Just got this in the mail - I'm so excited!!
TBR!!!! :D

Wow. Unexpectedly funny and totally thrilling. And full of awesome squid.
I was so amazed at the solution that I needed quite a moment to take it all in. And then I realized I'd scribbled the major clue on my bookmark post-it chapters ago, without even realizing. Ha!

Different again from the rest of CM's books, and/but another favourite.

Also, for those who might wonder about the mnemophylax's appearance:
The animated film mentioned (at least) twice in the book is "Bottles" (Happy Harmonies). Watch it. ;)


**** Permanent Collection ****

Since she asked so nicely, linguistkris may read this book after me. ;)
Please be quick - I'll want this back soon (and you know why).
Oh, and be prepared to answer two questions afterwards; I'm really curious whether a certain character and a certain place remind you of the same things I was thinking about when I read it (i.e. G/TSK; the factory).

It's massive, it's weird and it's brand new: Wheeeeee, it's the latest China!!!

Only 20 pages into the story, it's already perfectly clear that this will be no boring ride. Wtf, "comrade-in-tentacles", "big corkscrew saints" and all the rest of it? Whoa. <3<3<3

Some 90 pages in, the general feeling of "whoooa, what the...?" still doesn't seem about to go away. This may be China's wildest yet, or else I'm just finding it harder to parse weirdness set in London over weirdness in abcities or even Bas-Lag. Teuthists, extreme origami and Bottles from 1936.

Edit: unfortunately unable to decipher any of the clues to Goss and Subby's previous atrocities named on page 103. Help, anyone?

It's been a while now since I finished Kraken, and it's high time I gave it back to the ever generous a-d.
With a few weeks' distance, I still feel Kraken is a great, bold and exciting novel, but it is certainly not China's best. For one, I am admittedly partial to the world of Bas Lag, but I would also agree with other reviewers that Kraken is possibly a little less developed than other works and has a somewhat rushed feeling to it. This is very subtle and nothing that took away much from my enjoyment of it, -frankly, in most other authors I wouldn't even have noticed- but compared to the amazing perfection of previous Miéville books, this comes close to a let-down.
Having said that, Kraken is a very rich and captivating book, and its world is a fast and noisy one. With its treasure trove of pop-culture references to spot and identify, it's also perhaps the most "contemporary" book I've come across in a while. It will be interesting to see how it ages, but right now it feels spot-on and gains a lot from its authenticity.

Mit Dank zurück.

Feloris may borrow this while I'm doing a lot of other reading... ;))
Enjoy!