First of all, let's not feed into the Vandermeer's and Mieville's...whatever it is...by calling this 'weird fiction', 'the new weird', or even 'speculative fiction'. Its urban fantasy, and calling it anything else is just silly and pretentious.
Kraken is, as stated, an urban fantasy novel featuring a fairly bumbling everyman (Billy)evolving into his powers and role as a savior of sorts over the course of a story involving stolen giant squid, museums, multiple religions and apocalypses, and a cast of characters who like our main character are not necessarily detailed and deep enough to really identify with deeply.
Structurally, its a bit of a mess, and while the language is interesting and something I adjusted to eventually, its bit off the wall and in places incomplete feeling (especially where dialogue is concerned). A large number of characters speak a bit like hard drug addicts I've known over the years, with a patois and pattern of speech that seems to assume everyone hearing them is in the know about what their parlance or at least should be. And maybe that's the point? Since being aware of the hidden magical side of London makes all of the characters that same sort of niche, ignored population. But at least among the professionals you'd expect a few to depart from that.
Honestly, the most interesting character is one of the secondary ones, Wati, and likely because its where Mievelle really gets to lean into his personal politics. Specifically, labor/union politics. Wati has the most interesting and complete background, and feels the most relatable despite not being a 'person'. I think with a lot of other characters (Goss and Subby spring to mind, as well as several of the other antagonists as well as secondary protagonists like Collingsworth). The structural issues have to do with too many deux-s ex machina (though maybe that's the point given the number of religions in the book) and an absurdist number of plot twists, especially in the final quarter of the book.
There's also a weird 'love interest' of sorts shoe-horned into the last few pages (almost an epilogue, definitely a denouement) that previously had no indications throughout the book that it was a possibility that feels really clumsy and forced.
Did I enjoy the book? Yes. Did I adjust to and even come to enjoy a few of the faults like the language? Sure. Was it even, to an extent, 'fun'. Yeah. But was it 'weird fiction'? Definitely fucking not. Was it the masterpiece of writing I expected from all the hype surrounding Mieville? Also most certainly not. It feels like the same sort of escapist, fun, kind-of-power-fantasy urban fantasy I've casually enjoyed since I was a teenager, with one interesting politically laden (and ultimately unimportant) subplot.
Am I done with Mieville? Probably not. I'll give one or two more books a shot to see if I get a more deft integration of his leftist politics with fantasy/horror, or more of the supposed 'weird' that's supposed to be here (though I take any designation from the Vandermeer's with a grain of salt). Barring that, at least its kind of sophomoric power fantasy fun. ( )

This is a great story: The imagination of China Miéville is enormous and the story is in a good way totally out of control. So many different magical things and creatures. It took me quite a while to get used to them, but it really was worth it. Wow. ( )

Sincer, nu mi-a plăcut deloc și nimic. Rămân fan Crobuzon, dar când iese din acel univers Mieville nu mă mai convinge. Aici totul e un haos narativ, cu o pleiadă de personaje monodimensionale și deseori enervante, cu un fel de clonare nereușită de Zei Americani dus mai spre dark și cu pretenții exagerate de "suspension of disbelief" care poate mergeau la Lovecraft acum un veac, dar nu mai pot funcționa în secolul 21. Am încercat să o citesc și in eng și în ro, cu același efect: după 100 si ceva de pag m-am lăsat păgubaș. Mai bine citiți separat Lovecraft si Gaiman și gata. ( )

I wouldn't call this scary, precisely, but it is monstrous creepy. It is also brimming with truly excellent puns. Inklings? JFC, I laughed so hard.

It has very, fucking very many marvelous and interesting details, that by most writerly people would make this feel quite a crowded and jostly book, but Miéville is somehow like, urban magic? in. transmogrified tattoo? done. various culty cults, including squid worship? check. competing Armageddons? naturally. gunfarmers? monsterherds? ink magic? angels of memory? time fire? warbly iPod magical guardian? Yep, yes, here, there, uh huh, yeah, duh.

Plot-wise, pretty weird, which is basically Miéville's modus operandi, see above. Squidmageddon, come on. I'm not sure I understood exactly what was happening at any given moment, but that is pretty much true of my life in general, so not a big surprise.

I've seen a few comparisons to Gaiman, which is inescapable, I guess because [b: Neverwhere|14497|Neverwhere|Neil Gaiman|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348747943s/14497.jpg|16534], but I recommend if you liked [b: City of Saints and Madmen|230852|City of Saints and Madmen (Ambergris, #1)|Jeff VanderMeer|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1390260432s/230852.jpg|522014], it's very like in style and squid, and there are some similarish ideas in [b: A Madness of Angels|6186355|A Madness of Angels (Matthew Swift, #1)|Kate Griffin|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1305861910s/6186355.jpg|6366640] but the tone there is quite different. ( )

A giant squid preserved in formaldehyde has been stolen from the British Museum and, the curator specifically associated with the Architeuthis dux, a.k.a. "Archie" is swept up in the search & (if possible) recovery. This starts out with an "X-Files" vibe and, dips a little into the horror of New Weird; but mostly, it's a discursive plot as the author runs with arcane topics & thoughts. It also doesn't help that the cadence & vocabulary of the British vernacular that Miéville employs is rather abstruse-- not impossible, but without contextual clues as to tone, it's challenging enough. Ultimately, pointless waste of ink. ( )