Customer Reviews

The Cage (Baen fantasy)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I will pay "The Cage" the following left-handed compliment: it is considerably better than what you would expect from a book where the front cover shows a tall blonde in a chain-maille bikini and the back cover contains the phrase "...and left her with a thirst that only vengeance can slake." The story opens with the improbably named Megan Thanesdoom returning home to claim her trading company, two years after being betrayed and sold into slavery by her former subordinate Habuki. The rest of the novel sees Megan and her gal pal Sh'Kaira heading north along the river, fighting battles and gathering allies as they prepare for the final showdown with Habuki.

As I said, it's not quite as bad as it sounds. The characters have real life, and Megan and Sh'Kaira in particular have unforgettable inner fire. We see psychological realism here, far more than you normally expect from this type of book. Megan struggles with the contending forces within her head; her all-consuming drive for revenge eventually pushes away all of her friends. The pacing is good, and the world-building is also above average. No standard fantasy fare here, as each city that the crew visits has a unique geography and social scene. The battle scenes are so-so. Some are genuinely exciting while others drag on for too long. Lastly, the lesbian sex scenes do not disappoint.

The downside is in the writing, where the authors make a number of juvenile mistakes. First of all, clumsiness with the pronouns. The sentences and paragraphs get so jumbled that frequently you can't tell who is doing what. Secondly, the authors can't just refer to characters by their names. Megan, for instance, is alternately called "Megan", "Thanesdoom", "the captain", "the owner", "the Kommisat" and several others, often all within the same paragraph. Confusion reigns, and it takes longer than it should to sort out who's who. Finally the editing mistakes. Spelling errors, grammar errors. Get an editor already!

_The Cage_ is one of the best works of sf/fantasy written in the past two decades. It is a tragedy for the genre that there aren't more novels like this one being written these days. Like the rest of the Fifth Millennium series (Mr. Stirling, Ms. Meyer, Ms. Wehrstein, if you're reading this, won't you please think about writing a few more for us?), it is set in a brilliantly crafted future world which sets itself apart from the usual run of post-destruction-of-current- civilisation settings by not being a cheap copy of the Middle Ages with a few odd bits of anachronistic technology floating about. Instead, there are many carefully thought out cultures, complete with their own languages. Language, after all, is necessary to completely developing a culture, and, despite what some irritating people seem to think, there are many people (especially three thousand years in the future:-) who really don't speak twentieth century English. And, BTW, all the languages of the novel are perfectly pronounceable. People who don't like created languages (especially the beautiful developments of Stirling and Meyer) really shouldn't read SF. Or would such people perhaps prefer the atrocious attempts of certain past authors to represent the language of post-nuclear America with strange phonetic renderings of Southron speech? I'll take Brahvniki over the Duchy of Memfiz any day.

The book has a well developed plot, and does well creating a medieval setting with all of its customs, vices, evils, and treachery. The book would have been better except for two failings, it is apparently part of a continuing series and does not have a synopsis of what has gone before, and the authors fall into the habit of many science fiction/ fantasy writers of trying to create a new language. In this case, the authors have created a language with names that cannot be pronounced. It adds difficulty in reading when one continually runs into names of people or places that look like bltzpk'n.

I have to preface this by saying that I much preferred the prequel, "Saber and Shadow", to this story. I've had that book for over 10 years now, and I've read it at least 4 or 5 times since I bought it. In comparison, I bought this book and received it less than a week ago, and I really can't see myself coming back to it again.

It's fairly entertaining, and--as with "Saber and Shadow"--the world the authors have crafted is nicely detailed, each locale providing its own distinct and unique flavour, but nevertheless, the individual pieces of the plot just didn't gel for me.

Some of it may be the fact that my only grounding in this realm is "Saber and Shadow". I have not read any of Meier's individual novels and--as it's my understanding that the events of this novel take place in her part of the Fifth Millennium world--I suspect that this has left me unprepared to grasp the true meaning and ramifications of events that occur in "The Cage". For example, what's the deal with the Dragon Lord? And what about the Ri? Why is it that only Ryadn can tame them? What exactly does it mean to tame a Ri?

That said, however, I had no grounding in this world at all when I read "Saber and Shadow", and the gorgeous execution of that plot required no explanation at all. For me, at least, the plot of "The Cage" just didn't hang together properly.

Even given the irrationality inherent in obsession and hatred, the main antagonist's motivations seemed shallow and weak, lacking the strength to drive the plot with any conviction.

Megan, who felt marvelously three-dimensional and complex in "Saber and Shadow", spent the majority of this novel wallowing in her own obsession, reduced to a caricature of the hard-done-by heroine and provoking precious little sympathy in me. Even with Shka'ira--arguably the one character in this novel to provoke any real display of personality from Megan--Megan's reactions and interactions were strained and disjointed, less, it felt, from her "thirst for vengeance", than from some fundamental lack of chemistry and connection. Hard to believe from two characters whose dynamic had fairly leapt off the page in the city of Fehinna.

With regard to that dynamic, I found Shyll and Rilla to be tedious and annoying complications to a relationship I was quite satisfied with as is. I, personally, would probably have cheered if Shka'ira had gotten the chance to knock the living daylights out of Shyll at one point or another.

To top it all off, while I found Hotblood quite entertaining--particularly in seeing Shka'ira having to deal with the same behaviour that so disconcerts others in herself--I'm niggled by the sense of the common author's mistake, of giving their beloved main character too much. That niggle is an outright scream when it comes to Megan's "gift", which provided no entertainment and was simply annoying.

To conclude, I can't say I hated this novel, but if this is an example of the writing I can expect in the sequel ("Shadow's Son"), I'm struggling with whether I want to hazard buying it or not.

Without a doubt the best fantasy book I have ever read. "The Cage" is wonderfully exciting, sweeping the reader into a world of danger and adventure. The characters are deep and very human, each utterly alive and unique. The chilling tale will open passageways into your imagination...

He stole her life she had built up from nothing and sold her to slavery thinking she was gone forever. Now she is back to destroy her worst enemy that caused her unbearable pain. He had stole her friends, house, money and everything she had every worked for and cared about, but he gave her something no one could ever take away inless she eased it. Revenge. Now Habiku Smoothtongue will feel the stress that he had given to Megan. He will pay....................

"The Cage" ranks among the best novels I've read, ever, but rather than explaining why, I'll simply point out that I'm not the only one who thinks so:

Eric S. Raymond (programmer, Open Source evangelist) is also a major SF fan, and he reviewed "The Cage" back in 1990. His conclusion: "The Cage is strong stuff -- and strongly recommended."