Kraken

Kraken is a fantasy novel by China Miéville. I enjoyed reading this book, but it's not my favorite of his work. I liked The Scar and The City & the City better, but I liked this one better than Iron Council.

SF Signal calls it "Miéville's best book so far." SF Reviews says the author is "on his game" with this one. The Guardian has a mixed review saying,

Miéville powers through that conceptual density with an action-filled plot, a technique that has served him well in earlier novels. But here the combined weight of ideas and plot press down on the characters, which struggle to grow beyond entertaining pop-cultural caricatures. For this reason the novel misses the emotional resonance and mythic qualities of the greatest urban fantasies...

The Independent says, "Kraken proves Miéville is ever forging new ground, even when walking the same grey pavements as his readers." SFF World closes by describing it as "Impressively literate, crafty, and yet reliably China. Recommended."

The New York Times starts its review by describing the author:

If your idea of a science fiction writer is a scrawny guy with computer-glow pallor who’s a little too interested in whether warp speed is a realistic rate of travel, China Miéville is not that person. Tall and buff, he has a shaved head, a row of earrings curving sharply around the edge of his left ear...

I'm still laughing and can't somehow finish reading the review.

Here the author is interviewed about Kraken: