The Scar

The Scar is a novel by the British writer China Miéville set in the Bas-Lag world; the Chinese edition was translated by Hu Shaoyan and published by Chongqing University Press in 2013 in the China Miéville Works series. The "Scar" of the title is a wound in this world, hiding a "probability energy source" capable of rewriting past and future; whoever controls it can remake the world to their advantage, but the price is chaos: the dead may return, lovers may become strangers, and the fictional may become real. The story begins with a sea voyage. The protagonist boards the ship Terpsichoria bound for the New Continent, is captured by pirates en route, and is taken to Armada, a floating city assembled from ships of every kind and drifting at sea for a thousand years, sheltering exiles, the remade, scientists, vampires, and ambitious men of all stripes. Trapped in this strange city and desperate to leave, the protagonist is drawn, through a series of accidents, toward the grand plan of Armada's leaders: using science and thaumaturgy intertwined, they mean to capture an unimaginably huge beast, cross the Hidden Ocean, and finally reach the Scar, holding the dice of probability in their own hands. Scientists, spies, pirates, and alien creatures each play their hand in the drifting city, intrigue and strange powers woven into a final contest with no way back. With a surreal steampunk touch and a cold, darkly humorous narrative, Miéville turns a maritime utopia into a laboratory for observing power, language, and the construction of civilization. The book won the Locus Award and the British Fantasy Award, among others, and is a representative work of the "New Weird" style.