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kamreadsandrecsBefore settling down to reading Mockingjay, I decided to finish this one book, since I was already one-third of the way through it when the former came around.
I can almost hear the "Release the Kraken!" cracks already, but trust me, this has got absolutely nothing to do with Clash of the Titans. It doesn't even have anything to do with Lovecraft - okay, maybe just a teeny-tiny bit, but not much.
Kraken is about a man named Billy Harrow, who works at the Darwin Center at London's Natural History Museum. His claim to fame (initially, anyway) is that he's the guy who worked on preserving "Archie" (short for Architeuthis dux), the giant squid specimen that's been on display at the Darwin Center since 2006. It's the centerpiece of what's known as "The Spirit Collection," which is essentially the Darwin Center's collection of specimens preserved in liquid.
However, when Archie is stolen, Billy Harrow finds himself thrown into the "other" side of London, seeing an aspect of this city that has been around for centuries, but which only a few know about.
To be honest, it was the idea of a giant squid getting stolen that initially pulled me in. I mean, come on: giant squid? How do you steal one from a museum? Or, for that matter, why would you want to steal one? That initial premise led me to a re-visioning of London as a city where magic and religion all exist - a city of Londonmancers, people who are part of the city itself and can make it obey their whim; a city where memory angels are born and guard the great museums; a city where the sea actually has an embassy in a house down a street; a city where one of the most powerful protection charms you can possibly have is an iPod that feeds on playlists.
If any of this sounds a wee bit familiar, I'd have to say that's quite true: it sounds a whole lot like Neil Gaiman's American Gods with a bit of Neverwhere thrown in, except most of the story happens above-ground instead of underground. Does it do as well as American Gods? Not quite. I'm still firmly of the opinion that American Gods is one of the best examples of urban fantasy written so far, and while Kraken tries to be another American Gods (or London Gods?), it doesn't seem to quite get there.
Maybe it's the characters. While Billy Harrow is okay as a character, he's significantly overshadowed by others: Dane Parnell, for one, and Kath Collingswood, for another. Explaining why they overshadow Billy is a spoiler-laden road which I'll avoid, but reading about them tends to be a wee bit more interesting than following Billy around, especially initially. I guess this is because Billy is supposed to help the character by virtue of his own cluelessness regarding this new world he's discovering he's lived with almost all his life. Sure, Billy becomes interesting after a while, but he's not exactly like Shadow, who's pretty interesting right from the get-go.
There's also another character, Marge (short for Marginalia), whose storyline I think the novel could have done without. I think her presence is like Billy's in that she's supposed to help the reader get acquainted with London as it's been written in the novel, but by the time she appears we're already tolerably acquainted with it via Billy - in fact, by the time she shows up Billy gets pretty interesting in his own right. Whenever the novel cut to her side of the story I felt like I was taking an unwanted diversion. I wanted to go and read about Billy and Dane, or maybe about Collingswood, not about Marge. And that's a sentiment that kind of lingers all the way to the end.
It's also possible that, as Billy becomes absorbed into the not-so-normal London underbelly and becomes not-so-normal himself, Marge begins to represent the one remaining bastion of normality: an ordinary person without extraordinary abilities who is forced to make her way - alone - through the craziness of not-so-normal London. Still, if that were the case I think her storyline could have been handled a mite better. Or maybe, it could have been eliminated entirely, as I mentioned earlier, since by that stage in the novel the reader is pretty much invested in Billy, and hence more keen on following his progress.
I also felt that the scope of Kraken, which is mostly concerned with Armageddon (or multiple Armageddons) but not in the way the not-so-normal folks of London expected it, was somewhat limited. This could be a fault of the title, since if you're going to be titling a novel Kraken then you've got no choice but to stick to the darn thing until the end. While the action to the climax was pretty interesting, the ending still fell a little flat compared to the ending of American Gods, which was, in my opinion anyway, more epic than Kraken. Then again, with a title like American Gods, how could it not be?
What I did enjoy about Kraken, however, were the concepts. Mieville came up with a pretty solid lot of them, including the concept of "knacking" - essentially the ability to use magic. People have different kinds, levels, and strengths of knacks, ranging from the ability to teleport people ala Star Trek (I kid you not, and this is crucial to the story), to the ability to summon spirts to do the dirty work for you. I especially loved the idea of "memory angels:" entities who come into being within museums, made up from the collective memories within - for after all, what are museums but repositories of memory? Each museum has a memory angel or memory angels unique to it: so the Victoria and Albert Museum has a specific set of memory angels, while the Darwin Center has its own specific memory angel too.
Overall, Kraken isn't a half-bad novel, but if you're going to be comparing it to something like American Gods, or even some of Mieville's other works like Perdido Street Station, it does fall a teensy bit flat. It's still worth a shot though, if only for the concepts Mieville writes about, as well as a chance to see a London that's completely different from the everyday one. Could use a touch of the Doctor, though...
I can almost hear the "Release the Kraken!" cracks already, but trust me, this has got absolutely nothing to do with Clash of the Titans. It doesn't even have anything to do with Lovecraft - okay, maybe just a teeny-tiny bit, but not much.
Kraken is about a man named Billy Harrow, who works at the Darwin Center at London's Natural History Museum. His claim to fame (initially, anyway) is that he's the guy who worked on preserving "Archie" (short for Architeuthis dux), the giant squid specimen that's been on display at the Darwin Center since 2006. It's the centerpiece of what's known as "The Spirit Collection," which is essentially the Darwin Center's collection of specimens preserved in liquid.
However, when Archie is stolen, Billy Harrow finds himself thrown into the "other" side of London, seeing an aspect of this city that has been around for centuries, but which only a few know about.
To be honest, it was the idea of a giant squid getting stolen that initially pulled me in. I mean, come on: giant squid? How do you steal one from a museum? Or, for that matter, why would you want to steal one? That initial premise led me to a re-visioning of London as a city where magic and religion all exist - a city of Londonmancers, people who are part of the city itself and can make it obey their whim; a city where memory angels are born and guard the great museums; a city where the sea actually has an embassy in a house down a street; a city where one of the most powerful protection charms you can possibly have is an iPod that feeds on playlists.
If any of this sounds a wee bit familiar, I'd have to say that's quite true: it sounds a whole lot like Neil Gaiman's American Gods with a bit of Neverwhere thrown in, except most of the story happens above-ground instead of underground. Does it do as well as American Gods? Not quite. I'm still firmly of the opinion that American Gods is one of the best examples of urban fantasy written so far, and while Kraken tries to be another American Gods (or London Gods?), it doesn't seem to quite get there.
Maybe it's the characters. While Billy Harrow is okay as a character, he's significantly overshadowed by others: Dane Parnell, for one, and Kath Collingswood, for another. Explaining why they overshadow Billy is a spoiler-laden road which I'll avoid, but reading about them tends to be a wee bit more interesting than following Billy around, especially initially. I guess this is because Billy is supposed to help the character by virtue of his own cluelessness regarding this new world he's discovering he's lived with almost all his life. Sure, Billy becomes interesting after a while, but he's not exactly like Shadow, who's pretty interesting right from the get-go.
There's also another character, Marge (short for Marginalia), whose storyline I think the novel could have done without. I think her presence is like Billy's in that she's supposed to help the reader get acquainted with London as it's been written in the novel, but by the time she appears we're already tolerably acquainted with it via Billy - in fact, by the time she shows up Billy gets pretty interesting in his own right. Whenever the novel cut to her side of the story I felt like I was taking an unwanted diversion. I wanted to go and read about Billy and Dane, or maybe about Collingswood, not about Marge. And that's a sentiment that kind of lingers all the way to the end.
It's also possible that, as Billy becomes absorbed into the not-so-normal London underbelly and becomes not-so-normal himself, Marge begins to represent the one remaining bastion of normality: an ordinary person without extraordinary abilities who is forced to make her way - alone - through the craziness of not-so-normal London. Still, if that were the case I think her storyline could have been handled a mite better. Or maybe, it could have been eliminated entirely, as I mentioned earlier, since by that stage in the novel the reader is pretty much invested in Billy, and hence more keen on following his progress.
I also felt that the scope of Kraken, which is mostly concerned with Armageddon (or multiple Armageddons) but not in the way the not-so-normal folks of London expected it, was somewhat limited. This could be a fault of the title, since if you're going to be titling a novel Kraken then you've got no choice but to stick to the darn thing until the end. While the action to the climax was pretty interesting, the ending still fell a little flat compared to the ending of American Gods, which was, in my opinion anyway, more epic than Kraken. Then again, with a title like American Gods, how could it not be?
What I did enjoy about Kraken, however, were the concepts. Mieville came up with a pretty solid lot of them, including the concept of "knacking" - essentially the ability to use magic. People have different kinds, levels, and strengths of knacks, ranging from the ability to teleport people ala Star Trek (I kid you not, and this is crucial to the story), to the ability to summon spirts to do the dirty work for you. I especially loved the idea of "memory angels:" entities who come into being within museums, made up from the collective memories within - for after all, what are museums but repositories of memory? Each museum has a memory angel or memory angels unique to it: so the Victoria and Albert Museum has a specific set of memory angels, while the Darwin Center has its own specific memory angel too.
Overall, Kraken isn't a half-bad novel, but if you're going to be comparing it to something like American Gods, or even some of Mieville's other works like Perdido Street Station, it does fall a teensy bit flat. It's still worth a shot though, if only for the concepts Mieville writes about, as well as a chance to see a London that's completely different from the everyday one. Could use a touch of the Doctor, though...
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no subject
Date: 2010-09-17 04:48 pm (UTC)1st, most of the cousins DID get into their first choice of courses, in their first choice of schools. That is as far as I know of mine. Let us not generalize and diminish others' accomplishments.
2nd, no.. I did not blow up. I am beyond blowing up. People, after all, choose to be what they are. My function was just to cut the crap, and spell out as precise as was possible, what the issues were.
3rd, your aunts are not ticking time bombs.. We just have little patience for hemming and hawing. Or, we just aren't blessed with your soft voice.
4th Let us be very clear... none of your aunts married young.
None of your aunts married to escape their family life.
Sure that slant adds drama, but that is not the truth.
5th People whose lives are colored with blunders, also deserve to have their privacy protected. Do not kick a dead dog, the saying goes. Also: but for the grace of God... etc etc etc
And so, if you must lay out private matters, it may be best to find the goodness in the person/s too. Plus,yes -- family is family.. we may condemn the actions, but we sure have at least empathy for whoever is at the moment, in hot sh1t.
Finally, yes your lola may be domineering, but we should not be publicly taking down old ladies. I disagree with "in a very bad way". Let's face it... she is buttered up to coz they derive benefits from her. Plus, "there are no dictators where there are no slaves". So it is their decision, if they allowed her to be domineering.
So, perhaps you will consider locking this up, or deleting the names... and adjusting some statements... not that some wouldn't like it so much. But that you must be fair.
no subject
Date: 2010-09-18 02:43 am (UTC)Again, really, really sorry, and I've already locked up the entry since last night.