The Soul Cages

by Nicole Givens Kurtz

As a slave in Valeks' soul cages, Sarah can neither taste, feel nor love. But her life is renewed once she escapes the cages and is reincarnated into flesh. She flees Valeks' tyranny, only to be ambushed at the Allerton Circle by Valeks' henchmen. Hope arrives, when a mysterious man saves her from recapture and takes her to Voloris. Within days, Sarah settles into her life in the Minister Knight of Souls Castle. Marion, her rescuer, tells her of the Oracles' predictions of a savior, one who will lead the knights to victory over Valek and restore peace to the warring planets of Earth 3012 and saturn Four. Will Sarah satisfy the Oracles' call for a savior or will she find herself back in the soul cages?

Genres: Science Fiction, Futuristic

336 pages, Paperback

First published November 15, 2002

About the author

Nicole Givens Kurtz is an author, editor, and educator. She's the recipient of the Ladies of Horror Grant (2021), the Horror Writers Association's Diversity Grant (2020) and the two-time Atomacon Palmetto Scribe Award Winner (2021 and 2022). She's also the editor of the groundbreaking anthology, SLAY: Stories of the Vampire Noire. She’s written for White Wolf, The Realm's The Vela: Salvation series, and Baen’s No Game for Knights and Straight Outta Tombstone. Nicole has over numerous short stories published as well as numerous novels and three active speculative mystery series. She enjoys reading scary stories and watching true crime.

Reviews

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

When we meet sisters Sarah and Amana, they are running for their lives, having just regained bodily form after years of imprisonment as souls only. In an exciting first chapter, they face down danger and are separated. Sarah is rescued by a Minister Knight, while Amana is recaptured and re-imprisoned. The rest of the book follows Sarah as she comes to understand who she is and what her role might be in the rescue of several worlds.

The book is full of fascinating ideas: portal travel between worlds, disembodiment of souls, distillation of souls into a mind-reading potion called Solance, political intrigue, romance, sibling rivalry, oracles, intriguing magical powers. In fact, with so many ideas to develop, the characterization wasn't as satisfying. I wished the book had been longer to allow for better relationship exploration and development of motivations.

While I felt the storytelling lagged a little in places, with slow pacing, it built to satisfying moments that were worth it in the end. I would definitely read more by this author.

[Katara Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah and her sister have been in a prison soul stealing planet for years. All she knows is she wants better for her and her sister so she sets out to escape. Little does she know that she is thrown into a war and she holds the key to ending it and all she wants to do is save her sister. In this dark fantasy world that is filled with twists and turns the reader is in for a wild ride of suspense, love, betrayal, and ultimately the power of one woman that can change 3 different worlds.

[Erin Penn]

Picked up as part of the Modern Magic pack - 12 paranormal novels, all first novels of a series. An awesome deal!

[Sam (Hissing Potatoes) · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book reads more like an early draft. Stilted writing, tense changes, misspellings/wrong word endings, and a ton of repetition. The concept is interesting, but the execution needs an editor.