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
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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