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Loading... King Rat (1998)by China Miéville (Author)
Decent early Mieville, showing the germ of what would become the species of Bas-Lag. Tries a little too hard in places, especially with the whole jungle / drum 'n' bass scene, and sometimes you can perceive the ghost of James Herbert in there, but overall enjoyable and entertaining. (  ) Watty | May 28, 2013 |  Nowhere near the wild imagination of his later works but still better than most urban fantasy out there. ( ) SChant | Apr 27, 2013 | China Miéville really loves writing about cities, doesn't he? And not pretty, fantasy cities, but "real" cities, gritty cities, the underside of cities. It's interesting. Again, this book reminded me of Gaiman's Neverwhere more than a little, while also managing to be different. The weaving in of Drum and Bass music as part of the city was interesting and different, and the Pied Piper was interesting. The book even surprised me a little -- when I found out about Saul's real father. The book in general is interesting, quite well written and easy to read, but it's not going to overtake Un Lun Dun as my favourite book by Miéville, or Neverwhere as my favourite book about London. I don't think I'll reread it, either -- although, as with Perdido Street Station, I don't think I'm going to put it on bookmooch either. I can just see myself being overtaken by the urge to revisit it, someday... ( ) shanaqui | Apr 9, 2013 | It's hard to find a review of this novel that doesn't draw comparisons to Neil Gaiman's NEVERWHERE, and that's fair. The two stories share enough plot elements to at least qualify as the same sub-genre of urban fantasy. But Mièville's novel is much more fairy tale than Gaiman's, and not just due to subject matter. The tone and action, although more garishly violent then most Grimm's tales, still follows a fantastical and vaguely dream-like pattern I associate with fairy tales. And it does it well. It's not as complex, not as refined as Mièville's subsequent novels, but one would be hard-pressed not to recognize the seeds of what he has grown into as a novelist. A quick and fun read, and one I'll likely read again. davebessom | Apr 5, 2013 | This book takes place in present day London and for that reason alone I got a kick out of it because I happened to be in London as I read it. I hadn't been in London since I was five so it was kind of cool to see bits and pieces of London by day and then read about Saul and King rat exploring those very same locales, albeit from a far different perspective, at night. In fact, at one point, as I was reading in my hotel room on High Holborn, Saul and King Rat ran right past my window in the book (page 98). That was pretty cool. ( ) finalcut | Apr 2, 2013 |
 Saul Garamond is arrested when his father is found dead having fallen, jumped or been pushed, through a window of their house. Saul is sprung from custody by a mysterious figure who calls himself King Rat and asserts that Saul’s mother was a Rat. King Rat is able to move freely between the London which Saul knows and the unnoticed spaces which constitute a hidden Rat city. Under his tutelage Saul becomes rat-like too but King Rat, of course, is not quite what he seems. In this netherworld Saul also meets the Bird Superior, Loplop, and Anansi, head of the spiders. Meanwhile Saul’s friend Natasha, a creator/DJ of Drum and Bass, is befriended by a mysterious flute player called Pete and Police Inspector Crowley is increasingly puzzled by the spate of bizarre and bloody murders occurring on his patch. The other city conceit seems to be one of Miéville’s running themes; it also occurs in Un Lun Dun and THE CITY & YTIC EHT though of course this would be its first appearance. This one is very London-centric though, which annoyed me strangely. The language of the novel is simple; even a little sketchy at times. In this it has pre-echoes of Un Lun Dun. Indeed, were it not for the violence and the expletives this could well have been a tale for young adults. Though the plot strands do cohere and music is integral to its resolution, at times the novel appears diffuse, as if it does not know whether to be a fantasy, a musical odyssey or a police procedural - though it has embedded within it a nice retelling of the Pied Piper of Hamelin story told from the rats’ point of view. Miéville also takes the opportunity to throw in a minor bit of political consciousness raising. Had I read this on first publication I could certainly have foreseen an Un Lun Dun - though perhaps not a Perdido Street Station. But… One of the characters seems to be under the impression that layered music never existed before Drum and Bass. Come off it. Is a retelling of
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