The Corpse-Rat King
by Lee Battersby
fantasy
copyright 2012
read in March 2018
rated 9/10: really, really good
At the start I thought, Yuk, awful. But not awful enough to stop reading.
Then it turned out that the awful start was essential to the book. And it just kept on getting better and better.
There is tragedy and humour and action and some calm moments. It all fits together really well.
The hero -- the "corpse rat" of the title -- is a shifty, dishonest, self-centred type. Yet... You know how an anti-hero can have a final, climactic change of heart? Well, the corpse rat has a more realistic -- gradual -- development of a moral outlook.
Okay, he's never an honest, upright citizen. Yet he recognises -- gradually -- that his actions may have negative impacts on others... and he begins to regret those negative impacts.
The story wanders across various parts of the hero's world yet there is a logic to the wandering. The entire book seems to hang together quite well. Though the hero's offsider does seem to gain intelligence and philosophy when he is killed.
Killed? Don't ask. Just read the book. It is an excellent book.
Dr Nick Lethbridge / Consulting Dexitroboper
... Agamedes Consulting / Problems ? Solved
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"Il est bon que le cœur soit naïf et que l'esprit ne le soit pas." … Anatole France
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