Customer Reviews

The Princes Of The Golden Cage

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

 

 

In a land where the many sons of the Sultan fear for their lives, Prince Amir and his brothers must live in a golden cage. But the fear of assassination comes from among the brothers themselves, until one of them is named Sultan in their father's place. As a mysterious death begins to attack the princes, one-by-one, in a way that seems to be magic in origin; Amir takes it upon himself to discover the source of these slayings.

Even though Amir tries not to draw much attention to himself, he is known to be a scholar and seemingly magical endeavors. Because of his interest in sciences that others don't understand, Amir also becomes a suspect in the murders. As he begins to form a friendship with his brother Erik, Amir soon learns that Erik has his own secrets.

The Princes of the Golden Cage is a fantastic mystery. And as the mystery dominates the story, I'd consider it more of a mystery than fantasy story. Though there are definitely elements of the fantastic with the magic-related deaths and supernatural monsters. With a good mystery, you need strong and vivid characters, which this story does not lack either. Prince Amir is relatable and likeable. And while other characters may also be likeable, Mallet does a great job keeping everyone seem a little suspicious. The final, climactic revelation is a superb whodunit with quite a few interesting surprises!

Fans of both mystery and fantasy will enjoy this exciting novel.

As I did truly enjoy this book, I'll get the rough stuff out of the way first. The pacing starts off overly slow and meandering, in my opinion. Either the author or the editor or both relied far too heavily on a word processor's spell-checker for the editing job; many words have been substituted for with not-quite-right words of similar spelling. Each one is minor, but it's frequent enough to be just a bit distracting. In a few cases it's also unintentionally hilarious.

The characters also have a tendency to be rather annoying, particularly at first. Amir sulks, stalks about, and rolls his eyes so much I wanted to smack him and give him a good talking to. I understand that most of these characters are young, but they grew up in a world that forced them to grow up quickly, and they seemed a bit childish for that. One of the side characters, Darius, one of Amir's brothers, was practically the most interesting character in the book but it never really delved into his life. The characters are also rather obtuse at points, in that "I need to draw out the plot so they'd best not figure X and Y out yet" kind of a way.

All that said, this book displays definite talent and imagination, and I do recommend reading it. This is Ms. Mallet's debut novel, and Tobias Buckell aside, debut novels aren't perfect. The Princes of the Golden Cage displays a great deal of creativity and imagination, and I very much look forward to seeing where Ms. Mallet goes from here!

The premise is highly unusual, and the author does a great job of exploring the wide range of effects such a situation might have on the people involved. The society built up around the harem and princes is highly complex and utterly fascinating.

The plot is enjoyable, with dark magic, demons, and curses slowly taking shape as the author shows us what at first seems to be an almost non-magical world. The characters do grow and learn, and Prince Amir does become more likable and less pouty as time goes on. The culture of Telfar is intriguing and richly detailed, pulling the reader in quite beautifully. Once I had gotten hooked after those first few chapters I could barely put the book down!

I know I didn't give this book top marks, but I do suggest that you look past that. For the first book in a new series by a brand-new author you expect things to be rough, and there's enough evident talent here that I have high hopes for the follow-on books.

I recently finished reading Nathalie Mallet's book The Princes of the Golden Cage that will come out from Night Shade Books later this month (August 2007). This is their first mass-market, and I think it's a great choice.

This book was given to me with great enthusiasm by Jeremy Lassen at Wiscon this past May. It took a while before I had the free time to read the book, but now that I have, I will say that I really enjoyed it.

And I think that's the point of it. It's a FUN book. It tells the story of Price Amir and his brothers, the princes of the golden cage that title comes from. Their father, the sultan, has his sons placed in a sequestered part of the palace. Every day a list of succession is updated and posted within the cage. The brothers constantly scheme against each other in an effort to attain the top of the list. Amir has worked to be invisible to his brothers so that he can study his books in private.

And then something starts killing the princes and Amir is enlisted to help find the killer due to his perceived knowledge of the dark arts. (Amir has a number of 'magical' books in his library) Now, not only is Amir in the public eye of his brothers, but just like them, he is in danger of this unknown killer.

Of course, to make things worse, one of his brothers (born from a foreign-born sultana) has a cousin who is betrothed to the next sultan and Amir falls in love with her. So while he should be keeping a watchful eye on the other princes as well as searching for the killer, Amir is distracted by this fair-skinned beauty from the north.

The book has some nice intrigues and sub plots, and a good number of twists and turns as Amir learns more about his brothers, the sultan, magic, and love. Amir is a good narrator for the reader; one who leads without pulling and experiences revelations around the same time the reader does. This book should appeal to anyone who likes smartly written character-driven fantasy. The exotic setting lends a further air of mystery to the book.

Now I read an advance copy of the book, and I'm very interested in seeing what the final version of the book looks like. The cover shown above is different from what was on the ARC, and I think it reflects the book and its audience better. This isn't the type of book I would normally pick up based on its cover, but having read it, I know that this book is one I would regret passing on. Don't miss it.

Last night, I really needed some escapist reading. A recent purchase of Natalie Mallet's novel, The Princes of the Golden Cage looked to be a good choice, harkening back to the heady days of the 1970's, and the rise of a new genre in fiction -- that of the sword-and-sorcery epic, where all the heroes were flashy swordsmen, the settings exotic, and magic being of the dire and deadly kind.

In the kingdom of Telfar, the sultan's many sons are kept in opulent imprisonment in a very gilded cage. They are allowed anything, from military training, books, even women, everything that is, but freedom. Even leaving the Cage, as it is called, can bring death. So the princes form plots, and alliances among themselves, wondering who will be the next Sultan and who will be dead.

The story is told from the point of view of Amir, a young princeling who has turned his hours to studying. Along with learning swordplay, Amir keeps a very healthy sense of paranoia about him, knowing that it's not unheard of for a prince to have an unfortunate accident or two. And Amir knows that he's a prime target. His rooms are located between two of his brothers, one who is mad and screams, and another who is mad and mumbles a lot. While Amir does his best to care for them both, he's not completely altrustic -- they make good watchdogs, creating quite a ruckus when someone unknown comes into their section of the Cage.

Lately, there's been quite a few new people showing up at Amir's door. Despite all of his care to stay unknown and safe, he is approached by the Grand Vizier to do some investigating. Seems that every time there's a full moon, a prince has turned up dead, killed by some unknown assailant. Whispers of magic are starting, and Amir thinks that it's all bosh -- there's no such thing as magic, at least according to his self-taught, scientific mind. But he can't exactly say no to the Vizier either, and so we follow Amir as he starts to explore the Cage a bit more, and discover his many, many brothers as well...

Especially Erik, a blond, blue-eyed brother in this desert kingdom, who not is only skilled and ambitious, but also downright friendly. Maybe just a bit too friendly, actually...

To be honest, I was prepared to see something rather trite and dull, another tired retread of a fantasy theme. But I was surprised at just how complex and funny this novel was. While I could recognize quite a few of the elements that were taken from the history of our own world -- the Cage system was used in the Ottoman Empire to keep fratricadal wars from breaking out, or forcing a new Sultan to have all of his brothers strangled -- there were enough twists and turns and plot to keep my interest engaged.


While there's not a lot of character development here beyond Amir and Erik, there is a lot of action. Plenty of slipping about in hidden passages, dueling that usually results in a prince or two being dead, and very visual descriptions keep the story moving at a decent clip, and while the action does get a bit rushed in places, it's not bad either.

What does make this interesting is that there are women involved as well. There's Livia, Erik's mother, who appears once a year to visit, and quite a plotter she is too, along with her servant Salima and the arrival of her niece, Eva, a princess who is destined to marry the next Sultan. As is usual with women in these sorts of books, all of them are clever and brave, with fast wits and plenty of sauciness to them. What works here is that the author is wise enough to let them have a bit of the action, and it does make the encounters that they have with the two princes both funny and a bit poignant.

How the real murderer and the mysterious deaths are solved is a bit contrived towards the end, but in the end, it works out well. A sequel, The King's Daughters is listed on Amazon, but indefinately delayed, and I suspect that I will be reading it eventually.

All in all, a good read, a wee bit predictable, but enough surprises to keep it from being an average read. Fine for an evening's entertainment, coming in at three and a half stars, rounded up to four stars overall. Recommended.

Overall, I enjoyed this quick read. It's classic mystery done well with a fantasy/ horror flare. The main character can get annoying and sometimes he definitely sounds like a sulky little girl, but the action is fairly well done and the plot twists are nicely executed. I agree with whoever just said that the characters are at times unnecessarily obtuse. I would have more bluntly put it: I hate when characters are just plain dumb.

There's hardly any characterization, but that's fine because the emphasis is mainly on the mystery. The author has a pretty smooth writing style. I'd be interested to know how middle-eastern readers would take this book, as it often strikes me as if it were written by a "western" woman who loved the culture but couldn't quite master how to capture it.

I'll probably read the sequel, but I hope they really put some effort into really editing that book. There are nearly a dozen simple grammatical errors and one continuity error, which strike me more as a self-published book bane than a professionally published work.

Here are some of the mistakes:
15 a flawless profile I was proud to bare.
17 "You don't mean with our scholarly brother, Amir!" (note: Amir was not the one being addressed here; this sentence is just plain odd. For the context it was going for, it would have been better suited to say: "You don't mean with our scholarly brother, Amir, do you?")
32 Hassan became silent and his attention turned ton his hands,...
37 "Before going any further, tell me your name," I asked,... (Note: There's no question here.)
78 lack there of
179 Another clue of its recent use was the unpleasant smell of brunt flesh lingering in the air.
217 I thought, my mistake "Shh," I made.
226 ... the blade sliced through the dark demon repetitively, sending puffs of smoke and a sulfuric smell in the air instead of blood. (Note: word choice... repeatedly might be better)
228 Rami walked strait to me.
252 ... baring the same name...
257 one can not steal what isn't there. (Note: this is an acceptable form of the word just not used that often.)
280 the venom in Mir's words was hard to bare.
283 By wearing loose clothing and spending most of my term locked inwith her, we thought I might hide my pregnancy.
290 While Mira and I will contend ourselves with watching you from a balcony with Salima.
(excerpt from next book) 312 ... was made of Telfarian steal, hence too good a quality...

Mallet has created a medieval Arabian setting reminiscent of the tales of Scherezade in the 1001 Arabian Nights. In fact, as the story is written, it could have been one. Amir relates the events from his own perspective, and the reader almost gets a sense of him relating the story of these events to us over a campfire years later. Mallet has a conversational style of writing that leads the reader to feel that Amir is talking to us, giving us the play by play of the narrative. This made the reading light and easy. Its first person perspective is a help, not a detriment, as it also allows Mallet to keep a sense of mystery in the story, as the reader only knows what Amir knows.

Nathalie Mallet provides several surprises and plot twists that I, an avid reader of both mysteries and fantasies, did not see coming. Yet she gave me all the clues I needed to solve the murders long before the solution was actually given. Her weaving of the clues into the story was well done. Fans of fantasy will enjoy the Arabian Nights feel of the story. If you have enjoyed the Dabir and Asim stories of Howard Andrew Jones you will like this tale as well. I highly recommend this debut adventure / mystery tale. The Princes of the Golden Cage is a well crafted and enjoyable story.

Amir is a young prince who has been confined to a 'cage' created by his polygamous father to contain his hundreds of male children. The cage is actually a bit of a death trap, because although all the boys are given everything they want, (except their freedom), the princes are ruthless about killing each other to achieve rank and to become the new heir. Factions develop and cliques involving the more popular brothers run the show.

Sadly, someone in this male harem is practicing evil magic and killing off the brothers one by one. Can scholarly Amir figure out who it is or is he destined to be next?

I found this story an entertaining read, but it had some weak points. Amir's personality sometimes annoyed me. At times his approach felt passive, and he cared too much for his own self-preservation that I found him less intriguing than Erik. Also he never really transitions out of caring only for himself in a satisfactory manner.This was exacerbated by the weak 'love at first sight' quality to the romance which made the character seem a bit juvenile. I also wasn't overly excited about the 'mystery.' It is hard to care if princes are murdered if Amir isn't overly excited about investigating it. More time was spent courting the princess and running around the palace trying to sight see. I did like Erik/Rafi and was more curious about them than the main character.I also liked the setting.

Still, I don't want to scare you away. The book was fast-paced and entertaining read. I sort of wonder what the author could do if the story had less of a young adult quality. Amir and Erik are intriguing. I have bought the next one to find out what happens next.

I purchased this based on a fantasy board recommendation, and checked Amazon for reviews as well. I'm utterly stunned at all these good reviews! Only one reviewer (on a different web site) saw the book as I saw it. While the plot has some good points, I've never seen such bad writing in my life. What were the editors thinking? Not only to publish this but to allow it to reach the public in this condition? And what is wrong with all the reviewers who gave it such good write-ups?

It's a grammatic mess. Striking examples of simple things that needed fixing: a robe embroidered with "leafs"; "knifes" on a table. The book is full of mistakes. People attempting to kill each other with swords is not "fencing." And describing a fight as a "pas de deux"--what is a 19thc. French ballet term doing in a pseudo-medieval Arabic kingdom? I read the book a few months ago and these are just the details that stand out. There are numerous other flaws, including tons of cliches and dull characters. The novel is full of redundancies galore and abounding and omnipresent... Sorry, Ms. Mallett, to be so blunt, but I truly don't get how this book made its way into print. I think the writer has talent as a plot-deviser--but she needs to do her homework: improve her writing, and do better research. But most importantly, why didn't the editors give her better guidance and, at the very least, decent top-editing?

I love this book! Somehow, Mallet has managed to combine mystery, romance, and fantasy into a world that is actually believable. The narrative form is a good choice for the author, too, because it truly allows the reader to get inside the thoughts of a character in a way no other style truly can. I cannot wait for the next title!

This was an impulse buy with a giftcard from the holidays, but one I'm happy about. The Arabian setting, even an Arabian inspired fantasy, was vastly interesting. Of course we always hear about the intrigues of the harem, its all women and whenever you put together such a large amount of women in a place dedicated to ambition and ruthlessness there is bound to be fun stories to relate, but I think Mallet's take on the all those Princes in line for the throne is equally entertaining. Just like in any socially dominant setting groups are formed, cliques are found and the 'in group' pushes around the 'out group'. Only in this instance it doesn't pay to be in either group quite frankly since anyone could be a rival for the throne. Amir's approach to just hiding, staying low and blending in works perfectly well.

The novel does begin slow and tends to follow threads of storyline for a little while before a new one begins and it follows that one instead. Sometimes it will go back to the previous storyline quickly, but often several chapters run by without significant development on the major plot threads. It wasn't much of a problem for myself, since I read this in one sitting in a four hour period of time, but I could feel the frustration that others might feel if they read a few chapters, put it down and returned to it the next night. Some of the threads became so confusing and convoluted that I ignored them in favor of the more interesting ones. Such as the intrigues between all the Brothers in the Cage or the mystery that surrounded Erik, Amir's half brother.

The book is told from Amir's first person POV and ordinarily I don't like reading from a male's point of view. I can't get into it as well I suppose. Amir however is different--his silent observations and caustic remarks were amusing and kept me from feeling like I was swimming in male territory. Though he is labeled as nineteen in the book, I can't quite believe that much of the time. He acts more like he's in his mid to late 20's. As a character he takes a while to 'like'; he prefers the 'head in the sand' approach to life and keeps to himself mostly. This wouldn't be so bad, except he spends a lot of time acting more like a child who's been left out of a group then a loner who thinks its a better idea to be such.

The friendship he builds with Erik is fun and a little quirky as Erik definitely is more intelligent and personable of the two, but has no common sense and a complete blind spot to failings of those he cares about. The intrigue surrounding their Brothers' suspiciously magical deaths only occasionally pops up--usually just before one such Brother dies--and its resolution is part of the confusing and convoluted plotlines I mentioned. It makes sense, mostly, but to get to that sense you have to wade through a lot of petty half-secrets and explanations.

The only other complaint I have is that sometimes the author would have Amir tell us what has happened rather then have us view it as its happening. The adventure that prompts the second book, The King's Daughters, for instance is merely relayed to us as a momentary aside instead of seeing how the decision came about. Regardless I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the second one (which I also bought for christmas) and hope to see a third one sometime soon!