The Twyning by Terence Blacker
This is the story of Efren, a young ratling born into the Court of
Tasting, in the kingdom of rats below the city.
The kingdom is in turmoil after the death of the old king, assassinated
by a human scientist, Dr Henry Ross-Gibbon. Obsessed by an ambition to
exterminate all rats, the doctor is assisted by Dogboy, an abandoned
thirteen-year-old with a gift for understanding animals.
Soon a war to the death rages between the rat kingdom and its mortal
enemy: humankind. Hurt and alone Efren finds shelter with Dogboy and his friend
Caz, a runaway eleven-year-old girl. And between these unlikely allies a spark
is ignited - first of communication than of hope.
Earlier this year I reviewed The Grim Company and The Rook for the
publisher Head of Zeus, and they kindly provided me with a copy of the The
Twyning saying that it wasn’t your average fantasy story. They are right. When
I first thought of a story about rats, I thought they would just make an
appearance in the storyline. Like so many other cases, I was proven wrong.
The story of the The Twyning is being followed from two perspectives
that alternate between chapters. The first perspective is from the little brown
critter Efren, who lives in the kingdom below the city and acts in the Court of
Tasters (he makes sure that the royalties food isn’t poisoned). The second
perspective is being followed for the eyes of Dogboy, who also goes by the name
of Peter, a thirteen-year-old street boy. What directly falls to notice in
these two perspectives is that the narration is being done from the first
person, so you really get to see and feel the thoughts and actions as Efren and
Peter think about them and carry them out. Furthermore this added a very lively
way of telling story and on top of it with the short alternating vision of each
character there was an even greater pacing to the book, as soon as I was drawn
into the story, it was already over before I knew it.
What you do normally see in many books that feature rats is that they
are always the cause of many problems. However in The Twyning the introduction
towards this is different. Owing to the rather crude way of the human scientist
Dr Henry Ross-Gibbon who has set his goals upon eradicating every single rat,
in order to achieve his goals he goes pretty far… Peter, one of the
point-of-views you follow is assisting Dr Henry Ross-Gibbon in collecting
specimens for his studies. But Peter has more than one job, he also workers for
the rat catcher, Bill Grubstaff, where they catch rats for pitted battles of
rats vs. dogs. It is by Peter’s actions and both Dr Henry Ross-Gibbon and Bill
Grubstaff that the war on the rats fully escalates. Amidst the human part of
The Twyning Peter does meet up with Caz a runaway girl, for who Peter cares a
lot. Caz does make up a few important parts of the story; it did felt like her
character was a bit misplaced in the middle of the book, leading up towards the
needed rescue of her. I would have liked to have seen more of her involvement
on the whole. As for Henry and Bill, I think there motivations were just right
and Peter was just a great first protagonist witnessing several events really
turned his character around.
As for the side of the rats, you follow young Taster Efren. What
directly felt to notice was the ambitious start of the kingdom below the city.
In the early chapters you get a complete picture of how the kingdom of rats is
put together with the different courts that all have their specific task in
maintaining the kingdom. Like the Court of Tasters, Warriors, Spies and much
more, with in it the end being ruled by a king. Next to this the way that the
rats commune with each other is not via normal talk, but rather via revelations
(a type of telepathy). With the current king is dying and puts the kingdom
below the city in a turmoil. And with a bit of similar idea to the storyline
featuring around Peter, Efren finds himself also in between parties, being
offered power from different sides but also finds himself venturing in the
dangerous world above where he has to fend off more than he thought. The part
of Efren, even though he is the smallest player of the book is biggest part.
Terence Blacker managed to portray in Efren quite the convincing rat for
leading and taking the story forward. This was especially shown after the first
hunt was completely where you get a great rallying of the rat kingdom achieved
by Efren.
Overall both these part worked together quite well, mainly so when both
Caz and Peter learn that they can do more than just talk to the rats. There are
still a few things that were just told to hastily and were perhaps shadowed in
the ambitious start-up of the novel. And that was the love aspect in the book,
you have Caz and Peter that care for each other and Efren and Malaika. Both are
in love just on the fly, and there isn’t any really build-up or true follow-up
of this, this did generate a bit of an empty part in the story, there was a
light point in all this with Peter putting everything in motion to rescue Caz
though.
The Twyning is a story hard to pin an audience too, it can work for both
young adults and adults alike. Some scenes of the books, like the bloody
vicious battle against the rats were more suited for an older audience,
contrasting this were that some of the dialogues were written on a much plainer
level aiming to a more younger audience. However this doesn’t take away that
The Twyning is a unique story told from two very interesting perspectives. It
is pretty much what I said about Deserst of Souls, these types of books fall a bit
outside the mainstream genres but a pleasure to read!