This was my first exposure to China Mieville (which made reading the rest of his work quite an experience) and it felt to me like a cross between Gaiman's Neverwhere and Lewis's Narnia, with a bit of Lewis Carroll thrown in as well. Mieville knows just how to create an alternate world with just enough strangeness to be recognizable as what lurks behind the ordinary. His character's saga is very satisfying because he is, after all, writing for young adults. I've always loved that feeling, that of the character going home and recognizing the joys of the ordinary without ever losing the marvels of the adventure.

I enjoyed this sequel to The Iron King and I found the development of the Iron Fey to be particularly interesting and well handled.
On the other hand, Meghan's character continued to annoy me - I found many of her responses to be predictable, despite the obviousness of her situation and her emotions trite. I do like it when the center of the love triangle is at least interesting enough to hold the attention of the boys in question and Meghan, like many of her predecessors, does not strike me as convincingly appealing to capture the hearts of those who love her.
Is it too much to ask for both good story and good characterization? Does it have to be one or the other?

A pretty good book, all things considered. Kagawa's story was a bit predictable, mostly in terms of her main character failing to break free of any obvious cliches. As a story, nothing felt particularly new and exciting about it - I felt as though I had run into these archetypes before.

Still, it was a credible story and I enjoyed reading it.

I feel like China Mieville's books are ranked, for me, by how utterly bizarre they are. On a scale of 1 to Perdido Street Station, this was one of the odder ones

Of course, Meiville wanders in to different genres every time he starts a new book; this time he does sci-fi and semiotics (two things that have been strangely twinned in my life recently) and while he does them well and I very much enjoyed the book, I found that I enjoyed the beginning, when I could still follow the story, somewhat more than the end. I don't know whether that's Mieville's fault or mine.

I'll be generous and round up 3 1/2 stars to 4, because I do love these characters and the world and, overall, the return to the topics and storytelling of the first.
So yes, I really liked it, but I also had some nitpicking problems with pacing and descriptions. There were several passages in the beginning that felt like she was explaining the novel to new readers a bit clumsily, but then other passages that clearly relied on the reader having read the previous novels, so I wasn't sure what the point of the first parts were.
Anyway, if you've made it this far in the series, and especially if you preferred books 1-3 to 4+5, then I heartily recommend this one. What it does well--character, plot, world-building and intrigue, more than makes up for the nitpicky shortcoming.

Sometimes, I forget just how profoundly weird China Mieville can be. Then I read him and remember.
Kraken was reminiscent of Neil Gaiman's "American Gods" in that it also deals with questions of faith, belief and the occasional hapless followers. It's still its own story, though, and fraught with the usual brain-twisting oddness and creativity that has always marked Mieville's work.
Also, it's about a giant squid and the end of the world. Did I mention that?
A good read nonetheless, although it was not a quick read. Somehow, his prose seems to take longer to get through than other writers.