Cage of Souls

Adrian Tchaikovsky

2019

January, 2023

7/10

Chapter 16, a defining moment in the story and Stefan's life, was extremely anticlimactic. It just felt like such a silly way for things to happen. Unfortunately, this set the precedent for the rest of the book. Slowly, the story deteriorated into a sequence of events that simply happen, ever so serendipitously, as the dialogue became nothing but explanatory paragraphs wrapped in quotes. I also had a hard time building a mental image/model of the prison.

Additionally, the book was unbelievably shallow. The ending, I think, made some attempt at coming off as philosophical/thoughtful but just failed. Throughout the entire book, I heard the voice of Adrian Tchaikovsky. Not the characters.

This isn't to say the book was bad, however. The world building is some of the best I have ever read. The approach to the story was also excellent. There was a vast treasure trove of resources with which the book could have created a true one-of-a-kind masterpiece. Instead, a magnificent, beautiful world was created and left totally and utterly empty.

The characters' motives made no sense. The dialogue was flat and generic. Anything of interested was dangled before me, encouraging me to read on, only to never be mentioned in any significant way again.

The book was a page turner. It was good even if only because the world building was good. This makes it difficult to rate, but the world that was created deserves some kind of recognition. If not for this, the book would have been completely average.