King Rat by China Mieville
The Pied Piper Always Did Seem A Bit Creepy To Me...
Saul Garamond returns from a journey in late evening and sneaks into his
bedroom to avoid a confrontation with his estranged father. He awakes to
the intrusion of police and the news that his father has been murdered and
he is the number-one suspect. Forgotten in a jail cell, he is freed by a
peculiar, stinking, and impossibly strong stranger--only to find rescue may
be worse than imprisonment. The plot moves through subterranean and
rooftop London quick as a techno beat, as Saul discovers his curious
heritage and finds himself marked for death in an age-old secret war
among frightful inhuman powers. China Miévilles urban fantasy novel,
King Rat, is an impressive, even daring, debut. It is a Lost Prince story
that avoids both black-and-white morality and the standard fantasy-novel
adoration of royalty. Furthermore, it is inspired by the unlikeliest of
sources, the Rat King legend and the Pied Piper of Hamelin fairy tale.
Finally, King Rat, powered and propelled by the rhythms of jungle/drum-n-
bass music, is a fantasy novel set in the 1990s that genuinely captures the
1990s. --Cynthia Ward
Personal Review: King Rat by China Mieville

China Mieville came highly recommended to me ( Thank you, Pop )and
King Rat was my first choice of reading from this wonderful author. When
an author can take a reader to a world completely unexpected and often
terrifying, it makes for a very satisfying page-turner.
The books starts out with Saul Garamond, a rather plain, slightly chubby
young man riding the train to his dad's flat in London. Saul and his dad
never really had a great father son releationship, but they were respectful
of each other. Once at his dad's home, Saul hears the t.v. on and notices
the room is freezing. He thinks maybe his dad is sleeping on the sofa and
left a window open to the cool fall night. So Saul just heads to his room
and goes to bed, exhausted after his long train ride. He's awoken in the
wee morning hours to a pounding at his door. Before he can open the
door, it is shattered and troops of police officers enter and grab Saul,
demanding to what he did with/to his dad. Saul has no clue what is going
on and as they haul him away, he sees a closed off crime scene outside,
and now realizes that his dad was the victim of either a suicide or murder.
At the police station Saul is questioned repeatedly regading his dad. He is
given no phone call and pretty much no rights. While alone in his jail cell,
he hears movement and sees a stranger, who tells him he is here to get
him out. Saul has no idea who this odd man is or how he was able to
sneak past the guards, but he goes with him and they escape undetected.
How they escaped is most unusual, as Saul rode piggy-back most of the
way while his rescuer scaled walls, squeezed through tight passages and
did amazing acrobatic flips--all the while Saul was still hanging on to him.
Turns out the stranger is King Rat and he has an amazing tale to tell Saul
about who Saul really is and what he can do.
This story was a great twist to the childhood tale of, "The Pied Piper of
Hamelin". What if what you always grew up to believe wasn't really true?
What if the, "Good guy" really wasn't? China Mieville weaves such a story,
infusing humor, stark terror, music, art, suspense, and the everyday life of
rats into one awesome page turning novel. The only thing I had trouble
with occasionally was understanding how/what some of the main charcters
spoke/meant. A cross between a cokney accent and Yoda, but it defined
who the character was and where they came from.
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