The Scar

A group of slaves and convicts, their bodies transformed into hideous biological abnormalities, are being brought to the nascent colony of Nova Esperium aboard a massive sailing vessel. However, they are not traveling alone. A few other tourists who have all left the city for different reasons join them. Among them is linguist Bellis Coldwine, whose assistance as an interpreter allows her to get through and avoid gruesome punishment. Because she is connected to the great renegade scientist Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, who unintentionally let loose a nightmare onto New Crobuzon.

Bellis has a clear plan: stay with the colony's new frontiersmen until it is safe to go back home. However, the top officers are immediately put to death when the ship is attacked by pirates in the Swollen Ocean. The survivors are sent to Armada, a floating, landless metropolis made of pirate ship hulls that is governed by an odd dualism known as the Lovers. Everybody on Armada has a job, and even the Remade coexist with humans, cactacae, and crayfish on an equal footing. But nobody may ever go.

Bereft and resentful of her confinement, Bellis is aware that voicing disagreement might result in her demise. Rather, she has to surreptitiously investigate Armada's plans. The mystery of the black, ethereal forms floating kilometers under the surface—dreadful beings on a single, terrifying mission—holds the key to the solution.