Audiobook Review: Kraken

(This review contains no significant spoilers.)

The Setup

Kraken: An Anatomy is the most recent novel from China Miéville. The author has stated that he wants to write a novel in every genre. This book is firmly in the urban fantasy genre, though it is also a dark comedy. Yes, comedy in a Miéville book. Seriously.

The plot is kicked off when the preserved carcass of a giant squid, Architeuthis dux, is stolen from a London museum of natural history. The squid's curator, Billy Harrow, finds himself sucked into a hidden world of exotic religions and magical gangsters.

What I Liked

• The universe. Once again, Miéville creates a complex and richly detailed world in this novel.
• The plot. The story is interesting and moves along quickly.
• The characters. Dane Parnell and Cath Collingswood, in particular, are fun.
• The cults. The varied and various niche religions, most notably the central Church of God Kraken, are entertaining.
• The comedy. The jokes in this story are played very dead-pan. Given that the plot centers on the investigation of a mystery, the book reminds me somewhat of Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, but the gags are much more subtle and infrequent.
• The shout-outs. Popular works of science fiction and fantasy are explicitly referenced throughout the book, none more so than, perhaps surprisingly, Star Trek. There's one passage about three quarters of the way through that calls out every major SF&F series, including both Buffy and Angel. It's enough to make a fanboy like me squee aloud.
• The narrator. John Lee does his usual amazing job of bringing the characters to life. I can't say enough about this man's voice acting.

What I Disliked

• The universe. The rules by which magic operates in this universe struck me as somewhat arbitrary and inconsistent, what Nick would call Want-'em Mechanics. I realize that magic is, by its nature, mysterious and nonsensical, but the world Miéville created for this book seems somehow less cohesive than the equally magical one he invented for Perdido Street Station.
• The Londocentrism. Although I enjoy the way the author's affection for London comes through in this book, I can't help but feel that he thinks London is the center of the universe. There are many instances where "London" or "the city" is used as a synonym for "the world."
• The comedy. Although a number of the gags are quite amusing, many of them are delivered so sparsely and seriously that they either go unnoticed or fall flat.

The Bottom Line

Overall, I give Kraken 8.0 out of 10. It's my least favorite Miéville book so far, but it's still an impressive act of creation.

Firefly

(I bet you thought this post would be about Joss Whedon's series of the same name. Wrong, sucka!)

Tonight, I saw my first firefly of the season. Neat.

Happy Birthday, Darwin

Today is the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth.  It's impossible to overstate Darwin's contribution to modern biology.  Happy birthday, Chuckie D.

The Black Wolf

Here's an interesting article on the origin of gene for black coats in wolves.  It turns out the gene comes from hybridization with domesticated dogs millennia ago, and it may confer survival advantages to some wolves.

TV Review: Primeval, Seasons 1 and 2

(This review contains no significant spoilers.)

I recently completed watching the first 2 seasons of the ITV series Primeval, so I thought I'd post my review of the series.

The Setup

The series was created by the same people who made the Walking with... documentaries.  It follows a team of paleontologists and others who investigate temporal anomalies that appear, connecting the contemporary world with the distant past and the distant future.  Each episode consists of a self-contained plot revolving around the team's efforts to capture or kill prehistoric or future creatures that come through the anomalies or to return to the present from the far side.  Additionally there's an ongoing arc involving a contemporary human who travels though the anomalies, visiting the past and future before returning to make trouble in the present.  Other arcs include the activities of a mysterious organization, and the evolution of interpersonal relationships between the team members.

What I Liked

• The creature-catching and stuck-in-the-past adventures are good, light-hearted fun.
• The effects are pretty decent.
• Several of the characters, particularly Nick Cutter, the team leader, are pretty interesting.
• It's fun to see speculative creatures from the future, most notably the so-called future predator.
• The series touches on some slightly more complex issues of time-travel, including changing the present while in the past, as well as issues of identity.
• Accents are fun!

What I Disliked

• The motivations of some characters, particularly Helen Cutter, are not thoroughly developed.
• The more complex issues of time travel that I mentioned before aren't really addressed as much as I'd like.
• At least twice in the first two seasons, the team encounters large multi-cellular organisms from the Precambrian supereon.  These animals are acknowledged as "previously unknown to science," or whatever, but there's no way creatures this large could have existed at that time.
•  The Conner character is quite annoying.

Summary

Overall, I give this series 7.0 out 1o.  It's not great television, but it is quite enjoyable.  I'm looking forward to seeing the third season in January.

OMG Ponies!

I guess a Bad Horse version would have been just too easy.

Are We Boring?

Acivities not on our weekend to-do list:

• Brew beer.
• Shear a llama.

I think we must be boring.

Rodents!

When I returned from my trip to the Midwest late Monday night, I discovered that some creature, most likely a squirrel, had gotten into our apartment, done some damage, and left some...deposits. The most significant damage was to my laptop computer, which had had about half its keys pried up or ripped completely off. What have I learned from this incident? That squirrels can't type.

It's a Triceratops! Run!

Darren Naish pointed me to this interesting essay proposing that Triceratops and its relatives may have been not simply herbivorous but omnivorous. Oh, and covered in bristly hairs.

Nature, Red in Tooth and Claw

The Craft blog pointed me to a web page that graphically illustrates what happens when softies attack. Please be advised that the brutal violence captured on this page may not be suitable for small children.

War Rhinos!

I'm sure everyone in the readership is aware that both the graphic novel and the film version of 300 are only very loosely based on the historical Battle of Thermopylae, but does the war rhino featured in the film have any basis in reality? Well, my favorite paleontologist/blogger has the answer. Check it out.

Neofelis Diardi

There's been a bit of news in the online press lately about a paper published late last year announcing the discovery that a long-known subspecies of clouded leopard is actually a distinct species of its own. The newly promoted species will have the scientific name "Neofelis diardi" and the common name "Bornean clouded leopard." I'd suggest "murky leopard" or "turbid leopard" as funnier alternatives, but I'm certain no one would listen to me.* This critter is distinguishable from the mainland clouded leopard by a darker pelt with different markings and parallel dorsal stripes as well as by its very different genes. As might be expected, Darren Naish has posted a good blog entry on the history of this animal's classification. I encourage you to check out both of the above links for information and for photos of this beautiful animal. And be sure to note the size of its canine teeth; apparently, all the clouded leopards have proportionately large canines.

* Nor should they.

Thar She Blows, Indeed!

Longtime readers of this blog may recall my article on a proposed explanation for the narwhal's tusk. Well, uber-cool blogger and paleontologist Darren Naish recently summed up the research on this animal oddity on Tetrapod Zoology. Check it out.

Name that Panda

In other panda news, now is your chance to name 18 panda cubs.

Parthenogenesis

A Komodo dragon* in a UK zoo recently laid and hatched 5 eggs, even though she's never been exposed to males of her species. DNA tests confirmed that the adult female provided all the genes of the hatchlings. While parthenogenesis has been observed frequently in other lizards, this only the second documented occurrence in Komodo dragons. The first was in London Zoo in April of last year.

Thanks to Megan for pointing this out.

* Komodo dragons are very large (up to 3 m long) monitor lizards---indeed, the largest extant lizards on Earth---native to a few small islands in central Indonesia. Komodos harbor multiple strains of virulent bacteria in their saliva, which the dragons use to poison their prey.

Black and White and Cute All Over

What's black and white and cute all over? As the people of Atlanta are learning, the answer is a baby panda. That's right, Zoo Atlanta's female giant panda, Lun Lun, gave birth to a baby girl named Mei Lan in September, and the cub just had her coming-out on Friday. Be sure to check out the video. Aww. I'm sure that both Meg from Cute Overload and Shuaib would approve.

Thanks to Megan for pointing this out.

ScienceBlogs or Bust

Everyone's favorite zoological blog, Tetrapod Zoology, has moved to ScienceBlogs just one year after its founding. Be sure to check it out at its new web address.

Not So Cryptic After All

Regular readers may recall that I posted about a possibly new species being discovered on the island of Borneo. Well, any cryptozoologists among the readership will be disappointed to hear that Darren Naish has just put up a two-part analysis of the creature, and he concludes that it's most likely an already-known species.

Fly, My Pretties!

Tetrapod zoologist Darren Naish has just put up a couple of interesting posts about golden eagles killing much larger land animals, wolves in particular. Neat, eh?

Alien Big Cats

Here's another cryptozoological post from Darren Naish. In this one, Naish discusses the evidence that alien big cats (ABCs) are loose in the UK. Neat!