Billy Harrow works in the Darwin Centre at London’s Natural History Museum. He is giving a tour that will end at the display of a giant squid preserved in a glass tank, only the tank and squid have disappeared. So begins a surreal tale of a secret squid worshiping cult and various groups predicting the end of the world led by weird characters, such as Tattoo who is alive on an unwilling victims back. There is also a special division of the London Police dedicated to finding and eliminating all kinds of sorcery by using their own brand of sorcery. Billy feels himself a bystander caught up in this adventure but he is anything but that. This story was too long and too wacky for me. Just not my cup of tea. ( )

This is the first time I don't like a China Mieville book. It had good parts but mostly I had to struggle to go through and finish. I could not find anywhere the genius of Mieville's writing that could have otherwise redeemed a mediocre story. The Bas-Lag books disgust me, but I read them addicted: that is China Mieville's talent. This time I thought the writing was bad. Bad dialogues from shallow characters going through unbelievable developments. Dei ex Machina at every corner. Incoherent -not weird or grotesque; those, we learn to accept from his other books- story. A mediocre plot executed in a lazy writing. There are some magnificent parts. The Wati subplot for one. Related, the familiar's rebellion.
Other good characters, Goss and Subby. But they are such clones of Gaiman's Croup & Vandemar in Neverwhere, that it is like they have jumped books. The FSRC idea is always good. I liked more the execution of the idea of a magic police in London in Rivers of London.

I will not recommend this novel. ( )

Parts of this were exceptional, but it was too long and tried to do too many things. Really, really hard to rate.

The main plot is that a preserved specimen of a giant squid is abducted from the Natural History Museum in London, setting off a series of feuds between various cults, gangs, law enforcement groups, scholars, and concerned citizens who are either trying to bring on or to ward off the apocalypse. So crazy, right? It was fun, but I had some problems at times with the execution.

I was recommended this as a London-set urban fantasy similar to Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, which is spot on. But I probably should have read the two books a little further apart. Kraken feels like Mieville read Neverwhere, then thought "pfft, that wasn't nearly gritty, explicit, disturbing, or weird enough; I'll just kook things up a bit with some doomsday cults, sentient 5000 year old statues, Nazis, and pyromancers..."

There are a lot of similarities. Both have a hero's journey plot. Both are set in alternate/hidden versions of London with supernatural elements. Both involve the possible end of the world. Both make a lot of pop culture/literary references and geeky in-jokes. Both have a pair of apparently immortal (until they're not) assassins who dress and talk like Victorian music hall baddies. (TBH, that last one really made me think that Mieville is just yanking Gaiman's chain.)

I enjoyed this a lot! It took me a lot of strange places that I enjoyed going. I think Neverwhere is a better book, though. It's tighter and better paced, without so many distractions. Gaiman is a less flashy but more heartfelt writer than Mieville, both of which are more my style/preference. But finally, while this WAS an excellent London fantasy, Gaiman's book takes greater advantage of London-specific histories and mythologies and layers, whereas Kraken could just as easily have been set in New York and retained about 95% of its plot and coherence.

I will definitely read some other books by Mieville, though! His brain seems to work in ways that I have genuinely never seen on the page before. ( )

This is the first book of Mieville's that I haven't finished. I usually really like his books, but this one felt really forced.

Billy works at a natural history museum, and one day he's giving a tour to a group of museum guests to show them the giant squid that they have preserved in a giant tank, and discovers that the whole tank is missing, which is impossible given its size and fragility. Things get really weird from there: there's a cult that worships the squid as an ancient god, and a group of special police who are investigating the cult, and then a bunch of weird magic bad guys.

The main reason I quit reading this was that none of the characters felt genuine, especially Billy. Any time something weird happens, Billy's reactions are just not the reactions of a normal person. The conversations he has with the cops are really badly written: they feel really forced, and Billy doesn't ask any of the questions a normal human would ask. I got frustrated and stopped reading.

I kind of went tag crazy on this because weirdly (or not) this book featured marine biology, mystery, natural science, and religion in a modern fantasy setting. It reminded me of Harry Potter in that it takes place in the supernatural side of London and I really enjoyed it, but there are no boarding schools here. Nay, as our hapless curator discovers early on, the giant squid specimen at NHM's Darwin Centre suddenly goes missing. With curator Billy, we get pulled into the turbulent waters of cults and crimelords who may have an interest in our squiddy friend.

The climax came rather unexpectedly for me, but when the true apocalypse is determined, I [i]cackled[/i], because it made sense in hindsight and aaah clever. Sorry. I would be more specific but I hate spoilers.

I know I'm predisposed to like it because teuthology fantasy elements pop culture nods, but the writing style was also excellent. ( )

A lot of interesting ideas, but not one of his most well-written books. ( )

I remember it being very confusing.

First of all, let's not feed into the Vandermeer's and Mieville's...whatever it is...by calling this 'weird fiction', 'the new weird', or even 'speculative fiction'. Its urban fantasy, and calling it anything else is just silly and pretentious.
Kraken is, as stated, an urban fantasy novel featuring a fairly bumbling everyman (Billy)evolving into his powers and role as a savior of sorts over the course of a story involving stolen giant squid, museums, multiple religions and apocalypses, and a cast of characters who like our main character are not necessarily detailed and deep enough to really identify with deeply.
Structurally, its a bit of a mess, and while the language is interesting and something I adjusted to eventually, its bit off the wall and in places incomplete feeling (especially where dialogue is concerned). A large number of characters speak a bit like hard drug addicts I've known over the years, with a patois and pattern of speech that seems to assume everyone hearing them is in the know about what their parlance or at least should be. And maybe that's the point? Since being aware of the hidden magical side of London makes all of the characters that same sort of niche, ignored population. But at least among the professionals you'd expect a few to depart from that.
Honestly, the most interesting character is one of the secondary ones, Wati, and likely because its where Mievelle really gets to lean into his personal politics. Specifically, labor/union politics. Wati has the most interesting and complete background, and feels the most relatable despite not being a 'person'. I think with a lot of other characters (Goss and Subby spring to mind, as well as several of the other antagonists as well as secondary protagonists like Collingsworth). The structural issues have to do with too many deux-s ex machina (though maybe that's the point given the number of religions in the book) and an absurdist number of plot twists, especially in the final quarter of the book.
There's also a weird 'love interest' of sorts shoe-horned into the last few pages (almost an epilogue, definitely a denouement) that previously had no indications throughout the book that it was a possibility that feels really clumsy and forced.
Did I enjoy the book? Yes. Did I adjust to and even come to enjoy a few of the faults like the language? Sure. Was it even, to an extent, 'fun'. Yeah. But was it 'weird fiction'? Definitely fucking not. Was it the masterpiece of writing I expected from all the hype surrounding Mieville? Also most certainly not. It feels like the same sort of escapist, fun, kind-of-power-fantasy urban fantasy I've casually enjoyed since I was a teenager, with one interesting politically laden (and ultimately unimportant) subplot.
Am I done with Mieville? Probably not. I'll give one or two more books a shot to see if I get a more deft integration of his leftist politics with fantasy/horror, or more of the supposed 'weird' that's supposed to be here (though I take any designation from the Vandermeer's with a grain of salt). Barring that, at least its kind of sophomoric power fantasy fun. ( )

Sincer, nu mi-a plăcut deloc și nimic. Rămân fan Crobuzon, dar când iese din acel univers Mieville nu mă mai convinge. Aici totul e un haos narativ, cu o pleiadă de personaje monodimensionale și deseori enervante, cu un fel de clonare nereușită de Zei Americani dus mai spre dark și cu pretenții exagerate de "suspension of disbelief" care poate mergeau la Lovecraft acum un veac, dar nu mai pot funcționa în secolul 21. Am încercat să o citesc și in eng și în ro, cu același efect: după 100 si ceva de pag m-am lăsat păgubaș. Mai bine citiți separat Lovecraft si Gaiman și gata. ( )

I wouldn't call this scary, precisely, but it is monstrous creepy. It is also brimming with truly excellent puns. Inklings? JFC, I laughed so hard.

It has very, fucking very many marvelous and interesting details, that by most writerly people would make this feel quite a crowded and jostly book, but Miéville is somehow like, urban magic? in. transmogrified tattoo? done. various culty cults, including squid worship? check. competing Armageddons? naturally. gunfarmers? monsterherds? ink magic? angels of memory? time fire? warbly iPod magical guardian? Yep, yes, here, there, uh huh, yeah, duh.

Plot-wise, pretty weird, which is basically Miéville's modus operandi, see above. Squidmageddon, come on. I'm not sure I understood exactly what was happening at any given moment, but that is pretty much true of my life in general, so not a big surprise.

I've seen a few comparisons to Gaiman, which is inescapable, I guess because [b: Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere|Neil Gaiman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348747943s/14497.jpg|16534], but I recommend if you liked [b: City of Saints and Madmen|230852|City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris, #1)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390260432s/230852.jpg|522014], it's very like in style and squid, and there are some similarish ideas in [b: A Madness of Angels|6186355|A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift, #1)|Kate Griffin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1305861910s/6186355.jpg|6366640] but the tone there is quite different. ( )

A giant squid preserved in formaldehyde has been stolen from the British Museum and, the curator specifically associated with the Architeuthis dux, a.k.a. "Archie" is swept up in the search & (if possible) recovery. This starts out with an "X-Files" vibe and, dips a little into the horror of New Weird; but mostly, it's a discursive plot as the author runs with arcane topics & thoughts. It also doesn't help that the cadence & vocabulary of the British vernacular that Miéville employs is rather abstruse-- not impossible, but without contextual clues as to tone, it's challenging enough. Ultimately, pointless waste of ink. ( )

Ótrúleg hugmyndaauðgi, stöðugar flækjur og óvæntir snúningar er það sem helst einkennir þessa sögu China Miéville. En hún er nokkuð tyrfin lesning og fjölskrúðugt málfar Miévilles var mér oft erfitt því að þótt ég teldi mig þokkalegan í ensku þurfti ég að hafa orðabók til fletta upp í stökum sinnum - sem er reyndar kostur þegar fram í sækir.
Söguþráðurinn segir frá líffræðingi á safni í London sem hefur séð um varðveislu á risakolkrabba sem fundist hafði. En allt í einu hverfur ferlíkið og tankurinn sem kolkrabbinn var geymdur í. Engar eðlilegar skýringar finnast á hvarfinu og málið flækist enn frekar þegar mannslík finnst troðið í glerkúpul án þess að sjáanlegt sé hvernig maðurinn hefði getað komist þar.
Líffræðingsgreyið flækist nú í fantasíuheim þar sem hann kemst að því að galdrar eru í raun til auk þess sem útúrfurðuleg trúarbrögð og guðir eru sprelllifandi. Öllu verra er að öflugasti glæpaforingi Lundúnaborgar sem húðflúraður er á bak annars manns ætlar sér að finna kolkrabbann hvað sem það kostar. En öllu verra er að þessi þjófnaður á safngripnum mun valda endalokum heimsins og því hefst æðisgengið kapphlaup við tímann. ( )

3 stars as i never finished it.

6 months after winning a giveaway it arrived. Lost in the mail.
Tried several times to read it but couldnt retain my interest, even taking time beetween attempts.

Mieville is always highly recommended by trusted friends, but just doesnt seem to be my cup of tea.
Good for everyone else though! ( )

To me this was a 250-300 page story stretched out to 500 pages. I loved the start of the book but it just dragged on and on. Good enough that I finished it but I was having to force myself to read it. ( )

Adult fiction/fantasy. Sort of like Neil Gaiman's American Gods, but with squid. Starts off decently with a mystery, trouble from evil deities, pending apocalypse--and then continues for another 400 pages with odd twists and half-revelations; I got to page 300 or so before giving up on the story. ( )

I had to read this one twice. The first time through, for some reason, the character Goss became intolerable. Not in the bad way of I hate him but in the way of creeping me out so much my testicles wanted to hide inside of my body any time the narrator put on the Goss voice. Great read once I got used to that though. I always wondered squid worshiping fundamentalist would be like! ( )

I’m not sure what I was expecting when I picked up this particular novel, but it certainly didn’t turn out to be what I thought it was. I was under the impression that it was going to be a science fiction novel about a giant squid, which it is, but the squid only one of many minor characters in the overall plot. If I had to classify it, I might say science fiction/fantasy with a strong urban horror bent.

The novel starts out seemingly grounded in reality, with Billy Harrow, a curator and specialist in cataloguing and preservation, giving a tour at the Natural History Museum in London. The highlight of the tour is a giant squid, which Billy worked on during the preservation process. However, on this particular day, when Billy opens the door to the room, it is gone. “It couldn’t have, not disappeared, so many metres of abyss meat could not have gone. There were no suspicious cranes. There were no giant tank-nor squid-shaped holes cartoon style in the wall. It could not have gone, but there it was, not.” Billy soon becomes acquainted with several members of a special investigative team, and within sixty pages, is violently introduced to two of the strangest and most horrifying characters, oddly named Goss and Subby. Ancient Egyptian spirits, animal familiars, a malevolent tattooed figure, and an obsessive Star Trek fan also join the cast.

In many ways, this novel reminds me of a mashup of Charles de Lint and Stephen King, with the fantastical urban setting and the corruption of humans fueling the plot. While it certainly wasn’t what I thought it was, and not something which I would read for pleasure, I can see its appeal. At just over six hundred pages, it is not a quick read, although the pace is fast if you can keep up with the many many names and characters which pass through. ( )

Well this was a ride. Kraken gives us a world as diverse and shifting as Bad-Lag, with a bizarre and fascinating array of characters - sentient tattoos, Warhammer 40k-esque Nazis, X-Men style mages, special agents, sentient animals, spirits, fortune-tellers, pseudo-zombies, assassins....what I'm trying to say is its a full package. They are not well-rounded characters - the use of allegory and symbolism is just as if not more prevalent in Kraken than it is in Scar or Embassytown. I do wish the rules were a tad more clear and the world a bit more fleshed out - knack magic in particular seems to do whatever the plot requires.

The other Mieville novels I've read were very different in pacing, more contemplative and thoughtful compared Kraken, which has a pace that best resembles the movie Crank. The chapters are short and punchy (I would say like Dan Brown's but don't want to insult this book) and there is near constant action.

Because it moves fast and is introducing new elements, side plots, characters, etc. it can be hard to keep up with - this is a book that might benefit from a re-read to catch that I missed last time. ( )

the first two-thirds of this book were great, the last third was A LITTLE DISAPPOINTING. DAMNIT.


write me some unofficial crossovers with neil gaiman's neverwhere, though, and all will be forgiven. ( )

Started unusually sensible but the fluidity of Miéville's reality quickly seeped through it all and he maintained his New Weird style. It's not Bas Lag but entertaining. ( )

This book is fantastic. The plot is wonderfully unpredictable, the characters are interesting, engaging, well-written. Easily the most memorable book I've read in a while. Funny, exciting, enthralling. ( )

Crackin ( )

I was going to give this three stars, but, let's be honest, any book that contains the epithet “munching wanktoasters” doesn't deserve any less than four.

Kraken is full to its eyeballs with fantastic ideas, and Dr Miéville is certainly not lacking in skill when it comes to converting fantastic ideas into a well written story. The book reads like the bastard child of Lovecraft and Kafka that's been adopted and raised by Gaiman and Pratchett and, I kid you not, who was read [b:Spock Must Die!|3229293|Spock Must Die!|James Blish|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1321965983s/3229293.jpg|2893169] as a bedtime story. It features two of the most terrifying villains I've ever read, and not just because all the other characters said they were terrifying. The dialogue is fun, nuanced, and jarringly similar to, you know, real dialogue. And Dr Miéville, a man after my own heart, is not afraid to drop puns without shame, most of them here veering squidward.



No, no, I said squidward, small s.



Anyway. I've only mentioned the things I liked about Kraken because honestly I only liked things about Kraken. So why would it have been — sans wanktoasters — only a three-star book? Because I only liked it. Simply put: its tentacles never quite grabbed me in my special places. And no, I don't know whether that metaphor is supposed to convey a good thing or a bad thing either. ( )

I was going to give this three stars, but, let's be honest, any book that contains the epithet “munching wanktoasters” doesn't deserve any less than four.

Kraken is full to its eyeballs with fantastic ideas, and Dr Miéville is certainly not lacking in skill when it comes to converting fantastic ideas into a well written story. The book reads like the bastard child of Lovecraft and Kafka that's been adopted and raised by Gaiman and Pratchett and, I kid you not, who was read [b:Spock Must Die!|3229293|Spock Must Die!|James Blish|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1321965983s/3229293.jpg|2893169] as a bedtime story. It features two of the most terrifying villains I've ever read, and not just because all the other characters said they were terrifying. The dialogue is fun, nuanced, and jarringly similar to, you know, real dialogue. And Dr Miéville, a man after my own heart, is not afraid to drop puns without shame, most of them here veering squidward.



No, no, I said squidward, small s.



Anyway. I've only mentioned the things I liked about Kraken because honestly I only liked things about Kraken. So why would it have been — sans wanktoasters — only a three-star book? Because I only liked it. Simply put: its tentacles never quite grabbed me in my special places. And no, I don't know whether that metaphor is supposed to convey a good thing or a bad thing either. ( )

4.5 stars

In this book Mieville returns physically to London, although the city infuses most of his fictions in whatever worlds they are set. Kraken begins with the disappearance of a specimen of architeuthis - a giant squid - from the Natural History Museum, and its curator becoming involved in a seething underworld of religious cults that permeate the city, often working magics ('knackery') and predicting - or, indeed, working toward - some apocalypse or another. The inclusion of an arm of the Metropolitan police tasked with monitoring these cults and their magical activity initially makes this feel as though it is going to be along the lines of Ben Aaronvitch's or Paul Cornell's magical police procedurals but, of course, being China Mieville this quickly gets a whole lot weirder than even those.

Mieville's writing is, as always, superb and the book bursts wit ideas both profound and playful (the novel is infused with a level of humour you might not expect from him, sometimes bringing a wry smile and, occasionally, a belly laugh; PC Collingswood's inventive profanity caused this more than once). Building up to a potential apocalypse, the plot moves at breakneck speed throughout, but I found it a strangely heavy read despite the humour and the pace, in part perhaps due to the density of allusions in the writing. Along with the deluge of ideas the prose is piled with references to politics and mythology, to pop culture and science, but it is almost too much. The mix of supersonic plot with the torrent of ideas were reminiscent of Shea and Wilson's Iluminatus! trilogy but here there was somehow a tension between those two things; whilst part of my mind was trying to race ahead with the plot another was held up considering the ideas - although perhaps this says more about the way my mind works now than the book itself.

( )