2008 Woodie Awards
Somewhere Over the Rainbow
King Rat
Cameron Summers
Issue date: 12/2/06 Section: Entertainment
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Last year, I wrote a review focusing on the British author China Miéville, who is the poster-boy for the "New Weird" literary movement, which seeks to blur genre lines. However, before he wrote in his constructed Bas-Lag setting, he had another book, entitled King Rat.
This novel is a stand alone example of urban fantasy, similar in many respects to the Anita Blake books reviewed by Brother Glenn in the last column, but whereas those books are about a heroine living in a fantastic world, King Rat goes into the experiences of Saul Garamond, an unlikely hero thrust into a dark and twisted world, existing just beyond the knowledge of most people.
This technique, referred to by certain critics as "wainscoting" has been used to great effect by the novelist Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere, American Gods) and also by Tim Powers (The Fault Lines series), John Crowley (Little, Big), and (arguably) J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter). It is the literary device that postulates that any number of fantastic occurrences take place on the peripheral of the real world, but most people are simply oblivious to them, for some reason or another. Wainscoting is almost always used with a main character that is unaware of the secret nature of the world.
The lead character in King Rat is a bachelor who lives with his father, and lacks many heroic characteristics, such as a commanding presence or any great degree of bravery. Saul is, purely, a victim of fate. As the narrative begins, he quickly finds himself charged with his father's grisly murder, and quickly begins to break down, emotionally.
But while he is locked in a holding cell in a London police station, a man appears before him, garbed as something between a Victorian aristocrat and a Cockney ruffian. His unlikely rescuer is a mysterious, inhuman character, King Rat.
King Rat quickly sneaks Saul out of the police station, pulling the young man to the roof of the building, and guides him across the gaps between buildings. During this escape, Saul is informed that he is the target of supernatural menace in London, The Pied Piper of Haemlin, a creature similar to King Rat, but far more dangerous. The Piper is capable of enchanting and killing any creature who can hear his music, be it man, rat, bird, or spider, but he can only control one sort of creature at a time. Immortal, inscrutable, and malicious, the piper is thought by Saul to be the murderer of his father, and for that reason, he agrees to assist King Rat and his fellow animal monarchs.
This novel is a stand alone example of urban fantasy, similar in many respects to the Anita Blake books reviewed by Brother Glenn in the last column, but whereas those books are about a heroine living in a fantastic world, King Rat goes into the experiences of Saul Garamond, an unlikely hero thrust into a dark and twisted world, existing just beyond the knowledge of most people.
This technique, referred to by certain critics as "wainscoting" has been used to great effect by the novelist Neil Gaiman (Neverwhere, American Gods) and also by Tim Powers (The Fault Lines series), John Crowley (Little, Big), and (arguably) J.K. Rowling (Harry Potter). It is the literary device that postulates that any number of fantastic occurrences take place on the peripheral of the real world, but most people are simply oblivious to them, for some reason or another. Wainscoting is almost always used with a main character that is unaware of the secret nature of the world.
The lead character in King Rat is a bachelor who lives with his father, and lacks many heroic characteristics, such as a commanding presence or any great degree of bravery. Saul is, purely, a victim of fate. As the narrative begins, he quickly finds himself charged with his father's grisly murder, and quickly begins to break down, emotionally.
But while he is locked in a holding cell in a London police station, a man appears before him, garbed as something between a Victorian aristocrat and a Cockney ruffian. His unlikely rescuer is a mysterious, inhuman character, King Rat.
King Rat quickly sneaks Saul out of the police station, pulling the young man to the roof of the building, and guides him across the gaps between buildings. During this escape, Saul is informed that he is the target of supernatural menace in London, The Pied Piper of Haemlin, a creature similar to King Rat, but far more dangerous. The Piper is capable of enchanting and killing any creature who can hear his music, be it man, rat, bird, or spider, but he can only control one sort of creature at a time. Immortal, inscrutable, and malicious, the piper is thought by Saul to be the murderer of his father, and for that reason, he agrees to assist King Rat and his fellow animal monarchs.
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