A review by woolfen
King Rat by China Miéville
4.0
3.5/4 Stars.
This was a very enjoyable read, and was Miéville's very high-quality debut. His pacing is very strong, and really holds your attention with its very readable prose. The themes of fatherhood early on really caught me and I found exceptionally moving - quite dramatically so, much more than I would have expected.
Beyond the originality of the spin of the basic premise - of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and it's ratty inhabitants - this was a much less fleshed out novel than the sprawling 'Kraken'. I thought that the 'weirdness' that Miéville characterises himself by was kept quite subtle and realistic - which worked to keep the story contained but left the world feeling a little empty perhaps. With this in mind, the tightly-paced narrative weirdly has an overarching feeling of lightly rocking up from scene to scene. Anansi and Loplop could have provided such interesting characters, but were not massively developed.
Finally - (Pete) the Piper similarly lurched from being a very capable and intimidating villain in the scenes he's in - but only in an overt manner - unlike a villain like the Tattoo, or Goss and Subby, all from 'Kraken', and whose presence teeters over the pages and spills into scenes in a much more meaningful manner than the Piper does. He is a powerful force, but not so much of a presence.
Miéville's books have weirdly characterised London for me in my time here, and brought a slightly daydreaming quality of wonder to this place.
This was a very enjoyable read, and was Miéville's very high-quality debut. His pacing is very strong, and really holds your attention with its very readable prose. The themes of fatherhood early on really caught me and I found exceptionally moving - quite dramatically so, much more than I would have expected.
Beyond the originality of the spin of the basic premise - of the Pied Piper of Hamelin and it's ratty inhabitants - this was a much less fleshed out novel than the sprawling 'Kraken'. I thought that the 'weirdness' that Miéville characterises himself by was kept quite subtle and realistic - which worked to keep the story contained but left the world feeling a little empty perhaps. With this in mind, the tightly-paced narrative weirdly has an overarching feeling of lightly rocking up from scene to scene. Anansi and Loplop could have provided such interesting characters, but were not massively developed.
Finally - (Pete) the Piper similarly lurched from being a very capable and intimidating villain in the scenes he's in - but only in an overt manner - unlike a villain like the Tattoo, or Goss and Subby, all from 'Kraken', and whose presence teeters over the pages and spills into scenes in a much more meaningful manner than the Piper does. He is a powerful force, but not so much of a presence.
Miéville's books have weirdly characterised London for me in my time here, and brought a slightly daydreaming quality of wonder to this place.