Kraken

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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 variety absurdism.

Marge, on the other hand, was a breath of sanity throughout the text that proved to be the best steadying factor for me. But I feel like there could have been some alternative ways to structure the story that would leave us better prepared for confronting the mystery of the kraken. Winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, Kraken is a darkly comic, wildly absurd adventure by author of Perdido Street Station, China Mieville. As the police go through their investigative routine, Billy makes a gruesome discovery in the storage rooms.The inventiveness of some of his creations was just so off the wall that this book had me hooked all the way through. I’m glad that Miéville is trying different things, though, rather than sticking with the “brand” that made his name. But there’s an important difference: established religions have the weight of tradition and, to varying degrees, society behind them. I will note that I’ve had intermediate success with Miéville, finding a couple of his works quite memorable and some quite putdownable. Grisamentum, a dead magician who was chief rival to The Tattoo, whose former associates are forming new alliances.

One example is the fish-out-of-water protagonist who spends the first hundred pages belaboring his confusion at the incomprehensible world he has been thrust into. I mean, it sounds cool, but a stolen squid god macguffin is still a macguffin, and a bland hero is still a bland hero. Unfortunately, Miéville muddies the plot significantly enough that it takes far too long for them to solve the mystery.The light tone gives him a chance to deploy a variety of jokes and puns, and while these are of course hit and miss they are, on the whole, an asset. I'll never look at my fountain pen the same again, and I'm still thinking of the stitches in the mouth of a certain tattoo. In Kraken, most of the asides outline a freewheeling Kantian magic system built on belief and symbology, the other asides are fodder for his plot twists, which are somewhat obvious, if only because he has avoided the swirling eddies of uncertainty that would otherwise hide their trail.

The truly great parts and concepts of "Kraken" dearly make me want to love the book, but sadly anger and regret over the unfullfilled promises, the rushed execution and lack of polish prevents that from happening.Kraken was a good read but it was never a "drop everything and neglect your personal hygene" kind of gripping. This is the mind-blowing part, the most Miévillian of all the book, that kraken and its significance. Many characters in Kraken speak in British slang dialects that, as an American, were a little difficult to parse. It's like a nigh-bursting armoury of beloved keepsakes, the doors of which the readers inadevertently opens - getting buried, suffocating under the content for his curiosity.