King Rat

Mar 08, 2012 Evan Leach rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror, 1990-1999, brit-lit

WARNING: If the following image causes you to recoil from your computer in terror, King Rat is decidedly not the book for you:
Rats!

  SQUEEEEEEEEK!

On the other hand, if you can look these horrors in the face without losing your lunch, then I very much recommend China Miéville’s entertaining first book. King Rat tells the story of Saul Garamond, a luckless Londoner who is blamed for his father’s untimely death before you can shake a whisker. Happily for Saul, a mysterious stranger named King Rat breaks...more WARNING: If the following image causes you to recoil from your computer in terror, King Rat is decidedly not the book for you:
Rats!

  SQUEEEEEEEEK!

On the other hand, if you can look these horrors in the face without losing your lunch, then I very much recommend China Miéville’s entertaining first book. King Rat tells the story of Saul Garamond, a luckless Londoner who is blamed for his father’s untimely death before you can shake a whisker. Happily for Saul, a mysterious stranger named King Rat breaks our hero out of the pokey and introduces Saul to a very new kind of lifestyle. However, Saul’s new life is quickly threatened by a figure from King Rat’s past. I don’t want to give anything away but Miéville does a great job in spinning this story out over 318 pages, particularly considering that this is his very first novel.

I’d definitely classify King Rat as a horror book, thanks in part to a few scenes of pretty intense violence and terror (although nothing more graphic than you would expect from Stephen King, for example). But the book incorporates some urban fantasy elements too, and the comparisons with Neil Gaiman’s American Gods are spot on. Miéville is very good at weaving these mythical and fantastic elements into 21st century London, and some of the best parts of the book are when Miéville hints at the larger mythology behind the narrative. The writing is much more polished than I expected from a first novel, and Miéville has a unique and interesting voice that was a pleasure to read. I thought the author showed a real knack for raising his game when the stakes were high, and two scenes in particular (the end of Part 4 and the second half of Part 6) were jaw-droppingly good. Finally, King Rat features a supremely cool villain, one of the best I have recently encountered. The big baddie is a terrifying meld of myth & Miéville’s imagination that you won’t soon forget.

This was my first Miéville book, and I can’t wait to tackle his later stuff. I certainly had fun with this one. 3.5 stars, highly recommended. (less)

like 6 likes · see review

Aug 27, 2012 Ian rated it 1 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy, politics, dark-fantasy, tripe

This was the first book by China Mieville I encountered, back in the late 90s when Barnes & Noble still published weekly/monthly genre-specific magazines filled with reviews of new books. I thought the premise sounded intriguing, but I never got around to reading it and then I wound up in the jungle for a few years -- surprisingly, there are no bookstores in the jungle.

When I returned, I discovered that Mieville had been crowned the New Gaiman and I was told that I had to read and revere hi...more This was the first book by China Mieville I encountered, back in the late 90s when Barnes & Noble still published weekly/monthly genre-specific magazines filled with reviews of new books. I thought the premise sounded intriguing, but I never got around to reading it and then I wound up in the jungle for a few years -- surprisingly, there are no bookstores in the jungle.

When I returned, I discovered that Mieville had been crowned the New Gaiman and I was told that I had to read and revere his work because everyone who was anyone did so. That was enough to keep me from reading his work. His fans were just so insistent, so pretentious, so fawning -- I decided to steer clear of his work on general principle. My desire to read "King Rat" has remained (perhaps because I love rats?) and I compromised by buying a used copy off eBay last Summer.

Today i finally re-added it to my GoodReads "to-read" shelf, and who should offer up his own assessment of Mieville but my separated-at-birth brother Jerry "TychoBrahe" Holkins of "Penny Arcade":

"The difference between Neal Stephenson and China Miéville for me is that I never liked the latter, even though I’m supposed to; even though it is simply an accepted fact that people of any cognition whatsoever are turning each page with a shaking hand, ready to receive his next sacred revelation. I own every one of his books, each time thinking this will be the one until his unique ocular drill begins to whir and I must hurl the book across the room or be blinded. This may be the first time you have read on a website that China Miéville is something less than a God; I’ve certainly never seen it typed, which was reason enough to do it. (Comic featured here: http://penny-arcade.com/comic/2012/05/14 )

"In trying to understand what it was precisely I found so intolerable, I recalled a song called 'Fit But You Know It' by The Streets. Being smart, or beautiful, or strong, or confident, or epitomizing any other virtue is whatever. But you can push these things, you can grind them into another person, and we have social censure for this kind of behavior. His writing is incredibly smug. I can feel him leering at me through his typewriter, shoulders up, breathing hard. That’s when I stand up, walk over to the bookshelf, and place it with the others. No way. We have no shared history; I’m not going to bore through one of these things out of deference to some prior affection. I don’t owe him shit.

"Apparently he has a book where there are two cities and they, like, overlap. That’s what I heard anyway, and if someone else had written it maybe that would matter."

UPDATE: I gave up 35 pages into this. I kept trying, I really did, but I finally reached a sentence so pretentious and nauseatingly pseudo-intellectual that I couldn't go any further: "Back in that cell, the grotesque figure calling itself King Rat had impaled Saul with his grandiloquent and preposterous declamations." It was insufferable & amateurish, a pathetic imitation of Gaiman's far-superior Neverwhere written by someone who reads like a college Freshman double-majoring in Creative Writing and Poli Sci.(less)

like 7 likes · see review

Sep 08, 2008 Erika rated it 5 of 5 stars

I tried to keep in mind when picking up King Rat that it was China Miéville's debut novel and the chances of it being on par or better than PSS weren't high. With that in mind, I wasn't too disappointed.

Saul Garamond's come home to London after a camping excursion and finds the place quiet, empty of its usual domestic element. Instead of bothering about his father's silence, Saul succumbs to exhaustion and is awakened to a confusion of police officers, caution tape and a broken window. Now under...more

like 5 likes · see review

Apr 13, 2008 Andrew rated it 4 of 5 stars

OK, I actually finished this one last week sometime, but I've been sick ever since and having trouble coming up with the energy to write anything. So this may not be as accurate as it would be had I written it the day I finished reading "King Rat", but I'll do my best.

This book is about a twenty-something boy in London who still lives with his father and is resisting the process of growing up, spending his time and money hanging out in the drum n' bass scene, hitting up dance parties and traveli...more OK, I actually finished this one last week sometime, but I've been sick ever since and having trouble coming up with the energy to write anything. So this may not be as accurate as it would be had I written it the day I finished reading "King Rat", but I'll do my best.

This book is about a twenty-something boy in London who still lives with his father and is resisting the process of growing up, spending his time and money hanging out in the drum n' bass scene, hitting up dance parties and traveling to outdoor festivals instead of getting a full-time job and a place of his own. He feels unsure about what he wants from life and his relationship with his father could be a lot better than it is, but he's trying to find some way to proceed forward. However, as the book begins, his life is turned upside-down when his father is murdered and he is arrested for the crime. He didn't commit it, but to the police, it looks almost certain that he did. Things get simultaneously better and worse for him when, after a night in jail, a man with strange supernatural powers comes to him and springs him from jail. This man is King Rat, and he tells our protagonist, Saul, that he is descended from rat royalty, is both rat and human, and must therefore learn to use his rat instincts to survive now that the human world is closed to him. Furthermore, King Rat tells Saul that someone he calls the Ratcatcher (who soon turns out to be none other than the Pied Piper of Hamelin) is at large in London and is hunting for both of them. He blames Saul's father's death on the Ratcatcher, and along with his friends Anansi (king of the spiders) and Loplop (king of the birds), he and Saul begin working on a plan to stop the Ratcatcher from killing all of them.

Meanwhile, Saul's friends Fabian and Natasha wonder where Saul has gone. Natasha is a drum n' bass musician who begins working on some new compositions with Pete, a stranger who plays flute and who randomly showed up at her flat one day wanting to make music. Soon enough, it becomes obvious to the reader that Pete is the Pied Piper. Natasha doesn't suspect anything, but Fabian is creeped out, and starts poking around trying to figure out what's happened to Saul, as well as what Pete's deal might be.

That's what happens in the first quarter of the book or so, but there's a lot more going on than may be apparent from that synopsis. First of all, Mieville subverts the usual cliches of fantasy tales like this--Saul's rat relative, as well as his spider and bird pals, are not the cheery, innocent, and benevolent creatures of many other tales of this sort. In fact, before too long, I found myself questioning the honesty and trustworthiness of both sides of this power struggle. Granted, the Pied Piper seemed like a bad guy from the jump, but the animal kings didn't seem much better. Mieville does a masterful job of plotting this novel in a way that's far different from the usual cliches of the genre, something he's also been praised for with his more recent young adult novel, "Un Lun Dun". His original spin on the nature vs. evil forces plotline kept "King Rat" unpredictable to the very end. Also, as a tangential note, this book made me really curious about drum n' bass and jungle, both subgenres of techno music, which I typically have no use for as a whole. Surprisingly enough, the albums this book led me to check out (A Guy Called Gerald's "Black Secret Technology" and Burial's "Untrue" foremost among them) have really struck my fancy, and I think I've become at least somewhat of a convert.

So yeah, "King Rat" is worth checking out, both for obvious and non-obvious reasons. Highly recommended.(less)

like 2 likes · see review

Jul 30, 2008 Mike rated it 2 of 5 stars

Recommended to Mike by: Frank

Here's the deal with King Rat: Neil Gaiman and China Mieville were sitting at a pub one cold 1998 evening, right? And China makes some wager with Neil, a wager that Neil ultimately loses. (Let's say China bets him he can't write a better comic book series than The Sandman.) So for losing, Neil has to write a book for China to sell under Mieville's name. Neil writes King Rat. It's got some typical Gaimanisms: a trip through a fantastical underworld two steps removed from the normal version of Lon...more

like 8 likes · see review

Sep 03, 2007 Matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first time I read King Rat, I was stuck at an airport overnight, waiting for an early flight. I don't know why, but I assumed that airports were 24/7 sorts of things, I had no idea that the whole place would shut down, that flights stopped, and that the daily bustle would dissipate, leaving a strange ghost town populated by a handful of the shambling undead, shuffling between the only open coffee shop at one end of the terminal, and the only open seating area at the other. It's a strange atm...more

like 4 likes · see review

Jan 11, 2009 Stéphanie rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

Première oeuvre de China Miéville, ce livre n'est pas mal pour un début. Il n'a pas le souffle épique de ses oeuvres suivantes. Mieux vaut commencer par Perdido Street Station

like 1 like · see review

Feb 25, 2013 Mutlu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Saul, sarhoş halde evine evine döner, son günlerde anlaşamadığı babasıyla karşılaşmamak için odasına çekilir ve sızar. Sabah polisler tarafından apar topar götürüldüğünde, tutuklanıp babasını öldürmekle itham edildiğinde tüm dünyası tepesine çöker. Ancak leş kokulu hücresinin kapısını açan ona özgürlük ve bir krallık vaad eden gizemli yabancı tüm gerçekliği algılayış biçimini değiştirecektir. Kral fare, krallığını geri almak niyetindedir ve eğitmesi gereken küçük bir fareciği vardır artık. Böyle...more Saul, sarhoş halde evine evine döner, son günlerde anlaşamadığı babasıyla karşılaşmamak için odasına çekilir ve sızar. Sabah polisler tarafından apar topar götürüldüğünde, tutuklanıp babasını öldürmekle itham edildiğinde tüm dünyası tepesine çöker. Ancak leş kokulu hücresinin kapısını açan ona özgürlük ve bir krallık vaad eden gizemli yabancı tüm gerçekliği algılayış biçimini değiştirecektir. Kral fare, krallığını geri almak niyetindedir ve eğitmesi gereken küçük bir fareciği vardır artık. Böylece Saul, Londra'nın gerçek yeraltı dünyasına girer...

Yazar, güçlü ve akılda kalıcı tasvirleriyle yabancılaşan bir aileyi, katılaşmış bir baba- oğul ilişkisini alıp karanlık bir intikam fantezisi kurgulamış. Freudyen göndermeler ve Jung'a dokunan imgeler arasında Lenin'e atıf da bulunmakta. Hikaye totem varlıkları olan Anansi, Hornebom ve Kral Fare'yi kastra edip hükümlerini sona erdirmesinin intikamı üzerine kurgulanmış. Totem varlıkları ve avcılarının kendi aralarında yarattığı mistik bir ekosistem var ve Saul, bir melez olduğu için 2 dünyaya da ait değil. O ne fare, ne de insan. Esasında yazar, Fareli Köyün Kavalcısı masalını, karanlık ve pis Londra arka planında tersten anlatmış okuruna. Kavalcı karakteri, hırs, açgözlülük, kayıtsızlık ve oral fiksasyona bağlanan tüketim güdüsünün, doğaya tahakkümün vücut bulmuş hali. Kısacası, modern çağa dair eleştirilebilecek tüm olgular bu karaktere toplanmış.

Yazar, kurgusunda emperyalizm eleştirisine, karşı kültür savunusuna varan yüceltmelere, bireyselcilik savunusuna, kayıtsızlık eleştirilerine yer vermiş. Hayvan ve insan arasındaki gidiş gelişler aynı zamanda, ilkel ve modern ( doğal / yapay ) arasındaki dönüşümlü ilişkiye güçlü vurgular yapıyor. Totem varlıklarının doğanın kendisini, pisliği, çamuru ve günümüzde kabul edilmeyen şeyleri simgelemesi aynı zamanda doğa üzerindeki tahakküm eleştirisi olarak da alınabilir. Kavalcının müziği yerine konulabilecek çok fazla sayıda simge var; isterseniz para deyin, saygınlık veya trend olma gibi konformist olgular güçlü bir tiksinti nesnesi olarak karşımıza çıkıyor. Vahşi ve çılgın bir karşı - masal bu eser.

Sürükleyici yapısı, çoğu yerde samimi dili, güçlü çıkarımları büyük artıları. Totem varlıkları gibi tanıdık ve sık kullanılan kurgu öğeleri bulundurmasına rağmen taze fikir ve açılarla dolu yepyeni bir eser olduğunu hissini veriyor. Karakterleri çok boyutlu ve yeraltı Londra'sının coğrafyasına aşina olan yazarın mekan tasvirleri özellikle göz alıyor. (less)

like · see review

Sep 07, 2012 Luke Harris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

China Miéville has already established himself as one of my favourite writers. I loved all three of the Bas-Lag novels, so I thought I would backtrack and read his debut.

King Rat has many of the Miéville distinctions of those books, but it's very different as well. For a start, it's set in London, so rather than the long intricate descriptions of New Crobuzon or Armada, you have long, intricate descriptions of London instead. This aspect I liked very much, mainly for its accuracy. He seems to c...more China Miéville has already established himself as one of my favourite writers. I loved all three of the Bas-Lag novels, so I thought I would backtrack and read his debut.

King Rat has many of the Miéville distinctions of those books, but it's very different as well. For a start, it's set in London, so rather than the long intricate descriptions of New Crobuzon or Armada, you have long, intricate descriptions of London instead. This aspect I liked very much, mainly for its accuracy. He seems to capture the feel and atmosphere of London perfectly. From the late night bars and shisha cafes of Edgware Road, to the gritty, hectic, often intimidating feel of Elephant and Castle, he obviously knows London well, and uses that to his advantage.

The beginning of the novel was great. It had a good premise; setting the scene with a mysterious murder and an abduction. The tale of the Pied Piper transformed with a modern setting and characters was interesting and for the most part very good. Saul's descent into the London sewers, the underworld of the rat king had a lot of intrigue, as well as repugnance.

The only downside I found to this book, and it's a fairly large one if I'm honest, is the affinity for music descriptions. Once the protagonist's narrative is set in motion and he enters the underworld for the first time, the setting changes to his friend Natasha and thus begins one very long description of Drum and Bass, or Jungle, whatever the hell that is. I didn't find anything wrong with this is first, but not being a fan of Drum and Bass and not having a clue what Jungle even is, I found the numerous, lengthy descriptions of looping and basslines very tedious after a while. And the descriptions of the faux-ganstas and "rudegyals" who inhabit Elephant and Castle in decked out cars blaring said ~~shit~~ music, though accurate, are one of the reasons I hate the place.

As a first novel, it's very good. Miéville obviously has a specific style, and likes to experiment, which is always a good thing. Having read some of his other books, it is safe to say that King Rat isn't on par with them, or anywhere close. But it's still an explorative, interesting take on a story which everybody knows, with some good characters, some shit characters, and a suitably bizarre bad guy. Not his best, but a concrete debut nevertheless, and establishes a lot of the style which is present in his later books.(less)

like · see review

Jun 19, 2012 Mrsyounger rated it 4 of 5 stars

I'm impressed with Mievills's creativity in taking the story of the Pied Piper and translating it into a modern story. Its creative, its intreging.

I really enjoyed the story. It took me over halfway through the book to figure out that it was the Pied Piper story retold. And it took a fair bit for me to get over the utter grossness at times -- and I have a pretty high save against "gross". I am reluctant to recommend this book, even though its a good story, as the f-bomb is dropped regularly and...more

like · see review

Feb 22, 2012 sologdin rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: speculative

Seems likely that this was inspired by the reading of comic books. The narrator is likened to a "superhero" on several occasions (171, 287), and very specifically thinks "of a comic-book hero: Batman or Daredevil. Silhouetted in the ruined window, King Rat looked like a scene-setting frame at the start of a graphic novel" (259). With those types of framing devices, the narrative proceeds as anti-superhero story (and of course there're no graphic components).

The subject matter is several strands...more Seems likely that this was inspired by the reading of comic books. The narrator is likened to a "superhero" on several occasions (171, 287), and very specifically thinks "of a comic-book hero: Batman or Daredevil. Silhouetted in the ruined window, King Rat looked like a scene-setting frame at the start of a graphic novel" (259). With those types of framing devices, the narrative proceeds as anti-superhero story (and of course there're no graphic components).

The subject matter is several strands of folklore, commingling in London. The revisionist folklore is, I suspect, simply the occasion for commentary on the setting. The narrative, for instance, reminds us that, regarding the setting, its "point of view was dangerous for the observer. It was only when it was seen from these angles that he could believe London was built brick by brick, not born out of its own mind. But the city did not like to be found out" (257).

That's only after the narrative "looked out over London at an angle from which the city was never meant to be seen. He had defeated the conspiracy of architecture, the tyranny by which the buildings that women and men had built had taken control of them, circumscribed their relations, confined their movements. These monolithic products of human hands had turned on their creators, and defeated them with common sense, quietly installed themselves as rulers. They were as insubordinate as Frankenstein's monster, but they had waged a more subtle campaign, a war of position more effective by far" (221).

But also: "a huge metropolis, deserted and broken, entropic, until a tsunami of air breaks over it, a tornado of flute clears its streets, mocks the pathetic remnants of humanity in its path and blows them away like tumbleweed, and the city stands alone and cleared of its rubbish. Even the ghost of the radio proclaims the passing of the people, a flat expanse of empty sound. The boulevards and parks and suburbs and center of the city were taken, expropriated, possessed by the Wind. The property of the Wind" (210).

That last bit concerns mostly an aspect of the novel, impenetrable to me, that functions as an elegy to certain forms of club music, much of it Jamaican in influence. The author makes some mention of the subgenre in the acknowledgements. No idea what any of that stuff is, however.

The principal antagonist is not really explained, and appears as Coleridge's Iago, "motiveless malignity."

The narrator is otherwise pulled into an alternate London, "melted into the interstices of the city" (163), pregnant but not otherwise described.

Several references to fascist dictators appear gratuitous at the time, but find purchase in the epilogue, which is cool, but not necessarily inexorable, considering the foregoing narrative.

The best part of the narrative is when the narrator befriends a homeless woman, which is not explained--but the implication, it seems, is that the narrator, for all the supernaturalism of his situation, is a homeless person, consigned to the sewers, rooftops, and other urban interstices. The novel doesn't become tendentious advocacy, but it's hard to miss the presentation.

Recommended for students of revisionist folklore, disciplined funambulists, those who resist "the poetics of the city" (237).(less)

like 2 likes · see review

Jan 13, 2012 John rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, thriller

China Mieville made a more stunningly original debut in fantasy than J. K. Rowling did in her "Harry Potter" series in his harsh, often bitter, urban fantasy "King Rat". It is a mesmerizing, occasionally elegant, mix of the "King Rat" and "Pied Piper of Hamlin" fairy tales melded with the underground grunge musical world of late 1990's London. Mieville demonstrates much of his literary command of English prose which would serve him so well in his impressive steampunk novels "Perdido Street Stati...more

like 1 like · see review

Nov 04, 2011 Lori L (She Treads Softly) rated it 4 of 5 stars

In King Rat by China Miéville Saul Garamond's father is murdered under mysterious circumstances the night Saul returns to London. Saul, who was asleep at the time of the murder, is left implicated in the crime. After being questioned by the police and left locked up in a cell, a mysterious figure, King Rat, breaks Saul out of jail and the adventure begins in London's underground and sewers, with the music of Drum ‘n’ Bass, mixed strangely with the flute, always in the background.

King Rat is a mu...more

like · see review

May 28, 2011 Vasha7 rated it 3 of 5 stars

This, Miéville's début novel, is an entertaining though not very substantial fantasy tale that brings the tale of the Pied Piper to modern London, where he's still battling the king of the rats. As in his later works, Miéville writes with real though ambivalent affection of grimy London, which he presents as a character in its own right, both a cold hostile "idea sprung from its own mind" and pulsing with the life of its inhabitants, human and animal. And he gets in a plug for socialist revoluti...more

like 1 like · see review

Apr 10, 2011 Danielle Parker rated it 3 of 5 stars

There aren’t too m any books featuring messy deaths, killer pipers from Hell, and sewer rats as stars of the show that make me burst out laughing as I read the last pages. China Mieville’s book did. Now, I’m not sure the author intended to induce hilarity in his reader. On the contrary, the nostalgic Communist Pie in the Sky ending of ‘King Rat’ was no doubt supposed to make the reader ponder the righteous ways of Lenin. Sorry, Mieville. The image of the sewer rats celebrating their new republic...more There aren’t too m any books featuring messy deaths, killer pipers from Hell, and sewer rats as stars of the show that make me burst out laughing as I read the last pages. China Mieville’s book did. Now, I’m not sure the author intended to induce hilarity in his reader. On the contrary, the nostalgic Communist Pie in the Sky ending of ‘King Rat’ was no doubt supposed to make the reader ponder the righteous ways of Lenin. Sorry, Mieville. The image of the sewer rats celebrating their new republic just made me howl.

Mieville apparently belongs to that left-leaning strain of self-conscious British intellectualism made more notorious by his predecessors, the Cambridge Five. How charmingly retro it feels now Philby and his lot have met their destiny. And at least, unlike some of his peers in the British speculative fiction market, Mieville does not indulge in anti-American sneers and anti-religious jibes. Not in this book, anyway.

Mieville’s urban fable is, in fact, unexpectedly sweet. Saul is an inarticulate and sulky son, unable to communicate with his increasingly desperate loving (and leftist) daddy. Coming home late from a camping trip, Saul doesn’t want to deal with the irritating affection of Dad. Saul sneaks in to guilty slumber without greeting Dad.

But in the morning, he’s awakened by the police pounding on the door. Dad apparently went out the window and smashed himself, and it looks like it was an involuntary flight. Saul’s bundled up and taken to the police station. His penchant for arguments and door slams comes back to haunt him. The cops finger him as the likely suspect.

Unexpected help comes to grief-stricken Saul, languishing forgotten in his cell. A peculiar shadowy person, arrogant and defensive in turn, offers to spring him from the clink. The person, who boastfully names himself ‘King Rat’, smells like a sewer rat indeed. Saul can’t quite see his eyes. Still, the rat-man is as good as his word. He spirits Saul right out from under the heavy hand of the law.

But King Rat (who claims to be Saul’s uncle) has some shocking news for Saul. Saul, too, is a rat-man. Not only that, the Evil Piper from Hell (and Hamelin) is out to get Saul. Everything and everyone dances to the Piper’s tune, except for hybrid half-human, half-rat Saul. Saul’s the only hope King Rat has of re-gaining the kingdom he lost when he turned tail and ran from the Piper of Hamelin. At last, he’ll get those sewer rats to respect their king again

In the course of training to become a new rat Prince, Saul learns a lot of unpleasant truths about himself, his father’s death, and his self-proclaimed uncle. When the Piper abuses and uses Saul’s musically inclined friends in a plot to control the world, Saul, the passive and surly son, at last seizes life with the vigor his father despaired of ever seeing in him. It’s Saul’s decision to honor his father that at last inspires Saul to be a hero.

Mieville’s book is a modern urban fable which shines through well-drawn characters and a witty Dickens-dark atmosphere. Saul’s someone the reader can sympathize with in spite of his ratty nature.

If the ending of the book is comical, well, the Down with the Monarchy, Up with the Proletariat (when the excited, newly liberated proletariat are really sewer rats) actually suits Saul’s naïve spirit. When Saul tenderly clutches his little red book of Lenin to his chest, he’s honoring his activist father. Ah, how sweet. Long live gentle Saul, no matter how furry, smelly, or left-leaning he grows. Enjoy!

P. S. One caveat: if frequent four-letter words bother you, don’t read this one. If the characters weren’t bleeping it out, the dialogue might be cut in half. Modern times: the good-hearted hero has a mouth on him.

(less)

like · see review

Aug 23, 2010 Paul Forbes rated it 3 of 5 stars

You know when you get that feeling in your throat when saliva is building up and you feel like you're gonna chuck-up? That's how I felt at one point of reading this book. I thought I was going to be physically sick on the tube on the way to work. So if your stomach is weak, I don't recommend this book. But if you're tough, then read on.
'King Rat' is about a young man called Saul who's father is killed by being thrown out of his flat window. The police arrive on the scene and think Saul did it (a...more

like 1 like · see review

Jun 08, 2010 rr added it · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

like · see review

Jul 22, 2011 Tess Malone rated it 2 of 5 stars

I wanted to like this book. As a fan of British postmodern fantasy, I'm particularly fascinated by the subterranean London subgenre that this book inhabits. I love Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere" and expected this to fit somewhere in that canon, and although it did, it wasn't nearly as good. First, there was Miéville's pompous prose, befitting of a graduate of Cambridge and LSE, but not a novel. I tried my best to ignore the pretentious SAT vocabulary and found the initial premise promising: an under...more

like · see review

Sep 17, 2011 Yupa rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Opera prima di China Miéville.
E si vede.
Chi ha letto i romanzi successivi noterà soprattutto i difetti, le carenze, rispetto alle potenzialità che qui quasi si faticano a intravvedere sotto la superficie.
Ciò va a onore dei romanzi successivi, ma rende questo un po' deludente a chi lo affronta in ritardo (così è successo a me).
Miéville dimostra già di saper padroneggiare lo stile e rendere interessanti e piacevoli, a salvare dalla banalità pagine che, in mano ad altri scrittori dello stesso gener...more Opera prima di China Miéville.
E si vede.
Chi ha letto i romanzi successivi noterà soprattutto i difetti, le carenze, rispetto alle potenzialità che qui quasi si faticano a intravvedere sotto la superficie.
Ciò va a onore dei romanzi successivi, ma rende questo un po' deludente a chi lo affronta in ritardo (così è successo a me).
Miéville dimostra già di saper padroneggiare lo stile e rendere interessanti e piacevoli, a salvare dalla banalità pagine che, in mano ad altri scrittori dello stesso genere ma meno dotati, sarebbero risultate un'illeggibile sequela di poveri manierismi.
Peccato che al di sotto della stile non ci sia tantissimo.
C'è un buon impianto generale.
C'è la volontà, che già si nota, di ridiscutere le convenzioni più corrive del genere fantastico, ridiscutere ipotetiche divisioni tra "eroi" e "cattivi", non esitare a condire le svolte narrative con ricche dose di cinismo (forse anche un po' troppo, e poco controllato).
Peccato che i personaggi risultino tutti molto scialbi, poco polposi, a partire dal protagonista e via peggiorando coi comprimarî.
Peccato che il rapporto tra numero di pagine e complessità delle vicende sia un po' a sfavore della seconda.
Peccato che l'iniezione di questioni politiche nel fantastico, che di Miéville è un po' il pallino e la novità, sia gestita in maniera davvero facilona e poco convincente, artificiosa, specie a confronto coi romanzi a venire.
Peccato che la commistione tra fiabesco tradizionale e corruzione urbana, almeno in questo caso, forse funzionava ancora bene ai tempi della pubblicazione (1998), ma oggi molto molto meno.

Il libro si fa comunque leggere, e magari riuscirà anche a sorprendere in positivo chi ancora Miéville non lo conosce, pur non facendo gridare al miracolo.
Per chi già abbia letto con piacere Perdido Street Station o Il treno degli Dèi, resta comunque un tassello con cui completare la propria biblioteca miévilliana, nell'attesa che l'arrancante editoria nostrana si decida a tradurre i titoli dell'autore (ancora e sempre più numerosi...) mancanti all'appello in lingua italiana.(less)

like · see review

Jul 08, 2009 Architeuthis rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1990s, china-mieville, fiction-that-speculates

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 o...more

like 1 like · see review

Jan 28, 2010 pearl rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: urban-fantasy

As far as debut novels go, Mieville's King Rat was pretty awesome. Gritty, unsettling, and at times plain disgusting, it was all the nasty sub-London I could handle haha. Overall it was an enjoyable read, the pace quick, the implementation of drum-n-base awesome, and I loved/despised/feared Mieville's take on the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Creeeeeepy. That said, there were times when I felt the action scenes dominated everything else, and the characters were underdeveloped. Saul was not as relatable...more

like 2 likes · see review

Jul 15, 2009 Jonathan rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: recommended

King Rat has an exceptionally strong opening that is both extremely gripping and gracefully written. Unfortunately, the rest of the book doesn't quite live up to that--or the standards China Mieville set with his later books. What works is great, but there are quite a few missteps, too. We get a lot of repetitive "Drum & Bass" descriptions, which might work better if you're into that sort of music, but it feels strange juxtaposed next to all the urban fantasy stuff, even though it does play...more

like · see review

Oct 01, 2012 Kim rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: action, fantasy, mystery, mythology, urban-fantasy, music, bram-stoker-nominee, male-author, 1990s

After reading Perdido Street Station I thought for my next Miéville book I would go back to the beginning. Released in 1998 this book is a lot different to the other books of his I've read. You can tell it was his début work as it lacks the refinement of later novels.

The most marked difference though is the lack of a certain type of "character". By this I mean the setting. I don't know if all his books are the same but so far in the ones I've read the setting is as much a character as anyone/th...more

like 4 likes · see review

Jan 06, 2013 Kaushik Viswanath rated it 2 of 5 stars

King Rat follows a lot of the tropes of YA fantasy fiction. The protagonist is orphaned, although he is already an adult at this point. A mysterious presence enters his life, he discovers new powers, has to face an evil entity, and in the process learns some hard truths about his own origins.
Mieville manages to make this formula interesting in places by throwing in certain elements of the unexpected. The character of King Rat is undoubtedly the best example of this, and I wish the novel had spen...more

like · see review

Apr 20, 2011 Jacqueline Brocker rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mieville's first book, and in many ways it shows; the supporting cast feel a bit too, well, like they are purely there for support, and I'm think I'd have to be more familiar with Drum 'n Bass to appreciate the references (and they did feel a bit forced sometimes), though that said, I think it did work into the ending rather well, better than I expected. Still, I got a kick out of Ananzi (a very different one to Neil Gaiman's, but I think appropriate to this London underworld) and I enjoyed Saul...more

like 1 like · see review

Sep 13, 2012 Jamie Welch rated it 5 of 5 stars

China Miéville has a intricate way with words, he paints his story so eloquently that you feel like a passenger spying on the lives and surroundings of the world he creates. China Miéville is a linguist and an eloquent weever of story.
I see that China was inspired by Neil Gaiman with Neverwhere, but China creates a world wholly set apart from Neverwhere. King Rat is gritty, raw and urban.
I love how Miéville depicts characters differently than seem than in other books that I have read. Anansi...more

like · see review

Apr 14, 2013 John rated it 3 of 5 stars

I really wish I'd enjoyed this more. It opens with a spell-binding first person paragraph from the eponymous King Rat. A chilling trip into the intelligence of this darkly eldritch being, his confidence and power, his view of the world of London.

The magic continues for a few chapters. Mieville's language is superb and Saul's meeting with King Rat and his own slow metamorphosis is as weird and dark as I could hope.

The problem with the book is that it's simply too long. The magic quickly becomes...more

like · see review

Jun 24, 2011 Lauren rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2011

Sorry, China.

First things first: this was the first book that I read on my Kindle. I have an ongoing e-mail discussion with Amazon about the mistakes in the book (and now I have to quote the page numbers of the mistakes I've found to them; I am certainly not that thrilled about doing unpaid QA work), one of which was a MIÉVILLE in the middle of a sentence. (If it was intended as some sort of authorial subliminal message, it was poorly done.)

So those mistakes were distracting, and make me more wa...more

like · see review

Nov 24, 2012 Joe rated it 3 of 5 stars

This is a good book, overall.

Without giving any spoilers, all I can really say is that the overall conceit of the book is clever and interesting. It has a nice, magical feel where it's never entirely clear where reality leaves off and metaphor picks up. I liked that quite a bit.

What the book mostly suffers from is self-indulgence on the part of the author. Some of the long, descriptive passages are painful and Mieville presumes too much that we care about the details of his personal hobbies, mos...more

like · see review

Dec 07, 2009 David rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fantasy, horror

This follows Saul, whose father was just murdered, and he is the prime suspect. He is rescued from his cell by King Rat, who is a rodent spirit who tells Saul he is part rat and trains him to be a sort of demigod, ruling over the rat world and human world alike. Then enters the Piper, whose malicious plan of destroying all the rats hundreds of years ago barely failed. Now he's back to finish the job.

Despite how idiotic it sounds, it's a really fun book, with dramatic and theatrical descriptions...more

like · see review

title link	preview: King Rat
avg rating	preview: King Rat Goodreads rating: 3.51 (3587 ratings)
small image	preview: click here [close]
med image	preview: click here [close]
BBCode	[url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68498.King_Rat?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312030792l/68498.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68498.King_Rat?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]King Rat by China Miéville[/url]

King Rat

Friend Reviews

Lists with This Book

Community Reviews

new topic
Discuss This Book

combine
Other Editions (15)

Genres

Readers also enjoyed similar books

About China Miéville

Books by China Miéville

Share This Book

Share This Book on Your Website

Trivia About King Rat

Quotes from King Rat