been picked out by Shekel and is
'vertiginous'. In Bellis, Mieville has created a very believable
anti-heroine. Yet even she is called a 'bloodsucker', and it is the women
of the Mosquito island who have the phallic tongues. It seems unduly
harsh to label China Mieville as a misogynist, to brand him with that crime:
there does seem to be an unsettling truth behind the sad story of the
Anophelii, who perform the ritual of mating enthusiastically once a year,
and yet the men cannot communicate with the women at even a basic level.
Mieville does discuss misogyny when he reveals the origins of the Lovers'
scars: yet Angevine is surprisingly forgiving of Shekel's past misdeeds (having
said that, Angevine is a Remade, so must have committed some crime
herself). The alien creatures that Mieville portrays are not
quite as convincing as Neal Asher's, but they are almost there. It would
have been nice if Mieville had presented more of what it was like for Uther to
live in High Cromlech's caste society, but then Uther is meant to be
inscrutable, and I am not sure that Mieville completely believes that we
are the products of our environment. The Lovers and The Hanged Man seem
to be Tarot symbols of fate, but Bellis strongly believes in the exertion
of her free will (although perhaps she should have listened to Captain Myzovic
more attentively). When you're mining for possibilities, anything can
happen... The resolution of this novel will no doubt have some reader's
baying for China Mieville's blood. Yet Margaret Atwood won the Booker
Prize recently using similar thaumaturgy, and China Mieville's new novel is the
more convincing and shiptight of the two vessels in question. If you go
back over the novel, you'll see just how expertly China Mieville has laid the
foundations for The Scar. China Mieville is no cheat - there are no
hidden cards up his sleeve - he is an expert player and only his poker face is
hard to read. After he has gently settled you into the narrative in the
first fifty pages, the rest of the novel makes for compulsive, addictive
reading. The pages are certainly more easy to turn than Armada, and
nothing can stop the prose. Something akin to G-force will compel you to
sit tight and see this journey through.
Authortrek rating: 9/10
Kevin Patrick Mahoney
Below is a series of cultural links relating to the
novel:
The Lovers - do seem to bear some relation to
these archetypal Tarot symbols: "love before it is contaminated by gross
material desire", "the card is a mystery of the Covenant and
Sabbath", and "The suggestion in respect of the woman is that she
signifies that attraction towards the sensitive life which carries within it
the idea of the Fall of Man, but she is rather the working of a Secret Law of
Providence than a willing and conscious temptress. It is through her imputed
lapse that man shall arise ultimately, and only by her can he complete
himself."
Ace of Swords - this looks to be a rather
nautical tarot card - "Triumph, the excessive degree in everything,
conquest, triumph of force" - Uther Dhoul? - "augmentation,
multiplicity" are other themes of the novel
The Chariot - is also possibly Uther - "An
erect and princely figure carrying a drawn sword", "He has led
captivity captive; he is conquest on all planes--in the mind, in science, in
progress, in certain trials of initiation", "He is not hereditary
royalty and he is not priesthood". Uther provides the means for
harnessing the Avanc. Yet you can read too much into these Tarot
archetypes, and it's debatable whether China Mieville has really drawn form
them. The Brucolac does not really fit the figure of The Hanged Man, and
Bellis Coldwine is not The Fool
Terpsichoria - seems to be derived
from the Muse of dancing and choral singing in Greek mythology
Sorghum - is a harvestable
member of the grass family - can be used for fuel
Michael Clancy, The Great Dhoul, and Death -
Uther's surname may come from Irish mythology - this is an engaging tale anyhow
from W. B. Yeats
Anophelii - really are mosquitoes
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