Reading

 So I have been casting about recently trying to find a new book to read that grabs ne the way The Deathworlders did.

I tried an anthology of stores that were inspired by Lovecraft, but not of the Mythos.  It was kind of "meh."

Then I came across a book that was co-written by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville called The Book of Elsewhere.

And I tried, I honestly tried to read it.

The thing that struck me was that it seemed like after each chapter was written someone went through and chose a word, looked it up in a big thesaurus, and replaced the original word with the most obscure and esoteric sounding replacement.

I gave up after the first chapter.

Tentacles... -NT-

This weekend I finished Kraken by China Miéville.

I had said that the style of language used took some getting used to.  I found that I needed more focused time to get into it.  In a way it was like when I have read books from the 1800s (Wells, Verne, Dumas, etc.); language has changed, and it takes work to get into the rhythm of the words.

That being said, the story was incredibly original and intricately woven together.  I really liked that no one seemed to know how the world was going to end, even when so many were working to read the future.

Also the trope of the extremely evil pair, while much like Mr. Tulip and Mr. Pin from Pratchett's The Truth and Croup and Vandemar from Gaiman's Neverwhere, is creepily explored in the book.

Now, I must move on and see what is next in my library.