Mieville, China -- Kraken
Mieville's bent sensibility of urban magic turns up in London, where
you always suspected it grew. Someone has stolen a giant squid. A
giant squid! Stolen! I suspect this was a mad idea that turned up in
Mieville's head during a museum visit and had to be exorcised by
writing. The plotting isn't slapdash, exactly, but it's full of random
things which aren't quite as compelling on paper as I suspect they
were behind the author's eyelids. Yes, it's cool that the "kraken" is
the name of a fairy chess piece; no, it's not cool enough to make you
the new Tim Powers. Yes, it's cute that you can write London dialect
so over the top that it lithobrakes back into plausibility from the
far side. ("If you step closer, my lad and I will take you sailing,
and you will not enjoy what's under the mizzen. We'll run you up a
dress in taffeta. Do you understand me? If you speak we will bake you
oh my god but the worst cake.") All that said, and believe me Mieville
does say it, this is a bouncing little plot with plenty of special
effects and the characters are all awesome in interestingly different
ways.
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