King Rat

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"A Tom Doherty Associates book."

COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Beautiful but sometimes dull. submitted by eknapp on September 18, 2015, 2:18pm Saul Garamond is a young London man whose father is murdered, and Saul stands accused. Before he can plead his case, a shadowy figure breaks him out of prison and recruits him to do battle against a homicidal, maniacal, centuries-old flautist (whose identity you can probably guess).

King Rat initially is a "hidden London" book in the vein of Neverwhere or London Falling (it's not as good as either). Saul discovers a new layer to the city which he can inhabit and traverse while hiding in plain sight. Later it has elements of another Gaiman novel, American Gods, as Saul takes up with a trio of anthropomorphic demigods: King Rat, Anansi (a Caribbean spider god and the protagonist of yet another Gaiman story) and Loplop, the king of birds.

I find Miéville's style alternately beautiful and boring. He writes roads the way George R R Martin writes food: in lengthy, excruciating, unnecessary detail.

Why do I need to know all that??

It annoyed me a little that the author tried to write rats without knowing much about them. Trust me, China, a rat would have little trouble turning around while standing on a pencil; a mooring line would be like a sidewalk for a rat.

The ending was uninspired. It had almost the exact same villain meeting the exact same fate as in the Fables spinoff Peter & Max, though, so maybe with this particular bad guy it's unavoidable.

Eh, overall it was enjoyable enough I suppose. And hell I learned a new word! That's worth a few points in my book.

FUNAMBULATION--noun. The act of walking on a tightrope. Rope-dancing.