What do you think?
Rate this book
Kraken Calling: A Novel
A sweeping near future dystopic fantasy in the Octavia Butlerian vein of the Parable of the Sower novels.
Political activist and anarchist author Aric McBay ( Full Spectrum Resistance ) toggles between the years 2028 and 2051 to give us the experience, with breathtaking realism, of what might happen in the span of just one generation to a society that is already on the brink of collapse.
In 2028 environmental activists hesitate to take the fight to the extreme of violent revolution. Twenty years later, with the natural environment now seriously degraded, the revolution is brought to the activists, rather than the other way around, by an authoritarian government willing to resort to violence, willing to let the majority suffer from hunger and poverty, in order to control its citizens when the government can no longer provide them with a decent quality of life.
So it is the activists who must defend their communities, their neighbors, through a more humane and in some ways more conservative status quo of care and moderation.
And the outcome here is determined by the actions of those who resist more than it is by the actions of the nominally powerful.
Political activist and anarchist author Aric McBay ( Full Spectrum Resistance ) toggles between the years 2028 and 2051 to give us the experience, with breathtaking realism, of what might happen in the span of just one generation to a society that is already on the brink of collapse.
In 2028 environmental activists hesitate to take the fight to the extreme of violent revolution. Twenty years later, with the natural environment now seriously degraded, the revolution is brought to the activists, rather than the other way around, by an authoritarian government willing to resort to violence, willing to let the majority suffer from hunger and poverty, in order to control its citizens when the government can no longer provide them with a decent quality of life.
So it is the activists who must defend their communities, their neighbors, through a more humane and in some ways more conservative status quo of care and moderation.
And the outcome here is determined by the actions of those who resist more than it is by the actions of the nominally powerful.
448 pages, Paperback
Published May 31, 2022
18 people are currently reading
307 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews
August 30, 2022
This book is incredible. Aric McBay is different from other speculative and dystopian-future novelists because he is also a writer of non-fiction. I have read his other books too, from Peak Oil Survival to Full Spectrum Resistance, and he draws from his vast research to illustrate what makes movements effective in this, his first novel. Everyone should be excited by this book! Not only is it an absolute page-turner, it is SMART and it gives us an opportunity to imagine and explore ideas using real strategies and tactics, when it comes to facing the biggest fights of our lives.
May 31, 2022
I loved everything about this book. The action held me captive, the political implications activated my mind and I was right in there emotionally with the complex and interesting relationships between people.
June 25, 2023
A very great call to action to everyone who is concerned about the future of mankind and the effects of climate change. The books gives a great background on activism throughout the years but also reads as a good dystopian novel.
December 30, 2024
Not bad. Not great. Some interesting ideas in here. Pretty good message. Some clunky dialogue and plot holes but wasn’t terrible.
February 22, 2025
Première fois que je lis un livre de fiction du point de vue de militant.e.s !!! malade
May 4, 2025
Tbh not really my cup of tea. Interesting idea though
August 2, 2022
Crazy little revolutionary yarn about the ripples of action & inaction on the lives of people with militarization, climate change, public health, & tech.
“Some of you might think if you stay out of the fight, the Authority will leave you alone. You’d be dead wrong. The Authority is looting and robbery; it must expand to survive. If you stand aside, my people will lose their fight, one by one, until when it is your turn, you will have no one left to help you. But if you are willing to take a small step, to help us, then we all have a chance at a future.” P.157
When you organize a campaign, you risk your heart and soul. It’s like any other gamble; you wager your soul, and if you lose the bet, at tear something out of you, deep. If you don’t tend to the wound you won’t recover for a long time. Maybe never. Do you know how many people I’ve seen get into activism over the years and then leave out of disappointment and heartbreak? Who got worn down to the nub and threw in the towel? I can’t even count.“ P.232
“If they knew what would happen, how bad things would get, what they have done something?”
“People have great powers of self-delusion,” said Gwendolyn. “But it’s not fair to say they did nothing. People protested and recycled and wrote letters to the congressman. It just ...wasn’t enough.”
“It was the wrong kind of action, Layth said. “They had options we don’t have you can jaywalk now and end up in a triage camp. Walk out your front door, and a drone is already watching you from above. People should have thought before things got desperate.”
“I guess it’s human nature,“ said Gwendolyn, “that most people don’t fight until they have to. Until they’re already desperate.“ P.313
“How do you know you won’t slip and break your neck walk into the chicken coop tomorrow? Why eat breakfast of the sun will go nova and burn the earth – someday? There are no guarantees. We keep fighting, trying to make things better at whatever scale we can, for as long as we can. Otherwise, what’s the point of being alive?” P.327
“But from an imperialistic perspective it’s perfect. War is great for the economy and bad for dissent. Most of you were too young to remember this, but after September 11, social movements were terrified of seeking unpatriotic, so they got quiet. This war will accomplish the same.”
“That’s what war always does,” added Harrison. “Feds used the same excuse to crack down on Wobblies and union organizers in World War I. Even the suffragists put themselves on pause.” P.370-371
“It’s always hard to tell, isn’t it? How the future could change from the smallest actions,“ Simón mused. “I believe we made things better. We bought time. Breathing room. We stopped one more. We didn’t improve things as dramatically as we hoped. But we made room for a hundred other movements to flower. Some of them failed, but some of them are amazing....”
“The tides always rise and fall for us,”Simón said. “That’s the nature of struggle. There is no guarantee, no permanent victory.”
“The work of the revolutionary is to plow the sea,” Addy quoted.” P.424
“Some of you might think if you stay out of the fight, the Authority will leave you alone. You’d be dead wrong. The Authority is looting and robbery; it must expand to survive. If you stand aside, my people will lose their fight, one by one, until when it is your turn, you will have no one left to help you. But if you are willing to take a small step, to help us, then we all have a chance at a future.” P.157
When you organize a campaign, you risk your heart and soul. It’s like any other gamble; you wager your soul, and if you lose the bet, at tear something out of you, deep. If you don’t tend to the wound you won’t recover for a long time. Maybe never. Do you know how many people I’ve seen get into activism over the years and then leave out of disappointment and heartbreak? Who got worn down to the nub and threw in the towel? I can’t even count.“ P.232
“If they knew what would happen, how bad things would get, what they have done something?”
“People have great powers of self-delusion,” said Gwendolyn. “But it’s not fair to say they did nothing. People protested and recycled and wrote letters to the congressman. It just ...wasn’t enough.”
“It was the wrong kind of action, Layth said. “They had options we don’t have you can jaywalk now and end up in a triage camp. Walk out your front door, and a drone is already watching you from above. People should have thought before things got desperate.”
“I guess it’s human nature,“ said Gwendolyn, “that most people don’t fight until they have to. Until they’re already desperate.“ P.313
“How do you know you won’t slip and break your neck walk into the chicken coop tomorrow? Why eat breakfast of the sun will go nova and burn the earth – someday? There are no guarantees. We keep fighting, trying to make things better at whatever scale we can, for as long as we can. Otherwise, what’s the point of being alive?” P.327
“But from an imperialistic perspective it’s perfect. War is great for the economy and bad for dissent. Most of you were too young to remember this, but after September 11, social movements were terrified of seeking unpatriotic, so they got quiet. This war will accomplish the same.”
“That’s what war always does,” added Harrison. “Feds used the same excuse to crack down on Wobblies and union organizers in World War I. Even the suffragists put themselves on pause.” P.370-371
“It’s always hard to tell, isn’t it? How the future could change from the smallest actions,“ Simón mused. “I believe we made things better. We bought time. Breathing room. We stopped one more. We didn’t improve things as dramatically as we hoped. But we made room for a hundred other movements to flower. Some of them failed, but some of them are amazing....”
“The tides always rise and fall for us,”Simón said. “That’s the nature of struggle. There is no guarantee, no permanent victory.”
“The work of the revolutionary is to plow the sea,” Addy quoted.” P.424
December 15, 2023
I found it hard to imagine what characters looked like because there was very little description of their appearance. I understand why, because identity is essential to some of the plot. The plot is pretty good, however the triage device used by the bad guys seems a bit dated now that most COVID conspiracies have died out. The author did a very good job of teaching a bit about resistance movements in history by blending it into the characters' conversations, which are plausible given their roles as activists.
June 28, 2023
All we can do is our best :)
September 3, 2022
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Non-fiction writer (Peak Oil Survival, Deep Green Resistance) Aric McBay makes his points in fictional form. What he has done is not the usual thing for him, analyzing and contextualizing social and political trends for a left-leaning audience; this has always been his forte as a writer.
I think it still is. This novel makes a very trenchant attempt to put human skin on the bones of social movements for change, favoring equitable and reasonable restructuring of our self-evidently unsustainable lives.
It is indeed, Addy. It is indeed. To see your best efforts subsumed under the heaving mass of humanity in its indifference and fearful rejection of change. To know you're not ever going to prevail, no matter how many times you win. But to be sure you're harrowing the surfaces of the waters plowed and allowing things buried to come to the surface? It's a reward beyond price.
Dystopia, then, is inevitable? I don't think it is, though a lot depends on the individual's concept of "dystopia" and their tolerance for ambiguity. Most revolutionaries are absolutists, and should be kept far, far away from the levers of power. We're seeing that in the House of Representatives in the US during 2022. Revolution is hard, and requires people to be very, very hard...and these revolutionaries are obdurate, but brittle.
This means that, like Evelyn in our near-term future (2028), we need to be sure to combat that obduracy effectively. Or the 2051 sections of the story won't be a warning klaxon but a sad prediction.
My Review: Non-fiction writer (Peak Oil Survival, Deep Green Resistance) Aric McBay makes his points in fictional form. What he has done is not the usual thing for him, analyzing and contextualizing social and political trends for a left-leaning audience; this has always been his forte as a writer.
I think it still is. This novel makes a very trenchant attempt to put human skin on the bones of social movements for change, favoring equitable and reasonable restructuring of our self-evidently unsustainable lives.
“It’s always hard to tell, isn’t it? How the future could change from the smallest actions,“ Simón mused. “I believe we made things better. We bought time. Breathing room. We stopped one more. We didn’t improve things as dramatically as we hoped. But we made room for a hundred other movements to flower. Some of them failed, but some of them are amazing....”
“The tides always rise and fall for us,”Simón said. “That’s the nature of struggle. There is no guarantee, no permanent victory.”
“The work of the revolutionary is to plow the sea,” Addy quoted.”
It is indeed, Addy. It is indeed. To see your best efforts subsumed under the heaving mass of humanity in its indifference and fearful rejection of change. To know you're not ever going to prevail, no matter how many times you win. But to be sure you're harrowing the surfaces of the waters plowed and allowing things buried to come to the surface? It's a reward beyond price.
Dystopia, then, is inevitable? I don't think it is, though a lot depends on the individual's concept of "dystopia" and their tolerance for ambiguity. Most revolutionaries are absolutists, and should be kept far, far away from the levers of power. We're seeing that in the House of Representatives in the US during 2022. Revolution is hard, and requires people to be very, very hard...and these revolutionaries are obdurate, but brittle.
This means that, like Evelyn in our near-term future (2028), we need to be sure to combat that obduracy effectively. Or the 2051 sections of the story won't be a warning klaxon but a sad prediction.
September 19, 2022
I think that Aric McBay has thought up some great plots and concepts/ideas (like the samizdata coins, for example), but I'm not sure I've ever read a book as bad as this one. This would be an okay first draft, before having people read it and give notes, editing for typos, writing multiple drafts, and cutting out all the unnecessary/downright bad stuff. I somehow read the whole book once I'd committed to it, but I am embarrassed to have done so. It only got worse as it went on. There are typos on just about every page. It feels like McBay decided to write a novel, wrote a first draft, and it was somehow immediately published by Seven Stories. I am honestly curious to know the process this book actually took to its final printed form—how an actual publisher could publish this "book". To compare this to Octavia Butler (as the summary on the back does) is insulting to her work.
If McBay decides to write another book, and if he somehow reads this review, I just hope and pray that he has at least one friend read it and give him honest feedback, and that he writes more than one draft. I hope all the people who gave this book a good review have the time to read books that are actually well-written, because literally ANY book will be better after reading this. As a leftist, I feel slimy and gross, and I can't wait to read a good speculative novel again. If you haven't read this yet but were considering it, please reconsider. Read anything else. Read the Parable Series by Octavia Butler. Read After the Revolution by Robert Evans. Read Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson. Read Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Read ANYTHING else.
If McBay decides to write another book, and if he somehow reads this review, I just hope and pray that he has at least one friend read it and give him honest feedback, and that he writes more than one draft. I hope all the people who gave this book a good review have the time to read books that are actually well-written, because literally ANY book will be better after reading this. As a leftist, I feel slimy and gross, and I can't wait to read a good speculative novel again. If you haven't read this yet but were considering it, please reconsider. Read anything else. Read the Parable Series by Octavia Butler. Read After the Revolution by Robert Evans. Read Fire on the Mountain by Terry Bisson. Read Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy. Read ANYTHING else.
September 10, 2023
I'm not a professional book reviewer by any means and I don't like the Goodreads rating system so take the following with a grain of salt and a mote of book dust.
Oh man there was a lot to like about this book, but there was also a lot to find frustrating. This would have been a solid three stars if not for a few things: there were a bunch of typos. Like, to the point where I began to just say to myself "oh right, this book is riddled with typos" as if it was just like "its thing." Technical things were overexplained and yet I still didn't understand how they worked. I got the sense that the author really wanted us to know that these things really can/do exist. So he didn't want it to be hand-wavy. But more words don't necessarily equal a clearer picture. So like, when some tech came to play an important role in the plot, I had to just go along with it. But I believe I was meant to have more of an "aha got 'em!" moment. This along with a confusing description of the geography, made a lot of the action scenes muddied. This was less annoying than in the middle of the book where the author skipped a lot of the "good parts." I felt like so many action/drama scenes were avoided when, you know, emotional moments and exciting action is what we came here for.
Also, I felt like the book went in three different ways at once and I couldn't really say what it was trying to tell me.
Oh man there was a lot to like about this book, but there was also a lot to find frustrating. This would have been a solid three stars if not for a few things: there were a bunch of typos. Like, to the point where I began to just say to myself "oh right, this book is riddled with typos" as if it was just like "its thing." Technical things were overexplained and yet I still didn't understand how they worked. I got the sense that the author really wanted us to know that these things really can/do exist. So he didn't want it to be hand-wavy. But more words don't necessarily equal a clearer picture. So like, when some tech came to play an important role in the plot, I had to just go along with it. But I believe I was meant to have more of an "aha got 'em!" moment. This along with a confusing description of the geography, made a lot of the action scenes muddied. This was less annoying than in the middle of the book where the author skipped a lot of the "good parts." I felt like so many action/drama scenes were avoided when, you know, emotional moments and exciting action is what we came here for.
Also, I felt like the book went in three different ways at once and I couldn't really say what it was trying to tell me.
August 19, 2024
"The work of the revolutionary is to plow the sea"
-- Excerpt from the book
US Great Lakes area, 2028:
Corrupt local officials are trying to revive an oil depot that was closed for polluting the water table, and local activists are trying different ways to prevent this from happening, while in the background environmental degradation continues, and a major fossile fuel infrastructure programme (called "IRI") is being put forward to "save jobs".
Meanwhile, a teenager meticulously organises an underground network of activists to bring organised action to life and make an impact on the world.
US Great Lakes area, 2051:
The US has collapsed as a functioning state, following internal and international trouble, pandemics and climate change. The Great Lakes area is now run by a techno-fascist proto-state called the "York Emergency Authority", which rules over its people with a complex "triage" system. Inside and outside the YEA, the resistance tries to organise itself...
The book has been a total page turner. The chapters alternate between the two timelines, and different points of view, but the story gives a good run for its money, especially when considered as a gateway to imagine activist action in today's / the near future's techno-capitalist society. I personally thoroughly enjoyed the read, and would be curious for more reads of the same kind.
-- Excerpt from the book
US Great Lakes area, 2028:
Corrupt local officials are trying to revive an oil depot that was closed for polluting the water table, and local activists are trying different ways to prevent this from happening, while in the background environmental degradation continues, and a major fossile fuel infrastructure programme (called "IRI") is being put forward to "save jobs".
Meanwhile, a teenager meticulously organises an underground network of activists to bring organised action to life and make an impact on the world.
US Great Lakes area, 2051:
The US has collapsed as a functioning state, following internal and international trouble, pandemics and climate change. The Great Lakes area is now run by a techno-fascist proto-state called the "York Emergency Authority", which rules over its people with a complex "triage" system. Inside and outside the YEA, the resistance tries to organise itself...
The book has been a total page turner. The chapters alternate between the two timelines, and different points of view, but the story gives a good run for its money, especially when considered as a gateway to imagine activist action in today's / the near future's techno-capitalist society. I personally thoroughly enjoyed the read, and would be curious for more reads of the same kind.
March 16, 2025
This book was quite the bummer to read in the first month of trump's second term. The collapse of American civilization in 2028 seems downright optimistic.
Anyway, as far as the book itself goes, it starts slow and ends by undermining its own message.
The book alternates between a contemporary ecological movement and its successor one generation later after democracy has failed and the ecosystem has collapsed
The primary conflict of the earlier period is if they should use violence to resist capitalism and its ecological damages
The later period is concerned with the resistance overthrowing the fascist government that had taken over in the interim
The final chapter resolves in the 2028 timeline with the resistance resolving to unite and do whatever is needed to prevent ecological disaster
The problem with this structure is that the existence of the 2051 portion of the narrative shows that they failed. They failed to stop ecological disaster. They failed to stop fascism.
You can't act like your book is a rousing call to stand up against the evils of capitalism if fully half of the narrative is reminding readers that even after capitalism, its evils will persist, and nothing you can do will change it
Overall, it was an ok book, but it drags on a fair bit and muddies its message too much
Anyway, as far as the book itself goes, it starts slow and ends by undermining its own message.
The book alternates between a contemporary ecological movement and its successor one generation later after democracy has failed and the ecosystem has collapsed
The primary conflict of the earlier period is if they should use violence to resist capitalism and its ecological damages
The later period is concerned with the resistance overthrowing the fascist government that had taken over in the interim
The final chapter resolves in the 2028 timeline with the resistance resolving to unite and do whatever is needed to prevent ecological disaster
The problem with this structure is that the existence of the 2051 portion of the narrative shows that they failed. They failed to stop ecological disaster. They failed to stop fascism.
You can't act like your book is a rousing call to stand up against the evils of capitalism if fully half of the narrative is reminding readers that even after capitalism, its evils will persist, and nothing you can do will change it
Overall, it was an ok book, but it drags on a fair bit and muddies its message too much
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2022
Man, I wanted to love this book. But its bleak dystopic view is a retread of dozens of other dystopias to come before it. This novel promised a focus on climate change from an informed voice, but offers little that hasn't been forecasted (pun intended) by so many other pessimistic writers. I mean, a bleak, dry, hungry future may indeed be in store for us, but no one who doesn't already lay awake worrying about these things would be reading this book.
The number of PoV characters is absurd AND over two timelines.
Minor caveat: I was unable to finish this book (the first time it's happened in years). So, take my review for what its worth.
I might still be willing to check out the author's nonfiction.
The number of PoV characters is absurd AND over two timelines.
Minor caveat: I was unable to finish this book (the first time it's happened in years). So, take my review for what its worth.
I might still be willing to check out the author's nonfiction.
August 20, 2024
I like what Aric McBay is trying to do and I think it can raise some interesting movement discussions, but it's sadly not exactly Ursula le Guin.. I realised that quite early on in the book, but I still pushed on as I am interested in thinking through possible ideas on how to build a proper resistance. Halfway through it still became a bit of a pageturner for me, although I was a bit annoyed with how the timeline and the different characters in it connected with each other.
March 22, 2023
Spoiler alert: This story involves zero kraken, which is too bad, because the title is the sole reason I checked out this book. Kraken is the name of an eco-terrorist organization, or revolutionaries, depending on your take. The story follows two eras, one a very near future where things are beginning to fall apart, the second about 20 years later where the U.S. has collapsed into authoritarian control or isolated pockets of whatever. It does a great job weaving the two eras together and making everything chillingly believable.
July 25, 2022
DNF @30%
The number of POV characters made it hard to get immersed into any one plotline, and their voices were mostly so similar that their stories blended together. All the activists speak and act like current radical leftists, which is reasonable for the 2028 sections but breaks my suspension of disbelief in 2051. DNF when I realized I was speedreading to get back to the Evelyn sections.
The number of POV characters made it hard to get immersed into any one plotline, and their voices were mostly so similar that their stories blended together. All the activists speak and act like current radical leftists, which is reasonable for the 2028 sections but breaks my suspension of disbelief in 2051. DNF when I realized I was speedreading to get back to the Evelyn sections.
June 16, 2024
This book was well written except for some typos that made it through to print. Sometimes a bit tough at the beginning to know who was who, as you switched characters multiple times in each timeline.
The concept was strong, though it undoubtedly would not have an audience in anyone who wasn’t quite leftist, which likely means that it won’t have a broad enough reach for any meaningful influence.
The concept was strong, though it undoubtedly would not have an audience in anyone who wasn’t quite leftist, which likely means that it won’t have a broad enough reach for any meaningful influence.
July 26, 2023
There are a lot of typos, as others have pointed out, and some ideas that might be a little far fetched but Aric McBay is still being more realistic than 99% of other writers trying to imagine what it will take to avoid extinction. I do hope it doesn't play out this way though.
October 31, 2024
Slow at the beginning explaining the different eras and getting the reader into the plot. It picked up later on with quite a lot of action and story changing faster. I liked it, gave an interesting view of how things can escalate to dystopia if left unchecked.
August 21, 2022
Dystopia is not inevitable, but revolution is hard. An exciting piece of speculative science fiction tied to real world issues, with real world solutions.
January 16, 2023
the best fictional portrayal i've read of activist movement spaces and what it looks and feels like IRL to run a revolution. though, not enough in-fighting lol.
March 26, 2023
This was pretty good and well-written, though parts just didn't quite hold.
June 28, 2025
Not my usual reading. Not bad. Some moments did not always keep my attention here and there. I did like the relationships between each character.
Displaying 1 - 25 of 25 reviews