Review: King Rat by China Mieville

VERDICT: A beautifully written modern-day urban fairytale

I put off reading this for years because the blurb mentions drum n bass and jungle – two types of music I’m really not interested in. However, Mieville is one of my favourite authors and I plan to read everything he’s published, and that includes this book. And boy was I pleased I did.

I’d describe this as a modern-day urban fairytale. It follows Saul, a young Londoner whose life is turned upside down when he comes home to find his father murdered. All the evidence seems to point to him as the murderer, so when a mysterious stranger, the titular King Rat, comes to bust him out of jail Saul has little choice but to go with him.

What follows is a music-fuelled adventure through a fantastical London underground, complete with characters from myth, such as Anansi the spider. As Saul spends more time with King Rat he learns more about his own true character, and becomes embroiled in a centuries-long and deadly battle between King Rat and the Ratcatcher.

The book is beautifully written. It reads as if written by someone totally in love with language, and I was surprised to find out it was Mieville’s first book – it seems like a much more accomplished novel. Although he was writing essays and articles long before he published his novels.

I wonder if maybe at some point Gaiman and Mieville sat down and riffed on alternative Londons

There are definite shades of Mieville’s own Un Lun Dun and The Kraken, as well as Gaiman’s Neverwhere. This book, however, predates the first two by more than a decade and was published just two years after the Neverwhere TV show aired, so couldn’t have been influenced by any of these titles. I wonder if maybe at some point Gaiman and Mieville sat down and riffed on alternative Londons.

This is one of Mieville’s most accessible books and would work as a great introduction to his work. I read it in just five days. It’s full of action but also quintessentially Mieville’s New Weird.