Book description
Winner of the Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, Kraken is a darkly comic, wildly absurd adventure by author of Perdido Street Station, China Mieville.
Deep in the research wing of the Natural History Museum is a prize specimen, something that comes along much less often than once in…
Why read it?
2 authors picked Kraken as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?
Release the Kraken! While the tentacles might be more subtle on newer editions of this fine book, the title alone is enough to get it added to my list. This is a classic and the twists and turns in it are stupendous. What hooked me from the beginning was the characters and the story arc, although the plot, setting, and everything else make this a book you cannot miss. A must-read.
From Armand's list on tentacled horror.
The weirdly wonderful writing of China Miéville is showcased in this fabulously imaginative, sometimes horror and sometimes laugh-out-loud adventure centered on the lore of the giant kraken.
Miéville’s imagination is like Technicolor suddenly blooming on a black and white television, and for readers who enjoy New Weird, this urban fantasy set in a London beset with magic on all sides is a wild and fun ride.
It was for me, at least, and is my favorite of Miéville’s books so far.
From L. D.'s list on mythology and folklore in modern fiction.
If you love Kraken...
Minds in Transit
What kind of minds get to vote? Microbial aliens, or a world-sized AI?
In Minds in Transit, Chrysoberyl is an artist whose brain hosts a million microbial minds. Chrysoberyl’s microbes design fantastic buildings and a whole new city for her AI patron. But her design blows up with a…
Want books like Kraken?
Our community of 12,000+ authors has personally recommended 87 books like Kraken.
Share your top 3 reads of 2025!
And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.
1,277
readers submitted
so far, will you?
📚 If you like Kraken, you might also like...
The Guardian of the Palace
The Guardian of the Palace is the first novel in a modern fantasy series set in a New York City where magic is real—but hidden, suppressed, and dangerous when exposed.
When an ancient magic begins to leak into the world, a small group of unlikely allies is forced to act…
In the Fullness of Tion
In this collection of nine stories, J.C. Gemmell takes readers on a quest into the future.
Tion is a dystopian civilisation built on the wreckage of a drowned Earth. Here, technology saves and oppresses, and mankind clings to survival in a place where the privileged live above the clouds, and…
