{"id":1099,"date":"2010-07-27T10:20:52","date_gmt":"2010-07-27T17:20:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/?p=1099"},"modified":"2014-02-14T14:29:38","modified_gmt":"2014-02-14T21:29:38","slug":"unleash-the-kraken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/27\/unleash-the-kraken","title":{"rendered":"Unleash the Kraken!"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Tolkien has long been the foundation on which nearly all subsequent fantasy works have been built. Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and many other fantasy staples were codified by Tolkien in his various stories about Middle-Earth.\u00a0 How often do you see an Elf described in a fantasy novel that doesn’t bear some resemblance to the Tolkien archetype? And for that matter, how many fantasy realms do you see without Elves? There are some, but they are fewer in number than those that stick to the Tolkien formula.<\/p>\n

Tolkien clearly influenced the design of Dungeons and Dragons<\/a> in the late 70s and 80s which in turn went on to influence a great many fantasy novels set in the D&D multiverse from the 80s through the present.\u00a0 Some of these were good reads, others not so much, but they all served as a pool of fiction that inspired the minds of the fantasy-inclined and reinforced the Tolkien ideal.\u00a0 While every new fantasy series that came along created a new setting, world rules and menagerie, they were consciously or subconsciously carving out their own territory in a landscape created by Tolkien.<\/p>\n

Enter China Mieville<\/a>.\u00a0 Earning a B.A. in social anthropology from Cambridge and a Masters and PhD in International Relations from the London School of Economics, Mieville has set out to sweep aside the conventions that Tolkien has established.\u00a0 His disdain<\/a> for what he calls Tolkien’s “article of policy that a fantasy writer should mollycoddle the reader” is apparent in his statement that, “Tolkien is the wen on the arse of fantasy literature.”<\/p>\n

Mieville’s style is that of contemporary literary fiction fused with the fantastical.\u00a0 His work plays well to intelligent adults, and never once feels like it is dipping into the valley of young-adult writing where things are fast, glossy and shallow.\u00a0 He and a few other writers have been said to be pioneering the ‘New Weird’ style of fiction, a sort of anti-authoritarian response to the Tolkien-esque dictatorship over the fantasy genre, but while that description might conjure the image of teenage rebellion, Mieville simply walks past tradition and sets up shop a long way down the street.\u00a0 You won’t find a new coat of paint on an old set of conventions here.<\/p>\n

His new book Kraken<\/span> takes place in contemporary London, complete with references to everything from Google, to the singer MIA, to Star Trek and more.\u00a0 Mieville’s London is our London, but with some additions that become apparent to those Londoners who know which message boards to read.\u00a0 Religious cults dedicated to old and forgotten Gods (which actually exist)?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 Demonic Duos?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 Entities spawned from collective memory?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 Sentient Tattoos?\u00a0 Check.\u00a0 Familiars?\u00a0 Check (but don’t try to hire one, they’re on strike, and the union leader doesn’t take scabbing lightly).\u00a0 Magic?\u00a0 Sort of.\u00a0 See, in Mieville’s world you won’t find sorcerers blasting away at each other with pyrotechnic displays of force or secreting themselves away in a tower in the pursuit of ever more wisdom, instead those endowed with the gift simply have a ‘knack’ for doing certain things.\u00a0 Need something big made smaller?\u00a0 Find someone with the knack for folding.\u00a0 They can take your object and fold it down like origami.<\/p>\n

Kraken<\/span> is unique in the way that the setting is just as interesting as the story.\u00a0 It never feels like Mieville has a staff of interns holding up cardboard facades on wooden sticks as the main characters trundle past on their way to complete their journey.\u00a0 And while there are a few minor holes here and there Kraken<\/span> is always coherent and believable.<\/p>\n

If you enjoy fantasy, or contemporary literary fiction, Kraken<\/span> is well worth your time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tolkien has long been the foundation on which nearly all subsequent fantasy works have been built. Elves, Dwarves, Orcs and many other fantasy staples were codified by Tolkien in his various stories about Middle-Earth.\u00a0 How often do you see an Elf described in a fantasy novel that doesn’t bear some resemblance to the Tolkien archetype? […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[332,330,331],"class_list":["post-1099","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stuff-we-like","tag-books","tag-lotr","tag-tolkien"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1099"}],"version-history":[{"count":53,"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2620,"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1099\/revisions\/2620"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xmission.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}