History Literature / TheKrakenWakes

* ProjectileWebbing: Basically what the biotanks use to snare their human prey. It's noted in-universe that the strands are somehow able to distinguish between their target and nonbiological surfaces.

As witnessed by the married British reporters Mike and Phyllis Watson, mysterious fiery objects falling from space into the Earth's oceans are the beginning of a series of strange events; it is eventually discovered to be the work of aliens from another world, apparently one with a much thicker atmosphere so that they feel more at home in the ocean depths and may not even be able to survive up in the air. Attempts to contact them go badly, and it turns into a war for control of the planet.

* LiteraryAllusionTitle: A reference to the Creator/AlfredLordTennyson sonnet ''The Kraken''. In-novel, Phyllis critiques that it's not really appropriate to the situation, .
* MarketBasedTitle: The first American edition was titled ''Out of the Deeps''.

* TheProfessor: Geographer Alistair Bocker, who is [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist generally right]] about what's going on, and is generally [[CassandraTruth ignored and reviled.]]

* SoWasX: Two reporters are discussing Bocker, who is claiming that the mysterious fireballs falling from the sky over the deepest parts of the ocean, the discolouration of certain currents from a spike in sediment levels and the disappearance of several bathyscapes is a result of alien invasion. One of them points out that however crazy the idea sounds, the man does have an explanation for more of these inexplicable events, that are equally inexplicably happening simultaneously, than anyone else. His colleague has the following response: "So, undoubtedly, would Creator/JulesVerne."

As witnessed by the married British reporters Mike and Phyllis Watson, mysterious objects falling from space into the ocean are the beginning of a series of strange events; it is eventually discovered to be the work of aliens from another world, apparently one with a much thicker atmosphere so that they feel more at home in the ocean depths and may not even be able to survive up in the air. Attempts to contact them go badly, and it turns into a war for control of the planet.

* CoversAlwaysLie: An at-least-they-tried example from a Penguin edition that shows an ocean liner being sunk/attacked by an alien bio-tank. Ships do sink in the novel, and there are alien bio-tanks, but they never appear in the same scene.
* DeathOfAChild: Along with all the children killed in the aliens' various attacks, Mike notes tersely at one point that he and Phyllis had a son who [[NoodleIncident died very young.]]

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of the story the invading underwater aliens have melted the polar ice caps and caused worldwide flooding. However, the Japanese have developed an unmanned device that broadcasts ultrasonic waves lethal to the aliens. It has wiped out some of the aliens and might succeed in destroying all of them.]]

* DeathOfAChild Along with all the children killed in the aliens' various attacks, Mike notes tersely at one point that he and Phyllis had a son who [[NoodleIncident died very young.]]

* InfantImmortality: Subverted. Along with all the children killed in the aliens' various attacks, Mike notes tersely at one point that he and Phyllis had a son who [[NoodleIncident died very young.]]

* OrganicTechnology: The only major example of the aliens' technology in the story is their hideous "biotanks," which are armed with immobilization weaponry and apparently abduct humans down into the deep for some horrible fate. Their surface is also heavily armored, immune to small-arms fire, but flexible and able to squeeze and expand like balloons.

* TheProfessor: Alfred Bocker, who is [[OmnidisciplinaryScientist generally right]] about what's going on, and is generally [[CassandraTruth ignored and reviled.]]

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of the story the invading underwater aliens have melted the polar ice caps and caused worldwide flooding. However, a more sensible Bristhe Japanese have developed an unmanned device that broadcasts ultrasonic waves lethal to the aliens. It has wiped out some of the aliens and might succeed in destroying all of them.]]

* SoWasX: Two reporters are discussing a brilliant but somewhat eccentric oceanographer who is claiming that the mysterious fireballs falling from the sky over the deepest parts of the ocean, the discolouration of certain currents from a spike in sediment levels and the disappearance of several bathyscapes is a result of alien invasion. One of them points out that however crazy the idea sounds, the man does have an explanation for more of these inexplicable events, that are equally inexplicably happening simultaneously, than anyone else. His colleague has the following response: "So, undoubtedly, would Jules Verne."

Mysterious objects falling from space into the ocean are the beginning of a series of strange events that are eventually discovered to be the work of aliens from another world, apparently one with a much thicker atmosphere so that they feel more at home in the ocean depths and may not even be able to survive up in the air. Attempts to contact them go badly, and it turns into a war for control of the planet.

* AlienInvasion: Wyndham wrote the book as a different take on this trope than ''Film/TheWarOfTheWorlds'' which came out at the same time.
* BrandX: The main character works for the EBC (English Broadcasting Company). It gets extensively [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] -- a RunningGag is that every character is introduced saying "don't you mean ''B''BC?", and later gets subverted, when the government takes over the media and the narrator explicitly mentions that the EBC and BBC are now one and the same.

* ExpyCoexistence: The main character works for the EBC (English Broadcasting Company). A RunningGag is that every character is introduced saying "don't you mean ''B''BC?".
* HiddenSupplies: The narrator Mike [[spoiler:learns that his wife's "hobby" of bricklaying was cover for her bricking up a cellar-full of food supplies in case of disaster. "Did you really think that someone like me would be doing all that bricklaying just for fun?"]]

* InscrutableAliens: A group of aliens invades the Earth's oceans. They never contact the human race in any way and the two sides engage in a war without either side ever seeing the other face-to-face.

* RayOfHopeEnding: [[spoiler:At the end of the story the invading underwater aliens have melted the polar ice caps and caused worldwide flooding. However, the Japanese have developed an unmanned device that broadcasts ultrasonic waves lethal to the aliens. It has wiped out some of the aliens and might succeed in destroying all of them.]]
* RedScare: Mocked with the minor character of Tuny; she continues to insist the Russians are behind the book's ever-escalating attacks on humanity from the depths of the sea, when it's soon made clear they couldn't possibly be doing it.

%%* ActionSurvivor

* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: The antagonists. (Or at least the organic weapons they deploy are somewhat squid-like; it's never revealed what the actual aliens look like.)

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* ActionSurvivor

* EverythingsSquishierWithCephalopods: The antagonists.