Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic Mystery , September 4, 2007
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.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Rough around the edges, but well worth the read!, October 18, 2007
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.
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Fun Debut Novel, August 27, 2007
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.
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