(NOTE: I actually finished reading this book on April 28, but have been busy/distracted, and unable to finish this post until now.) I love mythologies. I love how they pour magic—real magic, with blood and smoke and sex and violence—into the world of they everyday. They remind us how animal and primitive and instinctual are the underpinnings of nearly everything we do. They are stories that show us our own, living, beating heart without flinching. So I’m always pleased to see a new (to me), well-crafted mythology. As I have said before, when discussing Terry Pratchett’s The Color of Magic, I am not a dedicated fan of fantasy literature. But I will go out of my way to find good contemporary urban fantasy, something that puts the modern city at the heart of a fantastic tale, something like Neil Gaiman’s Neverwhere, or now China Miéville’s King Rat.
King Rat is pretty obviously a first novel, but here I think it’s a strength; while the style is a bit rough, Miéville doesn’t seem to be encumbered by any preconceived notions of what can and cannot be done in this type of fiction. King Rat draws heavily from folklore (the Pied Piper of Hamelin, and Anansi the spider, for example) but it never quite gives up its unique point of view or surrenders to the mundane. I will say that the deeper I thought about the book the more simple questions I had (where did these supernatural characters come from? What sort of society do they have, how come they look human, etc? How do they live their day to day lives?), but those are mostly questions of a reader used to realist fiction, and they are out of place in a sympathetic reading of this book. (That I cannot refrain from asking such questions is probably the biggest reason that I am not a dedicated reader of fantasy and science fiction, and also why I have never written a successful piece in either genre.) It was rollicking good fun. I was particularly pleased with how Miéville handled the drum and bass elements of the novel. Very few writers can do anything worthwhile with music, but he was quite successful at capturing the feel of the music and the drum and bass subculture.
Next, Perdido Street Station, also by China Miéville.
