THE RAT AND THE SERPENT

In Llewellyn's solid if unoriginal dark fantasy set in the Mideastern-flavored futuristic city of Mavrosopolis, Ugli, a crippled rat shaman, aims to rise above his station as a "nogoth," i.e., a street person, and to right the wrongs he sees in the sooty metropolis. While Ugli faces implacable foes, chiefly the serpent shaman Herpetzag, he can turn to such allies as his mentor, the old man Zveratu, and his mother, Astarta. Despite periodic visits by wraiths intoning solemn warnings of doom, Ugli overcomes one imaginative material or magical obstacle after another. (One of the city's labor groups, the Dessicators, removes surplus water from ruins, and Ugli devises a way of filling magic wands with tons of water and then rolling them into the sea.) Readers won't be surprised by the outcome of Ugli's final showdown with Herpetzag, as the plot follows a pattern familiar from a thousand folk tales and as many fantasy novels. In addition, some may wonder why Ugli is the first nogoth to devise a system of upward mobility. Still, the vividly depicted grim urban setting and numerous absorbing secondary characters keep the pages turning. (Feb.)

FYI: Llewellyn is the pseudonym of an established British author.