Editors Reads Verdict
Miéville's most playful and comedic novel — London as accumulated mythology, with a cast of delightfully bizarre secondary characters. Less architecturally serious than his Bas-Lag work but great fun.
What We Loved
- The secondary characters — Collingswood, Subby, Goss and Subby — are among the best Miéville has created
- The London mythology is inventive and funny and rooted in real London obscurities
- Miéville is clearly enjoying himself, and the playfulness is infectious
Minor Drawbacks
- The plot is deliberately shaggy — it accumulates rather than builds
- Less thematically serious than his major works; some readers want the political weight of the Bas-Lag novels
- The ending is abrupt
Key Takeaways
- → London is not one city but many overlapping cities, each with its own cosmology
- → Apocalypse cults are not just fantasists — they are rational responses to the genuine incomprehensibility of the future
- → Museum collections embody specific power relationships — the giant squid is not just a specimen
| Author | China Miéville |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Del Rey |
| Pages | 509 |
| Published | May 26, 2010 |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Fantasy, Science Fiction |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
| Best For | Miéville readers who want something lighter and funnier than the Bas-Lag novels, and urban fantasy fans who like their magic genuinely strange. |
The Squid Is Missing
Billy Harrow curates the cephalopod collection at the Natural History Museum. When the specimen tank housing their most prized exhibit — an Architeuthis dux, a giant squid preserved in formalin — is found empty, with no sign of how it was removed, Billy’s life changes in ways he was not prepared for.
Kraken is Miéville’s most comic novel — a sprawling, playful investigation of London’s occult underworld, populated with competing apocalypse cults, a police unit that investigates magical crime, a pair of assassins named Goss and Subby who are genuinely terrifying despite (or because of) their comedy, and a union of familiars negotiating better conditions.
Miéville Having Fun
The tone is lighter than anything in the Bas-Lag novels — Miéville is clearly enjoying the opportunity to accumulate London mythology without the weight of sustained political argument. The result is occasionally shaggy (the plot follows Billy through the London underground rather than building toward a clear resolution) but consistently inventive and often very funny.
The secondary characters are the best argument for the novel: Collingswood, the foul-mouthed police occultist, and the Chaos Nazis are the kind of creations that linger.
Our rating: 3.9/5 — Miéville at his most playful: an affectionate, funny portrait of London as a city of accumulated mythologies. Not his best but entirely his own.
Reading Guides
Frequently Asked Questions
What is "Kraken" about?
A giant squid specimen disappears from the Natural History Museum, and Billy Harrow, a cephalopod specialist, is drawn into London's hidden world of apocalyptic cults, squid-worshippers, and magical London underbelly.
Who should read "Kraken"?
Miéville readers who want something lighter and funnier than the Bas-Lag novels, and urban fantasy fans who like their magic genuinely strange.
What are the key takeaways from "Kraken"?
London is not one city but many overlapping cities, each with its own cosmology Apocalypse cults are not just fantasists — they are rational responses to the genuine incomprehensibility of the future Museum collections embody specific power relationships — the giant squid is not just a specimen
Is "Kraken" worth reading?
Miéville's most playful and comedic novel — London as accumulated mythology, with a cast of delightfully bizarre secondary characters. Less architecturally serious than his Bas-Lag work but great fun.
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