History Literature / Kraken

* GreenLanternRing: Magic-users in the setting have 'knacks', fields of expertise like teleportation, surveillance, and so on that their powers are based around. More generalised knacks give you more versatile powers... and then there's Goss, with the knack of 'being an evil bastard'. Needless to say, he puts it to ''very'' good use.

* ApocalypseHow: Every cult apparently has its own pet end-of-the-world story, from a benevolent second Great Flood to the universe as a lone leaf shed from its tree. Clued-in theological connoisseurs routinely ''place bets'' on the outcome whenever yet another alleged doomsday rolls around ... at least, until the latest one looks like it'll ''actually happen''.

* ApocalypseHow: Every cult apparently has its own pet end-of-the-world story, from a benevolent second Great Flood to the universe as a lone leaf shed from its tree. Clued-in theological connoisseurs routinely ''place bets'' on the outcome whenever yet another alleged doomsday rolls around.

* KrakenAndLeviathan: The book is called ''Kraken'' and centers on a preserved giant squid. One of the main characters is a squid cultist.

* ThoseTwoBadGuys: Goss and Subby, even though Goss is the only one of them who speaks. [[spoiler:Subverted as we eventually learn Subby isn't much of a person to begin with.]]

* HalfHumanHybrid: The usual HumanMomNonhumanDad setup is {{gender inverted|Trope}} (as might be expected of the author) when a photo of a pyromancer, his daughter and a large bonfire is recognized as a ''family photo''.

* HumanMomNonhumanDad: It's GenderInverted with a male pyromancer who has a child with a bonfire.

** Furthermore, Miéville is a self-confessed "cephalopod geek", and has stated that the idea for the book grew out of an actual visit to the Natural History Museum in London.

* ThoseWackyNazis: As filtered through a [[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} 40K]] sourcebook, [[TheHedonist ''The 120 Days of Sodom'']], and a ''whooole'' lot of [[ThisIsYourPremiseOnDrugs illegal substances]]. The Chaos Nazis are not nice people.

%%* NewWeird: It's Creator/ChinaMieville.

%%* OldFashionedCopper:

''Kraken'' is a novel arising from the twisted brainpan of Creator/ChinaMieville, author of ''Literature/PerdidoStreetStation'' and [[Literature/TheScar its]] [[Literature/IronCouncil sequels]]. It tells the story of Billy Harrow, a curator for the Natural History Museum whose work touring guests around one day is rudely interrupted by the inexplicable disappearance of the museum's preserved giant squid. From there, Billy's day only gets worse as he is drawn into a shadowy London underworld of competing doomsday cults, living tattoos, socialist familiars, and [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Chaos Nazis]].

* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: The book is called ''Kraken'' and centers on a preserved giant squid. One of the main characters is a squid cultist.

* TheDogBitesBack: [[spoiler:Paul.]] [[CrowningMomentOfAwesome And how]]!

''Kraken'' is a novel arising from the twisted brainpan of Creator/ChinaMieville, author of PerdidoStreetStation and [[Literature/TheScar its]] [[Literature/IronCouncil sequels]]. It tells the story of Billy Harrow, a curator for the Natural History Museum whose work touring guests around one day is rudely interrupted by the inexplicable disappearance of the museum's preserved giant squid. From there, Billy's day only gets worse as he is drawn into a shadowy London underworld of competing doomsday cults, living tattoos, socialist familiars, and [[NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast Chaos Nazis]].

* BeliefMakesYouStupid: Deconstructed: Vardy is a highly devout man who also carries the curse of being very intelligent, and suffers problems reconciling his faith with his rationality. While this inner conflict makes him very loopy it also makes him an expert on getting into the heads of religious killers and cultists. [[spoiler:It eventually leads him to try and RetGone Darwin's specimens in the hope of unmaking the current evolution-generated reality to make way for one that really ''was'' divinely created.]]

* HalfHumanHybrid: The usual HumanMomNonhumanDad setup is averted (as might be expected of the author) when a photo of a pyromancer, his daughter and a large bonfire is recognized as a ''family photo''.

* ImpossiblyCompactFolding: A topologist with an interest in magic can fold up all sorts of things into tiny spaces, which can be unfolded later back into their complete form. [[spoiler: Goss demonstrates the same trick ''without'' any of the magic that goes with it, horribly mangling the folded item]].

* MeaningfulName: Grisamentum translates roughly into [[spoiler: "grey ink", with the same root words as 'atramentum', or black ink; he wrote his messages in grey-colored text after all.]]

* NewWeird: It's Creator/ChinaMieville.

* {{Unperson}}[=/=]NoNameGiven: What [[ShroudedInMyth Grisamentum]] [[AndIMustScream did]] to the Tattoo ''erased his original name''.

** Most of the Krakenbit.

* TheLastDance: The survivors of [[spoiler: Grisamentum's]] raid on the Kraken church all become Kraken-bit and go on the warpath
* LovecraftianSuperpower: The kraken-bit, combining DarkIsNotEvil and HeroicSacrifice in the name of a better apocalypse.
* MeaningfulName: Grisamentum translates roughly into [[spoiler: "grey ink", with the same root words as 'atramentum', or black ink; he wrote his messages in grey-colored text after all]]

* UrbanFantasy

* HalfHumanHybrid: the usual HumanMomNonhumanDad setup is averted (as might be expected of the author) when a photo of a pyromancer, his daughter and a large bonfire is recognized as a ''family photo''.

** Most of the Krakenbit

* ImpossiblyCompactFolding: a topologist with an interest in magic can fold up all sorts of things into tiny spaces, which can be unfolded later back into their complete form. [[spoiler: Goss demonstrates the same trick ''without'' any of the magic that goes with it, horribly mangling the folded item]].

* MouthStitchedShut: [[spoiler: How Paul ultimately renders the Tattoo mute, by having stitches inked in by a clued-in tattooist.]]

* BagOfHolding: a bit of knacking that lets a couple of full-grown men be smuggled in a package that could fit through a letterbox. Subversion: the box is normal-sized, the people inside are just [[AlienGeometries folded up really neatly]].

* NewWeird

** Also, given Mieville's [[{{UsefulNotes/Socialism}} political sympathies]], it's unsurprising that one of his characters is the leader of a union for familiars