- Paperback: 416 pages
- Publisher: Tor; New edition edition (11 Jun 1999)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0330370987
- ISBN-13: 978-0330370981
- Product Dimensions: 17.6 x 11 x 2.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 281,958 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
King Rat
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More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Saul is hauled out of bed by the police and charged with hurling his father from a top-floor window. While lying dazed in a cell, he is visited by a sharp-featured stranger who leads him on a gravity-defying escape. After introducing himself as Saul's uncle, King Rat, he explains Saul is half rat.
Book Description
Something is stirring in London’s dark, stamping out its territory in brickdust and blood. Something has murdered Saul’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 London’s façade, 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 – in the badlands of South London, in the heart of darkness, at the gathering of the Junglist Massive. Like the DJ says: ‘Time for the Badman.’ ‘Tackles his theme with a dark assurance... with its original blend of twisted urban fairytale and modern gothic horror, King Rat marks out China Miéville as an author to be watched.’ The Times ‘Brings together elements of fantasy, fairytale and the detective story... I greatly enjoyed Miéville’s weird and engaging myth-making.’ Daily Telegraph
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
What you can't deny Mr Mieville is his talent in having exuberant fantasy and coming with the most original ideas possible. In this book he blends persuasively urban folklore, fairytale characters, modern rhythms and poetry of London dehumanized city hectic. The plot is rather simplistic, but has enough of little twists and grisly descriptions.
However, the drawls of dialects his characters use are hardly intelligible sometimes, and detailed descriptions of Jungle music may bore you (if you're not the fan).
A promising "try of the pen", but to enjoy China Mieville's talent to the last drop, read the superb Perdido Train Station (completely different in plot and settings)!
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
First novel by inventive left-wing fantasy author China Mieville, in which young Saul Garamond comes to terms with his true identity as a half-rat superhero, after the murder of his father. Set in the shadowy, seamy underbelly of London, this novel is also about the esoteric world of drum-and-bass music. The characterisation is fairly flat, and there really should be a bit more of a background to Saul; King Rat is not quite in the same league as the Bas-Lag novels, but still displays a brilliant imagination, and a rather anarchic mix and match approach which I find very stimulating.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Just finished reading King Rat, and I have to agree with most of the other reviews - the ideas are certainly inventive, points awarded for use of myth/fairytale in combination with contemporary culture, and an interesting anti-monarchy theme... but the writing simply isn't as well crafted as his later work. Personally, being an afficionado of both drum n' bass music AND fantasy/speculative literature, I loved what he tried to do - and the book is certainly readable, just not as well-written as Perdido St Station...
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A Prelude to a Masterpiece is a Masterpiece Itself
Several years ago, I was in the FNAC bookstore in Brussels when I came across this book. The title had something appealing which I could not quite decipher. Read more
Published 1 month ago by K. N.
Well worth reading!
I was very happy to find this book as I'm always on the look out for GOOD urban fantasy and I can never seem to find it! Read more
Published 2 months ago by Lemony
Excellent Read
Definately a book you can't put down. A little less polished compared to his later work, but even so it still powers ahead of the rest of the crowd. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Steve Conway
Excellent.
A dark urban fantasy that really keeps you interested.
All the characters are believable and likeable or interesting. Read more
All the characters are believable and likeable or interesting. Read more
Published 2 months ago by plot hound
Peter Piper
This is a great book, the second I'd read from Mieville (the first being Un Lun Dun).
It took me a while to realise exactly who King Rat was up against, and I have to... Read more
It took me a while to realise exactly who King Rat was up against, and I have to... Read more
Published 20 months ago by simon211175
Has someone told you that you simply HAVE to read China Mieville?...
Even his critics agree that China Mieville is a genius. His ability to conjure and flesh out worlds with diverse and fascinating characters puts him head and shoulders above many... Read more
Published 23 months ago by D. Laurikietis
Mieville's debut novel
Saul returns home to his communist father’s tower block flat. Not wishing to confront the oddly-strained relationship he has with his father he goes straight to bed, only to... Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2006 by Rod Williams
My life as a rat…
This novel follows the antics of a man who discovers he is half-rat, as he is thrust by his heritage into a hidden war in the midst of London. Read more
Published on 31 May 2003 by Jane Aland
Deep in the Dark
For all the many words and apt phrases that Mieville uses, there may be only one word that describes Mieville's works: dark. Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2003 by Patrick Shepherd
We know he's capable of more than this
Really not a patch on Perdido Street Station - but at least this is earlier so we can assume he's getting into his stride rather than being a one-trick pony going downhill fast... Read more
Published on 18 Aug 2001
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