Looks like a synopsis of Mieville’s mysterious Kraken has finally hit the web:
The Natural History Museum’s prize exhibit – a giant squid – suddenly disappears. This audacious theft leads Clem, the research scientist who has recently finished preserving the exhibit, into a dark urban underworld of warring cults and surreal magic. It seems that for some, the squid represents a god and should be worshiped as such. Clem gradually comes to realise that someone may be attempting to use the squid to trigger an apocalypse. And so it is now up to him and a renegade squid-worshiper named Dean to find a way of stopping the destruction of the world as they know it whilst themselves surviving the all out-gang warfare that they have unwittingly been drawn into…
Kraken, which is due for release in May, 2010, has been complete for a while now (supposedly handed in on the same day as The City & The City, Mieville’s most recently published novel), but was put on hold until 2010, to give The City & The City some breathing room. Say anything for China Mieville, but don’t say he isn’t bloody prolific.
As for Kraken, it’s certainly a novel I’ll keep my eye on after finishing (and enjoying) The City & The City. I mean… who can turn down apocalypse, renegade squid-worshippers named Dean and dark urban underworlds of warring cults and surreal magic? I can’t, especially when it comes from one of the leading names of mind-fuck Fantasy.
I wonder if this is related to his Iron Council books or is more of a standalone?
Certainly doesn’t sound like a Bas-Lag novel to me, but rather a tale of dude-from-our-world falling into a magical underworld, akin to Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman.
If it were related to Mieville’s other novels, I’d think that would have been included in the synopsis, given their popularity.
If the squid talks, then the book meets Margaret Atwood’s criteria to be an SF novel. If it doesn’t, than it isn’t and can be safely regarded as a stand-alone piece of proper literature that can be entered for the Booker Prize
:-)
Small Correction to the above synopsis–The main character’s name is Billy Harrow. And it’s a brilliant, fabulous, new literary creation.
Sad disclosure: Until now, I thought that China Mieville was some awesome eurasian lady version of Neal Stephenson. I had nerd girl fantasies of trading vintage clothes, shopping for cute shoes and taxidermy, discovering a new species of dinosaur, and playing long games of Agricola with her.
Okay, I could still do all those things with Mr. Mieville. Well, maybe not the trading clothes part…