Crooked Timber has an interesting post that mentions the novelist China Mieville and his new novel Kraken. I first came across Mieville when he edited a special issue of the journal Historical Materialism on Marxism and fantasy. I had a piece on Lefebvre’s reading of Rabelais in that issue.

Mieville is interesting in that he is both a very accomplished and prize-winning novelist and an IR theorist – he did a PhD which was later published as Between Equal Rights. It’s a very good analysis of international law from a Marxist perspective. I’ve read most of his novels which are excellent in terms of ideas, imagination and ability to write in a particular genre; but I’ve usually found disappointing in terms of plot or at least plot resolution. (I should say that I don’t normally read sci-fi or fantasy and so am not the target audience). Anyway, his new novel Kraken is out, and looks intriguing.