The first installment
of a blood-curdling trilogy, "The Rats" marked the explosion of
Herbert's literary career, introducing readers into his disquieting stories,
full of gore and rife with creepy scenes.
The plot is quite simple: London is
being attacked by hordes of apparently mutated black rats, much bigger (and hungrier) than common mice, far more
cunning and absolutely fearless. Their raids against the population are swift
and overwhelming, leaving their victims a few, awfully slim chances to survive.
People are panicking and the government is at a loose end. Harris, an art
teacher, is one of the few who's fought against these creatures coming out
unscathed, so he's recruited to help in the hopeless attempt of clearing the
city of the deadly vermin.
The book is rather short, weighing
in at no more than 200 pages, so it certainly lacks the complexity and the
strenght of a "standard" novel, in which you have time to enter up to
your neck into the story and to get in deep communion with the protagonists.
What we find here, instead, is a flurry of rather creepy chase scenes, ranging
from the first attacks of the rats against isolated human beings (panhandlers
or babies, for instance) to other, more complex situations where the battle involves
larger groups of people (you can't help shivering when you get to that subway
scene).
The characterization is peculiar:
more than once Herbert plunges deep into the life and background of a victim,
showing us aspects that you'd expect to fit comfortably in a bigger book. It is
a scheme that undoubtedly delivers more than a punch in your stomach since
you're driven close to the character, you symphatize with its feelings and
then, well…those things show up! The guy is as wicked as his creatures, that's
a fact! Harris is the main character and when he's in the heart of the action
the fun is guaranteed, even though I'm afraid his portrait is not so efficient
or memorable as I expected.
One last comment for Herbert's
style. The writing is linear and the prose is not in the least saddled by
embellishments of sorts. Good for those in search of a fast read where action
reigns, blood is mercilessly shed and sex nastily pops out; not your book if
you're currently under the spell of complex-plotted, hugely-characterized,
flourish-spangled works. 7 ˝ /10