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 [US] [UK] was my first crack (or should I say krak) at China Mieville outside of the 100 or so pages I read of Perdido Street Station [US] [UK], which I do plan to someday finish. This is one of those books that leaves an indelible impression on you for a very long time after. This is also why I changed my rating a few days later (in the upward direction) as I'll explain in a bit.
Throughout the book, I was thinking I'd give Kraken at most a 2 out of 5. I have to applaud the imagination the Mieville has. It's impressively insane. He not only has the craziest characters/entities/whatchamacallits, but he describes them in a way that makes it completely believable in the world he's created. It's quite amazing and I'd say Mieville's worth a read for the sole opportunity to have your mind blown with an extremely unique take on a fantasy novel. The problem, and the reason for the initial rating, was that I felt so bogged down in the imagination, in the vivid descriptions and interesting characters, that I didn't feel like there was really any progression to the story; any reason to continue besides to find out about more cool creatures. This was much the same reason I stopped reading Perdido Street Station part-way through, although to a much larger degree. Like I said, I will get back to it as I now know it will all be worth it in the end.
The tale's protagonist, Billy Harrow, is a curator at Natural History Museum in London and its biggest draw, and on which Billy has personally worked, is the Giant Squid - Architeuthis dux. The only problem is that it's suddenly disappeared...out of nowhere...with no trace whatsoever.
Thereafter, Billy finds himself in a London that is not the same London he knew before he found the Kraken was gone. There are cults and gangs, creatures and spirits, Billy never would have believed existed including the notorious gang leader Tattoo, who is actually a tattoo of a face on the back of an unwanting punk, and Wati (my favorite), the Egyptian spirit who can only inhabit figurines and statues that are at least mostly human shaped.
The problem for Billy is that all these groups in this underground London think Billy is behind it all and he doesn't know a thing.
Like I said earlier, Kraken is amazingly imaginative and it stays with you long after you read this book, as I'm told are many, if not all, of China Mieville's work. The more I get away from reading this book, the more I find myself still thinking about it. It really was an enjoyable book that I'd definitely recommend.
Because this is my first Mieville book, I'm not the expert, but I've read this is the most linear and accessible of all his work.
Why Should You Read Kraken?
Well, don't read it if all you wanted were pirates and ships and sword-fights, etc. You won't get any of that. What you will get is a great book filled with characters and creatures that you can't believe how real you think they now are. :) (like henchmen that have actual hands, fingers and everything, for heads)
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. This did not have any. Sorry, it's in the rules.
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 [US] [UK]was my first crack (or should I say krak - hehe) at China Mieville outside of the 100 or so pages I read of Perdido Street Station [US] [UK], which I do plan to someday finish. This is one of those books that leaves an indelible impression on you for a very long time after. This is also why I changed my rating a few days later (in the upward direction) as I'll explain in a bit.
Throughout the book, I was thinking I'd give Kraken at most a 2 out of 5. I have to applaud the imagination the Mieville has. It's impressively insane. He not only has the craziest characters/entities/whatchamacallits, but he describes them in a way that makes it completely believable in the world he's created. It's quite amazing and I'd say Mieville's worth a read for the sole opportunity to have your mind blown with an extremely unique take on a fantasy novel. The problem, and the reason for the initial rating, was that I felt so bogged down in the imagination, in the vivid descriptions and interesting characters, that I didn't feel like there was really any progression to the story; any reason to continue besides to find out about more cool creatures. This was much the same reason I stopped reading Perdido Street Station part-way through, although to a much larger degree. Like I said, I will get back to it as I now know it will all be worth it in the end.
The tale's protagonist, Billy Harrow, is a curator at Natural History Museum in London and its biggest draw, and on which Billy has personally worked, is the Giant Squid - Architeuthis dux. The only problem is that it's suddenly disappeared...out of nowhere...with no trace whatsoever.
Thereafter, Billy finds himself in a London that is not the same London he knew before he found the Kraken was gone. There are cults and gangs, creatures and spirits, Billy never would have believed existed including the notorious gang leader Tattoo, who is actually a tattoo of a face on the back of an unwanting punk, and Wati (my favorite), the Egyptian spirit who can only inhabit figurines and statues that are at least mostly human shaped.
The problem for Billy is that all these groups in this underground London think Billy is behind it all and he doesn't know a thing.
Like I said earlier, Kraken is amazingly imaginative and it stays with you long after you read this book, as I'm told are many, if not all, of China Mieville's work. The more I get away from reading this book, the more I find myself still thinking about it. It really was an enjoyable book that I'd definitely recommend.
Because this is my first Mieville book, I'm not the expert, but I've read this is the most linear and accessible of all his work.
Why Should You Read Kraken?
Well, don't read it if all you wanted were pirates and ships and sword-fights, etc. You won't get any of that. What you will get is a great book filled with characters and creatures that you can't believe how real you think they now are. :) (like henchmen that have actual hands, fingers and everything, for heads)
Hello and welcome to issue #44 of my Weekly Roundup. As promised I don't talk about time. But maybe you have been a bit surprised that we didn't post every day. The reason for that is simple: Alec was busy with other stuff and I don't have the capacity to write more. Yay! I didn't use the magic word t**e. Did you notice? In two months time is Christmas! I started to think about Christmas gifts, especially my own wishes. Beginning with this Roundup I will add a section where I will talk about possibly gifts and so on. And now enjoy reading..... Bona Fide's Menu
Shelf discovery of the week I love steampunk. So I must ask myself why I didn't read my discovery of the week so far. I lost sight of it. I talk about a book which won several prices like The British Fantasy Society Award and The Arthur C. Clarke Award. It also has been nominated for the Hugo Award, Nebula Award and the World Fantasy Award. And the book is: Perdido Street Station (2000) [US][UK], by China Miéville.
"Beneath the towering bleached ribs of a dead, ancient beast lies New Crobuzon, a squalid city where humans, Re-mades, and arcane races live in perpetual fear of Parliament and its brutal militia. The air and rivers are thick with factory pollutants and the strange effluents of alchemy, and the ghettos contain a vast mix of workers, artists, spies, junkies, and whores. In New Crobuzon, the unsavory deal is stranger to none—not even to Isaac, a brilliant scientist with a penchant for Crisis Theory. Isaac has spent a lifetime quietly carrying out his unique research. But when a half-bird, half-human creature known as the Garuda comes to him from afar, Isaac is faced with challenges he has never before fathomed. Though the Garuda's request is scientifically daunting, Isaac is sparked by his own curiosity and an uncanny reverence for this curious stranger. While Isaac's experiments for the Garuda turn into an obsession, one of his lab specimens demands attention: a brilliantly colored caterpillar that feeds on nothing but a hallucinatory drug and grows larger—and more consuming—by the day. What finally emerges from the silken cocoon will permeate every fiber of New Crobuzon—and not even the Ambassador of Hell will challenge the malignant terror it invokes . . . A magnificent fantasy rife with scientific splendor, magical intrigue, and wonderfully realized characters, told in a storytelling style in which Charles Dickens meets Neal Stephenson, Perdido Street Station offers an eerie, voluptuously crafted world that will plumb the depths of every reader's imagination." [Source: From the back of my copy of the book]
Book trailer I'm a big fan of sword-jockey Eddie LaCrosse. I reviewed The Sword-Edged Blonde and Burn Me Deadly. Both are awesome reads by Alex Bledsoe. Only a few days to go until Burn Me Deadly will hit the book stores. In the meantime enjoy the book trailer.
Jane Austen on a Sci-Fi/Fantasy blog? Hope you don't think I'm going crazy. I never read a Jane Austen novel so far. It is not my taste. But maybe I will change my mind. You will understand why as soon as you have watched the following book trailer.
Good news for steampunk fans Read the following lines...
"It is 1861, and the British Empire is in the grip of conflicting forces. Engineers transform the landscape with bigger, faster, noisier and dirtier technological wonders; Eugenicists develop specialist animals to provide unpaid labour; Libertines oppose restrictive and unjust laws and flood the country with propaganda demanding a society based on beauty and creativity; while The Rakes push the boundaries of human behaviour to the limits with magic, sexuality, drugs and anarchy. Returning from his failed expedition to find the source of the Nile, explorer, linguist, scholar and swordsman Sir Richard Francis Burton finds himself sucked into the perilous depths of this moral and ethical vacuum when the Prime Minister, Lord Palmerston, employs him as “King's Spy.” His first mission: to investigate the sexual assaults committed by a weird apparition known as Spring Heeled Jack; to find out why chimney sweeps are being kidnapped by half-man, half-dog creatures; and to discover the whereabouts of his badly injured ex-friend (and new enemy), John Hanning Speke. Accompanied by the diminutive and pain-loving poet, Algernon Swinburne, Burton's investigations lead him back to one of the defining events of the age: the brutal assassination of Queen Victoria in 1840; and the terrifying possibility that the world he inhabits shouldn't exist at all!" [Source]
I got totally excited! This is the description of Mark Hodder's Burton & Swinburne in The Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack, the first of a planned new series. And Lou Anders aquired author and book for Pyr. But, but but there is one downer - the book is not scheduled yet!! Lou Anders expects the book in the US around fall 2010......
Blogosphere
"The Kraken" Do you believe in seamonsters like The Kraken? No? Maybe you need some more information and a bottle of "The Kraken Black Spiced Rum". Please don't get me wrong. The following videos are commercials. But they are worth to watch. You will get interesting information about the "Kraken". This is chapter one. For chapter two and three please follow the links.
New PAX BRITANNIA logo After 18 months Jonathan Green decided that the time has come to change the logo of PAX BRITANNIA. On the left side you see the new logo. What do you think about it? Is it the right one for a steampunk series?
Got to PAX BRITANNIA and leave your comment. Jonathan Green would like to know what you think about it. I left my comment. For more information about the series read my post The World of PAX BRITANNIA. I also reviewed the latest book of the series: Evolution Expects.
My tribute to Halloween I live in Germany and we don't have a real Halloween tradition. But I think I found my appropriate tribute to Halloween. The following three names should ring a bell in you: Tim Burton, Vincent Price, Edgar Allan Poe.
Let's start with Tim Burton's Vincent which is pays homage to Vincent Price and Edgar Allan Poe.
After this prelude watch the awesome Vincent Price giving The Raven
And finally enjoy the virtual Edgar Allan Poe reading his great poem "The Raven"
Movies
When I watched the first teaser trailer of Avatar - the forthcoming 3-D film by James Cameron - I have been a bit disappointed. But now the new international trailer is available. And it is much better. The movie will hit the cinemas on December 18th.
Xgifts
Twice a year I create a list of things I wish. My family appreciates to have a choice. Last Christmas I got all available books of the Malazan Empire. This year is a bit different. For the first time I want to reread a series: Memory, Sorrow and Thorn by Tad Williams. The whole series (four books in paperback) has been reissued by Orbit UK. The US cover is different. Anyway all books are available. And this is book one: The Dragonbone Chair (2009) [US][UK]:
"THE DRAGONBONE CHAIR is the story of Simon, a young kitchen boy and magician's apprentice, whose dreams of great deeds and heroic wars come all too shockingly true when his world is torn apart by a terrifying civil war -- a war fueled by ancient hatreds, immortal enemies, and the dark powers of sorcery. In Osten Ard, a land once ruled by an elvishlike race known as the Sithi, the human High King is dying. And with his death, a long-dormant evil is unleashed on the land as the undead Sithi ruler, the Storm King, seeks to regain his lost realm through a pact with one of human royal blood. Driven by spell-inspired jealousy and fear, prince fights prince, while around them the very land begins to die, poisoned by a sorcerous force sworn to annihilate the humans whose ancestors had driven the Sithi from their rightful home long ages ago. Only a small, scattered group, the League of the Scroll, recognizes the true danger faced by Osten Ard, only they hold the knowledge of times past, of threats fulfilled, and of a riddle of swords, which holds out the one small hope of salvation. And to Simon -- unknowingly apprenticed to a member of this League, and unwittingly touched by magic both good and ill -- will go the task of spearheading the search for the solution to this riddle of long-lost swords of power, a quest that will see him fleeing and facing enemies straight out of a legend-maker's worst nightmare"[Source]
And these are the sequels: The Stone of Farewell (2009) [US][UK], Siege (2009) [US][UK] and Storm (2009) [US][UK]. Quotes
I missed my quotes. Therefore I decided to present a few beside the presentation of German proverbs. And again I used wikiqoute as my main source.
"*Wie Pech und Schwefel. Lit.: "Like pitch and sulphur." Meaning: "E.g. good friends, who are inseparable or/and make all together, are like pitch and sulphur."”
"* Wie man sich bettet, so liegt man. Literally: "As you put yourself to bed, so you will lie." Meaning: "You made your bed, now lie in it." Meaning: Everyone makes his own fate."”
"One need not be a chamber to be haunted; One need not be a house; The brain has corridors surpassing Material place." Emily Dickinson
"When black cats prowl and pumpkins gleam, May luck be yours on Halloween." ~Author Unknown
"There are nights when the wolves are silent and only the moon howls." ~George Carlin
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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. 
