China Tom Miéville, Kraken

Download PDF Add to Bookshelf Report an Error

Miéville’s 2010 novel

Kraken

begins with the theft of the corpse of a giant squid, preserved in a glass case, from the Natural History Museum in London. It’s a locked room mystery, opening however into a kind of open city romp. The squid is associated with the legendary Kraken, harbinger of apocalypse, and its theft unleashes a torrent of searches and combats, anticipations and preemptions of the End, or Ends. All this catches up various amiable or vicious sects and gangs of a wild imaginary London in which the marginals have occupied the centre. Our heroes, Billy, a museum worker, and Dane, member of a sect of Kraken devotees, plunge into this turmoil, both questing (for explanations and for the squid) and fleeing (from those who have evil purposes in mind for Billy and Dane and for…

357 words

Citation: Palmer, Christopher. "Kraken". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 01 February 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=34368, accessed 29 March 2024.]

34368 Kraken 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

Save this article

If you need to create a new bookshelf to save this article in, please make sure that you are logged in, then go to your 'Account' here

Leave Feedback

The Literary Encyclopedia is a living community of scholars. We welcome comments which will help us improve.