- Paperback: 352 pages
- Publisher: Tor (6 Nov 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0333738810
- ISBN-13: 978-0333738818
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,048,840 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
King Rat
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Product Description
Review
China Mieville makes a startling debut in King Rat. Sci-fi and fantasy are often unfairly ignored by 'serious' critics, but when a first novel as good as this one appears it deserves to transcend all genre labels. Set in a dark London underworld of back alleys, rooftops and underground chambers, the human participants in this strange tale are drawn from the club culture of hip-hop and jungle music. Saul is dragged willy-nilly into this world when his father is brutally murdered and he is the main suspect. Birds and spiders have their semi-human kings, so do rats - and he is the heir. And who should be the principal enemy of these kings but the Pied Piper, who is taking an altogether ungodly interest in multi-tracking and jungle rap. Mieville's piper becomes a memorable figure of modern malevolence as he battles with the city's animal kingdoms and their shaman kings - the man-shaped monarchs of the birds, spiders and rats of London. Mieville's book is perhaps, not especially original, but it has endless powerful climaxes and some fabulous convolutions of plot. (Kirkus UK)
Distinctive grunge fantasy from a British newcomer. Saul Garamond, bewilderingly arrested for the murder of his father, is spirited out of jail by an oddball who claims to be the King of the Rats. Saul's mother, apparently, was King Rat's sister. She fled rat-kind, preferring to join humanity, and married Saul's father. As King Rat conducts him through London's reeking underbelly, Saul finds latent rat-abilities stirring: he can eat garbage, move soundlessly and unseen, squeeze through impossibly tiny openings, and climb vertical walls. One individual alone daunts King Rat: the Piper of Hamelin, who, playing his flute, can force all rats, even King Rat, to dance to his tune. The Piper murdered Saul's father, mistaking him for Saul. But why? Saul, being half-rat, half-human, is immune to the Piper's summons - so the Piper must kill him. King Rat was the sole survivor of the debacle at Hamelin, and the rats have refused to obey him since. Saul encounters and barely escapes the stronger, quicker Piper, but he does learn that King Rat lied: he raped Saul's mother, and he is Saul's father. (Problem is, Saul's therefore all rat - so why is he immune to the Piper's call?) Having enslaved Saul's musician friends Natasha and Fabian, the Piper forces them to record new and irresistible music - and challenges Saul and King Rat to a showdown. Provided you can ignore the troublesome flaw: a bold, pounding, down-and-dirty debut. A working knowledge of Cockney rhyming slang helps. (Kirkus Reviews)
Distinctive grunge fantasy from a British newcomer. Saul Garamond, bewilderingly arrested for the murder of his father, is spirited out of jail by an oddball who claims to be the King of the Rats. Saul's mother, apparently, was King Rat's sister. She fled rat-kind, preferring to join humanity, and married Saul's father. As King Rat conducts him through London's reeking underbelly, Saul finds latent rat-abilities stirring: he can eat garbage, move soundlessly and unseen, squeeze through impossibly tiny openings, and climb vertical walls. One individual alone daunts King Rat: the Piper of Hamelin, who, playing his flute, can force all rats, even King Rat, to dance to his tune. The Piper murdered Saul's father, mistaking him for Saul. But why? Saul, being half-rat, half-human, is immune to the Piper's summons - so the Piper must kill him. King Rat was the sole survivor of the debacle at Hamelin, and the rats have refused to obey him since. Saul encounters and barely escapes the stronger, quicker Piper, but he does learn that King Rat lied: he raped Saul's mother, and he is Saul's father. (Problem is, Saul's therefore all rat - so why is he immune to the Piper's call?) Having enslaved Saul's musician friends Natasha and Fabian, the Piper forces them to record new and irresistible music - and challenges Saul and King Rat to a showdown. Provided you can ignore the troublesome flaw: a bold, pounding, down-and-dirty debut. A working knowledge of Cockney rhyming slang helps. (Kirkus Reviews)
Product Description
Dazed and confused in a cell, and charged with the killing of his father, Saul is visited by King Rat who leads him on a roof-top escape route. Saul finds he is half-rat himself, and having met Anansi, Lord of the Spiders, and Loplop, Bird Superior, he learns of the legendary Piper of Hamelin.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Unusual, but not his best,
This review is from: King Rat (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:
4.0 out of 5 stars
My 100-word book review,
By
This review is from: King Rat (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:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good start, but not his best...,
By
This review is from: King Rat (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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