Zealot Script

I’ve been aware of China Miéville, and his reputation for writing weird stories, for some time but it was only very recently that I made my first foray into his work, with the exceedingly excellent and undoubtedly weird The City and the City. Being inevitably drawn in to his style, imagination and sheer gall at writing such a weird story, I recently found myself walking through an airport without my most recent TBR tucked in my bag and happened upon King Rat, his very first novel, on offer in the terminal. Over several flights (and train rides) I finished cover to cover in only a few days and was again delightfully drawn in to a world of incredible imagination.

What has, in both my outings with Miéville’s work, impressed me most of all is the fact that he set out to write such a story at all. With a library full of space opera, Tolkien derivatives and typical “hero’s quests” it is refreshing to read something so off-the-wall that I can’t work out how the author decided to sit down and write that particular kind of story!

The setting very clearly draws on Miéville’s own experience of living in London and, as is referred to in the introduction, his own love of Jungle music but the premise of the setting is familiar to that of many other fantasy works. A boy is thrust from the comfort of his own life to “the city below”, discovers he has royal blood and a mysterious nemesis is out for the aforementioned blood. So far, so typical. Stripping back the plot in this way does a large dis-service to the quality of Miéville’s writing and the rich world he draws you in to, but it is also an intentionally reductive version that ignores the very parts that make the story unique. Sure, there are many typical story beats, reluctant hero slowly accepts his birthright, but it never feels trope-ridden.

As always, I try to write these reviews with few spoilers, but I will introduce a few plot points here from the early sections of the novel, just to illustrate the atypical route that Miéville takes. The protagonist, Saul, is not the heir to a mighty kingdom under London full of elves and fairies rather he is rescued from a sticky situation, well, specifically a prison cell, by King Rat. His uncle, King Rat. Who is aptly named, as he is the King of the Rats. Not rat-men that live in a secret city below ours with a thriving culture, language and history, no, the actual rats that inhabit the sewers, alleys and underways. Oh, and as King Rat is his uncle, Saul is half rat, or partially rat at least. This isn’t a lightly entertaining and frivolous adventure, it’s a dark and at times bloody and visceral journey through the literal underside of London. It’s Dark Fantasy, not in a “GrimDark” world, but in our very own world.

Perhaps the one criticism I have is that the political messaging was, to be gentle, not particularly subtle. Saul’s primary connection to his father, his most treasured possession, in fact the only possession of his that I can recall being mentioned in the entire book was a copy of What is to be Done? by Lenin. Yes, that Lenin. While the socialist themes underpin the work, they are at least more subtle during the meat of the narrative. But with an on-the-nose, middle-of-your-face reference directly to Lenin’s work at the beginning and an equally obvious callback at the end, it leaves nothing to the readers interpretation as to the “moral” of the work, and somewhat distracts from the messaging itself. More refined references, or simply allowing the narrative itself to portray the intended themes, would allow the reader to come to those conclusions through the story itself, rather than teeing it up at the start and checking back in at the end to make sure you didn’t miss it.

It is a mild misstep in, what is important to remember is, Miéville’s very first novel. I had no such qualms with The City & The City, and considering his very next work Perdido Street Station won the British Fantasy award, the Arthur C Clarket award and was nominated for every other major SFF award going, it’s fair to say that he polished this one missing part of his writing style fairly quickly!

King Rat is an enthralling piece that draws you in, not with sympathetic characters you can idolise and cheer along with their astounding victories. Instead it fascinates the reader, captivates you with it’s strangeness, and yet still delivers as disconcerting a villain as I’ve recently encountered, dramatic action sequences, and a final showstopper that twists and turns several times instead of a merely punchy finish.

China Miéville has been quoted as wanting to write a book in every genre, if The City & The City was very clearly a detective novel, King Rat was his take on a fairy tale, in fact, one you’ve heard before, but you might not realise it until half way through.