China Miéville

Something is stirring in London's dark, stamping out its territory in brickdust and blood. Something has murdered Saul Garamond's father, and left Saul to pay for the crime. But a shadow from the urban waste breaks into Saul's prison cell and leads him to freedom. A shadow called King Rat, who reveals Saul's royal heritage, a heritage that opens a new world to Saul, the world below London's streets--a heritage that also drags Saul into King Rat's plan for revenge against his ancient enemy,. With drum 'n' bass pounding the backstreets, Saul must confront the forces that would use him, the forces that would destroy him, and the forces that shape his own bizarre identity. China Mieville's King Rat was nominated for both the International Horror Guild and Bram Stoker Awards for best first novel.

King Rat

Michael Springer

After reading Perdido Street Station, I was expecting King Rat to knock my socks off. It didn't. But, it was a fun horror tale about rodent royalty and the Pied Piper of Hamelin. And, I think it would translate into a really cool graphic novel. 

The main character's dad dies mysteriously, and he is the only suspect. While he's between interrogations, he's sprung by King Rat. King Rat is the king of the rats. He reveals some secret stuff about Our Hero's past, and informs him that the Pied Piper of Hamelin wants him dead. Hilarity ensues.

Perhaps it was my high expectations when I started this book, but I was kind of underwhelmed. If this was a new Stephen King novel, I would've thought it was the bee's knees. But, reading this after Perdido Street Station is kind of like watching Star Wars and following it up with Ewoks: The Battle For Endor. 

Okay, so not Ewoks. It's like if you read Dune and then read God Emperor of Dune. That's what it's like.

Something is stirring in Londonâe(tm)s dark, stamping out its territory in brickdust and blood. Something has murdered Saulâe(tm)s father, and left Saul to pay for the crime. But a shadow from the urban waste breaks into his prison cell and leads him to freedom. A shadow called King Rat. In the night-land behind Londonâe(tm)s faÃ§ade, in sewers and slums and rotting dead spaces, Saul must learn his true nature. Grotesque murders rock the city like a curse. Mysterious forces prepare for a showdown. With Drum and Bass pounding the backstreets, Saul confronts his bizarre inheritance âe" in the badlands of South London, in the heart of darkness, at the gathering of the Junglist Massive. Like the DJ says: âe~Time for the Badman.âe(tm) âe~Tackles his theme with a dark assurance . . . with its original blend of twisted urban fairytale and modern gothic horror, King Rat marks out China MiÃ©ville as an author to be watchedâe(tm) The Times âe~Brings together elements of fantasy, fairytale and the detective story . . . I greatly enjoyed MiÃ©villeâe(tm)s weird and engaging myth-makingâe(tm) Daily Telegraph

Emmett

I love how the impossible or the unimaginable becomes real in all of Mieville's writings, how he could take two things which aren't necessarily or really related and stitch these two together into a vivid Frankensteinian magical reality. By themselves they are separate things and the thought would not have occurred to me that it was possible to conceive of them together, but Mieville always manages to make many seemingly disparate concepts collide into a tale of its own. The charm of King Rat locates children's story within the grimy bowels of London's sewers and drains. All that dirt and waste is descriptively off-putting but I can still appreciate and wonder at the magic in it. I realise the potential to be had in such a labyrinthine location: those dark and twisting tunnels serve as a perfect hiding place for legends and myths long whispered about but forgotten, and old gods which have become mere characters in a children's rhyme, or tale. (I will not say what the myth is because finding that out is part of the surprise of this book.)

King Rat explores themes familiar to his fiction: the potential of the in-between, the beauty/strength of sulliness (dirt, contamination and pollution which makes things impure and undesirable but also thus invisible, ungraspable, not quite as understood as the pure thing and so able to resist absolute readings/constraints/controls), the cracks in familiar edifices (physio-geographical, conceptual, mythical) and what might hide there. His characters are creatively written and very compelling; I enjoyed them in their imperfections, but the story seems to hold the core of his strengths. Whether it is describing the process of putting out an electronic instrumental piece or remix in lush, loving detail, or taking the 'high voice' of mythical recount, or inserting jolts of brutality (realising the latent violence of seemingly-innocuous myth), Mieville is a wordsmith. I only wish that he used the magic of language more often, as I wouldn't count this novel as one of his most poetic.

King Rat

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