Pitter Patter of Little Thoughts

Billy is just another guy who works at a museum making certain squids are okay for bottling. But when the largest specimen goes missing, he suddenly gets roped into a dangerous affair involving a completely different side of London that we have never seen before. And as the magic and mystery of finding the lost specimen continues, a burning apocalypse seems to be sparking in the horizon.

In Mieville's fashion, the Kraken is a rather long, almost tedious read that contains some of the most interesting and new ideas in recent books. Unfortunately, I couldn't really get myself into this world because there was just too much confusion and lack of love for any of the characters. But I am glad I powered through because the ending conclusion was worth all of it.

Also, in a sad and morbid way, I do like how Mieville isn't afraid to kill off characters.

But the thing that is so hard to read about Mieville's books is that there is always so much confusion - but the characters don't actually accomplish that much in the end. There are so many twists and turns, but in the long run... how much of it actually mattered? It leaves a little bit of a annoyed sigh from me at the end when I think about what actually happened in the book. The extended plot twists seem to make so many turns that we lose sight of the actual plot.

I love Billy and his guardian angel towards the end. I love how this main character actually manages to accomplish something.

One to thing to note in this book is how blatantly unreligious it is despite how much it talks about religion. Or perhaps because it talks so much about religion.

All in all, it's a book mildly worth reading because of the concept behind the whole thing. I've never really seen some of these ideas - and new things are quite fascinating.

Three stars because it was decently interesting. Definitely not more because I wasn't really engrossed and there are too many annoying point where I felt like I could have just dropped the book and not cared. But not less, because I did like the ending and most of the story.
Recommended for those who already know they like Mieville's writing style. If you don't, I'd suggest you read something else of his first. Also recommended for those who like longer, twisty books that don't have a definite goal or aim.