Kraken

Great book, however, it doesn't bludgeon you like Mieville's earlier works.

Not my usual fare (fantasy, magic and so on) but this really is an amazing work of imagination, and makes you think about London in a whole new way. Bit slow going in some parts, but overall quite remarkable.

Perhaps I'm suffering from that special strain of bad luck where I read an author's best book first and then throw my money eagerly at his buttocks waiting for him to push out something golden. I guess what I'm saying is that this book wasn't anywhere near as good as Perdido Street Station, but it was still China Mieville and therefore I still eagerly prostrate myself before him with my tongue...more

Perhaps I'm suffering from that special strain of bad luck where I read an author's best book first and then throw my money eagerly at his buttocks waiting for him to push out something golden. I guess what I'm saying is that this book wasn't anywhere near as good as Perdido Street Station, but it was still China Mieville and therefore I still eagerly prostrate myself before him with my tongue between his little piggies. It was still brimming with excitement, intriguing ideas and piteous and coherent motivations, but one strange little parasitic intrusion I noticed right away was that of the /b/tard variety. Now I'm not a reliable cyber doctor, but I got this sinking feeling from this book that 4chan somehow wrapped its slavering jaws around Mieville's restless mind and began to violently masticate. But I can easily disregard this due to a much-awaited inclusion of a "set phasers to stun" joke. So in conclusion this book was miles above par but miles below godhood.   hide

China Mieville's first novel, King Rat, was a mash-up of urban fantasy and twisted fairy tales, an extremely effective horror-fantasy, but he didn't burst onto the literary scene until 2002's Perdido Street Station, one of the best SF novels of the past decade. He followed with two stand-alone/sequels: The Scar, perhaps even better than Perdido Street Station, and Iron Council, the least...more

China Mieville's first novel, King Rat, was a mash-up of urban fantasy and twisted fairy tales, an extremely effective horror-fantasy, but he didn't burst onto the literary scene until 2002's Perdido Street Station, one of the best SF novels of the past decade. He followed with two stand-alone/sequels: The Scar, perhaps even better than Perdido Street Station, and Iron Council, the least effective of his "Bas-Lag trilogy." He then pursued short stories, young adult fantasy, and techno-noir detective fiction before returning to his urban fantasy roots. Kraken takes place in a modern London rife with warring magical factions, all desperately scrambling to recover the preserved corpse of a giant squid, which may or may not be the key to avoiding or causing an apocalypse that would not only end the world, but cause it to never have been. Bizarre, ambitious, and darkly funny, Kraken offers some of Mieville's finest narrative passages and most memorable imaginative flourishes. The mysterious and murderous duo Goss and Subby are thoroughly chilling, the Tattoo is a memorable villain, and the requisite "everyman" British hero, Billy Harrow, is completely believable and effective. As always, what allows Mieville to navigate his thoroughly unique literary vision and weave a compelling, darkly humorous fantastic narrative is a brilliant gift for language - verbal puns (the knuckleheads are quite literal,) linguistic eccentricities ("squiddity" ? nice...,) and occasionally downright poetic prose abound. What makes this a truly worthwhile read, though, are the ideas layered beneath a plot fraught with tension about the nature of religious belief, metaphor, and the power of the written word. Though Mieville's love for language does occasionally threaten to bog down the narrative (some stretches of narrative, while consistently amusing and thought-provoking, can frustrate when you really just want to know what the hell is going on), the final 150 pages is pure page-turning compulsion. This is a narrative exploration of meaning and the nature (literally) of language, evolution, and existence, disguised as urban punk-fantasy summer reading. While it doesn't touch the imaginative world building of Perdido Street Station or The Scar, Mieville's most recent novel is well-worth the time investment: an enjoyable fantastic romp that offers both meaning and insight.   hide

Shaky characterization, some pacing issues, and an ending that will probably annoy a lot of people (not me), but has some ideas I hadn't seen or thought of before and interesting developments of ones I had. Also a wonderfully sinuous plot. And a squid. Recommended.

This book is captivating for me from the very first sentence. After Perdido Street Station (alright), The Scar (great), and the very reserved but brilliant book "The City and the City" this is yet another forceful and new direction for an author who really does something different each time. He's an author I love because he loves language first of all... in the Scar he wrote with a powerful...more

This book is captivating for me from the very first sentence. After Perdido Street Station (alright), The Scar (great), and the very reserved but brilliant book "The City and the City" this is yet another forceful and new direction for an author who really does something different each time. He's an author I love because he loves language first of all... in the Scar he wrote with a powerful baroque kind of language, that he also used in Perdido... I am a writer and I really notice how a writer writes, and I place that above even characters or plot when choosing a book... also I am adventurous and I enjoy books that make me slightly uncomfortable. But Kraken is alot more romantic than some of Mieville's books and that's why I think that from the first paragraphs its' really easier to read than other books by this author. I loved 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea; one of my favorite novels from childhood that really shaped me, I also read Moby Dick and in that vein this book continues where The Scar left off... a romance with the sea, a fascination with the monsters that lurk in the deep.   hide

A little obtuse in some areas. Overall a good story, satisfying ending. If you liked The Magicians, you'll probably like this as well.

A frolicking little nerdfest, filled with relevant references and pop-culture funzies, perfect for the beach. Absurd religions abound (and really, are there any other kinds?), with oddball branches of magic and a few clever people gaming the whole bizarre system. Collingswood in particular was a real gem.

I don't know if China Mieville set out to write a comedy, a thriller, or just a piece of absurdity. There are elements of all three (and then some) between the covers of Kraken, but it's not enough of any one of them to make it a worthwhile read. In Kraken you'll meet cultists and occultists of many stripes, gunfarmers whose bullets grow into new weapons - in situ - after dispatching their...more

I don't know if China Mieville set out to write a comedy, a thriller, or just a piece of absurdity. There are elements of all three (and then some) between the covers of Kraken, but it's not enough of any one of them to make it a worthwhile read. In Kraken you'll meet cultists and occultists of many stripes, gunfarmers whose bullets grow into new weapons - in situ - after dispatching their victim, gods and spirits who speak English in drunken and/or childish manners... There are a host of characters and character types (too many, in fact), and you'll care about none of them - not even the nearly normal humans. And why should you? As London's occult underworld waged war against enemies traditional and new, the laity somehow managed to brush all the inconvenience off as unextraordinary albeit uncommon events. Therein lies some of the comedy, as that's actually how British officials speak about unpleasantries - "passenger activity" when a suicidal person succeeds in the presence of a train; "power surge" for the 7/7 bombing before actual events were communicated to the public. Mr Mieville, meanwhile, takes you on turns in the story line that might well have been great, except for the nagging reality that they barely captured this reader's attention. His unorthodox voice in this story harkens to Anthony Burgess, except that we never learn to speak the language of the book; the dark comedy is Douglas Adams-esque, although perhaps too subtle to actually entertain; the thriller builds inconsequentially as the princpals are blubbering inanely, and the innocent bystanders are silent throughout. Through 500+ pages I remained as distant from and unconcerned about the events of Kraken as the background noise which serves as the London public in this story. A strange story, but not a good one.   hide