The Princes of the Golden Cage

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 show more 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! show less

Um. Sorry. This one did _not_ work for me. I like the premise - several of the premises, actually. The caged princes are interesting, Amir's tricks to look non-threatening are good, his refusal to believe in magic is - well, starts out interesting. However, a) the book is in first person (which is OK in itself) - you're behind Amir's eyes the whole time - but I never got a feeling of him as a person. He was a very talented puppet. And he changed attitudes way too easily - for half the book he refuses to believe in magic despite encountering spells in the first few pages, then suddenly he switches and starts not only believing in but understanding how to work magic. Hmmmph. And b) - ok, this sounds petty even to me, but it drove me show more _nuts_ while I was reading and it's what I remember best (worst?) about the book. The author has a lot of homonym misspellings (he was the only one to bare that name, the shear fabric of her dress, the sword was of fine steal), and it threw me out of the story every time. The same homonym frequently appeared several times in quick succession, too. Arrrggggh!!!!! I can handle (I notice, but can handle) typos and similar errors, but this one looked deliberate - I kept having to stop and think "Did she mean it? Is this a pun or some special phrase?...Nah." and by then I had fallen out of the story. Not a winner. show less

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 show more 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. show less

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, and there's a ton of spelling mistakes.

The characters 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 show more "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 debut novels aren't perfect. The Princes of the Golden Cage displays a great deal of creativity and imagination, and I 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.

Full review at ErrantDreams show less

Good book, and a quick read for me. Entertaining, though the writing could have been better, and a good deal of editing would have been a great help. The author had a tendency to use 'definitively' rather than 'definitely,' and there were a few other, similar problems which didn't ruin the book but were a minor annoyance. Still, the story was decent, and it moved well. There's a sequel, and from the excerpt in the back of this book it looks like I'll read it if I find it somewhere. I'm hoping that after writing this book, the author will have learned a bit more about word usage, or the editor will manage to catch those mistakes.

fair's fair, so I will say this: cohesive whodunnit plots are not a piece of cake to put together, and Mallet constructs a serviceable one here. There's a reasonable-sized chunk of readers for whom that's the alpha and the omega of what they're looking for in a light reading experience, and Mallet should do well with those readers.

I'm not one of them.

Mallet's writing, on the nitty-gritty level, is subpar. This was borne home upon me in full force when the main character views the Sultan's harem for the first time and uses the word "beauties" as a noun four times in half a page, although the repeated said-bookisms* had already alerted me to possible trouble ahead....

More...

Good book, and a quick read for me. Entertaining, though the writing could have been better, and a good deal of editing would have been a great help. The author had a tendency to use 'definitively' rather than 'definitely,' and there were a few other, similar problems which didn't ruin the book but were a minor annoyance. Still, the story was decent, and it moved well. There's a sequel, and from the excerpt in the back of this book it looks like I'll read it if I find it somewhere. I'm hoping that after writing this book, the author will have learned a bit more about word usage, or the editor will manage to catch those mistakes.