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King Rat
King Rat is incredibly similar to Gaiman's American Gods and Neverwhere -- I've purposefully not looked into the chronology of publication so I don't want to assert who was influenced by whom, but some significant elements of Neverwhere -- London as a setting, the critical presence of rats, a malevolent, almost-unkillable foe -- and American Gods -- a protagonist who loses someone dear to him very early in the work (Shadow loses his wife in AG, while Saul loses his father), and who struggles through a new understanding of his role in the world, a new appreciation for the fact he was born for a specific destiny, and a rebellion against his father. Hell, one character actually appears in both American Gods and King Rat.
There's probably a very strong correlation between people who liked American Gods and Neverwhere and people who'll like King Rat. At the same time, King Rat's tone is incredibly different -- it's not a derivative of Gaiman's work as much as it is a close family relation. It's almost totally bereft of humor, unlike Neverwhere, and not quite as awash in a palpable sense of loss as American Gods (especially given Shadow's ongoing relationship with his wife). Unlike the other two books, I found this one a little slow to get into, reading five pages here, ten pages there, until it finally hooked me.
King Rat's story revolves around Saul Garamond, who comes home one night to find that someone has killed his estranged father -- and the police think it's him. Garamond is broken out of prison by the title furtive character, who lost his dominion over the rats in the Hamlin catastrophe, and who introduces himself as Saul's uncle. So yes, the protagonist of King Rat is, in fact, Prince Rat (who is half man and half rat).
The rest of the book is the detailing of the conflict between the Rat, Bird, and Spider people and the pied piper of Hamlin who, in fact, turns out to be quite evil and fond of killing things.
Music is at the core of King Rat, from the basic most powerful talent of the nemesis, to the particular defenses of Saul (since he's a halfling, neither human-snaring music nor rat-snaring music alone could get him), to the interweaving of Saul's story with that of Natasha, a friend of his and a jungle-music DJ. Parts of the book, discussing the music arrangement and the role of bass in the actual communication of emotion to an audience, felt like they might be lost a little on a reader who hasn't been awash in that rhythm in a club. Thankfully for the vast majority of slashdotters, that's not a huge part of the book and even if you've never gone clubbing, held a rhythm, or danced your ass off, you're not likely to be alienated by it.
Mieville decided to end the book and the conflict in a way that felt more ambiguous than it could have been. While I applaud any author who doesn't bow and scrape to the convention that if you have a battle between good and evil, evil must be completely vanquished by the end of the work, I couldn't help feel that Mieville ended the book in such a way at least partially so a sequel could be written, featuring largely the same characters. It left me uneasy and on the verge of feeling a little cheated.
So that's the downside. On the upside, I found Saul's characterization engaging, interesting, and real. Saul is not as good of a man as we all would like to be, but he's probably as good as most of us get to be. Especially in the beginning, he's pretty wretchedly whiny. He's not exceedingly brave, or truthful, or kind. He's just ... a guy, with some special powers due to his parentage, thrust into a reality that is wildly different from his own, and he does his best to adapt to it. Saul's friends, Natasha Fabian and Kay, can't be drawn with as fine of a stroke because the book isn't about them, but they're still interesting and nuanced. Pete, the piper of Hamlin, is rather less complex. He's evil. He's strong. He is, in Jules' immortal terms, a bad motherfucker. With a flute.
Darn decent book, I'd say. If you liked Neverwhere (and can stand urban fantasy that isn't funny), or American Gods (and can stand urban fantasy that isn't set in the U.S.), you owe it to yourself to check it out.
China Mieville's official website was down last time I checked -- you may have more luck finding stuff about him at his unofficial home page.
You can purchase King Rat from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
For your next review, perhaps you could start out by saying what the book's about, instead of referring/comparing to other books?
.. has been a long standing problem with everyone. This book is not unique in the way that the outline is so cliche, but it still underlines a big point. It has been extremely rare to find books with completely original themes recently, you seem to have the framed school, the lawyer school, etc. What has happened to the Chuck Palahniuks of the world? Even his books have become too samy samy.. is it me, or do we need another Wodehouse to rise up?
tim
At first, I thought he was cool... but the novelty of his work is quickly wearing off. American Gods didn't turn my crank, and his much lauded "American from a British perspective" was bull, even a Canuck like me can see that. The fairy tale about Star and Wall (I forget the name) came out pretty bland. Maybe I'm just not a fantasy person, but IMHO he should stick to comic books. Still, Good Omens was wonderful, easily topping much of Pratchett's solo work.
Oh well, YMMV.
The similarities that the author of the review that alludes to a hint of suspicion of influence and or plaigarism is retarded. Most content is recycled and reissued. There isn't much in original ideas or plots...its how those plots are developed and examined that make the difference.
A billion books probably start off with the protagonist losing a loved one. Hello.
When I saw the title "King Rat" I thought this was another SCO story.
If you like modern, urban fantasy, then check out Tim Powers' Fischer-king series (its not officially called that, but thats what I consider it). Start with 'Last Call' and then work you way up. The whole series predates Gaiman's work by many a year, and I have no idea if the similarities of style and type of story are due to coincidence or influence. Actually, I enjoy just about everything I've gotten my hands on from Tim Powers, including 'Anubis Gates' and 'The Drawing of the Dark' (which could be considered part of the Fischer Kind series, just set in the past by several hundred years).
I will say this though - many of the books have a similar, almost formulaic feel to the main character. The details may be different, but the fact that they just lost someone they love in the begining of the novel tends to be eirily similar. That said, its not always there, and the details of whom, how and why are always very different.
man is machine
This seems to be his new homepage.
I read the other book (Perdido Street Station) a week ago. I though it was pretty good.
(although perhaps with an overdose of unconnected storylines)
There's a sequel to that one out too, called The Scar
The path I walk alone is endlessly long.
30 minutes by bike, 15 by bus.
A stunning book for those who haven't read it, part of the "Shogun" series.
"History doesn't repeat itself, but it does rhyme." Mark Twain
Who actually reads this kind of tripe?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Cheaper at !
CB
free ipod and free gmail!
I'm still trying to figure out how this book won a Hugo and why it's received so much critical praise. To me, it was a blandly executed book based on a "sort of" cool idea(though, to be fair, there were a couple of cool parts). The concept of newer personifications of social concious vs older ones is intriguing and maybe there is an interesting story there somewhere; that interesting story was not American Gods. Or maybe there was something else to this book that I missed?
At least with Gaiman's "American Gods" the author was recasting mythological figures in a new light, and while criminally negligent in his characterizations, it was nevertheless a fascinating read.
In this book, however, I find much to despise, and it reminds me of how Julie Taymor butchered Shakespeare's "Titus" by recasting it in a pseudo-fascist-modern period. Or how "Cold Mountain" romanticizes the South and ignores the issue of slavery. Or how Gibson's "Braveheart" becomes an anti-English Scottish propaganda piece, though it has more holes than a pound of Swiss cheese. Can't so-called "artists" leave well enough alone? The same happens here -- the historical town of Hameln is twisted into Hamlin, and an allegory of emigration become an epic battle of good versus evil.
To wit: Hameln is a town in Lower Saxony, Niedersachsen, in Germany. In the Middle Ages thousands of German emigrants, enticed by tax breaks and offers of free land, made the thousand mile trek to Transylvania, then more or less a part of the kingdom of Hungary. Of course, it was the skilled classes that left, and the young, leaving behind the old and the weak.
Thus an exciting and influential event in the course of European history is manipulated for the sake of low-class genre fiction by a Gaiman-imitator.
I think I'll stick with Turtledove.
Please dont confuse slashdot with America.
Slashdot is full of geeks who call comic books "graphic novels" and discuss them as if they were great literature.
They consider late night cartoons to be the equivelant of fine cinema, Cheetos and Dr Pepper to be fine cuisine, and 172nd level dungeons and dragons players to be great athletes.
They are not representative of America.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
So, the question is, if you loved Neverwhere, but American Gods left a bad taste in your mouth, how will King Rat fare?
Start a happiness pandemic
Wait. Huh? I just looked and I didn't mention it was a graphic novel. That's good, because it isn't. It's an actual watchamcallit, tip of my tongue ... oh yeah, book. The only illustrations are on the covers.
But then I noted that it was a "graphic novel"
Noted where? I've just re-read the review in case a graphic novel version had been released, and I'd failed to pick that up in first reading the (excellent - good work, feller!) review. The reviewer says nothing about it being a graphic novel - he compares it with work by a graphic novelist.
Not that I feel it matters; I loved King Rat, and would love to read a graphic novel ("whatever that is") version. The ending in particular, no, some of the more...imaginative deaths... the one with the tube train... hmmm... must dig it out and re-read it.
This is where the serious fun begins.
Is this a book about Bill Clinton?
And I really need to get into Democrat politics - they must have a never ending supply of intern poon.
I wonder if there are any books out there that deal with chareters in a similar setting, but with the Native American mythos, or even the Austrailuan? I have read several that deal with Africa, and more than a few dealing with European and English settings, but I have been looking up some of the folklore of those other cultures (of which I confess I know nothing about) and I wonder if the tragic hero can be re-hashed, yet again?
If I could get a firm grip on reality, I'd choke it...
I don't want to assert who was influenced by whom, but some significant elements of Neverwhere -- London as a setting, the critical presence of rats, a malevolent, almost-unkillable foe...
I assert they were all influenced by Michael de Larrabeiti's The Borribles , which was published in 1976. I'm probably wrong -- it's been years since I read this, and I was quite young when I did -- but I vividly remember London and rats. The Borribles was the first of a trilogy, all of which have been out of print for a long while; however, while Googling for the link, above, I made the happy discovery that they have been reissued (ISBN: 0330490850).
Aside from this being an obvious troll, how's this idiot throwing comic books, graphic novels, and hentai all into the same category. In addition, how is hentai even something that would be dumbing down America since that's a Japanese thing.
Aside from that, just because something is presented in a form that you're not used to, doesn't make it any less worthwhile for people to read. Plus, since you don't know what a graphic novel is, you really have no business being on slashdot...next you'll be asking what SCO is.
slashdot, news for crazed liberal socialist zealots
The only other Mieville book I've read, Perdido Street Station, didn't impress me at all. Underneath the hey-wow story setting - a city set amongst the ribs of a giant, dead beast - I found a pretty typical storyline, and some truly godawful writing. I mean, exposition and description are nice, but come on.
Right now, I'm reading a bunch of Elmore Leonard. Does anyone write better dialogue than this guy? No. His books are taut and practically impossible to put down - unlike Mieville's, which I struggled mightily to finish.
I've been a fan of China Mieville since his now-impossible-to-find story "The Tain". He's part of a non-movement in F&SF which owes a lot to Jack Vance, Michael Moorcock and similar. Largely British, mostly urban, and set in worlds where reality's gears are missing a few teeth.
If you like King Rat you'll probably enjoy his other books (Perdido Street Station and The Scar) and books by authors like...
Tim Powers, Jeff Vandermeer, Ian MacLeod, Neil Gaiman, Johnathan Carroll, Alan Moore, M. John Harrison, Forrest Aguirre, Jeffrey Ford, and Jasper Fforde. Mary Gentle, Gene Wolfe, and Borges will almost certainly also appeal.
And of course, if you have $200 just lying around doing nothing you will want to get a copy of the Codex Serafinianus just to squick yourself.
The man who never alters his opinion is like the stagnant water and breeds Reptiles of the Mind -- William Blake
Surely, you were not serious when you said we need another Wodehouse to rise up?
The man had about two plot ideas and milked them for about, oh, I don't know, 100 books. The rich and slightly dull-witted bachelor, the smarmy butler, the cranky but lovable aunt, the stock situations of being caught at the wrong place with the wrong girl...PGW was nothing if not derivative. What saves him from complete disgrace is his masterful use of language (even then, you can easily spot his hyperboles, similies and metaphors coming from miles away...they are just so predictable). Wodehouse was great, but a real comic genius was Mark Twain. Or even John Kennedy O' Toole.
Likewise, the Simpsons is superior to huge amounts of other shows, despite being a cartoon. Then again there are crap cartoons that fall well below the mark. The point is, do not discriminate based on the medium, but rather the individual creations If you do not, you are just as narrow-minded as a troll who only loved comics and cartoons.
Are those from the submitter or does a slashdot editor do that?
I enjoyed Perdido Street Station and The Scar, but didn't like American Gods at all. Mieville created worlds that I wanted to learn more about, and had characters I was interested in. I thought Gods was simply boring. It was an ordeal making it to page 200, where I finally put it down. I don't even want to give it away - it may end up going in the trash, which is normally unthinkable for me.
Did you even watch Titus all the way through? It is absolutely brilliant, aware that most of the audience wouldn't be able to empathize with the true shock and horror as Shakespeare wrote it Taymour grabbed familiar, but horrible things from all over the 1900s to allow modern audiences to fully feel the disgust and discomfort originally intended.
Perhaps you should watch it again with an open mind? This time try going past the first few minutes, okay?
--- I do not moderate.
did he say that the pied piper's name is peter? as in peter piper? the guy who picked a peck of pickled peppers?
You see, without that little doohicky, the universe stops.
http://propheteer.org
Please, please stop using the word 'incredibly' to describe things that, incredibly, are really quite credible after all.
The book is similar to Neverwhere? Good. Thanks for the info, but pardon me if my eyes don't exactly widen with amazement.
Mieville's writing style is similar to Gaiman's but different? Fine. It's nice to know, but exactly leave me choking on my sandwich.
Ahh...the scent of freshly picked nits!
**>>BELCH
cragen
ps. Lest ye think this is new, I think the first Hyperion book, conveniently named "Hyperion", came out around '89.
I can't praise Powers enough. And yet, the usual scifi/fantasy geeks here on Slashdot and elsewhere, the kind who devours Gaiman, Stephenson, Heinlein, Adams etc., don't seem to be aware of Powers. Are his books hard to find? Badly marketed? Not cool enough?
If anyone can do the disturbing, visceral, gothic and above all surreal magical realism, it is Powers. Gaiman is a good, inventive author. Occasionally in American Gods there are brief flashes of storytelling where situations cohere into solid, memorable set pieces. In Powers' books, the prose feels like magic, like some decisive, pivotal junction of history, on every single page. The characters really stand out, and the narration really reaches for your senses.
The book I would start with is The Anubis Gates , a story superficially about a present-day literature professor who becomes stuck in Victorian-times London. It also involves Egyptian magicians. And time portals. And a cloned Lord Byron. And some business with a huge ape on a rampage. And a guy who switches bodies. And a seriously zonked-out Samuel Taylor Coleridge.
Other relevant names for those who like Gaiman are James P. Blaylock, John Crowley (I particularly like his early The Deep, a strange and fascinating pseudo-fantasy novel) and Jonathan Carroll (just avoid White Apples).
Doctor Rat, by William Kotzwinkle. Also quite good.
See how dumb that sounds? If you're a full-grown man who still likes comic books, for Pete's sake come out and admit it. It's not like there's anything wrong with that.
Shutting down free speech with violence isn't fighting fascism. It IS fascism!
Yes, read historical fiction about a culture that......reads graphic novels today. Funny, that.
"made the thousand mile trek to Transylvania"
they must have gone the narvik route then. I think Transylvania and Germany are a little closer together than that
...and if you like Powers, you might also like Steven Erikson's stuff. Steve's stuff has some Powers influence and will probably appeal to Powers' fans.
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges.
This guy ain't no troll, he hit it spot on. Stop pretending that cartoons for five year olds are legitimate entertainment and go stock up on your Clavell collection right now.
Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son.
Personally I refer to them as comics, but graphic novels is fine as well. I call anime cartoons, which offends some people but they are. Then again I call my OS Linux, so what do I care about nomenclature ;-)
I enjoyed American gods because it mirrored some ideas that friends and I had thought about when we were first getting into fantasy and Dungeon and Dragons, but like many of you, I wanted something more.
Neverwhere however was a most excellent book and reminded of author Charles de Lint. In his books (of which there are many) he writes about a town (canadian if I remember right) in which it seems the line between the fairy world and ours is a bit blurred. Many of the stories involve everyday normal humans coming into their first contact with the little bit of magic all around them. Some believe immediately while others take convincing. Many characters recur through the books and short stories and eventually you may find yourself wrapped up into his little world.
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
another idiot troll
Only because you got it wrong. As the terms are generally used, The Simpsons is a cartoon. OTOH, Princess Mononoke is animation. All cartoons are animated, not all animation is cartoons.
Similarly with comic books versus graphic novels. Your monthly issue of Batman is a comic book. Arkham Asylum is a graphic novel.
Tom Swiss | the infamous tms | my blog
You cannot wash away blood with blood
You must be talking about AD&D rules, since D&D maxes out at level 36. I think this is true even for the newer d20 version 3 or 3.5 - seems like the 'basic' rules go to level 20, and there are 'epic' rules to go to 36 or something. :)
I don't think anyone's really played a character who started at level 1 and lived longer than level 9 anyway
I liked American Gods better when it was called The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul by Douglas Adams of the Hitchhiker's Guide fame. It was more cohesive, funnier, and kept my attention by keeping the story moving. American Gods seemed like a poorly written attempt to rewrite the story by adding some poorly written sex subtext. Of course, it also has American in the title, so it is more patriotic for us Americans. LDTTotS was written way back in 1988; Gaiman must feel that everybody would have forgotten it by now, since he did not even put it in the bibliography for AG
Douglas Adams died unexpectedly in May, 2001, so he could not complain when Neil released AG the next month. Anybody want to create a conspiracy theory about the timing of the Adams' unexpected heart-attack. Maybe the book writing business is cut-throat in the literal sense.
---
How can you go from Terry Pratchett to Neil Gaiman? Pratchett is more like Robert Asprin, Christopher Stasheff, Jody Lynn Nye, or anybody with a sense of humor.
Gaiman is more like required reading for high school: very slow moving with an ending that makes you wish you had quit in chapter 3 when you thought you had figured out the rest of the book, and you were correct. (My opinion is from American Gods. I think I have read another of Gaiman's books, but it was completely forgettable. At least AG made a bad impression.)
---
If you have not read American Gods, then read The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul to get the ideas without the boredom. If you have already read American Gods, then read The Long Dark Tea-Time Of The Soul to see how well the story could have been told.
I spend my life entertaining my brain.
In Japan, nearly half of all books are essentially what Americans would call comic books. They include every genre you could find in a bookstore, from bodice-ripping trash romance to murder mysteries. The term they use is "Manga." Also, pretty much all of the best movies made in Japan since Kurosawa's death have been animated features.
Information wants to be anthropomorphized.
It's been a while since I read this book, so my details may be a little off...
but I still vividly remember the feeling that I could have written it myself (given enough time/resources), and as I'm not a professional writer (but am an avid reader) I don't think that is a great impression to have of a book.
Basically I recall that a good portion of the book was cliched, and where it wasn't a direct cliche, it was railing against the obvious cliche in a not very clever way.
The narrative was way too linear.
And as an avid drum'n'bass/jungle fan, the descriptions of the music felt laboured and contrived.
Overall, I had the feeling that the ideas could have been effectively conveyed in a short story, but even then it wouldn't have made the 'best short stories of the year' anthology (you know, the famous one, can't recall who edits it! It's been a while since I've been in that genre!)
is an excellent author, King Rat, Taipan and Shogun (maybe you've heard of it) are all good
i don't read that much but shogun was enough to make me take a year of japanese...
Irritated by the ending. Basically, 'there is no such thing as redemption, there shouldn't be, and if someone does something bad when he is young he ought to go on paying for it for the rest of his life, because he's evil.'
I'll probably read King Rat at some point, but I'm certainly waiting for the paperback. Perdido was good, but the author's philosophy and mine are squarely at odds.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
I adore China Mieville's work. I had the pleasure of meeting him at a convention last year. He's a brilliant, interesting guy who writes brilliant, interesting novels.
I'm a bit disappointed that the reviewer downplayed the drum'n'bass aspects of King Rat. It's part of why I love the novel. It's rare that an author can so strongly render a subculture that revolves so much around music. The musical fusion that is drum'n'bass is fascinating, both from a dancing point-of-view and from a headphone music point-of-view. When I read King Rat, I found it exciting that the novel ended up hinging on the interplay between rhythm and melody, and that the importance of rhythm - so often under-appreciated in Western music - was essential to the plot.
I've read all three of Mieville's published novels. I prefer Bas-Lag (the world of Perdido Street Station and The Scar. I believe the forthcoming Iron Council also takes place in Bas-Lag) to the London of King Rat. But I enjoyed the time I spent there in reading the novel and would highly recommend it. And if people who read King Rat take the time to discover drum'n'bass, especially the best stuff from the 90s, then even better.
Think like a person of action, act like a person of thought. --H. Bergson
Anyone who enjoys Neil Gaiman will love the Sandman series. While technically a comic book, it is done intelligently enough to keep the interest of even the discerning reader. There are ten in all (11 now I think) the whole series cost me about $300 to buy, and it was worth every penny (and I am not a rich man).
------- "I must create my own system, Or be enslaved by another man's" -William Blake
China Mieville's The Tain is now published as part of the Cities anthology from Gollancz edited by Peter Crowther along with stories by Michael Moorcock, Paul de Fillipo, and Geoff Ryman.
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.