You and Heller are bang-on with respect to Mieville's weakness with characterization, but otherwise I disagree with your criticisms above. Kraken is, at one level, a novel about materialism - about stuff. I don't mean conspicuous consumption (although the collection of stuff certainly becomes an important…

It's Cockney rhyming slang for mate: china plate. He is also ridiculously fit, which, one suspects, might have something to do with growing up in north-east London with the name China.