A review by gengelcox
Rat by James Patrick Kelly

4.0

A cyberpunk story of a dystopian future where drug running feeds a growing population looking to tune in and check out. Rat, himself, is a genetically modified being—either an intelligent rodent or a human who’s modified himself to rat-like proportions. It doesn’t really matter, other than to understand that he can talk and yet is small and rat-sized, if on the larger scale (26-inches high if standing upright). He’s running some dust, a drug that induces ecstasy so well that its users basically burn out in a year and a half, and he’s got enough on him this run that he’s decided if he cuts out his middle-man, he’ll be set for life. But a Fed spots him, and things go haywire. It’s an interesting and extremely well-done example of the genre, but for all the world-building, didn’t leave me with anything other than the ugliness of the world, and I wanted something a bit more.