KING RAT

MACMILLAN £9.99

A father is killed by a vicious powerful monster and the son, Saul, is accused. Through this police procedural / horror beginning we find out that Saul is half man and half rat. Told by the dispossessed King Rat himself, a humanoid with all the virtues and faults of a rat. With his aid, Saul escapes the police station. But more deaths are laid at his door and hidden in the sewers he cannot hide when his friends start to die. The enemy seems to be the rat’s nemesis: The Pied Piper!

This debut novel from Londoner China Miéville weaves in his love of Jungle, Bass and Drum music, and must be read as a fairy tale fantasy. There are kings of spiders and birds introduced which again are man-like and man-sized. The writing is accomplished but at times too verbose, repeating descriptions and narrative over and over again. The hero also seems extremely stupid. At the end he knows he is walking in to a trap and knows where, but does nothing to try to sabotage the event. He just turns up and is nearly vanquished. It is almost as if the writer has a plan of a number of near failures before the victory… or is that a little too cynical.

There are some wonderful images conjured up and the world of Jungle music was opened up a crack, however the repetition and plot flaws make it difficult to recommend wholeheartedly.

G. Hurry

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