Beautiful women and billiards

My record at the Merc last night was 3 wins 1 loss at billiards. And two women and no phone numbers. But I didn't ask either. Sorry to disappoint you Lance. Moment didn't seem ripe.

The Scar by China Mieville

I just finished reading China Mieville's The Scar. Definitely his best yet. Not sure what to say about the book. THe book works on a lot of different levels. It's a great story. It has many different threads that are woven together to make a coherent whole. The story of Bellis Coldwine. The story of Armada. The story of Silas Fennec and the grindylow. I love the end of that story, though I obviously can't reveal it. I just love how Silas hoarded the artifact throughout the story and the part that it played in both New Crobuzon and the grindylow pursuing him. I love how Fennec twisted New Crobuzon into attempting a rescue of him from Armada. As well, I love the themes of the story. The idea of possibilities. Kind of a poor man's time travel. The examination of Stockholm Syndrome. As always, Mieville creates the best monsters. As he has said, the story is much too complex to really become a movie, but I am surprised that he hasn't done any work in Hollywood on stories involving monsters. In creating them and writing screenplays about them. In this book, he added the grindylow, vampirs and other undead, anophelii, and the avanc. He also really expanded his treatment of the Remade from Perdido Street Station. After reading the book, I really want to see the map the Mieville says he has on his wall, all marked up with how the world of Bas-Lag looks. The story is much better without knowing, and I think his future stories will be better for not knowing this as well. But at some point, I really want to see this map. The only negative thing I have about the book is that he introduced the possibility of space travel into the book in the form of the creatures who leave the Scar on Bas-Lag. I really wish he had found another way to introduce the Scar into the story. The idea that Bas-Lag could be connected to the "real" world or to any other more realistic SF world I find really bothersome. The idea works for McCaffrey's Pern, but I rebel at the idea that Bas-Lag is connected to reality. I do not want to see machines and "real" science pollute the world. I hope Mieville realizes that that will ruin the unvierse and he refrains from using this opening he created for such ends in future novels.