This story is not what I was expecting.
In general usage, Kraken refers to a sea monster such as a large octopus or squid. In this story, there is something in the oceans of the world but it’s not an octopus or a squid. It’s something far worse from outer space that arrive on the earth in fireballs and head into the deep seas. Soon ships start disappearing along with their crews. Humanity drops atomic bombs into the oceans but these appear to have little effect.
The main characters in the story, Mike and Phyllis Watson, work for the English Broadcasting Company and are investigating what could possibly be down there and how it can be stopped.
Soon though what is down there comes to the surface and starts invading the land in ‘sea tanks’ and capturing people using sticky tentacles that spring out of the tanks. Eventually, humanity is able to explode these tanks with mines and weapons so the invaders in the deep oceans turn to plan B.
They change the world’s ocean currents so that warm water heads to the poles melting the ice and raising sea levels by over 100 feet. The devastation is described vividly in the book with central London along with low-lying areas around the world completely flooded.
Mike and Phyllis head to their cottage in Cornwall on a motor boat where they have stored away some food just for such an eventuality. The book ends with them being summoned back to London as there’s a promising new technology using ultrasonics which may destroy the invaders in their deep sea locations.
This is how the book ends – with a glimmer of hope for mankind’s future.
Written in 1953, this book gives a picture of what the future could look like if the polar ice-caps ever start to melt.
Julian Worker Fiction Writing 