[afa]

I had started reading The Scar by China Mieville in May, and it took me a looooong time to get through, mainly because of the mind-numbingly boring first half. I took a full month to reach the mid-point of the novel, but only a few days to finish the rest. Go figure. Until the second half, I genuinely hated this book, and was convinced that I would never bother with Mieville again.

Final thoughts? Well, I actually liked the second half. Well written, exciting... stuff was actually happening, as opposed to the rather dry first half. Best of all, Mieville actually cuts down on the use of the word "thaumaturgy", which can only be a good thing. (He had over-used it in the first half to the point where it actually made me angry whenever I came across it.)

So - first half: a pathetic 4/10 (and I'm being generous).
Second half: a solid 8/10.
Overall rating (not an average): 7/10. In other words, not a book I'm absolutely in love with, but good enough that I'm not as averse to reading more Mieville novels as I thought I'd be.

Currently, I'm reading Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie (the final instalment in The First Law trilogy). I really liked the first two, so I'm quite sure I'll like this one.

As you can tell, I'm into Fantasy.