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Kraken

China Miéville (Goodreads Author)

3.60 · Rating details · 21,707 ratings · 2,733 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 ...more

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Paperback, Alternate Cover Edition (ISBN 9780333989517), 481 pages

Published 2010 by Macmillan

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May 29, 2012 Nataliya rated it liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: China Miéville fans

Recommended to Nataliya by: Catie

Shelves: strange-avenues-of-mieville-s-mind, 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

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Apr 06, 2010 unknown rated it really liked it · 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

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Apr 16, 2010 Stephen rated it it was amazing · 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

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

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Aug 24, 2011 Ian rated it did not like it · 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

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Dec 26, 2010 Dan Schwent rated it liked it · review of another edition

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

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 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!

Later: In the interest of being much more crotchety than I was in 2011, I'm downgrading this to a 3. While brimming with ideas, it is by far a lesser Mieville. ...more

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Jul 02, 2010 Michael rated it liked it · 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

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Mar 04, 2012 Lyn rated it liked it · review of another edition

Kraken by China Mieville is about as predictable and formulaic as a book about a squid sect amidst a London underground teaming with competing cults and all under the shadow of the end of the world can be.

Weird, weird book.

But then, Mieville is supposed to be among the vanguard of the weird fiction group. I liked this, though it at times devolved into a clumsy absurdism; but to its credit, it never got down to ridiculous Kafkaesque or Beckettesque absurdity, but more of the Monty Python variet ...more

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Jan 05, 2012 carol. rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans of Angelmaker, The Rook

Shelves: urban-fantasy, thriller, my-library, my-library-trade

Four and a half squids

https://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2015/...

“Enter that room and you breached a Schwarzschild radius of something not canny, and that cephalopod corpse was the singularity.“

I rather get why Miéville’s normally fantastic fanish fans don’t like Kraken much. I will note that I’ve had intermediate success with Miéville, finding a couple of his works quite memorable and some quite putdownable. Kraken is one I enjoyed muchly, primarily due to its absurdity, the absence of didacticism ...more

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Mar 25, 2013 Bradley rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: cthulhu-goes-ph-nglui-mglw-nafh-ct, biopunk, fantasy, mindfuq, reality-bending, sci-fi, urban-fantasy, worldbuilding-sf, zombies-go-braaaaaaaaaains

I had my ups and downs with this title, but in the end it's mostly all ups. The language was the biggest thorn, though in my other frames of mind, I also really enjoyed it at the same time.

What this book is not, is a quick and light read meant to delight and float through your mind like a cloud of ink.

It deserves to be savoured and gloated over, perhaps even stopping a bit to roll the cadences of copspeak off your tongue to feel its beat. I had to do it, too, before I realized that it sounded ju ...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Paul Bryant rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sf-novels-aaargh

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

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Jan 03, 2012 Manny rated it really liked it · 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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Jan 28, 2018 Heidi The Reader rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: urban-fantasy, fantasy-and-sci-fi

Kraken is a complex urban fantasy about a missing squid, an astonishing large cast of characters and the end of the world - in no particular order.

China Miéville is an incredibly imaginative author. In this story, he has created a half dozen separate religions with their own gods and customs. (Hundreds more are hinted at.) Not content with that, he also created magic of all kinds, a strike by familiars, protective London-based angels and a supernatural police force.

And that's just the tip of the ...more

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Nov 17, 2013 Agnieszka rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: own-a-copy, 2014, reviewed

Hey, come with me, do not ask and do not be surprised at anything. Even if something seems to you completely unbelievable - take it on the chin. Meet the city which you will not find in the coloured folders, places you will not find in any guidebook. Prepare yourself for delirious trip, apocalypse, armageddon or whatsoever. Just follow me.

It is my first Miéville and I really didn't know what to expect. Story starts interestingly when we are about to visit Natural History Museum. It’s really fab ...more

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May 11, 2010 seak rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

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

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May 12, 2010 J.G. Keely rated it liked it · 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 23, 2010 David Katzman rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: fans of adult/urban fantasy, gritty Brits, and/or punkers

The most fun you can have with a giant squid this side of Japanese octopus porn. I take that back. It’s the most fun no matter which side of octopus porn you’re on.

This is the first China Miéville work I’ve read so I wasn’t tainted by any of his previous books. I went in with few expectations. And how did I feel coming out? The dude rocks.

Here's the the milieu: Magic exists in modern day London, and, hidden behind mystical distractions, a secret society of competing religious cults, for-hire mag The most fun you can have with a giant squid this side of Japanese octopus porn. I take that back. It’s the most fun no matter which side of octopus porn you’re on.

This is the first China Miéville work I’ve read so I wasn’t tainted by any of his previous books. I went in with few expectations. And how did I feel coming out? The dude rocks.

Here's the the milieu: Magic exists in modern day London, and, hidden behind mystical distractions, a secret society of competing religious cults, for-hire magicians, and mafia mages vie for power. The inciting event of the story is the disappearance of a giant squid from a local museum, which sets off a series of events that might just lead to the end of the world. Who stole it? Why? And how can this apocalyptic destiny be averted? Such is the drama and fun found in Kraken.

The main character, Billy Harrow, is a hapless young Londoner who works at the museum where the squid was preserved as a tourist attraction. After the squid disappears, he becomes a “person of interest” to the police, to various cults, including the Kraken-worshipping cult, and to two psychotic killers hired by a gang leader who seeks the magic potential of the squid. The main character reminded me a bit of Richard Mayhew from Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, but the two magic-amped assassins chasing Billy, known only as Goss and Subby, reminded me even more of the two unstoppable killers chasing after Richard Mayhew, the Messrs Croup and Vandemar. They are merciless, enjoy killing, and seem too powerful to kill. Like Mayhew, Billy is caught up in a magical underworld he had no idea existed and has to figure out how to survive and avert tragedy. But, really, the similarity ends there. Billy is confused like Richard, but he gains his own magical powers that help him along the way. And while Richard is trying to save a friend, Billy is trying to save the world.

Perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that a book that features an undersea leviathan and “the sea” as a character also includes an abundance of red herrings. (Pun intended?) That’s right, Miéville keeps you guessing as to the perpetrator of the plot to destroy the world until the very end. Although I did call it early, I wasn’t positive.

Despite being a fantasy thriller, Miéville manages to integrate some hard-hitting critiques of religion along with a philosophical critique of the teleportation thought experiment*. In other words, this is a nerd-powered thriller. Well, nerdy in content, Miéville in person looks more like a badass punker weightlifter.

Regarding that critique of religion (this is only for those who’ve read the book or never intend to) (view spoiler)

The book has perhaps two weaknesses. The main character, Billy is one. He was a bit of a cipher. Had a rather vague personality. The other weakness is a muddle toward the middle. The plot gets somewhat expository in order to weave a web of tangled conspiracies … too much insider politics for my taste among the cults, which tended to bog down the story. Nonetheless, it absolutely deserves five stars because I couldn’t put it down. Miéville keeps you wanting to find out what happens next, and the interweaving cults are cool as hell. Well played, well played.

*I debunked the teleportation thought experiment in my review of I Am a Strange Loop and the experiment itself was also brought up (in a strange loop!) in a debate I recently had with Manny Rayner which starts here and ends here. ...more

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Jun 12, 2012 Catie rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Recommended to Catie by: Nataliya

Shelves: fantasy, read-in-2012, audio

I never thought I’d give a China Mieville book two stars. There’s just so much that I love about his writing and world-building. Although he does tend to move through genres with a shocking (shocking!!) lack of respect for genre boundaries, I never thought there’d come a day when he wrote a story that wasn’t really my thing. In fact, I believe I’ve said almost these exact words a few times: “His world-building is so inventive and amazing and his prose is so beautiful – I think I could read his w I never thought I’d give a China Mieville book two stars. There’s just so much that I love about his writing and world-building. Although he does tend to move through genres with a shocking (shocking!!) lack of respect for genre boundaries, I never thought there’d come a day when he wrote a story that wasn’t really my thing. In fact, I believe I’ve said almost these exact words a few times: “His world-building is so inventive and amazing and his prose is so beautiful – I think I could read his words forever even if I’m not all that invested in the story or the characters!” Well, it turns out that I was dead wrong about that. This book, as it happens, is the exception that disproves that whole sentiment.

Reading his books for me is like getting caught up in a mad sea of vocabulary words, weird creatures, and new ideas. In every other book of his that I’ve read, there have been things that I’ve held onto (buoys or flotsam or life-preservers if I’m sticking with this whole ocean metaphor, which apparently I am). I’ve found classic adventure, subversion of fantasy tropes, revolution, cultural identity, redemption, love, and Possibility to keep me afloat. But here…I just…sank. I didn’t feel a real connection to any of the characters, I felt no anxiety for the imminent apocalypse, and I could glean almost no deeper meaning from the whole affair. I feel like this story either went sailing way over or way under my head and I’m not sure which. Either way, something about the silly humor, meandering storyline, million characters, and the lack of depth that I felt just didn’t ring my bell (literally – I have a bell on my desk.)

That’s actually a joke from this book so apparently it did ring my bell at least a tiny bit. And actually, towards the very end I did feel like I got the tiniest glimpse at just what he was driving at with all of this: he made me think about religion and how ridiculously random some of the beliefs and tenets and origin stories really are, but how the simple act of believing in them makes them powerful, life-sacrificing, world-ending things. Deep stuff there, for sure. But then he did this thing where (view spoiler)

So yes, it is entirely possible that I just did not get this book all the way, but the story that it was packaged in was so boring to me that I have no desire to go back and try to parse this thing any further. I will leave this one to its fans, and move happily along to my next Mieville.

I read this with my friend Nataliya, who wrote an amazing review that's about ten times better than this one. Go check it out! ...more

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Sep 08, 2011 Apatt rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Let’s make one thing clear: China Miéville is way too ripped for his chosen profession. Being the new demigod of speculative/weird English fiction, he should by rights be some kind of hunch-backed, bespectacled, bowl-haircut paradigm of nerd. Instead he’s an Adonis, a Hercules, a shaven-headed Atlas – standing out among his many accolades is the coveted “best guns in literature” award; a title he seems unlikely to yield anytime soon.

Tomcat, Could They Beat-Up China Miéville? Blog

Well, that is

Let’s make one thing clear: China Miéville is way too ripped for his chosen profession. Being the new demigod of speculative/weird English fiction, he should by rights be some kind of hunch-backed, bespectacled, bowl-haircut paradigm of nerd. Instead he’s an Adonis, a Hercules, a shaven-headed Atlas – standing out among his many accolades is the coveted “best guns in literature” award; a title he seems unlikely to yield anytime soon.

Tomcat, Could They Beat-Up China Miéville? Blog

Well, that is certainly not germane to Kraken but China Miéville remains my favorite literary anomaly. He is without a doubt one of the most gifted authors working today, it is very fortunate for genre fans like myself that he has a predilection for the fantastical. I would not hesitate to recommend him to anybody who likes to read sf/f/h books. However, I would not recommend that they start with Kraken. This is not to say that it is bad, I doubt he can write a POS book, it is just that it is far from being his best novel and it is less accessible in spite of the deceptively straightforward synopsis (which you can read elsewhere, thanks).

The weirdness starts pretty much from page one and does not relent much from that point. The prose, the characters, and the dialogs are generally weirder than Crispin Glover under the influence of magic mushrooms. That said, existing fans of Miéville should not skip this book as it is a hoot, by now you should have built up a tolerance for his brand of weirdness. Once the reader is settled into the very odd scenario of this novel there are many delightful things to discover. My favorite is Extreme Origami which is the art of folding any damn thing you want, including people. After reading a few dark themed novels by him this book seems like China Miéville letting his hair down (ha! sorry China!). There is a lot of eccentric humor and pop cultural references in this book, Star Trek especially, including a talking Kirk doll, a tribble, and working phaser (occasionally set on stun). This is a London where magic mixes nicely with technology (including a combination of necromantics and unix).

Miéville is always a dab hand at creating interesting characters though it must be said that I found the supporting characters much more interesting than the protagonist (hey, it works for J.K. Rowling). My favorite is the badass policewoman named Collingswood who reassures a woman who reported some missing persons by saying “Rest assured we're going to leave no stone unturned in our search for wossname and thingy.”

So, a total hoot for established fans of China Miéville, our hero does not normally write such light-hearted materials but when he does it does it in style. If you are completely new to Miéville I highly recommend picking up The City & the City, Perdido Street Station or The Scar, both are absolutely brilliant and easier to get into. If you start with Kraken you may find yourself on a slippery slope (depends on how well you adapt to weird shenanigans).

His latest book (as of today) Embassytown is more highly acclaimed than Kraken, and I am looking forward to reading it soon. ...more

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Jan 10, 2011 Mat rated it did not like it · review of another edition

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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Jun 26, 2016 Niki rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I really, really liked this book.

This is the first China Miéville book I've ever read, and it was a really great introduction to China's world. He clearly knows exactly what he's doing, I don't think that even one sentence was out of place. The writing style fits the theme of the book to a T: urban magic, modern takes on historical practices, like the haruspex.

Speaking of these modern takes, I thought "Kraken" was VERY original. Almost everything in the book was something I wouldn't have imagine ...more

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Jan 03, 2014 Carmen rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Recommends it for: SF-F Fans who are up for a Challenge

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, traditionally-published, he-says

This book is crazy.

Now, either China Miéville writes your kind of crazy or he doesn't. If you read this book and think "This is crazy...but it kind of makes sense," then you're good to go. However, if you have to ditch it after 100 pages because all you can think is "WTF?", then this book is not for you.

What makes it difficult is that Miéville tends to plunge you into his crazy world and hopes you'll hold on long enough to start to enjoy the ride. He's not big on info-dumping or exposition. Read ...more

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Feb 04, 2018 Scott Hitchcock rated it it was ok · review of another edition

2.5*'s

Very original but the story wasn't able to keep my interest. I also hate when authors rely on pop culture nostalgia. This was my first Mieville book. I would take another shot.

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Jun 10, 2011 Whitaker rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-scifi, z_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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Apr 13, 2017 Liviu Szoke rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010-books, 2017-reads, fantasy-reads, locus-award-winner, urban-fantasy, fantasy-masterworks

În opinia mea, primul mare roman (și, poate, cel mai bun) scris de Mieville după Perdido Street Station (Stația Pierzaniei). Ambițios, vast, cult, inteligent, grețos pe alocuri, doldora de referințe din cele mai obscure și mai variate domenii. Culte ce venerează calamarul gigant, focul, apa, un Tatuaj vorbitor, londomanți, Naziști ai haosului, arme care trag gloanțe ce apoi eclozează și se transformă înapoi în arme, cititori în măruntaiele orașului, morți care nu sunt de fapt morți, o polițistă ...more

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Dec 20, 2009 Jacob rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mieville, 2010-2011

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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Aug 18, 2015 Lindsay rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Ok, so this book got a lot better in the last quarter. It's still a rambling self-indulgent mess of a novel that doesn't realize that it's supposed to have a plot except at the beginning and end.

The main character, Billy Harrow curates an exhibit in the Natural History Museum that includes an 8 metre long giant squid. It goes missing. Then things get weird. Then weirder still. Eventually things get weird enough for this to be a China Miéville book.

Billy gets involved with several groups of peopl ...more

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Jun 21, 2011 RandomAnthony rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I am officially throwing in the towel, page 291. Sorry, Mr. Mieville. I know some women around her love you but I think maybe I chose the wrong book with which to start your catalog.

Kraken isn't awful. In short bursts Mieville is inventive, sometimes startlingly so. But the novel read like a suspense movie that goes on too long and I stopped caring about the plot and/or characters. And some of the stronger elements weren't strong enough to support storyline cliches. Man stumbles into a secret, ...more

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Jul 23, 2015 Gabrielle rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: weird, british, own-a-copy, fantasy, read-in-2018, urban-fantasy, reviewed

Oh, China Mieville. My language wizard who disdains cliched tropes, has more imagination than any other writer - living or dead, and who just loves taking me (and other readers) on the most unpredictable rides he can come up with. When I thought I couldn’t love you any more than I already did, you went ahead and wrote a book about a cult that worships giant squids. Marry me, China.

“Kraken” certainly winks in the general direction of Lovecraft’s oeuvre. A lot. But you’d be wrong to assume it’s a Oh, China Mieville. My language wizard who disdains cliched tropes, has more imagination than any other writer - living or dead, and who just loves taking me (and other readers) on the most unpredictable rides he can come up with. When I thought I couldn’t love you any more than I already did, you went ahead and wrote a book about a cult that worships giant squids. Marry me, China.

“Kraken” certainly winks in the general direction of Lovecraft’s oeuvre. A lot. But you’d be wrong to assume it’s a pastiche simply because tentacles and weird cultists are involved: this book is extremely funny (in a purely Mievillian way), something Lovecraft never managed - at least not deliberately ("I paid it in nuts, Billy. What would you think I'd pay a squirrel?"). Billy Harrow is essentially an Arthur Dent: a maddeningly normal man suddenly thrust into the weirdest world he could have imagined, trying to stay sane and alive as he unwillingly explores the bizarre underworld of this surreal London. It also the book where I felt Mieville to be his most shameless nerdy self, with references not only to the father of cosmic horror, but to other writers (both of genre and literary fiction), classic sci-fi shows and weird stuff he’s seen in museums.

The Natural History Museum of London’s prized exhibit is a perfectly preserved giant squid. The magnificent and strange animal unfortunately attracts more than tourists; a very fringe religious cult steals the pickled creature out of its tank, putting the curator Billy in a very uncomfortable situation; in his quest to get his most famous exhibit back, he’ll land in the middle of turf war between obscure gods and their cults, have to dodge hired killers with very peculiar methods, work with a rather unorthodox unit of the police force and negotiate with a talking tattoo and unionized familiars. Among other things. The plot twists and turns like the tentacles of a giant squid, so it's futile to attempt to summarize it, but what a wild and unusual ride!

His villains Goss and Subby are really quite something, reminiscent of Croup and Vandermar from Gaiman’s glorious “Neverwhere” (which I was reminded of a few times through this book, actually (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...), but even bloodier, if one can imagine such a thing. And of course, it's impossible not to love Collingswood, the bratty but talented youngest member of the cult squad, and Wati, the socialist-minded shabtis.

Like any Mieville novel, you need a good dose of patience and of mental energy to keep up with the intricately woven tale he spun, not to mention the London slang and multi-syllabic words he'll throw your way. But his prose is as ornate, rhythmic and erudite as ever, and its mesmerizing. It is also completely unique: so many wild and incredible ideas are crammed in there, and I can see how some readers thought it was a bit much, but I loved it! Perhaps the book is a bit long, but my usual complaint about Mieville's novels is that they don't last forever... Maybe not for the newbies, but if you have read this brilliant man’s work before and loved it, do not miss “Kraken”! 4 and a half stars. ...more

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Dec 07, 2010 Lightreads rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, fiction, urban-fantasy

My comment on the first Mieville book I read was something like, “brilliant book! Shame it has no soul.” Second verse, etc.

A quick-moving book about a giant squid corpse that is going to end the world. No really. It’s got this absinth-intense whacko worldbuilding – all squid cults and fire that burns time and animal familiar labor strikes. It has the sort of sense of humor you would need to carry off “squid pro quo” jokes. And wonderful writing, of course. Every sentence in a Mieville book has f ...more

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Apr 27, 2017 Ivana Nešić added it · review of another edition

Umrla sam od dosade (iako se konstatno dešavaju zanimljive stvari, baš neobično) i nisam dogurala dalje od polovine. Eto, sad me svi anfrendujte.

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华尔街Gary Cohn 等给特朗普出大题，遏制习近平的仿制科技，打回苦力鸨。如失败，伊万卡替罪羊难受，如肯尼迪、尼克松，又是历史大关头了。	1	1	Nov 09, 2018 04:10PM
SciFi and Fantasy...: "Kraken" Buddy Read	54	58	Sep 10, 2018 08:46AM
Miévillians: Kraken spoiler thread 3 : Chapters 31 - 39	14	16	Aug 27, 2018 06:47AM
Fantasy Buddy Reads: Kraken - Mieville [Jan 30, 2018]	22	31	Feb 17, 2018 05:56AM
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About China Miéville

China Miéville

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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