Kraken
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Narrated by:
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John Lee
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By:
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China Mieville
About this listen
With this outrageous new novel, China Miéville has written one of the strangest, funniest, and flat-out scariest books you will read this—or any other—year. The London that comes to life in Kraken is a weird metropolis awash in secret currents of myth and magic, where criminals, police, cultists, and wizards are locked in a war to bring about—or prevent—the End of All Things.
In the Darwin Centre at London’s Natural History Museum, Billy Harrow, a cephalopod specialist, is conducting a tour whose climax is meant to be the Centre’s prize specimen of a rare Architeuthis dux—better known as the Giant Squid. But Billy’s tour takes an unexpected turn when the squid suddenly and impossibly vanishes into thin air.
As Billy soon discovers, this is the precipitating act in a struggle to the death between mysterious but powerful forces in a London whose existence he has been blissfully ignorant of until now, a city whose denizens—human and otherwise—are adept in magic and murder.
All of them—and others—are in pursuit of Billy, who inadvertently holds the key to the missing squid, an embryonic god whose powers, properly harnessed, can destroy all that is, was, and ever shall be.
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The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
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Something Different
- By Scott S. on 10-17-14
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The Lost Army of Cambyses
- By: Paul Sussman
- Narrated by: Gordon Griffin
- Length: 16 hrs and 4 mins
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In 523 BC, the Persian pharaoh Cambyses dispatched an army across Egypt's western desert to destroy the oracle at Siwa. Legend has it that somewhere in the middle of the Great Dune Sea his army was overwhelmed by a sandstorm and lost forever. Two and a half millennia later, a mutilated corpse is washed up on the banks of the Nile at Luxor, an antiques dealer is savagely murdered in Cairo, and a British archaeologist is found dead at the ancient necropolis of Saqqara.
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Panorama in words
- By ggmomma on 06-03-19
By: Paul Sussman
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Dear Amy
- By: Helen Callaghan
- Narrated by: Michelle Ford
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Margot Lewis is a teacher at an exclusive high school in the English university town of Cambridge. In her spare time, she writes an advice column, "Dear Amy", for the local newspaper. When one of Margot's students, 15-year-old Katie, disappears, the school and the town fear the worst. And then Margot gets a "Dear Amy" letter unlike any of the ones she's received before. It's a desperate plea for rescue from a girl who says she is being held captive and in terrible danger - a girl called Bethan Avery, who was abducted from the local area 20 years ago and never found.
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Stunning debut
- By Mystery Maven on 11-18-16
By: Helen Callaghan
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Thirteen
- By: Richard K. Morgan
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 22 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Marsalis is one of a new breed...literally. Genetically engineered by the U.S. government to embody the naked aggression and primal survival skills that centuries of civilization have erased from humankind, Thirteens were intended to be the ultimate military fighting force. The project was scuttled, however, when a fearful public branded the supersoldiers dangerous mutants, dooming the Thirteens to forced exile on Earth's distant, desolate Mars colony. But Marsalis found a way to slip back.
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WOW, Morgan Does it again!
- By L. on 07-10-07
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Dark Siren
- An Ashwood Novel
- By: Lee Dignam, Katerina Martinez
- Narrated by: Laurel Schroeder
- Length: 7 hrs and 18 mins
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Supernatural bounty hunter Alice Werner loves her job. She gets paid the big bucks to take down her targets and doesn't ask her clients too many questions as long as the money's good. But when a girl goes missing and the case feels all too familiar, Alice can't help but act. Concern for the girl's safety draws her into a risky case. Compassion keeps her involved when the stakes begin to rise. Desperation forces her to call on an old flame for help.
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2 and a half stars
- By Beatrice on 01-07-17
By: Lee Dignam, and others
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Foundryside
- A Novel
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Tara Sands
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Sancia Grado is a thief, and a damn good one. And her latest target, a heavily guarded warehouse on Tevanne’s docks, is nothing her unique abilities can’t handle. But unbeknownst to her, Sancia’s been sent to steal an artifact of unimaginable power, an object that could revolutionize the magical technology known as scriving. The Merchant Houses who control this magic - the art of using coded commands to imbue everyday objects with sentience - have already used it to transform Tevanne into a vast, remorseless capitalist machine.
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Parts & Sums
- By CaffineFreeJAVA on 05-07-19
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Standing by the Wall
- The Collected Slough House Novellas
- By: Mick Herron
- Narrated by: Gerard Doyle
- Length: 8 hrs and 17 mins
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Espionage. Blackmail. Revenge. Cunning. Slapstick. State secrets dating back to the fall of the Berlin Wall. All this and more in a tight package of five novellas by Mick Herron, CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of Slow Horses.
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More Please
- By Katy on 01-27-23
By: Mick Herron
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The Electric Church
- By: Jeff Somers
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 10 hrs and 55 mins
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Story
Avery Cates is a very bad man. Some might call him a criminal. He might even be a killer - for the right price. But right now, Avery Cates is scared. He's up against the Monks - cyborgs with human brains, enhanced robotic bodies, and a small arsenal of advanced weaponry. Their mission is to convert anyone and everyone to the Electric Church. But there is just one snag: Conversion means death.
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Holy Dystopia
- By The Flash on 08-21-16
By: Jeff Somers
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Storm Front
- The Dresden Files, Book 1
- By: Jim Butcher
- Narrated by: James Marsters
- Length: 8 hrs and 1 min
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A call from a distraught wife, and another from Lt. Murphy of the Chicago PD Special Investigation Unit makes Harry believe things are looking up, but they are about to get worse, much worse. Someone is harnessing immense supernatural forces to commit a series of grisly murders. Someone has violated the first law of magic: Thou Shalt Not Kill. Tracking that someone takes Harry into the dangerous underbelly of Chicago, from mobsters to vampires....
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Excellent Story, Distracting Sound Engineering
- By Tom on 05-20-10
By: Jim Butcher
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Reconstruction
- By: Mick Herron
- Narrated by: Julia Franklin
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When a young man breaks into South Oxford Nursery School with a gun and takes a group of hostages, teacher Louise Kennedy is fearful. But Jaime Segura isn’t there on a homicidal mission. Bad Sam Chapman - head of the intelligence service’s internal security force, the Dogs - tries to find out what Jaime is after. But the only person Jaime will talk to is Ben Whistler, an MI6 colleague of Jaime’s lover, Miro - who has gone missing with a quarter of a billion pounds....
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worst reader ever
- By mimz on 06-25-21
By: Mick Herron
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The Babylon Rite
- By: Tom Knox
- Narrated by: R.C. Bray
- Length: 12 hrs and 16 mins
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The new high-concept thriller from Tom Knox, which weaves together past and present terrors in an intense page-turner If you dig up hell, you uncover evil! Edinburgh: a famous Templar historian dies mysteriously at the Rosslyn chapel, setting journalist Adam Blackwood on a quest for the truth to the Templar sites of Europe. Meanwhile, in London, several young people from the international party set commit suicide in very bizarre circumstances.
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Unreal... in a GOOD Way!!!
- By Robert Scot on 06-07-13
By: Tom Knox
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Moonheart
- By: Charles de Lint
- Narrated by: Richard Powers
- Length: 19 hrs and 59 mins
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Performance
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When Sara and Jamie discovered the artifacts, they sensed the pull of a dim, distant place, a world of misty forests, ancient magics, mythical beings, ageless bards...and restless evil.
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Enjoyable, different storyline
- By Vava on 10-19-09
By: Charles de Lint
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In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries - and fails - to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend? Enemy? Or something else altogether?
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On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth. The Adder is coming and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction. A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong. And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.
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Meh…
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More misses than hits.
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Area X
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Dive into the mysteries of Area X, a remote and lush terrain that has inexplicably sequestered itself from civilization. Twelve expeditions have gone in, and not a single member of any of them has remained unchanged by the experience - for better or worse.
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Book 1: intriguing! Book 2: Zzzz. Book 3: WTF!
- By KR on 02-03-15
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The Return
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Springerville is famous for the legend of the Mongolian Monster. Of course nobody really believes it. It’s just a good campfire story, something to attract gullible tourists until an excavation team unearths the figurine of a screaming woman, the jawbone of a deformed animal, and a child’s toy. How odd that they were buried together. Odd, too, is the foul odor lingering in the air, the strange noises at night, and the man’s face found hanging from a tree. Now the locals are locking their doors. Because after sundown, campfire stories can seem very, very real.
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A waste of my credit
- By Yhonica Brackins on 10-26-24
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Tau Zero
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This science fiction novel describes the epic voyage of the spacecraft Leonora Christine. From practically the very first minute, Tau Zero sets scientific realities in dramatic tension with the very real emotional and psychological states of the travelers, exploring the effect of time contraction due to traveling at near-light speed on the human psyche. This tension is a dynamic that Anderson explores with great success over the course of the novel, as 50 crewmembers settle in for the long journey together.
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Not What I Hoped For
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By: Poul Anderson
What listeners say about Kraken
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Cynthia
- 11-20-11
Fascinating, but difficult for an audio book
I absolutely love China Mieville. Perdido Street Station is one of my favorite books. I loved the story with Kraken but the plot is so complicated and there are so many characters that this is a real challenge as an audio book. I found I tended to get confused a lot about who, what, when, where. It definitely requires your full attention. Since I already have it in audio I will listen to it again, but I think it would probably be better enjoyed in regular book format.
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9 people found this helpful
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- Michael G Kurilla
- 07-08-17
Squidelicious magical fantasy set in London
Kraken by China Mieville is a little bit of a modern, adult Harry Potter in that the main character begins with no conception of the alternate magical realm that co-exists with the City of London, but ends up playing a central role in preventing a world ending catastrophe. Billy is a low level curator at the Darwin museum which has as the big draw a preserved giant squid. The squid (and its large case) goes missing without leaving any clues as to how or who. Billy is quickly drawn into a bizarre world that includes "Kraken worshipers, a crime boss tattooed onto a hapless victim, London-mancers who whisper to city structures, as well as the ocean itself, a dead inky criminal, and the presence of Star Trek magic. Following along with Billy is a special police unit that is somewhat aware of all this stuff as well as the girlfriend of Billy's best friend.
While the overall theme of the story is magic, this is not the classical magic of warty-nosed witches with boiling cauldrons of eye of newt. Rather this is modern, hip magic with a wide range of creative and unique features, such as an iPod "nacked" for protection providing the right playlists are synced or the magical creation of a Star Trek like phaser weapon to entice a Trekkie to use his "beaming" magic. The sleuthing to discover the ultimate culprit is quite detailed and as each false lead is played out, the crowd after the squid continues to grow. The ultimate purpose of the crime is plot twisted many times, but the ending is refreshingly original.
Th narration is superb with a wide range of standard London accents and good gender distinction.
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2 people found this helpful
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- C. E.
- 04-19-21
Mieville's urban fantasy is great fun.
It was great! More words for the min. submission one two three four five done.
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- Anonymous User
- 07-15-21
Should have read rather than listened
Great story, but struggled with the narrator... Feels like he's doing the voiceover for a World War II documentary
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- Austin Bow
- 03-27-23
Another Great Story by Mieville
Another great story by China Mieville and solid narration by Lee! always hard to match the New Chobuzon collection but this work does a great job highlighting what makes Mieville's stories so interesting by engaging the reader in an impossible and fantastical adventure.
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-30-21
Great set up some falling off
The characters have some abrupt endings and I feel as though a large portion is spent on the beginning and middle while the ending is rushed.
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- Robert
- 06-25-12
Imaginative romp through London underground
What made the experience of listening to Kraken the most enjoyable?
The twists and turns as the author continuously invented new worlds within worlds to keep the reader reeling.
Who was your favorite character and why?
Many of the characters developed - up and down - through out the book and it would be hard to pick one overall favorite. I kind of liked some of the bad guys more than the good guys even though I was rooting for the world not to end.
What does John Lee bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?
His mastery of different London accents is more that I could do for myself.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
I wouldn't say moved, but about halfway through the book I realized that this was not going to be like any other book I had read and I was excited to keep going.
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- Anarchatalyst
- 05-25-15
Good but not amazing
Great story that owes a lot to Adams, Pratchett, and Gaiman. The ending is a bit too tidy for my taste. Good characters -- although the female characters are relatively flat and stereotypical. The reading was good enough. Character voices were somewhat inconsistent, but not annoyingly so. Some were excellent. Worth downloading and listening to -- especially if you have run out of Discworld and Adams.
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- amsilvr
- 01-27-23
Great Performance, Ripping Yarn
I have to admit that half the time I had no idea what was happening, but I still managed to truly enjoy the story and the performance.
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- Quanked Scribe
- 12-15-15
Fantastic Book
Would you listen to Kraken again? Why?
The story was nicely complex -- there was much I missed the first time through. The second and third time I picked up on things I missed and found new parts to be thought provoking.
What other book might you compare Kraken to and why?
Neverwhere (or anything by Gaiman) It's the same mind bending twists that happen in "our" world, but just around the corner just ahead of us or behind us. Like, what happens in the fridge when you close the door sort of thinking.
What about John Lee’s performance did you like?
It was quite mesmerizing -- But I love John Lee, which is partially brought me to this book in the first place.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It was quite thought provoking.
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