King Rat

[rune]

Has anyone discovered this little gem by Mieville?

 

[Brian G Turner]

Jp!

 

[rune]

Jp!

That a Yep or a Nop!

 

[Brian G Turner]

It means that knivesout should be here shortly with comment.

I think Hypes and Ravenus may also have read it, but they're not so frequent visitors.

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Heh, here I am. I have indeed read Mieville's debut, King Rat. I like it quite a bit - it doesn't have the scope and fecundity of the Bas-Lag books, but it shows Mieville working his muse in a different setting - modern-day London, and is a valuable indication of his breadth as a writer, I think.

I love reading books with a strong sense of an urban environment or environments - whether it's a purely imaginary metropolis, like Harisson's Viriconium, or a series of deftly sketched and imaginary cities, as in Calvino's Invisible Cities, or a real world city as in Moorcock's London novels. Like the last, this book takes London itself as its setting, and then unleashes the weird into that context.

It draws from popular folklore, parlaying the story of the Pied Piper into a strange tale of hybrid animal/humans, a plot by the King Rat and other animal Kings to finally have vengeance on the Pied Piper, a direly clever plan by the Piper to enslave the people of London with his music and in the midst of it all, the perils of one young man, half-human son of the King Rat struggling to come to grips with his own identity and cease being a pawn in this game.

The rhythms of drum-n-bass music run through this work, as do a deeply convincing picture of the grimier sides of city life, the cheap takeaway noodle meals, the beggars and tramps, and most of all the sewers. Mieville literally drags us through the London sewage system in this book, so it may not be one for the weak-stomached!

As with any Mieville book, some of his inventions won't sit well with everyone- I myself found the notion of a rat-human hybrid a bit hard to swallow, but once you decide to suspend disbelief, there's a great story here, that works well on the level of characterisation as well.

I love the epilogue, with the young man's admonition to the rats of London to 'put the rat back in fraternity'. Really cracked me up.

Mieville has stated that he may write more works in a real-world setting in the future. That certainly seems like a good idea, on the strength of King Rat.

 

[rune]

Heh, here I am. I have indeed read Mieville's debut, King Rat. I like it quite a bit - it doesn't have the scope and fecundity of the Bas-Lag books, but it shows Mieville working his muse in a different setting - modern-day London, and is a valuable indication of his breadth as a writer, I think.

I love reading books with a strong sense of an urban environment or environments - whether it's a purely imaginary metropolis, like Harisson's Viriconium, or a series of deftly sketched and imaginary cities, as in Calvino's Invisible Cities, or a real world city as in Moorcock's London novels. Like the last, this book takes London itself as its setting, and then unleashes the weird into that context.

It draws from popular folklore, parlaying the story of the Pied Piper into a strange tale of hybrid animal/humans, a plot by the King Rat and other animal Kings to finally have vengeance on the Pied Piper, a direly clever plan by the Piper to enslave the people of London with his music and in the midst of it all, the perils of one young man, half-human son of the King Rat struggling to come to grips with his own identity and cease being a pawn in this game.

The rhythms of drum-n-bass music run through this work, as do a deeply convincing picture of the grimier sides of city life, the cheap takeaway noodle meals, the beggars and tramps, and most of all the sewers. Mieville literally drags us through the London sewage system in this book, so it may not be one for the weak-stomached!

As with any Mieville book, some of his inventions won't sit well with everyone- I myself found the notion of a rat-human hybrid a bit hard to swallow, but once you decide to suspend disbelief, there's a great story here, that works well on the level of characterisation as well.

I love the epilogue, with the young man's admonition to the rats of London to 'put the rat back in fraternity'. Really cracked me up.

Mieville has stated that he may write more works in a real-world setting in the future. That certainly seems like a good idea, on the strength of King Rat.

I too very much enjoyed this book. Mieville as a great way of building scenes and his vivid imagination just shines out of this book.

What a grimy feel he gave London, and the world were Saul lived. I actually felt queasy at the description of the food Saul and the King Rat lived on. The food and it's origines and the affect it had on their systems was so vivid! I shuddered at the thought of eating rubbish and rot

A brilliant book and hard to believe this was Mieville's first. Hardly surprising that when I read The Scar it was so well written.

I didnt care much for the music element in the story and I must be honest King Rat's rythmic style of speach left me puzzled at times

 

[Jayaprakash Satyamurthy]

Have you read Perdido Street Station yet? You'll find the Weaver's speech patterns even more baffling, but oddly endearing (I think)!

 

[Jay]

I think King Rat displays a touch of what is to come from Mieville's later works. We see the incredible imagination, and see examples what will become one of most distinct and perhaps peerless prose in the genre. II actually read his short, the Tain (if you missed this buy the Cities anthology that it included along with works by Paul di Phillipo and Geoff Ryman, Peter Crowther). A terrific story.


A nice spin on the Pied Piper of Hamelin myth, definately a sign of things to come, but I think it's defintely his weakest effort (whcih means it's better than 80% of the genre)

 

[rune]

I think King Rat displays a touch of what is to come from Mieville's later works. We see the incredible imagination, and see examples what will become one of most distinct and perhaps peerless prose in the genre. II actually read his short, the Tain (if you missed this buy the Cities anthology that it included along with works by Paul di Phillipo and Geoff Ryman, Peter Crowther). A terrific story.


A nice spin on the Pied Piper of Hamelin myth, definately a sign of things to come, but I think it's defintely his weakest effort (whcih means it's better than 80% of the genre)

I enjoyed King Rat, and I found some of the scenes so well written I felt sick. The only downside was the dialogue for King Rat

 

[Trey Greyjoy]

Just picked this up and am about halfway through it. I found it hard to get into at first. I really didnt care for the characters at the start. Now they are growing on me and Im into the story much more. Reminds me a lot of a Gaiman Sandman story or American Gods in some ways.
Great dialogue & the characters feel three dimensional. Love the rats! heehee!
Im looking forward to finishing this one up and starting in on some of his other works.
Never would have found him if it wasnt for this site! Thanks all.

 

[Adasunshine]

I just started reading this a couple of days ago and am thoroughly enjoying it! I love the London setting, takes me back to my working days, the intro (with the trains), especially brought some memories back.

So far, I'm really liking his style and in opposition to Rune, I also enjoy King Rat's dialogue, I actually know people who speak like this so perhaps I'm more used to it plus, it gives me a sense of home!

I'll get back to you when I've finished!

xx

 

[GOLLUM]

I just started reading this a couple of days ago and am thoroughly enjoying it! I love the London setting, takes me back to my working days, the intro (with the trains), especially brought some memories back.

Don't forget to check out his wonderful Perdido Street Station, The Scar and Iron Council where he really comes into his own plus the brilliant short story collection Looking For Jake......

 

[Adasunshine]

Well, it took me a while (ill children and general household stuff holding me back yet again) but I've finally finished King Rat and I've got to say that I really enjoyed it.

It's a book I would normally get through rather quickly and I was getting very frustrated at the various things stopping my reading of it but hey, these things happen.

I suspected King Rat from the beginning and was kind of pleased to have been right, it fitted the book better than for him to be the good guy. Saul was a well written character and as for Natasha & Fabian, I have friends who are very similar!!!!

The urban setting was made very real by Mieville and people that know London and even love London can really relate to his descriptions and Saul's ponderings of the city. The Jungle setting, IMO, was a rather clever one, being a fan of the music myself back in the day, it made an interesting backdrop to the tale.

The Piper was a scary scary man, fun to read and fear simultaneously!

I thought it was a great twist on the Pied Piper of Hamelin tale and a fresh approach to it too. My only bug-bear is the ending, I'm a naturally curious person and I'm not good with open endings, they frustrate me, it's my own personal taste, I know, but it still annoyed me.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to his other books I currently have on order..... (yes GOLLUM, Perdido Street Station & Looking for Jake are on their way... )

xx

 

[GOLLUM]

The urban setting was made very real by Mieville and people that know London and even love London can really relate to his descriptions and Saul's ponderings of the city. The Jungle setting, IMO, was a rather clever one, being a fan of the music myself back in the day, it made an interesting backdrop to the tale.

Overall, I really enjoyed it and am looking forward to his other books I currently have on order..... (yes GOLLUM, Perdido Street Station & Looking for Jake are on their way... ) xx

Glad to hear it ADA. If you like Mieville's other work and enjoy imagined Urban settings then you could do worse than take the advice of an esteemed friend of mine Knivesout and further check out M. John Harisson's Viriconium and Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities. Both represent high water marks in the fantasy Genre.

More specifically if you enjoy tales with a London backdrop you might like to check out one of the Masterwork classics Tim Powers time-travel stroy Anubis Gates. The research Powers has put into 1800s London is wonderful and gvies you a solid insight into life at that time. I think you've read the Strange and Norrel novel and liked it right? If not do check it out, another classic set in London town.

 

[ommigosh]

Have just finished reading King Rat and enjoyed it immensely though not as much as the Bas-Lag stuff. Mieville's writing is particularly good in parts of this novel. The part where King Rat recalls what happened at Hamelin is superb, you could feel the tension, anger, excitement and desperation coming through in King Rat's words. Powerful stuff.
The descriptions of what the rats ate was also so well done that it put me off my dinner (almost).
The characters as always with Mieville, were really bizarre, interesting and even the bit part players were generally intriguing (Crowley the cop for instance) The gruesome scenes were very very horrifying.

King Rat's speech patterns did not put me off at all although his meaning was quite hard to discern a lot of the time. I thought Mieville spent just a tad too much time on describing the Drum and Bass music - he seems to be quite an enthusiast.

 

[j d worthington]

Just came across this particular discussion. I've been marginally aware of Mieville for some time (I worked for a while in a science-fiction/fantasy/mys-tery bookshop), but most of the feedback I heard was rather ambivalent, and I was pretty snowed under (still am) with a backlog of reading material, so I've passed it by. After this, however, I think I'm going to have to look up this gentleman's work and give it a whirl. I'd had some suggestions from people here, but hadn't yet made up my mind -- now I think I have. Thanks for the heads-up!

 

[Space Elf]

You can't go wrong with King Rat, seriously, it's great stuff.

 

[j d worthington]

Hmmm. After the previous post, I may want to rethink this.....

I just finished reading the novel this evening, and I can't say that I thought it was as good as I'd expected; for one thing, in the earlier (and some later) parts of the novel, the descriptions, especially of movement with King Rat and Saul, were done in such a way that I simply had trouble visualizing some of it -- other times they were quite brilliantly done. Also, I simply had trouble with the way the premise was handled at times; I suppose the concepts, with their fairy-tale elements (especially things like Loplop being able, more or less, to fly for certain distances) jarred for me with the very modern urban and realistic background; and I found myself being jarred out of the book at such times.

That said, as a first novel it really is an amazing piece of work; very imaginative, and with very colorful characters and -- contrary to some comments I've seen -- I rather thought the ending worked quite well; it kept up a certain irony without damaging the bizarrerie of the whole. There are also some excellent passages of writing, as well; the opening pages of the second section, especially those describing Natasha's work with her mixes, is very well done, for one thing; and I was quite struck by the phrasing of the line (later in the book): "Saul and King Rat moved like liminal figures, hovering between evolutionary strata, bestial and knowing." That final phrase really pulled me up short and -- to me -- gave worlds of insight into the world of King Rat himself.

So, while overall I was a little disappointed -- too high expectations, I think -- nonetheless I found it a good read; but from the story collection I've read earlier, I'd say he's certainly grown since this. I look forward to the others, when I have a chance.

Thanks for all who suggested this and gave feedback.

 

[AryaUnderfoot]

I just finished "King Rat" the other night and found it to be quite good. As with "The Scar," I couldn't really find myself liking any of the characters, although some of them struck me as very cool.
I guess the only thing I really had trouble with was deciding whether or not King Rat, Anansi, and Loplop were human or not. Are they just humans with characteristics of the animals they represent, or are they demi-gods of a sort?
I found the drum 'n' bass segments to be a bit overwhelming at times, but then again it lent a sense of realism. If he'd just brushed over the scene it would have felt much more contrived.
To sum it up, I'll definitely be recommending this book to other readers.

 

[Nesacat]

I just finished King Rat this morning and I've mixed feelings about the tale. I've always had a fondness for the tale of the Piper.

The descriptions of London's underbelly was amazing and very vivid. I could see myself slipping through the alleys and walking across the rooftops. The description of the food they ate from the garbage bins and the slow change in Saul as he discovers himself and comes into his own was very well done.

The same with the description of King Rat himself. I could actually see him standing in the shadows of my room with his blurred outlines and dirt-encrusted clothes and to a large extent I greatly sympathised with him though I found myself hating the way in which he went about trying to regain his kingdom. But it did ring true especially in this day and age perhaps and was all the more hard-hitting and believable for that.

The characters of Loplop and Anansi were not as well utilised or developed and could have effectively been removed I thought along with some of the text which seemed superfluous and took away from the gritty, edgy feel of the story.

Aside from the descriptions I liked the way he used music and the fact that in the end there is a realisation that a person is not merely the sum of two parts, so Saul was not merely the combination of a human and a rat. he was his own person and therefore unique and more than just 1+1.