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Mieville's "Kraken" out in May 2010


Calibandar

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So I always assumed that it was pronounced "may-ville." Is it more like "Me-aye-ville?"

In that clip it sounds to me like "me-ay-ville" with an "ay" sound as in "day" :dunno: . Previously I was pronouncing it "may-ville" as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...

New interview with Mieville here.

His next book will be a space opera with aliens and spaceships. He has ruled out a return to Bas-Lag in the near future.

I feel mixed emotions. Disappointed about the lack of Bas Lag, but rather curious about the space opera. I'd love to see Mieville tackle something along the lines of Hyperion or Night's Dawn from his own rather unique perspective.

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100 pages in and I'm thinking about putting it down, not finding it very interesting, I like the London setting, the stories just not doing it for me, plus Mieville makes me feel not smart enough to read him sometimes. I enjoyed the 3 Bas-Lag books, City & the City was ok, I think I'm also more into Fantasy right now, perhaps he'll do some epic fantasy in the future.

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100 pages in and I'm thinking about putting it down, not finding it very interesting, I like the London setting, the stories just not doing it for me, plus Mieville makes me feel not smart enough to read him sometimes. I enjoyed the 3 Bas-Lag books, City & the City was ok, I think I'm also more into Fantasy right now, perhaps he'll do some epic fantasy in the future.

I find Mieville to be some heavy lifting, but compelling just the same. I've read several of his books - Perdido Street Station, The Scar, The City and the City and Un Lun Dun (currently serving as shared reading with my students.) I like them very much. I think re-reads might help my comprehension of some of his themes and ideas. I plan to get Kraken when it's available here. I'm a fan, for sure, but I do find his work challenging.

I always follow books like his with something lighter and easier to read - Dresden Files comes to mind. Fun, exciting, and just rolls like a freight train!

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New interview with Mieville here.

His next book will be a space opera with aliens and spaceships. He has ruled out a return to Bas-Lag in the near future.

I think this is good. I'm one of the few who really liked Iron Council, but the Bas Lag setting has been mined pretty well, and I think his writing benefits from the change. I loved The City and the City and can't wait to read Kraken, and I'm excited to see what he does with a space opera.

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100 pages in and I'm thinking about putting it down, not finding it very interesting, I like the London setting, the stories just not doing it for me, plus Mieville makes me feel not smart enough to read him sometimes. I enjoyed the 3 Bas-Lag books, City & the City was ok, I think I'm also more into Fantasy right now, perhaps he'll do some epic fantasy in the future.

The first half of Kraken is a bit of a slog, but it does get a lot better, especially when he starts throwing in geek references and lighter moments.

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The first half of Kraken is a bit of a slog, but it does get a lot better, especially when he starts throwing in geek references and lighter moments.

Yeah, the funny bits, black humour, and geeky jokes are great.

I'm just over half way through at the moment. As I said in the May reads thread, it is more Gaimanish than I expected of Mieville (kind of like a cross between Neverwhere and American Gods). Being Mieville, though, the metaphors and images are clever (and often hilarious too e.g. 'squidnapping', and the Star Trek stuff).

For me personally it's not working very well though. The more leisurely descriptive style of PSS is much more suited to my personality. Kraken is Mieville on speed. Great for people with more of a video-game mind: fast-moving, cracking, staccato sentences, laconic dialogue. For me it's like trying to read under the light of a stroboscope, with too many inference holes between the sentences which I find it difficult to fill in. Maybe it's a tiredness/memory problem on my part, but I would be interested to hear if anyone else had this problem.

(Not that I have finished the book yet... my impressions may change as the plot begins to cohere)

ETA: One thing I like and see parallels with the other two Mieville books I have read, is that there are several people/factions with very different mindsets which are only gradually revealed, with no obvious 'good guys', since all have their own means and motives, sinister or otherwise, and the pov character does not know what role he has.

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Excellent novel. I really loved "The City & The City", but "Kraken" is a different book. Still it proves that China Mieville is a brilliant writer and his works are truly excellent.

"Kraken" demanded more attention from me than my usual readings, but it offered me a very pleasant read in return. China Mieville is now, without a doubt, one of my favorite authors.

I've posted a review of the novel on my blog too.

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Wow, one novel every year. He keeps a good pace :thumbsup:

He had a long period between 2004 and 2008 where he only published a short story collection (itself comprising mostly work written long before) and Un Lun Dun, and it appears that during this period he also wrote Kraken and The City and the City. So he appears to have 'banked' a number of books ahead of time (Embassytown is also finished, meaning that his next book may well be complete before it is published) and also switched to writing shorter books than before (his recent novels have been about half the size of Perdido Street Station and The Scar). Certainly if he can keep up a book a year from now on, that will make people very happy, especially if it means a return to Bas-Lag sooner rather than later ;)

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I am almost done with Kraken. But I have been almost done with Kraken for a long time now. I have stopped to read several other books along the way. This is a good thing, because I think the things that are compelling about the book would be ill-served by reading it straight through (there is no way to deal with the dialogue that way and appreciate it, IMO). And I think the book is brilliant. It reminds me a lot of Neverwhere, only weightier.

Only, it just doesn't grab me. I kind of don't look forward to reading it. I will, actually, be glad when it's over. Even though I enjoy the story, the idea, the world, and the characterizations. For instance, I love the way Goss speaks in terrifying nonsense-babbling.

So what's going on here? What's the issue? It's something about the writing style. I like it, but it's not comfortable to read. I found Harkaway's Gone Away World to be more difficult on the intellectual heavy-lifting front, actually - I believe he is a little inspired by David Foster Wallace - this is more like how it's slow going reading Neal Stephenson's Barqoue Cycle sometimes, so I can only conclude that I have a difficult time with British dialogue.

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Pretty much exactly what Raidne said. Except for the reading other books in between. I'm relying on baseball forums to fill those gaps as the nearest bookstore is 35 miles away and Kraken was the last on my most recent 85$ book spree on the shelf.

It's like, I like it, but only read it on the crapper or a smoke break at work. No desire to read it any other time.

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I kicked this book across the room. The only book i have ever done that to. Physically kicked.

Mieville is not a heavy read, he is not something special. His work is bloated and pretentious. Personally, he could be the nicest guy in the world, but this is the second book of his that i have tried to read, only to grow very quickly frustrated and angry. Like, really fucking angry.

His use of dialogue is also annoying, with his attempts to disjoint it as if it were really being spoken aloud. But that often does not work in books, and it fails utterly here. He does it to convey a sense of confusion on the part of the main character, Billy, but it feels useless. We already have no idea what is going, why confuse the issue further?

I will be perfectly honest. All of his awards and accolades feel like self-agrandizing masterbation put out by the science fiction and fantasy community so that some of our genre can fit in with the ideals of the established elites.

My mistake was giving this guy another chance. The story should matter, the characters, not the kewl setting and ones ability to write well. Yes, he is good at language, but putting it together in a constructive way is another thing.

I have to nominate this unfinished book the worst that i've read this year. I will not be be taking it up again, nor will i be purchasing any of his books in the future.

(Angry rant over)

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