China Mieville Trivia

1. "The Scar" is written in sections. The first part follows linguist Bellis Coldwine, as she escapes her home in New Crobuzon. To get free passage on board the Terpsichoria, what new language does she learn?

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: Salkrikaltor Cray

Bellis spent the time waiting for the Terpsichoria to leave, learning the language. Her tutor was not a proper teacher; rather he was an elderly member of the Cray people, who told stories of his life.

From Quiz Last Train to Perdido Street Station

Answer: New Crobuzon

New Crobuzon is a huge metropolis, bustling with people of different races, ranging from simple humans to the most exotic species imaginable. There are all kinds of districts, the aristocratic district and the slums, the military headquarters and the cardboard ghettos. The industrial part of the city has a cyberpunk feeling, but not very high-tech. Coal-powered trains, electricity-driven factories, lack of computers, television and other modern day devices. It looks, smells and feels like an alternate reality metropolis of the early 1900s.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: Extreme Crime Squad

Major Case Squad I have borrowed from "Law and Order". Important Case Unit I pulled out of the air. Cold Case Unit(s) exist officially in nearly every police service in the United States. While cold cases are of course investigated everywhere, the majority of police forces incorporate them into existing homicide divisions. There is also a web site dedicated to information about cold cases within the US. As Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett tell us: "Evil never sleeps and virtue is ever-vigilant". (Aziraphale, "Good Omens").

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: Physically altered prisoners

Part of the punishment system of New Crobuzon included the re-making of those found guilty. This included, but was not limited to, adding additional limbs from differing species and replacement of body parts with mechanical alternatives.

From Quiz Last Train to Perdido Street Station

Answer: Both

All rail tracks originate from Perdido Street Station in a star pattern. There are both trains that travel along the conventional land-based rails and wagons called Pods that are suspended from Skyrails.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: Tye

Tyad is his shorthand name throughout the novel. Bor and Tiller are just made up. Mieville uses Tyador's name skillfully in the book. Tyad appears quite a way in. It underscores both his basic humanity and the evolution of the reader's relationship with the character. Prior to this he could be perceived as a generic, hard-boiled detective, largely two-dimensional, standard hero. Then as he himself evolves, so too does his name - Tye.

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: A platform drilling rig had disappeared

Bellis was told before she went to translate that she was a conduit only and not part of the discussions. She was not told of the problems in advance and pieced the story together after the meeting. New Crobuzon owned three drilling platforms in Salkrikaltor waters, so paid rent to have them there. The newest and largest of these had disappeared. The Crays of Salkrikaltor had no idea what had happened to the rig.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: Fulana Detail

Jane Doe is the English/American version. Jenny Dame and Felonia Descript are both made up. Interesting trivia: Jane Doe is a placeholder name that is usually used in law to maintain anonymity. The original use of John Doe, the male equivalent, was as a fictitious plaintiff in an English legal proceeding called ejectment; the fictitious defendant was Richard Roe. The point of ejectment is to restore ownership of land to dispossessed owners. In order to reclaim the land, the landowner would launch legal proceedings in the name of two fictitious tenants. The court would then establish (or not) the owner's title. The process of ejectment was discontinued in the United Kingdom in 1852.

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: Armada

The Terpsichoria was thought to be invulnerable to attack by pirates due to her size and speed. Nevertheless, the pirates overcame all obstacles in a well considered assault. The Captain and First officer were slain and the rest of those on board were interviewed, to see how they would best be fitted into the society of Armada. When the ship's company made rendezvous with Armada, some were sent to prison for readjustment and the rest were set free. Offers of work, based on the interviews while on the Terpsichoria, were made. Bellis accepted a position in the library that included her own apartment and a good salary. Tortuga is an island and therefore does not float. Both Atlantis and the Titanic sank. My attempt at humour!

From Quiz Last Train to Perdido Street Station

Answer: Cactacae

Cactacae are the species that amazed me the most, when I read the book. They are human plants, resembling cacti. Their skin is fibrous and covered in thorns. They have sap in their veins. They grow flowers in spring. They are not born like normal people, they grow out of the earth! They are very tall and extremely strong. Because of that, they are mostly used as bodyguards or heavy duty workers. All in all a truly amazing race. All of the suggested answers are species existing in the world of Mieville.

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: Shekel

Shekel had been the cabin boy on the Terpsichoria. He desperately wanted to learn, so that he could feel more at ease and to fit in with his more clever girlfriend. To that end, Bellis taught him to read in their mutual, original language and then in Salt, the common language. Shekel was fascinated to find that the same alphabet could be used in different ways and was always looking for new to him languages. The book that Shekel took to Bellis was in a difficult and obscure language, High Kettai, which Bellis had written a book about. She took some time interpreting the book and discovering as much about it as she could before handing it over to the proper authorities. She came to realise that the book was only written about thirty years previously and not by the ancient originators of the language. Bellis was then taken as interpreter on the fact finding mission.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: Orciny

Orczel is a throwaway trick answer. Avalon is the mythical island featured in Arthurian legend. Breach is the third power in the novel, although the term is used synonymously for the act of breach when the breach falls under the jurisdiction of that authority.

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: The females were killers and the males intellectuals

The Mosquito people were not physically capable of spoken language. In a very bloody part of their ancient history, the females of the species had killed many people, before the race was returned to their island home. Due to the intellectual capabilities of the males, the race was allowed to survive, but confined to the island. Contact with other races was kept to a bare minimum and only being allowed access to the written High Kettai language was part of that. The males and females did not live together. Once a female had her fill of blood, she would have some lucid times when she could communicate and presumably mate, although not all habits and customs of the race were discussed.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: Illitan

Besz is the language of Beszel. English is used in the novel by some of the characters, but is also referenced throughout the Beszel sections as pop-culture phrases are used by Beszel natives (such as the " 'Sup, policeman?" from one of the witnesses, or "gudcop" as a verb from one of the other officers). Qomasz is a trick one.

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: Avanc

The Avanc was the beast of legend from another world. There was proof that attempts had been made in the past to raise the beast, but until the book translated by Bellis was found, the method could only be guessed at. The Avanc was only a means to another end, though.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: Sear and Core

Fulana/Mahalia thinks she is taking the artifacts to restore Orciny, but discovers that Orciny really is a myth. Orciny is an older children's fable in both Beszel and Ul Qoma, a city supposedly populated with magics and power beyond the two cities. When the two cities were split, artifacts were deposited in Ul Qoma with chaotic jumbling of time periods, making a fascinating study for archaeologists. In Beszel, there is almost nothing. Sear and Core's interest is in the strange physics of archaeological artifacts and the marketing potential of same.

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: Nobody remembers

The Lovers ruled well, but their obsession over capturing and then harnessing the avanc and using it to drag Armada to "The Scar" nearly split their world apart. In the end it just split The Lovers apart. "The Scar" of the title refers to a rip in the surface of the world. It also refers to the scarification of the faces and bodies of The Lovers.

From Quiz Last Train to Perdido Street Station

Answer: Her spit

I hope you didn't choose the feces. Khepri artists swallow paste and special dyers called colorberries, they metabolize them, then they expose a gland located at the back of their chitinous heads and push out of it a thick substance called khepri-spit. They use this material to form their statues. Within an hour, because of the contact with the air, the spit hardens and acquires a smooth, brittle, pearly brilliance.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: Mahalia Geary

Fulana Detail is the Beszel equivalent of Jane Doe. Marya and Byela Mar are Mahalia's aliases when she attends meetings for unification groups in Ul Qoma and Beszel, respectively. While the unification groups are trying to bring the split cities together, Mahalia is simply exploiting their records to find the mythical Orciny. This naturally makes unification groups on both sides very uncomfortable as references to Orciny and unification are ruthlessly policed to prevent any breach (and subsequent involvement of Breach). There is a theory that Breach and Orciny are at war.

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: female&f

The Lovers had continued on their quest to find "The Scar" with great determination, but with gradually lessening support from the other rulers of Armada. Bellis was not the only one who worked against the quest. Eventually The Lovers were made to listen to the gainsayers. Just the female part of the pairing refused to give up on the quest and she set off alone.

From Quiz Last Train to Perdido Street Station

Answer: An underground newspaper

The Runagate Rampant is an illegal newspaper which expresses radical ideas and beliefs and is circulated using underground networks. Derkhan Blueday, a middle-aged reporter and good friend of Isaac and Lin, officially works for a newspaper called The Beacon, but secretly runs the Rampant as co-editor.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: stands in Ul Qoma and shoots a man in Beszel

In a brilliant sequence, Tyador chases his man down from Ul Qoma, keeping him in sight but unseeing him. When he realises that the man will get away into Beszel proper, he shoots from Ul Qoma through a crosshatch region.

From Quiz The Scar

Answer: She was to be returned to New Crobuzon

Bellis Coldwine was involved at every stage of this strange story, but was never party to every detail and that left her vulnerable to those who chose to use her. When she realised that her actions could cause danger to all on Armada, she confessed and her defence of not knowing the truth at the time of her actions was accepted. She was given the option of ten years in prison or a flogging. She was flogged. Her only wish through the story was to return home. At the end, her wish was granted.

From Quiz The City & The City

Answer: Were a decoy to prevent Sear and Core to be held accountable

The decoy was to occupy avatars of the Breach in containing breach events. Both cities are placed in lockdown and avatars must maintain it. Under cover of lockdown, Sear and Core staff could get away from Beszel with Ul Qoma artifacts and David Bowden could attempt escape without facing justice for Mahalia's death.

This is category 21528

= Top 5% Rated Quiz, Top 10% Rated Quiz, Top 20% Rated Quiz, A Well Rated Quiz
= added recently, = Editor's Pick = FunTrivia Editor = Gold Member
Teachers / educators: FunTrivia welcomes the use of our website and quizzes in the classroom as a teaching aid or for preparing and testing students. See our education section. Our quizzes are printable and may be used as question sheets by k-12 teachers, parents, and home schoolers.

 ·  All questions, answers, and quiz content on this website is copyright FunTrivia, Inc and may not be reproduced without permission. Any images from TV shows and movies are copyright their studios, and are being used under "fair use" for commentary and education.