Currently reading
Madame Bovary
Siddhartha
Civil Disobedience and Other Essays (Collected Essays)
The Children Star
Manstealing for Fat Girls
Undersong: Chosen Poems Old and New
Radio Crackling, Radio Gone
Radiant Days
Mythmakers and Lawbreakers: Anarchist Writers on Fiction
Footnotes in Gaza
Kraken
When I read this at Long Nook Beach in Truro I got myself a little freaked out about giant squids in the water, even though the book's not particularly horrifying.Mostly I loved KRAKEN because of Mieville's reliably surprising ideas, especially the city-magic he calls "knackery." The plot was gripping but fairly inconsequential feeling (threat of apocalypse = yawn, knowing metafiction about threat of apocalypse = also yawn). My favorite parts included the knackers mythology and the characters and plots, like the various cults, the United Magicians Assistants and Wati (the most magical organizer ever), which reminded me of the substantial pleasures of Mieville's IRON COUNCIL. What I didn't love as much was the flatness and predictability of the nerd-boy protagonist. Hey China: write some more girl heroes, eh?
