Kraken

When I read a book like this I always ask myself "How have I never heard of this author before?" China Mieville is an explosive voice; funny, original, grim - basically right up my alley. The plot of this novel doesn't pull any punches. Billy is the curator of the giant squid exhibit at the Nation History Museum. When the giant, pickled main attraction impossibly disappears Billy finds himself sucked into a maelstrom of fantastical and terrifying crimes. Threatened by strangers and kidnapped by a bizarre squid cult, Billy learns that he might be the only one who can stop the fast approaching "ends" of the world.

This fascinating theological thriller will keep you guessing right up until the very end.

Weird and convoluted I found this fascinating reading. This is London's underbelly, a world not of dreams but nightmares. Billy Harrow is a curator at the Darwin Centre, when one of the specimens goes missing he is drawn into a world of cults and magic. The criminal Tattoo; the murderous Goss and Subby; Londonmancers; various cults who are looking forward to their various Armageddons; the FSRC - the Fundamentalist and Sect-related Crime Unit — all want Billy and what they think he knows.

What a warped and twisted imagination Mieville has and I am delighted to read his work. Wonderfully inventive and imaginative, this is complex reading. Multiple strands and POVs entwine to create a novel so rich and dark; descriptive and atmospheric show more that I am in awe of Mieville's ability to write such a roller-coaster of a ride. show less

My only previous China Miéville was Perdido Street Station; I found it fascinating but somehow didn’t get around to the rest of the author’s oeuvre. I was therefore pleased when Kraken turned up at a local remainder bookstore. A fine book; Miéville reminds me of Umberto Eco or Thomas Pynchon for complexity and intelligence. The hero, Billy Harrow, is a London museum curator and custodian of a preserved Architeuthis dux specimen. When the giant squid disappears, tank and all, at the end of a routine tour Harrow is drawn into a whole new London of strange religious cults, magicians (called “knackers” here; working magic is a “knack”), living tattoos and immortal assassins. Harrow (and the squid, of course) are fish out of show more water in this London; the idea is reminiscent of Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere; and like Richard Mayhew, Harrow eventually adapts to the strange environment and saves the day (and the squid). The novel’s labyrinthine; Miéville packs it with a lot of literary and cultural references which should delight an erudite reader. I was puzzled by a number of reviewers that found the novel “funny” or “humorous”; there are some jokes for the reader (the cephalopod cult expects a squid pro quo in exchange for their worship; magical familiars organize a strike and march on picket lines) but the characters certainly don’t find their situation amusing. Enough to inspire me to read the rest of Miéville. show less

If like me, the thought of a new Mieville books brings excitment (even more so when it's a tale of squid, magic and cults) then you should drop everything and buy this book now. Really go on, go and order it.

Of course I might be biased. I mean I adore museums that display dead things in jars.

Opening in the awe inspiring setting of the (fictional) Darwinian museum the story hints that this be will be another [City and the City], straight in both language and tone. But then the language shifts and the tale twists into chaotic, baroque, urban fantasy. It's here that the novel starts to truly take off because not only is it a tightly plotted fast paced tale, with a lovely everyman protagonist, great villains and the characterful city of show more London, it is also packed with a barrel load of inspired, inventive ideas. So we get many many cults all vying for their version of the apocalypse, a wonderful playful literal attitude to magic and magical creatures (guess what the knuckle heads are?), a nod to old steampunk fusions, a great meeting of politics/magic and ancient Egyptians gods, and of course new and interesting words. I mean how can you hate a book that invents(?) the word squidity.

The lack of concrete examples or even a plot summary is because this a is book to enjoyed as fresh as possible and I already fear I have said to much. So go buy it. Mieville fans I hope will be impressed and for everyone else I hope it's an enjoyable madcap ride (although bring dictionary). show less

This was, without a doubt, one of the strangest books I've ever read. It's the kind of book where, while you're reading it, you're thinking, "Oh my god, this is genius!" and then when you're done and it has percolated in your head for a few days, you go, "Was it really though?" Features a giant squid demi-god, an Egyptian shabti obsessed with labor rights, a ghost pig, a message sent through a flickering streetlight, and an arcane magician obsessed with Star Trek and haunted by ghosts of himself.

I was in exactly the right mood for this book - love when that happens. Billy Harrow is a curator in the Natural History Museum in London, England, taking his turn at guiding a tour through the museum when the unthinkable happens: the giant squid which is the star of the show, preserved in its tank (the preservation work done by Billy), has disappeared, tank and all.

At this point, Miéville turns the floor to jelly and starts pulling rugs out from under you for a moment. When I realised where we were going, after that initial wait-a-minute moment, it was with a delighted 'whoa ho, let's go' that I took off into the rest of the story. I love how Miéville uses words and language, how his characters talk and communicate. Unlikely heroes, show more bloody awful baddies, gods and cults, strange police, talents and knacking, whatever his fertile imagination could come up with (what on earth was he like as a child, I kept wondering), all playing out in the streets of a London you kind of suspect might be true.

Great good fun! show less

Miéville is a master of world-building, working quirky and clever concepts into his books, and language. Especially language -- it's amazing what he does -- his neologisms and the mixture of high and low (slang and inkhorn-isms). I've found, however, having now read this, [b:The City and The City|21996|The Devil in the White City Murder, Magic, and Madness at the Fair that Changed America|Erik Larson|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1167325045s/21996.jpg|3486041], and most of [b:Perdido Street Station|68494|Perdido Street Station (New Crobuzon, #1)|China Miéville|http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51NSMZRX33L._SL75_.jpg|3221410], that he has problems about 2/3 of the way through his books with plot. In each of these books, the plot show more meanders and zig-zags in a very uninteresting, get-on-with-it-already sort of way. Then it ties up okay at the end, but basically one-third of each book is tedious. It's clear he enjoys this, since he does it every time, but I don't. show less