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silverseamonster's review against another edition
5.0
A giant squid adventure. What can I say about this book that gets any better than that? That it reminds me of Neverwhere? Check. That China Mieville just gets better and better? Also true.
halfmanhalfbook's review against another edition
4.0
Not quite as good as the city and the city. Slightly surreal...
harrkee's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
brookhorse's review against another edition
4.0
“The sea’s full of saints and it’s been full of saints for years.”
This review is from my re-read. First, loved the opening. What a fantastic way to introduce the idea. As is his particular area of skill, this book is filled with wild, weird, wonderful ideas. The kraken cult, of course. Wati, and everything he’s involved in. The police ghosts, the street lamp, Jason Smyle, the guardchord, Grisantemum, etc. This book was stuffed with brilliant little moments of, “Oh, I love that.” This book bleeds concept, and boy does Miéville do good with concept.
He’s less good with characters. Always has been, though, so I knew that going in. Of all the books I’ve read by him (Kraken, Railsea, Un Lun Dun, The City and the City, Three Moments of an Explosion, Perido Street Station, and The Scar) the only characters that really made any impression on me were Deeba and Tanner Sack. I liked Collingswood, but she didn’t have a ton of depth. I adored Wati, but he didn’t get much time on his own. Billy, Dane, Marge, Vardy, etc. I could take or leave. I’m not exactly upset about this, though, since with how wild this book is I think it might be distracting or overwhelming to have deep characters with a lot going on.
The pacing was also a bit uneven, which I think was only exacerbated by the lack of engaging characters. Marge’s story I cared about the least, which I feel bad about, but she had so little personality beyond “my boyfriend died.” The FSRC’s plot I was vaguely interested in, but the tension was lacking as we watched them try to solve mysteries we already knew the answers to. I think this book could’ve been edited down without suffering too much.
But overall I really enjoyed myself. What a world Miéville has created, and what fantastic twists and turns, as always. The moments where I felt it dragged were more than made up for by the moments that delighted and surprised me. What a ride.
Also, I kept track of the words Mieville used that I didn’t know or wasn’t confident about. I tapped out somewhere around two thirds of the way through the book, though, since writing them down was slowing me up too much. But here’s what I managed to get down:
Truculent (“a big, truculent man”): eager or quick to argue or fight
Lugubrious (“lugubrious shapes”): looking or sounding sad and dismal
Tiddler (“no tiddler either”): a small fish
Moribund (“a weak, disoriented, moribund thing”): at the point of death
Palsied (“wheezed through its siphon and palsied”): affected with paralysis and involuntary tremors
Evinced (“evinced only a little interest”): reveal the presence of (a quality or feeling)
Benthic (“drenched in benthic water”): of the bottom of the sea, lake, or other body of water
Perfidious (“huge perfidious pulley system”): deceitful and untrustworthy
Horripilation (“some anecdote about horripilation”): the erection of hairs on the skin due to cold, fear, or excitement
Zaftig (“say zaftig at your own peril”): (of a woman) having a full, rounded figure; plump
Plinth (“plinths for leaves”): a heavy base supporting a statue or vase
Scatty (“the scattiness was not convincing”): absentminded and disorganized
Conclave (“in speechless conclave”): a private meeting
Diaphonization (“diaphonized fish”): clearing and staining of specimens
Evanescent (“so evanescent and vapid”): soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing
Parvenu (“a parvenu monster”): (often derogatory) a person of obscure origin who has gained wealth, influence, or celebrity
Charnel (“charnel Victoriana”): associated with death
Tatty (“a tatty emu”): work and shabby, in poor condition
Haptic (“it’s a haptic story”): relating to the sense of touch, in particular relation to the perception and manipulating of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception
Gnosis (“gathered to compare gnoses”): knowledge of spiritual mysteries
Demiurge (“a bloody demiurge”): responsible for the creation of the universe, in particular
Simon-pure (“perfect simon-pure exact god”): of untainted purity or integrity; also: pretentiously or hypocritically pure
Eschatology (“and epidemic of eschatologies”): the part of theology concerned with death, judgement, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind
Concertinaed (“with a gasp of air it concertinaed”): extend, compress, or collapse in folds like that of a concertina (instrument similar to an accordion)
Lepidopterist (“what have you got here, lepidopterist”): a person who studies or collects butterflies and moths
Meniscus (“like the breaching of some meniscus”): the curved upper surface of a liquid in a tube; a lens that is convex on one side and concave on the other; a thin fibrous cartilage between the surfaces of some joints
Percussed (“where his fingers percussed”): gently tap (a part of the body) with a finger or an instrument as part of a diagnosis
Efface (“species effaced by shared squidness”): erase (a mark) from a surface
Quiddity (“teuthic quiddity”): the inherent nature or essence of someone or something
Vorago (“that curved vorago”): abyss, chasm
Profligate (“profligate and foolish”): recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources
Lucre (“do it for lucre”): money, esp. when regarded as sordid or distasteful or gained in a dishonorable way
Pugnacious (“half-cringe, half-pugnacious uncoiling”): eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight
Oviparous (“gods are oviparous”): producing young by means of eggs that are hatched after they have been laid by the parent
Batten (“battening upon huge sea worms”): a long, flat strip of squared wood or metal used to hold something in place or as a fastening against a wall.
Tor (“every stone, cigarette packet, tor and town”): a hill or rocky peak
Ecumenical (“philistine ecumenical”): representing a number of different Christian churches or relating to unity among the world’s Christian churches
Beetling (“beetling with energy”): make one’s way hurriedly or with short, quick steps
Escutcheon (“a Pulitzer medal escutcheon”): a shield or emblem bearing a coat of arms
Unstinting (“in unstinting interpretation”): given or giving without restraint
Hermeneutic (“a merciless teuthic hermeneutic”): a method proved theory of interpretation
Exegesis (“attempting exegesis on his outburst”): critical explanation or interpretation of a text, esp. scripture
Surfeit (“a surfeit if apocalypse”): an excessive amount of something
Posset (“the inky posset”): a drink made of hot milk cuddled with ale, wine, or other alcoholic liquor and typically flavored with spices, drunk as a delicacy or a remedy for colds
Augur (“a hostage prophet, augur-inmate”): (in ancient Rome) a religious official who observed natural signs, esp. the behavior of birds, interpreting these as an indication of divine approval or disapproval of a proposed action
Obsequious (“obsequious jailers”): obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree
Ressentiment (“that ressentiment”): a psychological state arising from suppressed feelings of envy and hatred that can not be acted upon, frequently resulting in some form of self abasement
Spoor (“all the spoor”): the track or scent of an animal
Mizzen (“under the mizzen”): the mast aft of a ship’s mainmast
Alembics ("getting their alembics on which"): a distilling apparatus, now obsolete, consisting of a rounded, necked flask and a cap with a long beak for condensing and conveying the products to a receiver
Shufti ("I'd go in have a shufti"): a look or reconnoiter, esp. a quick one
Abraded (“abraded into existence”): scrape or wear away by friction or erosion
Numen (“a numen of its recall”): the spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place
Remit (“beyond the remit”): cancel or refrain from exacting or inflicting (a debt or punishment)
Sclerotic (“though it was sclerotic”): becoming rigid and unresponsive; losing the ability to adapt
Postlapsarian (“this postlapsarian cityscape”): occurring or existing after the Fall of Man
Vatic (“opaque vatic insight”): describing or predicting what will happen in the future
Oneiric (“oneiric insights”): relating to dreams or dreaming
Sententious (“with sententious sermon-logic): given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner
Ineluctable (“ineluctable, final, unintended consequence”): unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable
Ructions (“urban ructions”): a disturbance or quarrel
Nous (“nous and skill): common sense; practical intelligence
This review is from my re-read. First, loved the opening. What a fantastic way to introduce the idea. As is his particular area of skill, this book is filled with wild, weird, wonderful ideas. The kraken cult, of course. Wati, and everything he’s involved in. The police ghosts, the street lamp, Jason Smyle, the guardchord, Grisantemum, etc. This book was stuffed with brilliant little moments of, “Oh, I love that.” This book bleeds concept, and boy does Miéville do good with concept.
He’s less good with characters. Always has been, though, so I knew that going in. Of all the books I’ve read by him (Kraken, Railsea, Un Lun Dun, The City and the City, Three Moments of an Explosion, Perido Street Station, and The Scar) the only characters that really made any impression on me were Deeba and Tanner Sack. I liked Collingswood, but she didn’t have a ton of depth. I adored Wati, but he didn’t get much time on his own. Billy, Dane, Marge, Vardy, etc. I could take or leave. I’m not exactly upset about this, though, since with how wild this book is I think it might be distracting or overwhelming to have deep characters with a lot going on.
The pacing was also a bit uneven, which I think was only exacerbated by the lack of engaging characters. Marge’s story I cared about the least, which I feel bad about, but she had so little personality beyond “my boyfriend died.” The FSRC’s plot I was vaguely interested in, but the tension was lacking as we watched them try to solve mysteries we already knew the answers to. I think this book could’ve been edited down without suffering too much.
But overall I really enjoyed myself. What a world Miéville has created, and what fantastic twists and turns, as always. The moments where I felt it dragged were more than made up for by the moments that delighted and surprised me. What a ride.
Also, I kept track of the words Mieville used that I didn’t know or wasn’t confident about. I tapped out somewhere around two thirds of the way through the book, though, since writing them down was slowing me up too much. But here’s what I managed to get down:
Truculent (“a big, truculent man”): eager or quick to argue or fight
Lugubrious (“lugubrious shapes”): looking or sounding sad and dismal
Tiddler (“no tiddler either”): a small fish
Moribund (“a weak, disoriented, moribund thing”): at the point of death
Palsied (“wheezed through its siphon and palsied”): affected with paralysis and involuntary tremors
Evinced (“evinced only a little interest”): reveal the presence of (a quality or feeling)
Benthic (“drenched in benthic water”): of the bottom of the sea, lake, or other body of water
Perfidious (“huge perfidious pulley system”): deceitful and untrustworthy
Horripilation (“some anecdote about horripilation”): the erection of hairs on the skin due to cold, fear, or excitement
Zaftig (“say zaftig at your own peril”): (of a woman) having a full, rounded figure; plump
Plinth (“plinths for leaves”): a heavy base supporting a statue or vase
Scatty (“the scattiness was not convincing”): absentminded and disorganized
Conclave (“in speechless conclave”): a private meeting
Diaphonization (“diaphonized fish”): clearing and staining of specimens
Evanescent (“so evanescent and vapid”): soon passing out of sight, memory, or existence; quickly fading or disappearing
Parvenu (“a parvenu monster”): (often derogatory) a person of obscure origin who has gained wealth, influence, or celebrity
Charnel (“charnel Victoriana”): associated with death
Tatty (“a tatty emu”): work and shabby, in poor condition
Haptic (“it’s a haptic story”): relating to the sense of touch, in particular relation to the perception and manipulating of objects using the senses of touch and proprioception
Gnosis (“gathered to compare gnoses”): knowledge of spiritual mysteries
Demiurge (“a bloody demiurge”): responsible for the creation of the universe, in particular
Simon-pure (“perfect simon-pure exact god”): of untainted purity or integrity; also: pretentiously or hypocritically pure
Eschatology (“and epidemic of eschatologies”): the part of theology concerned with death, judgement, and the final destiny of the soul and of humankind
Concertinaed (“with a gasp of air it concertinaed”): extend, compress, or collapse in folds like that of a concertina (instrument similar to an accordion)
Lepidopterist (“what have you got here, lepidopterist”): a person who studies or collects butterflies and moths
Meniscus (“like the breaching of some meniscus”): the curved upper surface of a liquid in a tube; a lens that is convex on one side and concave on the other; a thin fibrous cartilage between the surfaces of some joints
Percussed (“where his fingers percussed”): gently tap (a part of the body) with a finger or an instrument as part of a diagnosis
Efface (“species effaced by shared squidness”): erase (a mark) from a surface
Quiddity (“teuthic quiddity”): the inherent nature or essence of someone or something
Vorago (“that curved vorago”): abyss, chasm
Profligate (“profligate and foolish”): recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources
Lucre (“do it for lucre”): money, esp. when regarded as sordid or distasteful or gained in a dishonorable way
Pugnacious (“half-cringe, half-pugnacious uncoiling”): eager or quick to argue, quarrel, or fight
Oviparous (“gods are oviparous”): producing young by means of eggs that are hatched after they have been laid by the parent
Batten (“battening upon huge sea worms”): a long, flat strip of squared wood or metal used to hold something in place or as a fastening against a wall.
Tor (“every stone, cigarette packet, tor and town”): a hill or rocky peak
Ecumenical (“philistine ecumenical”): representing a number of different Christian churches or relating to unity among the world’s Christian churches
Beetling (“beetling with energy”): make one’s way hurriedly or with short, quick steps
Escutcheon (“a Pulitzer medal escutcheon”): a shield or emblem bearing a coat of arms
Unstinting (“in unstinting interpretation”): given or giving without restraint
Hermeneutic (“a merciless teuthic hermeneutic”): a method proved theory of interpretation
Exegesis (“attempting exegesis on his outburst”): critical explanation or interpretation of a text, esp. scripture
Surfeit (“a surfeit if apocalypse”): an excessive amount of something
Posset (“the inky posset”): a drink made of hot milk cuddled with ale, wine, or other alcoholic liquor and typically flavored with spices, drunk as a delicacy or a remedy for colds
Augur (“a hostage prophet, augur-inmate”): (in ancient Rome) a religious official who observed natural signs, esp. the behavior of birds, interpreting these as an indication of divine approval or disapproval of a proposed action
Obsequious (“obsequious jailers”): obedient or attentive to an excessive or servile degree
Ressentiment (“that ressentiment”): a psychological state arising from suppressed feelings of envy and hatred that can not be acted upon, frequently resulting in some form of self abasement
Spoor (“all the spoor”): the track or scent of an animal
Mizzen (“under the mizzen”): the mast aft of a ship’s mainmast
Alembics ("getting their alembics on which"): a distilling apparatus, now obsolete, consisting of a rounded, necked flask and a cap with a long beak for condensing and conveying the products to a receiver
Shufti ("I'd go in have a shufti"): a look or reconnoiter, esp. a quick one
Abraded (“abraded into existence”): scrape or wear away by friction or erosion
Numen (“a numen of its recall”): the spirit or divine power presiding over a thing or place
Remit (“beyond the remit”): cancel or refrain from exacting or inflicting (a debt or punishment)
Sclerotic (“though it was sclerotic”): becoming rigid and unresponsive; losing the ability to adapt
Postlapsarian (“this postlapsarian cityscape”): occurring or existing after the Fall of Man
Vatic (“opaque vatic insight”): describing or predicting what will happen in the future
Oneiric (“oneiric insights”): relating to dreams or dreaming
Sententious (“with sententious sermon-logic): given to moralizing in a pompous or affected manner
Ineluctable (“ineluctable, final, unintended consequence”): unable to be resisted or avoided; inescapable
Ructions (“urban ructions”): a disturbance or quarrel
Nous (“nous and skill): common sense; practical intelligence
mvmckenzie16's review against another edition
4.0
much more playful than the other mieville i've read - even if it does deal with the apocalypse(s). kind of like mieville's dark love letter to london. he's still a little weak on endings, though.
september 2011 - upon a re-read, i think the ending works better than i'd originally thought.
september 2011 - upon a re-read, i think the ending works better than i'd originally thought.
shelbynordstedt's review against another edition
4.0
Oh boy where to begin....
Well i got this book a LONG time ago, and didn't finish it until two days ago, which is very sad for me. It is not as if it goes by slowly, per say, it's just that I couldn't get into the characters. It wasn't until about 3/4 of the way in when i really started to care.
I think that it was science fiction-y in a way, but it wasn't set in the future, which was actually pretty cool. It has "magic" in it, which i like a lot. The only problem with it was that it was confusing at times, because they'd introduce this magic, but they wouldn't say what they were doing, they just started to do it and I'd find myself having to go back and read the section again because I had no idea what was going on.
Also, I had a problem with the ending. A huge problem. I guess I am one of the people that likes closure in endings, but this definitely didn't have one. So they have this thing in the book called time-fire, and whenever something is burned with time-fire, it is erased from the worlds memory, so when they figure out "who-done-it", the guy burns in the time-fire! Like seriously? So at the end the main character and all of his helpers have no idea why they just saved the world, or even that they did, only that shinannigans had ensued.
Over all I think it was a good book, and it's mainly for people who like the science fiction type, and have time, because this book does take a lot of time.
Well i got this book a LONG time ago, and didn't finish it until two days ago, which is very sad for me. It is not as if it goes by slowly, per say, it's just that I couldn't get into the characters. It wasn't until about 3/4 of the way in when i really started to care.
I think that it was science fiction-y in a way, but it wasn't set in the future, which was actually pretty cool. It has "magic" in it, which i like a lot. The only problem with it was that it was confusing at times, because they'd introduce this magic, but they wouldn't say what they were doing, they just started to do it and I'd find myself having to go back and read the section again because I had no idea what was going on.
Also, I had a problem with the ending. A huge problem. I guess I am one of the people that likes closure in endings, but this definitely didn't have one. So they have this thing in the book called time-fire, and whenever something is burned with time-fire, it is erased from the worlds memory, so when they figure out "who-done-it", the guy burns in the time-fire! Like seriously? So at the end the main character and all of his helpers have no idea why they just saved the world, or even that they did, only that shinannigans had ensued.
Over all I think it was a good book, and it's mainly for people who like the science fiction type, and have time, because this book does take a lot of time.
mjjdge's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
starsal's review against another edition
4.0
The blurb describes this book as "one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year." This is entirely correct. It's also a very difficult-to-classify book. I would go with urban fantasy with thriller elements.
It won my heart immediately by being about a museum curator. There are not enough novels about museums and curators. In addition to that, the curator in question (Billy) is well-drawn and believable. There are people just like him working at the National Museum of Natural History just down the street. (Where, sidenote, we have an Architeuthis in a tank.) He was engaging, and I was interested in him immediately, even when he was just walking around giving the tour. Then the museum's squid goes missing, and all heck breaks loose.
This is a wild romp of a book, with plots, and subplots, and tiny details mentioned once that suddenly become very important later on. It's a book that keeps the reader on her toes, and one that (occasionally) disturbs her sleep. While never anything (very) overtly gory, there's some very well-done creepy squickiness.
This book kept me guessing right up until the end. Miéville does a very good job of introducing and tracking characters organically. In some books, you meet someone and immediately know they are a Character. Maybe this happens in other people's real lives, but it certainly doesn't happen in mine, so I appreciate writers like Miéville who introduce people slowly, without a bunch of physical description and back story to drive home the fact that You Should Be Paying Attention to This Person. It was really refreshing. The relationships and loyalties were also nicely organic and believable.
The story was incredibly imaginative and engrossing. The characters, even the most absurd, were well-drawn, and the concepts were just outstanding. I loved the angels of memory, Wati's union, the embassy, Perky the helpful pig, and all the other characters Miéville created and brought together for this extraordinary story. At root, this is a story about the nature, and importance, of belief. Miéville handles it dexterously and with rare humor, so it never bogs down.
My biggest (and only gripe) (and maybe isn't a gripe so much as it is a question) has to do with the last few pages of the book.
It won my heart immediately by being about a museum curator. There are not enough novels about museums and curators. In addition to that, the curator in question (Billy) is well-drawn and believable. There are people just like him working at the National Museum of Natural History just down the street. (Where, sidenote, we have an Architeuthis in a tank.) He was engaging, and I was interested in him immediately, even when he was just walking around giving the tour. Then the museum's squid goes missing, and all heck breaks loose.
This is a wild romp of a book, with plots, and subplots, and tiny details mentioned once that suddenly become very important later on. It's a book that keeps the reader on her toes, and one that (occasionally) disturbs her sleep. While never anything (very) overtly gory, there's some very well-done creepy squickiness.
This book kept me guessing right up until the end. Miéville does a very good job of introducing and tracking characters organically. In some books, you meet someone and immediately know they are a Character. Maybe this happens in other people's real lives, but it certainly doesn't happen in mine, so I appreciate writers like Miéville who introduce people slowly, without a bunch of physical description and back story to drive home the fact that You Should Be Paying Attention to This Person. It was really refreshing. The relationships and loyalties were also nicely organic and believable.
The story was incredibly imaginative and engrossing. The characters, even the most absurd, were well-drawn, and the concepts were just outstanding. I loved the angels of memory, Wati's union, the embassy, Perky the helpful pig, and all the other characters Miéville created and brought together for this extraordinary story. At root, this is a story about the nature, and importance, of belief. Miéville handles it dexterously and with rare humor, so it never bogs down.
My biggest (and only gripe) (and maybe isn't a gripe so much as it is a question) has to do with the last few pages of the book.
Spoiler
I understand what Vardo was trying to do and why. But what about Alfred Wallace? Wallace was stumbling toward the idea of natural selection at the same time as Darwin was, just in a different part of the world. Don't get me wrong, I know Darwin was important. But he didn't invent natural selection. He merely discovered it. It's there, and true, even if the Beagle went down, with all hands, in the Pacific. Wouldn't someone else have just discovered it? Or is the way the time fire works so precise that burning out Darwin's records mean that natural selection never gained dominance as a theory? I'm a bit curious about this. Though I was very touched at the squid's behavior, and the loyalty Billy feels toward Darwin, biology, and the museum.cmarcatili's review against another edition
3.0
I've read quite a few Miéville books now, Kraken being the latest and perhaps least favourite.
Regular Miéville readers will recognise the linguistic verbiage (the book is about a kraken, so expect plenty of squid puns), the frantic sense of action even when nothing much is happening, the inclusion his activist insights and politics. There's a collection of weird and wonderful ideas, cults, gods, and monsters. Standard fare for Miéville's unique storytelling.
There's a subgenre of book I can now fairly confidently say I'm not interested in: the 'alternate London' fantasy novel. A lot of English authors lean on this trope (Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, Ben Aaronovitch, V.E. Schwab, and J.K. Rowling are popular ones that spring to mind, but I know there's many others out there) and I'm sure there's plenty of novels of alternative New Yorks and whatnot that I can't think of right now.
The alternative London novel is often from the point of view of a hapless muggle who—either because of some innate but as-yet undiscovered talent or because they're in the wrong place at the wrong time—finds themselves entangled in a mess of magic and strangeness on the otherwise familiar streets of ol' London town. It's convenient for the author to have a clueless protagonist so they can ask convenient questions. But the consequence of having a hapless protagonist is that they have to follow around someone knowledgable, someone who can show them the ropes and intervene when needed. They often struggle with agency, usually right up until the very end when, realising their full potential at last, they defeat the strange enemy and master the peculiarities of Underground London.
In Kraken, our hapless protagonist is Billy, a curator at London's Natural History Museum. When their prize specimen, a huge deep water squid, vanishes without a trace, Billy gets embroiled in London's unseen world of cultists, gods and gang warfare. The theft has, though no one ever quite articulates why or how, triggered what seems to be a final apocalypse. The Deep Kraken God seems to be on the rise, and 'the night' when it'll all end always seems to be just out of reach. Billy's got Dane to follow, the exiled paladin of a Kraken Cult, and together they find allies and try to figure out just who stole the squid and how to put an end to this end of days.
Billy eventually hovers close being a powerful player in this strange conflict. Or at least so it seems. It's even suggested he might just be some kind of prophet, though the specifics of this are left vague and unhelpful. Does he ever actually do anything? Unfortunately, he falls into the trap of being one of those observer-protagonists, and the side characters are much more interesting. He literally has a guardian angel to swoop in at times when things are really getting tough. Even in the final conflict, Billy doesn't really do anything except witness the antagonist's end.
All in all, it was a pretty disappointing book. I'm giving it a bump up from 2.5 to 3 starts because if you like Miéville's books (as I do) there's definitely stuff in here to enjoy. But I did recently find and buy Un Lun Dun in a secondhand bookstore and I don't think I'll be in a rush to read it.
Regular Miéville readers will recognise the linguistic verbiage (the book is about a kraken, so expect plenty of squid puns), the frantic sense of action even when nothing much is happening, the inclusion his activist insights and politics. There's a collection of weird and wonderful ideas, cults, gods, and monsters. Standard fare for Miéville's unique storytelling.
There's a subgenre of book I can now fairly confidently say I'm not interested in: the 'alternate London' fantasy novel. A lot of English authors lean on this trope (Neil Gaiman, Philip Pullman, Ben Aaronovitch, V.E. Schwab, and J.K. Rowling are popular ones that spring to mind, but I know there's many others out there) and I'm sure there's plenty of novels of alternative New Yorks and whatnot that I can't think of right now.
The alternative London novel is often from the point of view of a hapless muggle who—either because of some innate but as-yet undiscovered talent or because they're in the wrong place at the wrong time—finds themselves entangled in a mess of magic and strangeness on the otherwise familiar streets of ol' London town. It's convenient for the author to have a clueless protagonist so they can ask convenient questions. But the consequence of having a hapless protagonist is that they have to follow around someone knowledgable, someone who can show them the ropes and intervene when needed. They often struggle with agency, usually right up until the very end when, realising their full potential at last, they defeat the strange enemy and master the peculiarities of Underground London.
In Kraken, our hapless protagonist is Billy, a curator at London's Natural History Museum. When their prize specimen, a huge deep water squid, vanishes without a trace, Billy gets embroiled in London's unseen world of cultists, gods and gang warfare. The theft has, though no one ever quite articulates why or how, triggered what seems to be a final apocalypse. The Deep Kraken God seems to be on the rise, and 'the night' when it'll all end always seems to be just out of reach. Billy's got Dane to follow, the exiled paladin of a Kraken Cult, and together they find allies and try to figure out just who stole the squid and how to put an end to this end of days.
Billy eventually hovers close being a powerful player in this strange conflict. Or at least so it seems. It's even suggested he might just be some kind of prophet, though the specifics of this are left vague and unhelpful. Does he ever actually do anything? Unfortunately, he falls into the trap of being one of those observer-protagonists, and the side characters are much more interesting. He literally has a guardian angel to swoop in at times when things are really getting tough. Even in the final conflict, Billy doesn't really do anything except witness the antagonist's end.
All in all, it was a pretty disappointing book. I'm giving it a bump up from 2.5 to 3 starts because if you like Miéville's books (as I do) there's definitely stuff in here to enjoy. But I did recently find and buy Un Lun Dun in a secondhand bookstore and I don't think I'll be in a rush to read it.
likethesolid's review against another edition
3.0
Kraken was an extremely detailed look at a fantasy world. I enjoyed the premise and the villains a lot. It reminded me a lot of Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, because there is a hidden, magical London that most people choose to be blind to. The qualms I had about making this a four star book were that there were too many characters too feel much for any one of them, and ultimately this made the book longer, but not necessarily more compelling. Also, I don't mind cussing in the dialogue, but I have a hard time not mentally revolting when the third-person omniscient narrator does it. I enjoyed the book, but these details kept it from being a fantasy that enveloped me.