Narrated by Alison Larkin
The Kraken King has languished on my TBR of Doom, as so many paper books (even with pretty covers) do these days. I haven’t read all of the books in this series yet but I jumped at the chance to review the audiobook of The Kraken King nonetheless. It turned out to be just what I was in the mood for.
I’ve read The Iron Duke and the novella, Here Be Monsters, both of which neatly introduced the steampunk world Ms. Brook has created. I didn’t feel lost exactly in listening to the book out of order, but I expect listeners would benefit from a more linear method of consuming the series. I’m not sure The Kraken King can be read as a stand-alone. I think some familiarity with the world is required, but The Iron Duke is probably enough (though I suspect reading Heart of Steel also would be an advantage).
The print book is nearly 600 pages and the listen runs to more than 20 hours. It is difficult to sum up the plot in a few words. The world building is rich and deep and the story is complicated. It also makes sense, is consistent, and is vastly entertaining.
Zenobia Fox, sister of Archimedes, the hero of Heart of Steel and author of serials based on her brother’s adventures, has decided to have an adventure of her own. Her friend Helene wishes to travel from Denmark to Australia, to join her French ambassador husband in the Red City. Helene asks Zenobia to accompany her.
Zenobia and her brother are very close, having both been regularly locked in the closet by their abusive father as children. Archimedes and Zenobia created adventure stories while enduring their punishments and those events have shaped them in many ways. Once Archimedes became a famous Indiana Jones-type adventurer and treasure-hunter, Zenobia attracted opportunistic fortune-hunters of the romantic and kidnapping variety. She now has mercenaries in her employ, married couple Mara and Cooper, posing as maid and valet (to her dead and actually non-existent husband) to keep her safe as she is sick of being kidnapped.
All is actually pretty boring for the first few weeks, but as the airship they are travelling on reaches the Western Australian coast, it is attacked by marauders and a daring escape ensues. Zenobia is ably assisted by Ariq Noyen, aka the Kraken King.
Ariq is from the Golden Empire (basically, Mongolia) but was a member of the rebellion for many years. He retired from war after being disillusioned too many times – while he still believes in the rebellion as an ideal, he’s less convinced by its leaders. He took with him many of the soldiers who served under him and created Kraken Town, on a kind of lease agreement from the local indigenous Wajarri people.
When Ariq and Zenobia first meet, they are instantly attracted to one another. However, there are reasons for Zenobia to keep her true identity secret at first and there are reasons for Ariq to suspect her of being a spy. Helene (because other reasons) needs to reach the Red City quickly and Zenobia prevails upon Ariq to allow them to accompany him on his trip to the smuggler’s dens where he will try and identify the marauders who have been ravaging the airships near Kraken Town for months.
As they spend time together, there is a gradual reveal of truth, and discoveries are made which lead to a wonderful romance. Ariq is totally gone for Zenobia from the beginning. In his complete devotion to her, he is a truly swoonworthy hero. It takes Zenobia a little longer to trust his motives and his words – especially after her previous disastrous romantic experience. Ariq is more fascinated by Zenobia’s mind and character and her eyes than her body, though he comes to treasure that too. I loved how he never sought to limit her but always encouraged her to shine.
Information from the smuggler’s dens lead the pair to the Red City and then to Nipponese territory and eventually back to Kraken Town. In between there are adventures, kidnappings, rescues, a little torture (non-sexual and not terribly graphic but torture nonetheless and chilling for all that it is not lovingly described), a marriage, some steamy love scenes and a spectacular finale where Ariq faces off against powers far greater than he.
The story is brilliant. It all connects so well together and there is plenty of action-adventure and romance. The conflicts between the pair are realistic and authentically resolved. I loved it.
The narration was good. There were parts of it which were excellent but also parts which were ordinary. Alison Larkin is very listenable to me and she captured the emotions of the tale very well. Where there was a very emotional confrontation or declaration, she excelled. However, I thought her choice of accents was a little odd and inconsistent.
Ariq initially sounded more English but then quickly morphed into something foreign but unspecific. I can be grateful that she didn’t attempt to do a stereotypical Asian accent for him I suppose. Helene’s French ambassador husband was Basil Auger. Basil was pronounced with French accents but Auger was spoken with British intonations. Surely it would be pronounced “oh-zhare”? Moreover, when he spoke, he didn’t sound remotely French.
The book is full of a diverse cast of characters – but I’m not sure that diversity came across well enough on audio. I loved how Ariq was clearly not-white but also was not fetishised. While I can appreciate that held true on audio, I still had some reservations.
Interestingly, Ariq does not speak or read English so any conversations he has with Zenobia are in French – but you’d only know that from the text because Zenobia always sounds English (I’m not 100% clear but she doesn’t appear to have ever lived in England so I’m not certain that is how she’d have sounded).
Ms. Larkin also does this thing where she speeds up at sometimes random places in a paragraph. I think it is her way of creating tension. It sometimes works but other times it just sounds odd.
Putting together the great and the not-so-great, I’m left with a good, solid performance from Ms. Larkin. The story is the big win here but the combination of the two worked very well for me. I recommend.
Kaetrin
Narration: B
Book Content: A
Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in
Violence: Fighting, some (non-sexual) torture
Genre: Steampunk Romance
Publisher: Tantor
The Kraken King was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.
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