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Kraken

by China Miéville (Goodreads Author)

3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 · rating details · 8,537 ratings · 1,499 reviews

In the Darwin Centre at London’s Natural History Museum, Billy Harrow, a cephalopod specialist, is conducting a tour whose climax is meant to be the Centre’s prize specimen of a rare Architeuthis dux—better known as the Giant Squid. But Billy’s tour takes an unexpected turn when the squid suddenly and impossibly vanishes into thin air.

As Billy soon discovers, this is the p...more

Kindle Edition, 499 pages

Published (first published January 1st 2010)

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Jun 21, 2012 Nataliya rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: China Miéville fans

Recommended to Nataliya by: Catie

Shelves: catie-knows-best, mieville-is-awesome, 2012-reads, locus-winner, location-is-the-true-protagonist

Unpredictable, funny, and chock-full of weird with a side of SQUIDDITY apocalypse - and yet (oh blasphemy!) Kraken is my first 3-starred Miéville. This hurts my fangirl soul.

But here's the thing - even the weakest book by His Chinaness is still better that the strongest offerings of most other writers. Therefore me giving it 3 stars in NO WAY puts it in the same category that some of the drecks that I've read. I liked this one. It's just that it in NO WAY measures up to the usual amazing and bra...more

64 likes · like · see review

Jun 08, 2011 Joel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, 52-in-2010, library-books, sci-fi-fantasy, squid-friendly, minus-half-a-star, vote-getters, lolcats, signed-copy, chinatown

Oh hey. An lolcat.That's new. But wait, because even though they are 1,000,000 years old in internet time, lolcats are only kittens in "offline" time, by which I mean the time by which your parents live their lives (go on, check your email right now: your dad just forwarded you a bunch of them. Hahaha Invisible Bike. I forgot about that one).

Moreover, judged by the molasses pace of the publishing industry, they're younger still. So I give props to China Miéville (you're only getting that acute...more

92 likes · like · see review

Jan 11, 2012 Stephen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: signed-first-or-limited-edition, audiobook, weird-and-new-weird, 2006-2010, fantasy, sub-press-limited-edition, sub-press-lettered-or-best, religion-spirituality, fantasy-gods, favorite-villains, favorite-ideas, mind-blowing

Oops...in my excitement, I seem to have Mievilled all over myself. Pardon my gush.

So the ONLY reason this gatling blast of brainstorming outréness is not yet nesting on my all time favorite shelf along with Perdido Street Station and The City & The City is that my feeble grey matter is still trying to process what…the…French I just read. I grasped the big picture, though my neurons were white-knuckled and straining, but there were so, so, SO many reference gems, idea snippets, bizarre sound...more

80 likes · like · see review

Jul 20, 2010 Architeuthis rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-and-after, meta-reviews, china-mieville

In the city of _______, the end of the world is quickly approaching, instigated when a/an _______ gets stolen. Genero, the undistinguished protagonist, all of a sudden discovers a new world when he's ________ by a ________ and then rescued by a ________. It then turns out he is a hero sort, a necessary element of the battle between a ______ and a/an ___________.

Jeff Vandermeer: Alright, Mieville, the name of a city.

China Mieville: This will be a London sometin'.

JV: Alright *writes it in* Now,...more

31 likes · like · see review

Oct 04, 2011 Ian rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, unique-theories, spec-fic, genre-bending, unfulfilled-expectations, too-ambitious, wish-i-could-like-it

Chapter 1: Wow, this is kind of cool. Everybody says China Miéville is the shit. He owns the GR comment boards. He can kick ass in any genre, or no genre, or bend genres to fit his will. Not to mention his good looks, right? I mean, the dude is hawt with a capital H. Hubba-Fuckin-Hubba. At least, that's what I've been told; personally I think he looks like a rude, low-class French waiter who hasn't bathed and has been relegated to peeling potatoes in the back alley where he can't scare off the c...more

42 likes · like · see review

Nov 23, 2012 Paul added it · review of another edition

Kraken gave me a severe case of goodreaditus, an unpleasant condition whereby as you are reading a book you are constantly thinking not about the book itself but how you are going to review it. For example I thought maybe I could borrow the voice of Cher Horowitz from Clueless

Here's the four-one-one on Billy Harrow. He's like a squid janitor, he's single, he's 24 or something, quite old, and he earns minor duckets for a thankless job. What that man needs is a good healthy boinkfest. Unfortunatel...more

24 likes · like · see review

Jun 20, 2010 Keely rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, contemporary-fantasy, urban-fantasy, reviewed, uk-and-ireland

Kraken marks a digression for Mieville from his familiar madcap style. Where before we had come to expect moody, slow-burn plots interrupted by sudden action, and just as suddenly back to introspection, we now get a story that is dramatic, unbroken, and streamlined in punchy chapters and theatrical quick-cuts.

His vibrant, poetical asides into mad science and techno-thaumaturgy have been toned down: no longer a virulent undercurrent, twisting and shaping his world, they have become curiosities an...more

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Jun 20, 2012 Seak (Bryce L.) rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, fantasy

First off, a book with the title Kraken is required to have a sinking ship attacked by a Kraken or at least have the line "release the Kraken" make sense. Sorry, it's in the rules...This did not have any.

If that's what you're looking for, look elsewhere, although if you know anything about Mieville (I'm told), you should know that you never really get what you expect from his novels.

Kraken was my first crack (or should I say krak) at China Mieville outside of the 100 or so pages I read of Perdid...more

30 likes · like · see review

Feb 21, 2013 Jonathan rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, gritty-reads

To me this book only went downhill from the sluggish start. In fact I was forced to skim read the book in order to actually finish.

The book tried so very hard to be dark and gritty and really only came across as trying. It was an awkward book, a mutated beast with bludgeoned tentacles. of course that was simply my experience with the book sadly after reading some rave reviews here on Goodreads.

It failed in my opinion, it didn't work for me. It felt crude, rather than polished and particularly r...more To me this book only went downhill from the sluggish start. In fact I was forced to skim read the book in order to actually finish.

The book tried so very hard to be dark and gritty and really only came across as trying. It was an awkward book, a mutated beast with bludgeoned tentacles. of course that was simply my experience with the book sadly after reading some rave reviews here on Goodreads.

It failed in my opinion, it didn't work for me. It felt crude, rather than polished and particularly rushed which I'm sure the author didn't intend it to be. Other authors I am certain could write a similar tale and be applauded by me for suspending my disbelief and weaving a magical tale. I'm sure some other people might find this a fascinating novel. But not me. There are simply far better books that can be gritty without being so rough.

Now I'm not personally a fan of using extreme obscenities and I hate it when authors use ones with strong religious affiliations. You wouldn't write something that aims to offend a particular minority group so why write something that's offensive from a religious perspective? However I'm not a person who will simply censor everything because it has a poor choice of words. This simply contained far too many of those words. And I mean a literal overdose.

Every page slowly becomes more and more filled with obscenity. Adjectives, nouns, maybe even pronouns. One or maybe the occasional word I can handle. But a book drenched in the words instantly causes my blood to boil. I consider it lazy writing and I know very few actual people who swear that much in reality. It is considered unacceptable when a writer uses any other word so repetitively right? If I wrote a story and every second sentence used the word 'but' the audience would soon grow tired. Why should swearing be any different? Not to mention it's lazy because instead of trying to craft a dark and gritty atmosphere with some skilfully chosen words the author simply throws in a few taboo words to give that illusion. But really its simply repetitive use of the same old connotations and so in his story the words come to mean literally nothing than a gap filler.

I stand by this quote from Franz Kafka (Conversations with Kafka) "Swearing destroys man's greatest creation - language. It is an insult to the soul and a murderous offence against grace. But so is any use of words without proper consideration. For to speak implies to consider and define. Words involve a decision between life and death."

And I find that both frustrating and sad. Miéville clearly possesses an elevated vocabulary visible in the opening few chapters. Yet then he went downhill for me in terms of language use and the plot. Of course this is all my own opinion and as I've said before reading a book is highly personal and subjective. It's just this book and I did not make good friends. That is all. If someone were however to direct me to a Miéville book without the twisted and insane plot I would devour it of course. (less)

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Aug 15, 2010 Jacob rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, mieville

August 2010

Kraken!

There’s a tale for ya. Miéville’s got him some oldoldreaders, deepfans what’ve been there since yearone or earlier (but not me, sadtosay; we smileflirted in bookstores but I didn’t heedthecall til yearfive), and in some of the forums there’s been a legend for years: Kraken! The bigsecret. Been talked about since early yeareight, maybe far back as ‘seven, but no one knew what it was. Justwhispers. Another Bas-Lag? Couldn’t be; sounded Scar-ish. Something newworld? Something thi...more

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Jun 17, 2011 Whitaker rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-scifi, 2011-read

Many other writers have done urban fantasy, re-envisioning modern metropolises hiding a magical underbelly co-existing alongside the modern technological veneer: JK Rowling and the Harry Potter novels, Neil Gaiman and American Gods, Charles de Lint and his Newford novels. All of that is like Campari next to Miéville’s hard 100-year old whiskey. He ratchets up the weirdness, twists it and integrates it into modernity in a way that’s well… let’s just say that if Kraken were to get into a celebrity...more

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Jul 10, 2011 Brad rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: audio-book, exceeded-my-expectations, good-enough-for-babies-to-eat, humorous, hyperreality, listened-to, madness, one-of-the-greats, religion, speculative, urban-fantasy, weird

WARNING: This "review" (if you can call it that) contains some veiled but serious spoilers. Only read this review if you've read Kraken or aren't planning to read it for some time.

Miéville's Brain*

Star Trekiteuthis: The Original Series
Episode: TOS 061 - Spock's Brain
Season 3 Ep. 1
Air Date: 09/20/1968
Stardate: 5431.4

The U.S.S. Architeuthis is on a routine mission in its preservative bottle when a riffling, ink stained, paper tiger beams into the National History Museum. Without a word, the tiger...more WARNING: This "review" (if you can call it that) contains some veiled but serious spoilers. Only read this review if you've read Kraken or aren't planning to read it for some time.

Miéville's Brain*

Star Trekiteuthis: The Original Series
Episode: TOS 061 - Spock's Brain
Season 3 Ep. 1
Air Date: 09/20/1968
Stardate: 5431.4

The U.S.S. Architeuthis is on a routine mission in its preservative bottle when a riffling, ink stained, paper tiger beams into the National History Museum. Without a word, the tiger reorders the ink of its pages and everyone is rendered unconscious. It moves around the Museum until finally it comes to Miéville. Smiling an inky smile, it lays a hand on the author's head, as if it's found what it was looking for.

When Wati Kirk awakes, Miéville is gone from the Museum. Before the labour organizer can find out where his author has gone, Dane Parnell calls, demanding his presence immediately. Miéville's body lays on a diagnostic table, on full life support. Dane Parnell explains that his brain is gone ... miraculously removed with some technology that the Kraken Agent has never seen before. Every nerve was sealed and there was no blood lost. However, Parnell tells him if the author's brain isn't returned to his body within 24 hours, Miéville will die.

Wati Kirk orders the city's familiars to pursue the paper tiger. By following its lack, the Architeuthis arrives at the Sea's embassy in Varmin Way. When Wati Kirk and party shift inside, they find a soaked, underwater world inhabited by two villains: Grisamentum, who is comprised of ink and paper, and the Tattoo, a crime lord tattoed onto the back of a man named Paul. While Grisamentum is resurrected in the liquid body of ink, he doesn't fully understand the power of metaphor. Only the "Great Prophet" -- a.k.a. Billy Harrow -- has this knowledge, and he was left behind by ancient squid cultists (or bottle angels) who once lived on the planet.

Dane, having borrowed a device which will control Miéville's body without the aid of his brain, goes with the author to join Wati Kirk and his party. They find Grisamentum, the tiger who came into the Museum. They quickly realize that Gris doesn't have the skill or knowledge to have understood the operation on Miéville, and the Londonmancers tell them about the Great Prophet.

Finally, Wati Kirk finds Miéville's brain. The Tattoo has hooked it up to control his main thug, Goss and Subby. The brain is now revered by the thug as the "Controller," which the thug hopes will fulfill his (its? their?) murderous thirst for the next 10,000 years. After trying unsuccessfully to get Gris to repeat the operation on Miéville in reverse, Dane submits to the Great Prophet and gains the knowledge of metaphor needed to restore Miéville's brain and save both the author's life and all their existences.

Without his Controller, Goss and Subby succumb to the wrath of Paul who conquers his Tattoo. Wati Kirk suggests the familiars go on strike once more, and Grisamentum's attack on Miéville never-was.

*borrowed for the purpose of spoofing from the Official Star Trek Website (less)

11 likes · like · see review

Feb 01, 2011 Dan Schwent rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: christmas-2010, new-weird, funny, 2011

A preserved giant squid is stolen from London's Natural History museum and curator Billy Harrow is at the top of everyone's list for answers. But who stole the Kraken and why? Was it the Londonmancers? Or minions of the Tattoo? Or the Church of the God Kraken? Or someone else all together? That's what Billy Harrow and Dane Parnell, a renegade from the Church, aim to find out. But can they recover the Kraken before it's used to trigger Armageddon?

China Mieville appears to have the Midas touch at...more A preserved giant squid is stolen from London's Natural History museum and curator Billy Harrow is at the top of everyone's list for answers. But who stole the Kraken and why? Was it the Londonmancers? Or minions of the Tattoo? Or the Church of the God Kraken? Or someone else all together? That's what Billy Harrow and Dane Parnell, a renegade from the Church, aim to find out. But can they recover the Kraken before it's used to trigger Armageddon?

China Mieville appears to have the Midas touch at times. In Kraken, he takes the conspiracy thriller and infuses it with so much new weirdness that green goo is oozing from between the pages. Where do I start? Do I talk about the Londonmancers, shamanic magicians who dwell in and shape London's streets? Or Wati, the sentient statue-thing that's unionizing London's familiars? Or the gunfarmers? Or the chaos nazis? Mieville throws so much at you in this one that it's hard to pick out one outlandish concept as the favorite.

I see people comparing this to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere or American Gods, the works of Tim Powers, or even Mieville's own Un Lun Dun, but the book that it reminds me the most of is The Domino Men by Jonathan Barnes. There are conspiracies galore, gods created by belief, and the psychotic duo of Goss and Subby, who remind me both of Croupe and Vandemaar of Neverwhere fame and of The Domino Men.

The characters are an interesting bunch. Billy Harrow's in the Arthur Dent mode of protagonists. Parnell drives the story forward, as do the impressive array of interesting Londoners. In fact, Billy's probably the least interesting character within the book. But really, when one of the characters is a talking tattoo, he's got competition.

Easter eggs about within Kraken's piscine pages. There are multiple Star Trek references, including a magic-powered phaser and a Tribble, a Lolcats reference, Dr. Who, Michael Moorcock, the list goes on and on. And Mieville both mentions the criminally unknown Hugh Cook (of the delightful The Walrus and the Warwolf) in the forward and includes one of his poems, The Kraken Wakes, within the pages.

Any complaints? Only that there was a little too much going on at times. Kraken was a good read but it was never a "drop everything and neglect your personal hygene" kind of gripping. I found myself procrastinating a few times rather than go back to it. Once the story passes the 33% mark, it really takes off.

If squid based conspiracies are your bag, this book is for you. Otherwise, this book should appeal to Mieville fans, conspiracy fans, and fans of Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Barnes. Now get reading before I send the gunfarmers after you!(less)

34 likes · like · see review

Aug 23, 2011 Stephanie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

China Mieville is a British author who is probably best known for his vast Peake-esque Bas Lag books, for which he has received an array of accolades. When describing a Mieville novel, two things that inevitably crop up are nods to Mieville’s in-depth world-building, and his idiosyncratic use of language, both of which are evident throughout his entire oeuvre, and even those pieces of work that depart substantially from the loosely linked Bas Lag trilogy.

Kraken, Mieville’s newest offering, bring...more

9 likes · like · see review

Apr 23, 2011 Jasmine added it · review of another edition

Shelves: british

review reconsidered see: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

~~Okay my goal to day was to be like Greg and to finish a book, given I didn't actually have that much of a book left but whatever.~~

This book has a lot of person problems that it is trying to work out, basically it is a bit of a hot mess.

~~It isn't as intelligent as mieville's other books, it worries me a bit that the blurb says this is him going back to perdido street station because I was intending on reading that, and if it is anyt~~...more review reconsidered see: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

~~Okay my goal to day was to be like Greg and to finish a book, given I didn't actually have that much of a book left but whatever.~~

This book has a lot of person problems that it is trying to work out, basically it is a bit of a hot mess.

It isn't as intelligent as mieville's other books, it worries me a bit that the blurb says this is him going back to perdido street station because I was intending on reading that, and if it is anything like this I don't particularly want anything to do with it. The book tries to muse the way that the city and the city muses, but the plot is about as deep as the plot of un lun dun, basically there is not a hell of a lot to muse about. Yeah sure it is a spoof on religion, but seriously it isn't even a very good spoof as far as I can tell.

Half the time things are under explained or minimally explained an "action sequence" will be squished into 2 or 3 sentences making it extremely easy to miss and you find yourself two chapters later trying o figure out what he fuck is going on. I mean I suppose you could consider his intelligent scifi... oh there are so many minute detail to remember!! but lets be serious being a pain in the ass does not make a good book. Peter hamilton can write multiple plot lines without me constantly having to scan back in the book to try to figure out what I missed, not to mention the fact that I constantly missed things questions this books ability to keep my attention.

I don't think mieville is terribly good with plot he is more of a world builder, but all he really has in this book is plot. Clearly he can't keep it straight and keeps starting new plots and maybe I am just not smart enough for this book but I really think the problem lies somewhere else, again peter hamilton, nick harkaway, other british people pull this kind of thing off all the time.

but today I think China has missed his mark. The book attempts to be an intelligent parody of things like Dan Brown but ends up hitting a mark a lot closer to simply being a dan brown novel.

from A.V. club:
China Miéville has written everything from the involved, intellectual steampunk yarn The Scar to the mind-boggling, symbolic police procedural The City & The City. He set the vast powers of his imagination loose on Kraken, a gleeful clusterfuck of geek tropes, pop-culture riffs, and neo-Lovecraftian apocalypse. When a giant squid is stolen from London’s Natural History Museum, the theft creates a whirlpool that sucks in doomsday cults, paranormal investigators, and some of Miéville’s most bloodcurdling beasties and villains—all caught up in a mad tangle of metaphysics that winds up flipping London inside out to display its pseudo-mythical clockwork. And with a healthy helping of puns and tragicomic hijinks, the spirit of Douglas Adams even gets invoked, albeit filtered through Miéville’s hyper-literate, sample-happy vocabulary and flair for creeping resonance.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/the-be...(less)

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Jan 08, 2012 Manny rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: mentions-twilight, parody-homage, science-fiction, well-i-think-its-funny, the-goodreads-experience

"Now look," said Billy, in an uncertain approximation of his reasonable voice. "What's all this about? Can't someone tell me?"

"Oh, for fuck's sake," replied Collingwood in disgust. "Someone's been trying to tell you for most of your sodding life. You just won't listen, will you? But if you want something more explicit, there's always Goodreads."

She opened a grubby-looking Apple Powerbook with a Hello Kitty sticker on the lid and began typing.

"What's Goodreads got to do with it?" whispered Billy,...more

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Nov 23, 2011 M— rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: ebooks, journaled, reviewed

Beach Vacation Read #3: Thank god is all I say for having an ereader at all. I complained about the state of the library in last year's beach house? HA. This year's house has a library less than a fifth the size and includes the bible and a mass market so battered I designated it tinder for our beach bonfires, and none of the books are ones that even remotely snag my interest. But I have 70 books on my ereader. Thank god.

Kraken should have been perfect for this trip. I'm at a beach. I've fifty p...more

5 likes · like · see review

John Ha!

I share, by the way, your detestation of "alright"; the saddest thing is that it may have been imposed upon China by his US copyeditor.

I hope you e...more
Nov 24, 2011 07:07pm

M— Interesting theory! I'll have to obtain and compare a UK copy to a US one. The differences could be fascinating.

I'm inclined to believe that Miéville'...more
updated Nov 30, 2011 06:14am

John I think it's '"all right" (sometimes rendered as "alright")' that the linked site is telling you is part of Brit spoken slang; the "alright" spelling...more
Nov 30, 2011 06:50am

Jun 22, 2010 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

There are already some strong reviews on this site, and some giving the book qualified props for inducing lots of readerly pleasure while seeming a bit light. Thin. Shallow. (See, e.g., Keely's pretty thoughtful review.) Ironic, maybe, as the Kraken is a creature of the depths, inhabits the the abyssal dark, and is awfully heavy. Yet this book floats like a butterfly fish, and sings with silly abandon. This novel is no doubt a gas.

So I guess it's understandable that you might maybe knock its wil...more There are already some strong reviews on this site, and some giving the book qualified props for inducing lots of readerly pleasure while seeming a bit light. Thin. Shallow. (See, e.g., Keely's pretty thoughtful review.) Ironic, maybe, as the Kraken is a creature of the depths, inhabits the the abyssal dark, and is awfully heavy. Yet this book floats like a butterfly fish, and sings with silly abandon. This novel is no doubt a gas.

So I guess it's understandable that you might maybe knock its willingness to squeeze the pulp, manically wave the tentacles, put a clown nose on apocalyptic dark fantasy. But I think it's a brilliant bit of counter-programming, a generic reframing that amplifies its central themes of (while also thumbing its nose at) faith and magic.

First we've got to redirect our attention to the grosstopical intersections of conspiracy and farce. In one genre, a guy walks into a room where people are whispering, and he realizes that something is afoot, that there are plans and disguises and the endless revelations of what lies behind appearances. What you know is wrong, and the plot is a twisty labyrinthine exercise in discovery and reconception. In the other genre, the same thing happens. But sometimes it's Mr. Furley and sometimes it's JFK. Sure, one wears an ascot and the other is made by an asshat, but the key difference seems to be sobriety. With the former, bug-eyed high sexual anxiety about Jack Tripper provokes giggles; in the latter, horn-rimmed (psychosexual) anxiety about Jack Kennedy provokes a political consciousness. Right?

Well... I don't think Mieville buys that neat distinction, sees it for the (mindless) unseeing that it really is. These two genres share the same neighborhood. And here he uses the doubled, doubting ironies of comedy and conspiracy to tackle the impact and influence of faith. His book is cluttered with cults, strange and familiar theologies each with its own End in mind. It'd be easy to dismiss them as ludicrous or simply ludic; we all too easily see the kooks worshipping Kraken as different in kind from the careful faiths of (say) the Catholic. But the generic tendencies here get pretty reductive: if seen via the dark-alternate-epic or the light-comic-opera, the faiths of cults (and high dark fantasy) are either allegorical or unserious, and either way, they seem to say nothing about the everyday. But there is something fundamentally comic *and* conspiratorial in the believing in some big Other or anOther. Whispers and hints of meaning at the edge of what we know, so we tug our ascots, bug our eyes, steel our nerves, and try to Believe.

I'm not keen on a full-on exegesis here. Partly because this thesis is half-baked, which seems in keeping with the theological spirit. But partly because the book rejects the simple dichotomy of thumbing your nose or taking it seriously. Kraken or Yahweh, either way--there's something simultaneously silly and grandly humanly central about how and why we believe. Mieville isn't coming to conclusions--that's not what comedies or conspiracies do. They send us into the maze, and dazzle with endless turns and twists and pratfalls. (Heck, that's kind of like faith, too, eh?) The plot is far less crucial than the endless performative play of being inside, seeking, and really seeing.

I think this book is dazzling comic fun, and that's serious praise in my belief system.

Plus it has an endless dizzying array of digressive wonders. A troupe of Chaos Nazis, baddies who reject the priggish misguided horrors of the German variant -- "The problem with Auschwitz," their intellectual wags of torture-killing insisted, "is that it was the wrong sort of 'camp'.... Its screwball dialogue is always taking the piss out the portentous Pottery sobriety of magic (so our hapless hero's innocent question about whether his sidekick has a "magic key" gets a blunt rejoinder -- Don't be a twat). Familiars go on strike; cops (my favorite character, the brassy Kath Collingwood) summon magical aether-cops by burning old videocassettes of The Sweeney and Life on Mars; etc. Every page has a bit of lunatic invention that brought a smile to my face. And the prose is every bit as twisty and devious.

Just a damn good read, as smart as it is funny.(less)

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Jun 07, 2010 Kathryn rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: first-reads

Kraken begins when a preserved giant squid is stolen from the Darwin Centre in London. The theft is discovered by Billy Harrow, an employee of the Darwin Centre and an expert in Molluscs. When the squid (giant container and all) disappears without a trace, people come knocking on his door, including an unusual group of police officers who make up the cult investigation squad. Billy then gets pulled into the world of secret London.

Billy Harrow spends most of the novel on the run as warring factio...more

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May 16, 2012 Eric rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to Eric by: George Damanis

Shelves: science-fiction, unfinished

A friend lent this to me without giving me any detail on what it was about.

Ten percent of the way into it I was thinking: "What an interesting mystery this is -- a giant squid stolen from the museum -- I can't wait to see Billy the young museum curator solve it."

Twenty percent: "I did not see that speculative fiction/urban fantasy twist coming; this is starting to remind me of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere."

Thirty percent: I couldn't care enough to pick the book back up. The plot, and my interest, st...more

6 likes · like · see review

Apr 06, 2012 Katie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: speculative-fiction, fantasy, fantasy-middle-shelf, stand-alone-fiction

I wish I could give the book 2 1/2. I'm very torn about how I feel about it. There were parts that were definitely too slow, but I could have even looked beyond that had it not been for the ridiculous word use. It started getting to a point where the words were so out there that you really start to wonder whether he even knew all of them, or was sitting next to a thesaurus all day searching for the most obscure word he could find. I would not have made it through without having read it on a kind...more

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Nov 10, 2012 Jennifer D. rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012-books, books-i-own

3.5-stars, really. i got a bit jumbled towards the end...and i can't decide if it was because i was reading in bed at night and getting too tired...or if it was the plot that got hole-y?? there were a couple of coincidences in the story and i am not such a fan of that in fiction. BUT...this book was a lot of fun, fantastical and great escapist reading.

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Nov 29, 2010 Chris LaHatte rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: f-sf

I was going to write a review but Damian Walker in the Guardian Saturday 15 May 2010 says it much better

"But while Miéville scores a palpable hit against the body of urban fantasy, he fails to skewer its heart. The exuberant energy and ambition of Kraken make for a complex novel packed with fascinating and original concepts. Miéville powers through that conceptual density with an action-filled plot, a technique that has served him well in earlier novels. But here the combined weight of ideas and...more

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Apr 18, 2012 Marjorie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Yet another book I wanted to love. _The City and the City_ is so good for one. And then I read a pre-release description and I was hooked. But this is no City squared. There is no Tyador here, and for those looking for the same wonderful embrace of character construction...forget it. And I love cephalopods, for crying out loud.

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Jan 30, 2011 Mat rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: abandoned

There's something agonisingly frustrating about throwing a China Miéville novel across the room.

The problem, I think, is in convincing myself that it actually deserves to be thrown. Because a Miéville novel should be brilliant. Both Kraken and the other Miéville I've read, The City & The City, are built on fascinating conceits. Like City's politically schizoid metropolis, the hidden London into which a museum curator is drawn after theft of a giant squid promises a wild, intelligently drawn...more

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Apr 20, 2013 Ruth rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Where to start with a book this size, this complexity, this... you-name-it. While reading it I couldn't even decide if I liked it. There were pages where my mind wondered and dreamed of giving up, others where I couldn't even stay awake long enough to reread one page a third time, and still others where I looked at the clock and said, "Oops! Another 2 am has come and gone..." And yet, the ending so redeemed itself that I closed the book a little sad, very satisfied, and rather proud of myself. B...more

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May 13, 2012 Paul marked it as did-not-finish · review of another edition

Shelves: science-fiction

I stopped rating unfinished books, so no stars ... it wouldn't be fair. This book is by no means a piece of crap; it's just not my thing. Fans of fantasy will probably like this novel, so take my fantasy-phobic comments with a grain of salt.

I get antsy and impatient around fantasy. In fact, I'll pat myself on the back for making it to the half-way point of Kraken before setting it aside (it's a big book, so there). Kraken is about old gods surfacing in modern London, roiled up by a squid-shaped...more I stopped rating unfinished books, so no stars ... it wouldn't be fair. This book is by no means a piece of crap; it's just not my thing. Fans of fantasy will probably like this novel, so take my fantasy-phobic comments with a grain of salt.

I get antsy and impatient around fantasy. In fact, I'll pat myself on the back for making it to the half-way point of Kraken before setting it aside (it's a big book, so there). Kraken is about old gods surfacing in modern London, roiled up by a squid-shaped disturbance in the force. In outline it is similar to Neil Gaimin's fantasy novel American Gods, which I did manage to finish. The difference is that Gaiman knows when the reader has had enough, and gets on with the story. Mieville is unconcerned with his readers' patience; he overwhelms with detail, repetition, and more gods than God could keep track of. Halfway through I had totally lost track, and seeing as how Mieville was nowhere near finished throwing new gods at me, I put the book down.

Kraken is just too densely, obsessively populated, and none of the beings and spirits populating it, and none of the things they do or have done to them, have anything to teach us. Honestly, if I'd thought the book had the slightest thing to tell me about life, I'd have pressed on. I did like Goss and Subby ... well, "like" is not the right word. Let me just say that I will not forget them soon.

I've read two other novels by China Mieville (both reviewed on Goodreads, along with the Gaiman novel): I enjoyed The City and the City, though the preponderance of voweless, oddly accented, wholly invented Balkanesque words made it difficult to read. Perdido Street Station was more to my liking. Both of these novels had improbable, fantastic story lines, but though each contained elements of fantasy they were primarily science fiction, and thus possible. I'll stick with Mieville's science fiction ... he tells fascinating stories, though I must say his characters always feel a bit contrived, not quite human ... indeed, Mieville's characters in general are alien. But he's good. Will I read more science fiction by Mieville? Yes. Fantasy? No, not after this.(less)

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Jul 05, 2011 Ken rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: weird, fiction, fantasy-faction-book-club

I'll start off by saying that China Mieville sure knows his stuff. Kraken is a well researched book, blending religion, cults, mysticism and the weird together into a story. It has an interesting premise, a giant squid disappears from the Natural History Museum and this seemingly nobody is suddenly thrust into this world where magic exists and must help recover the squid before the prophesied end of the world comes.

This book had so much going for it. I enjoyed the way Mieville described all the...more I'll start off by saying that China Mieville sure knows his stuff. Kraken is a well researched book, blending religion, cults, mysticism and the weird together into a story. It has an interesting premise, a giant squid disappears from the Natural History Museum and this seemingly nobody is suddenly thrust into this world where magic exists and must help recover the squid before the prophesied end of the world comes.

This book had so much going for it. I enjoyed the way Mieville described all the different cults and the secret wars that go on behind the scenes of everyday London. Despite all this, the book just felt bloated and unevenly paced with the story jumping all over the place. There were unnecessary storylines that lead to nowhere but what's worse was that they caused more confusion and created more questions than answers.

I really had a hard time trying to finish reading this. After maybe halfway through the book I didn't care about any of the characters at all except wanting to get to the end as quickly as possible. To this day I still don't understand what special abilities Collingswood possessed and how he can so easily dismiss Dane who had been one of the key characters in the book. The ending also seemed rushed and too convenient, a little too "Deus ex Machina" for me. Everything just wrapped up so nicely even after all the chaos and weirdness that occurred in the book.

You can tell that Mieville has a lot of ideas for this book but at the same time it felt like he was writing for his own enjoyment and that he is too cool to share his thoughts with his readers. Some say you have to read this book with the humour that Mieville possesses and you will see the contradictory nature of religion and the farce in the story. To me, this means you are either with him or you're not. While reading this book, I felt as if I was on an express train, only getting glimpses of the outside but never in detail.

Kraken was my book club's read for June and many people struggled through it too or gave up before reaching the end. This is a book that I ought to like but just couldn't bring myself to liking it. People tell me that his Bas Lag books are better and I hope that they are right.

(Reposted from http://www.paperlessreading.com/2011/...)

Original review:
Just finished reading it, found the book weird and the plot hard to follow at times with all its meandering plots and twists. I think Mieville wants us to experience the story from Billy's point of view and share in his confusion of all the strange things that is happening in the book's London. The different religions, sects and the whole mythology are interesting and you know there is much more going on that went unexplained.

To me, this book feels like a work of mental masturbation for the author and hard for me to enjoy. I still need some time to digest this book and might update this review later.(less)

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Jun 04, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own

Packed with fantastic ideas and thought-provoking elements. There were moments I wanted more description (I felt the same reading perdido street station) and wondered where the story was heading but I am in awe of Mieville's imagination, I love it, he makes me want more from him. His style of writing with new or unused words is always refreshing and challenging which I totally enjoy.

Loved the idea of Wati's character, Collingswood's chavy style did irritate me at times although I enjoyed her wit...more

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Jul 15, 2010 Brahm rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Kraken is a brilliant idea- combining Mieville's weirdness, prose and black humour with squid theft, warring cults, Star Trek, multiple Armageddons and a sentient evil tattoo should have left us with one of the best works of the year, and at least the most fun. Unfortunately, Kraken is somewhat of a dissapointment. Although sections of the book are hilarious, frightening and exciting, Mieville's pacing is horrible, particularly in the first half of the book. This means that between those hilario...more Kraken is a brilliant idea- combining Mieville's weirdness, prose and black humour with squid theft, warring cults, Star Trek, multiple Armageddons and a sentient evil tattoo should have left us with one of the best works of the year, and at least the most fun. Unfortunately, Kraken is somewhat of a dissapointment. Although sections of the book are hilarious, frightening and exciting, Mieville's pacing is horrible, particularly in the first half of the book. This means that between those hilarious, frightening and exciting scenes, you will have to slog through many less interesting chapters. Specifically, one of the main characters, the cult police officer Collingswood, is cliched, irritating and one dimensional, and her sections are a pain to read, particularly since she doesn't have much effect on the plot or other characters.

Mieville's prose and ideas are also a bit too frantic for my taste- instead of focusing on three or four ideas and making them brilliant, he too often shoves seventeen in at once, few of which are able to affect the reader. The prose itself is extremely choppy, fast paced and stream of conscioussney, as opposed to Mieville's usual slower paced, descriptive tendencies, and the book is structured into extremely short chapters which often move too fast without being interesting. As a final complaint, few of the characters are fleshed our particularly well, not even the protagonist, Billy Harrow, who has some amusing moments but too often just recieves or gives exposition and marches off on Kraken finding mission after mission.

But there is also a lot of good in Kraken. It can be very funny, especially when satirizing fantasy and sci fi culture and describing warring cults (including a ferret cults and the Jesus Buddhists) and unionized animal familiars. It can be creepy, especially whenever The Tattoo and his henchman Goss and Subby show up to torture and murder in disturbing ways. It can be flat out fun, as when Billy discovers that his importance to the plot is largely dependent on a joke. Finally, it's about a giant squid, which is just awesome. It's too bad that Mieville couldn't have built on those good moments and all that potential, and written a more concise, careful and character dependent story. Unfortunately for my expectations, Jeff Vandermeer is still king of kraken fueled, weird, funny stories. (less)

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About China Miéville

A British "fantastic fiction" writer. He is fond of describing his work as "weird fiction" (after early 20th century pulp and horror writers such as H. P. Lovecraft), and belongs to a loose group of writers sometimes called New Weird who consciously attempt to move fantasy away from commercial, genre clichés of Tolkien epigons. He is also active in left-wing politics as a member of the Socialist W...more

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