Rating: 
Summary: Amazing first novel that even makes grossness interesting.
Review: China Mieville's first novel is an amazing and horrifying tale of a young man who discovers that his father has been murdered and then that he is chief suspect. You'd think that that would be enough for a riveting novel, but that's only the beginning. He then discovers that he is not what and who he thinks he is, and his voyage of self-discovery combines with his rediscovery of London and its many levels. And, as the review title suggests, there are things about this book that, described baldly and out of context, would gross out most people but which work superbly in Mieville's capable hands. I don't want to sound cryptic, but I cannot in good conscience give away too much of this remarkable book's plot. It is beautifully realized, amazingly written, and haunting. I took other reviewers' advice and read this one before his latest, PERDIDO STREET STATION. It's excellent advice. (I'll review PERDIDO when I've finished it.) China Mieville is a remarkable writer, one with an amazing career ahead of him.
Rating: 
Summary: Almost (but not quite) as good as Perdido Street Station.
Review: China Mieville, King Rat (Tor, 1998)It amazes me, after having read King Rat, that China Mieville didn't start getting widespread recognition until after his third novel, Perdido Street Station. King Rat heralded the coming of a great new writer, and most of the planet ignored it. Their loss. Saul Garamond comes home one night after a camping trip and immediately goes to bed. He is awakened the next morning by the police, who suspect him of killing his father, who took a plunge out their sixth-story apartment window sometime during Saul's absence. He's held in prison overnight, but during his stay there, a fellow who calls himself King Rat slips into Saul's cell and breaks him out. For Saul is the key to the defeat of King Rat's oldest and most powerful enemy... Set amid the Jungle craze that hit London in the mid-nineties, and spending a good deal of time in the sewers underneath London, King Rat achieves what Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere came so close to but missed by a hair-taking modern London and making it into a completely new place, filled with wonder and magic. Seeing it from a different point of view (but unlike Gaiman, Mieville gives us a point of view that actually exists inside the fantasy world-the point of view of the homeless). A number of previous reviewers have commented that it helps when reading the novel to know a good deal about Cockney rhyming slang and Jungle music. I know diddly about either, other than that they exist, and still found the novel easy enough to follow (while some of the slang terms I couldn't figure out for the life of me, the context of their use made the meanings obvious). Like Perdido Street Station, King Rat shows Mieville as more than a capable writer, but one possessed of greatness. He weaves the threads of the novel together perfectly, creating a design that, while obvious, still throw in the odd twist here and there. You've read them before, yet somehow they're still unexpected. After a while, the fantasy aspects of the novel recede into the background, and you're reading an adventure novel (albeit a very weird one); only the best fantasy can do that. If there is a problem with the book, it's that it's a little too quickly paced. The kind of pacing that works well in horror films-you drop a clue, then within two minutes you show what the clue points to (Hideo Nakata is a master at this)-doesn't translate quite so well to novel form, and there are sections that feel a bit rushed. Of course, this could be an editing problem. Editors are not happy with giving large, expansive canvases to first-time novelists. The seven hundred fifty pages of Perdido Street Station were perfect for Mieville to stretch his wings; the three hundred of King Rat seem a bit cramped. There was more to this tale, I'd warrant, that needlessly hit the cutting room floor. Still, as fine a novel as any I've read this year, save Perdido Street Station. Mieville may well be the finest new author to come along since Wendy Walker. Get in on the ground floor. **** ½
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Summary: Strange Fantasy in the Real World
Review: Fantasy books are not scarce these days, when everyone wants to write one, and publishers print whatever comes in this genre. King Rat is different, however, not only by it's uncommon method of having the secondary world within the real world, but also by it's uncanny way of getting to you... This is a book that combines todays music with old folklore and mixes them with almost mythical,yet real characters to form a new genre in itself. The main character is at first just another bloke that life has given the finger, but he grows on you and becomes real, his fears tangible, his experiences real. The story is a common theme: the showdown between Good and Evil, but told in a new way, where the good forces aren't wholly good and the evil not only bad. Miéville has a way with the language that will make him a very good writer, a mix between the daily speech and the descriptive Britishness only a few could muster. Fantasy fan or not- read the book!
Rating:
Summary: Wicked Style
Review: Finally some urban fantasy for grown-ups! Mieville's writing style is lyrical, intoxicating and refreshingly filthy! The synthesis of ancient fairy tales and gritty violence on London's streets is very exciting; I highly recommend this to fans of mythopoeia and horror alike.
Rating: 
Summary: Deep in the Dark
Review: For all the many words and apt phrases that Mieville uses, there may be only one word that describes Mieville works: dark. All of his novels to date have this sense of being written at the bottom of a dank, odiferous, and pitch-black well, to where the tiny bits of color that he allows shine through like the sun after a cloudburst. For this, his first work, he confines himself to the comparatively mundane setting of underground London, underground in both the physical and slang senses of the word, as we follow the story of Saul Garamond, heir apparent to the King Rat of Pied Piper fame. From the sewers to the rifling of garbage heaps for dinner, Mieville delights in offending your hygienic senses while enticing you with glimpses of a musical sub-culture that is just as strange to the average person as the rarified air of sub-atomic research. Bringing the characters of the ancient fairy tale to life is no small task, and Mieville succeeds admirably in the persons of King Rat and the Pied Piper himself. The Pied Piper comes across as a truly sadistic being, as shown by his actions, though at one point he specifically denies that characterization, while King Rat is easily identified with as the whining, downtrodden person who can never quite reach his goal of revenge. Their conflict is very real and very understandable, couched in a thousand years of remembrances of wrongs done, and is an effective mirror of all too many human interactions. What is not so well crafted is the character of Saul. His reactions to the impossibility of the reality of King Rat, or to the murder of his father, come across as much too accepting, reactions that no normal person would have. But it is even hard to judge just how close to normal Saul is, as his background, his emotional makeup, his normal life are only sketched in before being plunged into the midnight realm of rats and sewers. The emotional impact of this book would have been greatly enhanced had Saul been given much more development prior to the start of the fairy-tale action. The secondary characters are also given short shrift, and as these characters have important roles to play in the final outcome, this once again subtracts from the full power this story could have had. For a first novel, this is excellent, already showing signs of Mieville's imposing command of the English language to evoke mood and feelings, but the necessary cohesiveness between story and character that would make this a great novel is lacking. Still a very entertaining read, worth the time and effort, and very much recommended before tackling his later works of Perdido Street Station and The Scar, where he shows how much more he can accomplish. --- Reviewed by Patrick Shepherd (hyperpat)
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Summary: The best book ever
Review: I love the book and i hope that everyone gets a chance to read it sometime!!
Rating:
Summary: Better than Perdido!
Review: I loved Perdido Street Station and was expecting something similar from King Rat, but Mieville impressed me even more, for this is a small canvas story set in a very real and modern London. Full of atmosphere and images of the city. Wonderful characters. Maybe it's because I just finished it, but I think this is in many ways better than Perdido Street. This is definitely a writer who is destined to be amongst the very best of those writers who look to Mervyn Peake and M.John Harrison and others as their models. A deeper, darker and more substantial tradition than Tolkien. Read this before Perdido, if you can.
Rating:
Summary: Finally a book that delivers on the hype!
Review: I loved this book. I confess I don't know squat about Jungle but that's not the core of the story anyway - how many fans of Gone With The Wind understand or care about the ins and outs of the American Civil War? What I respond to is story, and this one is wonderful. I dislike reviews that reveal too much, so I'll refrain from detail, but I recommend this book VERY HIGHLY.
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Summary: Thought Provoking & Enjoyable Read
Review: I read the book in a short amount of time...The concept was interesting. I wish there was more.
Rating:
Summary: Duke Rat, at best
Review: I really wanted to like this book. I'd heard great things about Perdido Street, and the description sounded so interesting...I like urban fantasy, I like tight writing, and I like jungle, so perfect, right? So wrong. It's not that Mieville can't write -- he can. And the first few chapters were really good. But as soon as the plot began to develop, it because sadly predictable, leading to a disjointed "climax" I'd seen coming a mile off. Still, the worst part was the music. Other reviewers have charitably guessed that the drum &bass/jungle bits (of which there are many) are more interesting or make more sense if you like the music. Unfortunately, the opposite is true. If you appreciate or make drumn & bass, the musical passages come off as contrived, hysterical, and eye-rollingly embarassing. I'm sure he meant well, but jungle just isn't something you write about that way. Still, Mieville shows promise, so I'll read Perdido Street next.
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