THE CORPSE-RAT KING - Lee Battersby

Marius don Hellespont may not be the most morally upright person, but his survival instinct is strong.  He and his apprentice, Gerd, are walking through a field of corpses, looting the fallen bodies, when Gerd accidentally informs the nearby soldiers as to he and his master's activities.

Marius is mistaken for the King of Scorby (the body that he just looted) and the a soldier (who also happens to be dead), takes Marius to the Kingdom of the Dead.

The dead, it seems, need a ruler and since Marius came in  place of the anticipated dead king, Marius is given one chance - to return to the land of the living and send a dead king back down to the Kingdom of the Dead, or return to the land of the dead and suffer for all eternity.

It wouldn't seem like much of a choice, but Marius tries to invoke another option ... run away! But we know you can't run away from death no matter how hard you try, and this sends Marius into a series of (sometimes amusing) incidents.

I liked the general concept of this book - it's definitely something right up my interest - but I found the book to be slow and I struggled to stay interested.  Some of this could definitely come from what I see as a despicable, low-life central character.

When a main character is insincere and really has no redeeming qualities to him, what drives the story?  Is it only plot driven and the character is nothing more than a means to get to the end of the plot? Even if that were so (and I don't think it is) there's no reason that the central figure shouldn't be appealing to the reader in some way.

What I expect with a character like Marius don Hellespont is that there will be a change in his character (think Scrooge) as a result of what he goes through in the course of the book. But we need to see the potential for change - some sign that there's promise - and we don't get that here. 

Looking for a good book? The Corpse-Rat King by Lee Battersby starts off well with a great premise and a fun opening sequence, but it quickly devolves and we're left with only some nice language and a character we don't care about.

I received a digital copy of this book from the publisher, through Netgalley, in exchange for an honest review.

2 stars

* * * * * *

The Corpse-Rat King

author: Lee Battersby

series: Marius don Hellespont #1

publisher: Angry Robot

ISBN: 0857662872

paperback, 410 pages

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