Kraken By China Miéville
Fast-tracked to paperback in a mere five months, probably due to the Hugo Award presented to his previous novel, The City And The City, Miéville's Kraken is a dark, supernatural blend of W.H. Hodgson-like grotesquery, grubby cyberpunk fantasy and esoteric theologies.
'Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes along much less often than once in a lifetime: a perfect, and perfectly preserved, giant squid. But what does it mean when the creature suddenly and impossibly disappears? For curator Billy Harrow it's the start of a headlong pitch into a London of warring cults, surreal magic, apostates and assassins. It might just be that the creature he's been preserving is more than a biological rarity: there are those who are sure it's a god. A god that someone is hoping will end the world.'
Miéville, the erstwhile wunderkind of the New Weird, manages to nail the urban fantasy genre in a dark, violent and often comic novel. While not a groundbreaking read, with its bizarre cults, new twists on worn characters and tongue-in cheek pop culture references (trust me, you'll never watch Star Trek in quite the same way ever again) it is nevertheless visceral and cathartic fun. A magnum opus for fans of Gaiman's Neverwhere or Mike Carey's 'Felix Castor' thrillers, Kraken is probably more of a fun aside for more uncompromising fantasy or horror fans.
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