Book Review – King Rat
Author: China Mieville
Cover Artist: Cliff Nielsen
Publisher: Tor
Binding: Paperback
Publication Date: December 1998
King Rat was the first novel offered to fantasy fans by China Mieville. Since its publication he has since had three more full-length novels published, inhabiting his setting of Bas-Lag. They include Perdido Street Station, The Scar, and Iron Council, and have been called new masterpieces of speculative fiction by some, an opinion I tend to agree with. I cannot recall another recent author who has been so critically praised so early in his career and actually retained and added on to the praise through his first four novels. In King Rat, Mieville offers readers a glimpse of what would come in his future efforts, a dark, gritty style, with steam punk elements, blending the distinction between gothic and urban fantasy, relayed to the reader in prose that puts on display his absolute command of the language, in such a distinctive style that Mieville himself coined the term to categorize his brand of cutting-edge fantasy, New Weird.
In King Rat, China Mieville takes the universally known story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and weaves around it a version that takes place in the London Underground, both in reference to social theme and scenery. The protagonist in the novel is Saul Garamound, who has woken up to find his father dead, and the police at the door. What saves Saul is the intervention of King Rat, who is in fact the deposed King of Rats, not to mention Saul’s uncle. It is shortly after King Rat’s rescue of Saul that it become plainly evident, the text being proof positive, that Mieville is no average writer. It is in the segments of the novel when King Rat introduces and acquaints Saul to his world, and simultaneously the reader is introduced to the overwhelming talent apparent in author’s narrative, fantastic description, vividly bringing to life the gloom of the London Underground, depicting the sights, and the very smells and tastes, that expressively exhibits Mieville’s keen knowledge of and gift with words, that would in subsequent novels become his trademark. Mieville grants the members of royalty of the different animal kingdoms rather entertaining abilities, giving them in essence “super powers”, which are both entertaining yet not overwhelming.
The antagonist in the novel is none other than the Pied Piper. Mieville’s versions is a sadistic creature bent on killing Saul who due to his half human/rat nature cannot be swayed by the Piper. The Piper himself is an example of what some perceive as lacking in this novel. The characters as a whole are not entirely fleshed out, it lacks in depth, we know nothing of the Pied Piper, what his motivation is, we don’t even know what he really is. This common theme touches on all the characters, not excluding Saul himself. Aside from Mievile briefly depicting Saul’s sorrow for his father, and his regret of his unspoken bond with him (Saul’s mother died during Childbirth), and Saul’s obvious staunch loyalty in regards to his friends. However, Saul’s immediate reactions to the paranormal nature of the events occurring too and around him seem a bit too accepting. One would expect something more. King Rat, by far the most intriguing character (in regards to dialogue and charisma) in the novel who not only is the prime example of a static character, but we learn nothing of him that we don’t know in the novel’s beginning. Now all that sounds negative, and although I think this apparent choice in presenting the characterization fails to deliver in terms of heightening entertainment value it should not be construed as flaws in the actual execution of the writer’s intended vision in my opinion. Mieville simply takes a rather different route and goes against the grain of the common popular usage of anthropomorphic characters that are prevalent both in fictional writing and animated movies currently, and gives us characters that although human in appearance, retain their native animal characteristics in terms of their behavior and actions. In this he is brilliantly successful, however the inherent limitations of the choice in my opinion is reflected negatively by the admitted flatness evident in the characters. Mieville shows in all his later works he is fully capable of depicting fully dimensional characters, and thus doesn’t suffer from the all too common problem that plagues the majority of fantasy writers today.
One aspect that proved just to me personally annoying about the novel, but I understand it has its place in Mieville’s Underground London setting, was role of drum and base music. No it didn’t detract from the novel, but I have to admit I have a disdain for the genre of music as a whole and just felt the need to mention it, and admittedly it fit the setting extremely well. King Rat is in essence a very simple story. Their is a protagonist, an antagonist, based of a well known fairy tale, set in London, that definitely achieves the goal of entertainment to urban fantasy enthusiasts, and probably owes something to Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere. The ending admittedly becomes predictable, but Mieville does supply the reader with an intriguing twist. In this case however, the very, well executed, “remix” of a story is overshadowed by the flashes of unsurpassed promise to come from Mr. Mieville.
When I first read King Rat I was impressed with the story, an although this debut novel was nominated for an International Horror Guild Award and the Bram Stoker Prize, I was more taken with the style of the author’s writing itself. His prose is at the same time both competent and extravagant, his descriptions powerfully invoking emotions, bringing to life whatever page they grace, his genre crossing style garnering him acclaim and honors in all circles whether Horror, Fantasy, or Science Fiction. King Rat not only debuted China Mieville, it told us he was here to stay. His first effort, not as large or ambitious in scope as his subsequent modern classics, nor does the writing seem nearly as finely polished as it does now, but still gives some fans of fantasy some semblance of hope that a writer’s ability and talent still matters to publishers.
King Rat is admittedly my least favorite China Mieville novel, and doesn’t possess the overall quality of his Bas-lag work, however, China Mieville’s poorest effort still is engaging and fresh, the same qualities that made his subsequent novels works that not only add to the existing genre but expand it to horizons yet unachieved.
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