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Cage of Souls

Adrian Tchaikovsky (Goodreads Author)

4.09 · Rating details · 2,891 ratings · 300 reviews

The Sun is bloated, diseased, dying perhaps. Beneath its baneful light, Shadrapar, last of all cities, harbours fewer than 100,000 human souls. Built on the ruins of countless civilisations, surviving on the debris of its long-dead progenitors, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity.

Bearing witness to the despera ...more

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Hardcover, 602 pages

Published April 4th 2019 by Head of Zeus

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Average rating 4.09 ·

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· 2,891 ratings · 300 reviews

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May 12, 2019 Justine rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2019-read, favourites-2019

4.5 stars

This book is hard to describe, much less define. Incredibly dense, every page packed with ideas, imagination, and extraordinarily literate prose. I'm continually impressed with how different the narrative voice is in every piece Tchaikovsky writes.

Written in the style of a literary memoir, Cage of Souls narrates the tale of Stefan Advani. Advani styles himself an academic, and his survival of a harsh prison, a dangerous jungle, and an unforgiving city is achieved more through the genero ...more

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Mar 19, 2019 André Oliveira rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, sci-fi

2.5*

Right in the middle.

oh my god, finally! Is this a bad book? I wouldn't say so.

This book was one of my anticipated books of 2019 and I am disappointed.
After reading Children of Time (one of my favourites) and Dogs of War, I was really looking forward to read this book. I even pre-ordered it.

Let's talk about the plot and the overall story (no spoilers, obviously).
The idea for this story is so interesting: The sun is dying and humans are living in the last known city, Shadrapar. We start the b ...more

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May 12, 2019 Lindsay rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, fantasy

This author's take on the dying Earth makes for a beautifully written and wildly inventive story that owes much to what has gone before including the Viriconium books, the works of Jack Vance, Gene Wolfe and even a touch of Michael Moorcock.

Stefan Advani is a scholar with a rich history in the city of Shadrapur, the last city. The Sun is dying and the Earth has grown strange with forgotten technology, inscrutable super-intelligences and rampant evolution. We pick up Stefan's story after he's bee ...more

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Sep 23, 2019 Gabi rated it it was amazing

Aug 2020: read for the second time. This time I listened to the audiobook which I enjoyed a lot. I am as fascinated by this terrific story as I was the first time. And since my memory is simply horrible, I didn't remember who's to live and who's to die. Therefore the final showdown was as nail biting as the first time. (at least one good thing about a bad memory)

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I hereby declare Adrian Tchaikovsky as (one of?) my favourite contemporary SF author.

Th Aug 2020: read for the second time. This time I listened to the audiobook which I enjoyed a lot. I am as fascinated by this terrific story as I was the first time. And since my memory is simply horrible, I didn't remember who's to live and who's to die. Therefore the final showdown was as nail biting as the first time. (at least one good thing about a bad memory)

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I hereby declare Adrian Tchaikovsky as (one of?) my favourite contemporary SF author.

There was so much I loved in this narration from the end of civilisation (at least what humans define as civilisation).

The story is told in first person as journal entries and the narrator tears down the fourth wall. With this the reader is more involved into the going-ons while the tone of the entries feels a bit like the musings of a Victorian writer and therefore adds a rather pleasant whiff of Steampunk.

The timeline of the entries switches between the narrative now and events that led to the current situation, thus giving more insight in the state of human civilisation in the one leftover city when the sun burns out.

The buildup is slow, dedicated to details which, though not all important to the plot, make for a worldbuilding that is simultanously palpable and believable. Readers who like a bit more action might get bored by the slow burning of the story, yet I was all there for it. It never meanders, but it leaves things unspoken and unexplored. We have to think for ourselves at times.

Stefan Advani is a brilliant main character. He is not better than others, he is not braver than others, he is not some chosen one. As he describes it himself, he just had the luck that there were some Stefan-shaped holes when the goings got tough. A normal human being who's flawed and cowardly at times. This was such a relief to read after too many 'hero'types I had to endure in my last reads.
The 'heroes' are rather the sidecharacters that group around him. All of them described in a relatable and sympathetic manner.

One of Tchaikovsky's strengths is his take on evolution and again he shines with this in Cage of Souls. The descriptions of the fauna in this faraway future were masterfully done. I could have stayed there in the swamp a lot longer (well … as observer that is … other than that it sounds too dangerous).

And not to forget: this is a standalone! Authors who bring their ideas across without needing several 600+ pages volumes are most welcome on my reading shelves.

Cage of Souls was a through and through satisfying read for me. Now I really have to have a look at Tchaikovsky's Fantasy novels. ...more

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Jul 01, 2019 Kaitlin rated it liked it

This one was a weird read for me because it's standalone fantasy and often I find I enjoy series more. However, I picked this up as it's by Tchaikovsky who is one of my favourite authors, and I am very glad to have read it even though this particular book isn't my favourite by him. This story actually reminded me a little bit, at different times, of a fantasy of manners story, and also of the Tower of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft. I have to admit that I liked the Babel series more than this, This one was a weird read for me because it's standalone fantasy and often I find I enjoy series more. However, I picked this up as it's by Tchaikovsky who is one of my favourite authors, and I am very glad to have read it even though this particular book isn't my favourite by him. This story actually reminded me a little bit, at different times, of a fantasy of manners story, and also of the Tower of Babel series by Josiah Bancroft. I have to admit that I liked the Babel series more than this, but some of the ideas and the tone of writing in this reminded me at times of the odd unique-ness of that series too.

This story starts in a dying Earth far in the future where there is just one city left called Shadrapur. We follow a young man called Stefan Advani as he recounts his life and the troubles that Shadrapur has been going through. He's a fairly average character in terms of his adventures and it kind of seems that life happens to him and he is just being swept along for the journey. He's not a particularly likeable character or unlikeable, but he's also not someone who I think sticks in my memory. He's just the voice to tell the story of this dying world.

There is a prison island which features largely in the story and where there is jungle and overgrown landscape there are also odd creatures and beings. I have to say whenever the prisoners explored the island I was fascinated and many of the scenes which took place out there were the most interesting to me.

There is also a fair amount of politics being discussed in this title by Stefan and he shows us that when the world is dying and people are trying to survive ruthlessness, brutality and strength are tested. Many scenes on the island are gruelling and hard, and much of Stefan's account dwells back on to his better days in Shadrapur when he worked and had friends and a mission.

Overall, there are some fascinating ideas and some really good moments, and I think it does look at a planet in crisis, but I personally preferred the tone in some of Tchaikovsky's other titles and Children of Time remains on top for a planet-on-the-brink story by him (at least in my mind). 3*s for this one. ...more

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Jan 24, 2019 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Awesome. Basically an epic Dungeons and Dragons scenario about climate change in the extreme far future? I would also describe it as China Mieville but without the big wanky words.

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Feb 22, 2020 Renee Godding rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2019-releases, renée-recommends

4.5/5 stars

This was great! Wonderful worldbuilding, interesting and distinct protagonist and a plot that kept me engaged from start to finish. I highly recommend the audiobook for this one: the narrator does a phenomenal job of voicing the characters in a way that brings their personalities to life even more, making for an even greater experience than this already was.
I’ll be sure to pick up more of Tchaikovsky’s work in the near future.

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Aug 24, 2020 Eva rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favorites, five-stars, tomes-2020, 10-stars-for-me

Brilliant! How in the world did this not win the Hugo and Nebula last year?! It has everything you could possibly want in a novel, even great literary merit. I think I've found a new writer whose entire oeuvre I'm going to read.

This story takes place in a dark and distant future in which the Earth is so messed up that only a single city remains, surrounded by fecund jungle teeming with new (and often intelligent) life forms. The story is told a bit in the style of a Dickens novel by a scholar w ...more

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Aug 29, 2020 ✰ Aileen ✰ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: e-book, dystopian-and-scifi

I don't know what to say except that this book is amazing. ...more

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May 25, 2019 Lata rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy, x2019-read

Adrian Tchaikovsky's Cage of Souls reminded me strongly of a 19th century exploration and adventure story from its opening pages. What was actually within its pages was a bleak and rather horrifying far future on earth, where humans live in the city of Shadrapur. It's a very long time from now, and Shadrapur is built upon countless other cities. The humans of Shadrapur have lost so much knowledge over the ages; many cannot read, and are confounded by what technology they do have; also, Shadrapur Adrian Tchaikovsky's Cage of Souls reminded me strongly of a 19th century exploration and adventure story from its opening pages. What was actually within its pages was a bleak and rather horrifying far future on earth, where humans live in the city of Shadrapur. It's a very long time from now, and Shadrapur is built upon countless other cities. The humans of Shadrapur have lost so much knowledge over the ages; many cannot read, and are confounded by what technology they do have; also, Shadrapur seems like an almost police state.
This far future earth's environment is seriously messed up; the city is beside a desert, which is next to a dead ocean. Also, the sun is dying.
Main character Stefan Advani is on his way to an island prison at the story's open, for some crime yet to be revealed to the reader. The island prison is located within a jungle some days away by river from Shadrapur. There are a variety of terrifying creatures living in the river; the journey there, though frightening, is actually pleasant compared to the prison and its tyrannical Marshall, who kills without warning to enforce his control over the prisoners. Stefan quickly makes the acquaintance of an interesting set of individuals from Shadrapur in the cells, sent to the prison for a variety of crimes, including for political reasons.
The prison is, of course, horrible, and Stefan gets himself into trouble with the Marshall and with various wardens, and is only kept alive by the prison's Governor because Stefan can read, and can therefore translate the writings of a vanished explorer, Trethowen.
Tchaikovsky's story moves along well, and though things just seem to keep getting worse and worse for Stefan, I found the prison, where most of the story's action takes place, oddly fascinating. And the strangeness of the creatures living in the jungle, coupled with a constant sense of dread.
Stefan gradually reveals his past, both as a student at school, then later his time with a small group of friends that the government deems revolutionary, and finally, his stint in Shadrapur's Underworld, before being captured and sent to prison. The Underworld is amazing, and with its factions and ideologies, the exploratory missions people went on, moving downwards through the detritus of earlier peoples, and the truly scary creatures living down through the many layers could fill a whole book on its own.
(view spoiler)
Though this isn't connected to his other stories, I found it impossible not to imagine, like a few others, that this earth was the earth left behind by the generation ship of Children of Time.
Though a long book, this was a terrific read with so much happening in it, and really interesting setting and characters. I really enjoyed this book. ...more

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Jul 01, 2019 Kayli rated it it was amazing

Cage of souls is a dark and hypnotic sci-fi story with a strong eco message. It is set on a future and failing Earth, which is suffering as the sun is dying. The world building is fantastic, depicting an ecology outside of the last remaining city that has evolved in terrifying and threatening ways. The city itself is populated by people who remain within its walls, having given up on the natural world and are too preoccupied with status, materialism and exhausting the last of the Earth's resourc ...more

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Jun 29, 2019 SAM rated it really liked it

Shelves: science-fiction-etc, 2019

I consider this a very apt book just as the temperature of the earth increases year on year and that I read most of this during the 'Sahara Bubble', which scorched many parts of Europe this past week. I am grateful for the UK's weather system as it was subjected to just one day of 30 degree heat this past Saturday whilst parts of France reached a terrifying 45. Cage of Souls is set an unspecified amount of time in the earths future when most of the population has been wiped out. The cause is nev I consider this a very apt book just as the temperature of the earth increases year on year and that I read most of this during the 'Sahara Bubble', which scorched many parts of Europe this past week. I am grateful for the UK's weather system as it was subjected to just one day of 30 degree heat this past Saturday whilst parts of France reached a terrifying 45. Cage of Souls is set an unspecified amount of time in the earths future when most of the population has been wiped out. The cause is never fully explained with only a few vague references to the past but clearly climate change was the catalyst. The sun is also on the decline with no clear time frame of how long it has.

Shadrapar is civilsations last remaining city with a 100,000 occupants surrounded by uninhabitable deserts, jungle and freakish monsters. Nature has reclaimed Earth and the humans are playing piggy in the middle holding onto the last vestiges of humankind. Despite the frailty of the world there's still a government who send people to prison. Dubbed 'The Island' it is home to a couple of thousand law breakers with no hope of ever leaving. It's a rank sounding place surrounded by creature infested waters and a dangerous jungle. Stefan Advani is our main protagonist sent to 'The Island' to live out his last days in Hell. He meets many bizarre and violent characters and gradually recounts his story of how he ended up in prison.

This is a damn good book. It's well written with prose full of philosophical thoughts and environmental descriptions that will delay any treks into the Amazon; it is a brutal future depicted to us by the author. Shadrapar reminded me of Ankh Morpork from the Discword series with its corruption and claustrophobic setting. The pacing is bang on with parts alternating between the prison and Stefan's time in Shadrapur. They're also a few references to the past, which is a nice touch. The last third isn't as strong as what came before but the ending was just so fitting i couldn't help but smile when i realised where the story was going. Absolute class. ...more

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Aug 16, 2020 Oleksandr Zholud rated it liked it · review of another edition

This is a SF novel, with some fantasy flavor. Set in a far-future Earth, compacted to a single city Shadrapur and we follow the memoir of Stefan Advani, who describes in 19th century adventure fashion his past and present. I read is as a part of monthly reading for August 2020 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.

First of all, a have to admit, I like works by Adrian Tchaikovsky, so my review is biased, but in two ways simultaneously: I liked this novel less than Children of Time or Dogs This is a SF novel, with some fantasy flavor. Set in a far-future Earth, compacted to a single city Shadrapur and we follow the memoir of Stefan Advani, who describes in 19th century adventure fashion his past and present. I read is as a part of monthly reading for August 2020 at SFF Hot from Printers: New Releases group.

First of all, a have to admit, I like works by Adrian Tchaikovsky, so my review is biased, but in two ways simultaneously: I liked this novel less than Children of Time or Dogs of War, but I grew in my awe regarding author’s ability to emulate completely different writing styles. There is definitely a feel of Michael Moorcock, and as others note (I’m yet to read their visions of Dying Earth) of Gene Wolfe and Jack Vance.

The book starts with Advani, who styles himself as a scientist from an ancient but poor family, who recently fall into trouble so bad that ended up on a ship that moves him (and many others) through the jungles toward a prison called the Island, from which no one returns. He is not a man of the action, quite the opposite, often he freezes with fear as something dangerous happens. At the same time, he regularly mocks himself in his memoirs and stepping aside we can see that he is a smarter and more courageous man than he admits to himself.

About fantasy element: while we see glimpses of high technology from the past, a lot of discussed stuff has elements far from the science as we now know it, e.g. evolution is rampant, takes years and not millions of years; a fear of dying Sun, the process too long to care; some version of Gaia, a sentient mother nature…

A large share of the story happens in the prison and it is not a pleasant site. While less brutal that say asteroid prison in Jack Glass, it is still a gloomy place with not a lot of hope. Flora an fauna that encircles the characters is often bizarre or intentionally horrific and I ain’t a fan of horrors, so this was a minus for me.

The cast of characters as well as the story, including memories of the time before incarceration is quite long and while it is well-written, I’d prefer a shorter story with less sidelines. All in all I liked his harder SF more

“It was all in vain, of course, the machines, the boats and vessels and birds and devices that were thrown up into the night sky,” he murmured. “For the stars are very far away, and however fast our machines carried us, it was not fast enough. The gaps between stars are so great that nothing can cross them quickly, not even light, which is fastest of all. We never found a way to skip between the stars, to meet the people we were sure awaited us there. That broke the back of our optimism. The spirit of man was crushed by the distances between the stars.”
...more

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Jan 27, 2020 Olivier Delaye rated it liked it

Ok so I am finally done with this book, and of two minds about it. First of all, the fact that it took me so long to read it can only mean one thing: I was not into it enough to stay focused and rabidly turn the pages. However, the fact that I pushed through and wanted to know how the story would end bears undeniable testament to Tchaikovsky’s skills as an author. Indeed, despite my wanting to DNF it, Cage of Souls never let me go and kept piquing my curiosity chapter after chapter. Now, to be c ...more

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Oct 06, 2019 Peter rated it it was ok

There are usually two ways of moving the plot forward: either the focus is on the story and the events that happen or you let the characters lead the way and hook the reader on their personal journey. This book did neither. A bunch of random stuff happens, but it's all a disjointed mess with only a thin narrative thread between it all. There was no clear goal or destination at any point in the book. There was also very little from a character point of view. Even though the story is told through There are usually two ways of moving the plot forward: either the focus is on the story and the events that happen or you let the characters lead the way and hook the reader on their personal journey. This book did neither. A bunch of random stuff happens, but it's all a disjointed mess with only a thin narrative thread between it all. There was no clear goal or destination at any point in the book. There was also very little from a character point of view. Even though the story is told through a first-person perspective, the protagonist doesn't get developed much and there's not much reason to care about him anyway. Most of the interesting stuff happens around him and to others, meaning a vast majority of this book is told to us, instead of being shown the action take place.

I'd argue that this is a world-driven book. There were so many interesting ideas and concepts thrown around, but none were ever really explored in the story other than as a setting or background information. Each section of the book delved into different aspects of the world and the weak story elements seemed to only exist to flesh those out. Sure, you got to learn about the protagonist a bit as well, but there was so little depth to him, that I honestly didn't care. It also didn't help that he was repeatedly hurt with absolutely no long term consequences, that there was no need to worry about him when a dangerous situation came up.

I think the writing was decent, but unfortunately, I did the audiobook version where the narrator was absolutely awful. Over the top inflections and grating voices made it even harder to stay engaged with the already unengaging story. There were a few scenes that piqued my interest, especially those where there seemed to be some consequences, but those were unfortunately very rare. The secondary characters were poorly thought out and most came across as ridiculous tropes that never felt believable. The pacing was also glacial which just made it that much harder to stick with it to the end. I definitely considered giving up a number of times.

This is probably more of a 1.5 star that I'm rounding up thanks to some great ideas that only got partially explored. Everything else about this book didn't work for me. It almost seemed like a first draft with its lack of a cohesive story and flat characters. There really isn't anyone I'd recommend this to. It's got fantasy and sci-fi elements, but it fails in both genres simply from a storytelling perspective. It's got very little character and the few redeeming qualities aren't enough to justify the 600-page slog.

...more

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Dec 13, 2020 Di Maitland rated it it was amazing

Shelves: exploration, future, humorous, standalone, magical-realism, place-is-character, post-apocalypse, dystopia, audiobook, non-humans

‘I have made my mark on history in a series of Stefan-shaped holes and lived to write this account. At the same time, this not the account of a reliable witness, only the speculations of a man who was not there.'

4.5*s. This book was so rich and luscious that it positively oozed out of the pages. Weird and funny and creative and compelling, I’ve never read anything like it and can only hope that I do again.

Earth is in it’s final years and the remnants of humanity resides in one, final city: Shadrapar. Stefan Advani, Shadrapan resident and Academy scholar, is on his way to the Island, a floating, jungle prison to the east of the city. There, he expects to die. Despite sadistic Marshalls, deranged cell mates, aquatic monsters and tropical disease, Stefan does not die. Instead, he tells us his story: of life on the Island and the friends he makes there; of his time at the Academy and the reason for his conviction; of the underworld; and of the dregs of human civilisation. It is a strangely hopeful tale in a rather hopeless world.

It is ironic that, in a world where animals are considered abhorrent and humans faces extinction, there should be quite so much life.

‘Wherever there was nothing to be seen, there was the suggestion of life: a sound, a movement. The trees thronged with unseen man-eaters.'

Evolution has accelerated and humans are no longer the only intelligent creatures out there, nor are all of those creatures entirely natural. Through Stefan, we commune with web children and macathars, cyborgs and time-travellers, genetic experiments and those who desperately seek to experiment on themselves. And then there’s the venomous snakes, the poisonous spiders, the river beasts and all number of other terrifying creatures to keep you up at night.

Whilst a good portion of the book is spent on the Island and in the surrounding jungle, we also see deserts and ruins, bustling cities and the endless, forgotten warrens of the its underbelly. Each reminded me a little of other of other settings in other books: the jungles, Annihilation; the deserts, Dune; and the underbelly, The Girl and the Stars. However, nothing quite encompasses the whole of Tchaikovsky’s creation and I delighted in each new setting.

Stefan Advani, self-professed coward, is an oddly likeable character. He’s kind and accepting, but not a mark; hopeful, but not delusional; unfazed but not callous. He’s talented enough to be useful without being brilliant, and, more than anything else, he’s damn lucky, dodging death again and again by the skin of his teeth. He seems to attract friends almost in spite of himself and they’re a delightfully weird and wonderful bunch. My favourites had to be Shon and Peter, even if the latter cheated at chess.

Told in a chatty style, Stefan narrates his story to us, helpfully signposting the parts that he knows, with hindsight, are important.

'If Thelwel looked like anything, it was a junior librarian. He will have a particularly important part to play in my story and he had an unusual secret, which I will eventually share with you. But when I first met him, it was only in passing.'

I initially found this uncomfortable, and the narration by David Thorpe equally uncomfortable, but, quite quickly, I grew to rather enjoy and then love it and him. Unlike the usual sci-fi/fantasy (and it does feel like a blend of the two genres), Cage of Souls does not set a challenge to start that the protagonist must then overcome (well I guess it does but that didn’t feel like the primary purpose of the story). Instead, it felt like a biography, if a fantastical and action-packed one.

The reason that I didn’t give the book five stars was the ending. I didn’t like it. I wasn’t interested, I didn’t feel invested, and I didn’t felt it fit with the rest of the story. It wasn’t awful, it just could have been better. Fortunately, because of the pseudo-biographical structure of the book, the ending was relatively unimportant (and short besides), so it didn’t feel like much of a let down.

All in all, I loved Cage of Souls and would recommend it highly to sci-fi/fantasy lovers (and more selectively to those not so enamoured with the genre). I will certainly be reading more Tchaikovsky in the future. ...more

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Aug 15, 2020 Antti Värtö rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: scifi-fantasy-etc, 2020

Tchaikovsky doesn't disappoint. Cage of Souls is a story about a scholar who is sent to a prison in the middle of jungle, and not just any jungle: this is a place filled with monsters. The prison guards are ruthless and their bosses even more so: punishment for even minor infractions is often death and there is no one to reprimand the guards for excessive violence. And did I mention the monsters? They sometimes get inside the prison, as well.

Sounds like a brutal and horrific tale, right? But in ...more

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Jun 02, 2019 RG rated it liked it

I always get excited when I hear about a new Tchaikovsky novel. This one no different.

It starts off with the protagnosist being shipped to an island prison. Sort of gave me a scifi Papillon type feel.

The world building is unique, the story telling a type of scifi literary memoir feel. My issue was the pacing, we jump a few time periods before and present but I felt like nothing exciting happened directly to Stefan. He really just observed the main plot lines, although was involved at times to a ...more

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Apr 16, 2019 Jeremy Eaton rated it it was amazing

Still not sure entirely what it is that I just read, but giving whatever it is less than 5 stars feels wrong. Aptly titled book.

Annihilation, Hyperion, and King Rat (Clavell) all in one

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May 23, 2019 Patrick Mcnelis rated it it was amazing

I was very pleased with this book. My second foray into Tchaikovsky's works and it was an incredible one. If you liked Gene Wolfe's New Sun series, you may very well like this as it is written in a very similar style. The story takes place in the far off future on an earth that has evolved in many strange ways thanks to the abuse it sustained at the hands of humans. What's left of the human race is relegated to a tiny patch of the planet, surrounded by toxic land and seas and monstrously mutated ...more

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Jun 12, 2019 Carys rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019-read

After powering through Children of Time I preordered Cage of Souls looking for an equally gripping tale to fill the gap while I waited for Children of Ruin to be released slightly later on. Well, that time came and went as I slowly plodded through the first half of this book. It was a very slow burn for me. There was nothing pushing me to pick up the book to continue reading for quite some time (2 months to be exact). However, the second half read with a very different pace and I eat it up withi ...more

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Feb 16, 2020 Izzie added it · review of another edition

Shelves: dnf, sci-fi, standalones, library

Sadly a DNF (And I've decided not to rate books I don't finish from now on). I didn't like the narration but the premise was super cool. Annoyed because I've loved everything else I've read by this author but this one just didn't click. ...more

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Jul 29, 2020 Barry rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi

I'm sorry Mr. Tchaikovsky. I feel bad giving this such a low rating, because I absolutely loved Children of Time, but I really struggled to finish this book. And, my main reason for the struggle is because I felt the plot is unfocused and meandering.

The basic premise of the book is actually very interesting. Shadrapar is probably the last city on Earth inhabited by humans in the very far future. The citizens of Shadrapar live in a dreary and bleak condition, as resources are limited due to seve I'm sorry Mr. Tchaikovsky. I feel bad giving this such a low rating, because I absolutely loved Children of Time, but I really struggled to finish this book. And, my main reason for the struggle is because I felt the plot is unfocused and meandering.

The basic premise of the book is actually very interesting. Shadrapar is probably the last city on Earth inhabited by humans in the very far future. The citizens of Shadrapar live in a dreary and bleak condition, as resources are limited due to severe environmental failures. Ruined buildings and technologies dot the city, which is surrounded by dense jungles and sweltering deserts occupied by various odd and mutant species, some of which display murderous intent to kill the remaining human population. Furthermore, the sea is devoid of life as the water is deadly poisonous. The city itself is an authoritarian state that sends its criminals as well as political agitators to the Island, a prison located in the middle of a lake filled with ferocious water beasts and surrounded by deadly jungles.

This book focuses on the life stories of Stefan Advani, a social historian who is sentenced to the Island, in what amounts to a death sentence. We follow him as he settles into the Island prison and tries to survive there. The supporting characters include his cellmates, other inmates, several Wardens as well as the Marshal and Governor of the Island. Unfortunately, while the cast of characters seem to offer a lot of interesting possibilities, I felt like the plot meanders because Mr. Tchaikovsky tries to introduce other supporting characters whose importance and relevance to the main plot are not clear until the last part of the book. There are quite a number of interesting characters that could play the main villain role, which I thought would create interesting situations for Advani, but those situations aren't explored further. Moreover, Advani often times acts the role of an observer to the important events that drive the plot forward. As a result, the story feels a little bit boring as thrilling things are actually happening to other characters, not to Stefan Advani.

2.5 Star. ...more

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Aug 01, 2020 Faris Abdala rated it liked it · review of another edition

I read a book about writing sci fi once. It said that a story should be told from a character who has the most interesting life. This book does just the opposite.

The worldbuilding is very inventive. There are a lot of interesting things that would be really great had it been explored more. Unfortunately, a lot of the interesting points are left unexplored and only serves as a background information.

The main character constantly miss big events and told the story as he heard it from other charact ...more

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Apr 12, 2019 Craig M rated it really liked it

To be honest this one went from a five star read to a four star, to a five star then back again.

There were parts I absolutely loved, but it didn’t quite reach a five star read level for me overall. I loved the first half of the book a lot more than the second half. I think this was because there was a lot more mystery as to where it was all going in the first half of the book.

Really it was not what I was expecting at all going into it but still a very good read.

A very good book that I would c ...more

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Jan 24, 2021 Andras Szalai rated it liked it

Shelves: already-have-it

Would you look at that gorgeous cover?

I admit I have been putting off reading Cage of Souls for about a year. Children of Time is my favorite scifi from the last decade (and my first ever Tchaikovsky), and it was sooo good I was simply afraid that his other books could not live up to it. Well, this one couldn’t, but that’s ok. This defintely wasn’t my last Tchaikovsky.

Cage of Souls takes place in a very-very distant future. Civilizations have risen and fallen throughout the millennia, the Earth Would you look at that gorgeous cover?

I admit I have been putting off reading Cage of Souls for about a year. Children of Time is my favorite scifi from the last decade (and my first ever Tchaikovsky), and it was sooo good I was simply afraid that his other books could not live up to it. Well, this one couldn’t, but that’s ok. This defintely wasn’t my last Tchaikovsky.

Cage of Souls takes place in a very-very distant future. Civilizations have risen and fallen throughout the millennia, the Earth is in ruins, and the Sun is dying due to human meddling. Humans are near-extinct, now living in a single city, Shadrapar, with a population of about 100,000 souls. Shadrapar reads a lot like Renaissance Florence. Most of it is low-tech, but there are still energy weapons, advanced bioengineering, and industrial machinery. Humans have access to fragments of past technology, but only those ideas survive that are popular among the city’s handful of scientists. Meanwhile, around the city, evolution is running amok at ludicrous speeds: everything is seemingly evolving to kill humans and surpass them in intelligence. Why? We never get to know. Humanity is definitely dying, but maybe there is a chance for the Earth...

The book is written as the literary memoir of the protagonist, Stefan Advani. Advani is my kind of character: a cowardly academic who becomes an unlikely hero through a series of very unfortunate events. The most important of these is his false sentencing to life in prison on the Island, a floating jail in the jungle near Shadrapar. Most of the plot takes place on the Island, so Cage of Souls is above all else a prison drama.

But it is so much more. As with Children of Time, every page is packed chock-full with ideas, and Tchaikovsky’s singature rich literary prose. With each chapter, we stumble from one interesting subplot and setpiece to the next. We also slowly get some ideas, through Advani, about what the future of humanity might hold. Still, there is a lot that remains shrouded in mystery, adding to the appeal of the story.

However, Cage of Souls is not for everyone. It is a memoir, so there is no overarching plot. I found most of the subplots interesting, but, this being a 600 page beast of a book, it also dragged at times. (It actually took me an embarrasingly long time to read.) But if this weird, dying Earth appeals to you, give it a go.

3.5 stars ...more

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Dec 19, 2020 The Grim Reader rated it it was amazing

Wow! A break from horror saw me dive into Cage of Souls by the excellent Adrian Tchaikovsky and I am so damn glad that I did. What can I say about this book? It's epic, emotional, philosophical, introspective, exciting. And, as well as the before-mentioned things, it has a fantastic cast of characters. Cage of Souls includes everything a great novel should. I'm worried about what to read next. This has just snagged the top spot for my favourite read of 2020.

Don't be put off by the huge page cou ...more

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Feb 10, 2020 Johan Haneveld rated it it was amazing

Whoah, I just discovered a new author to put on my list of favourites. This will not come as a suprise to a lot of SF/fantasy-fans as Adrian Tchaikovsky is writing for a long time now, in fantasy as well as in sciencefiction. I have read many favorable reviews, e.g. of his 'Children of time'. When I read the description of 'Cage of souls' I knew I had to try at least this one out. It's about a dying earth where the last remnants of humanity cling to existence in a single city, and it has a swamp Whoah, I just discovered a new author to put on my list of favourites. This will not come as a suprise to a lot of SF/fantasy-fans as Adrian Tchaikovsky is writing for a long time now, in fantasy as well as in sciencefiction. I have read many favorable reviews, e.g. of his 'Children of time'. When I read the description of 'Cage of souls' I knew I had to try at least this one out. It's about a dying earth where the last remnants of humanity cling to existence in a single city, and it has a swamp with monsters. My enthusiasm rose even further when I read in one of the reviews of this novel that it concerned 'ecological themes' and matters of evolution. And as you can see from my five star rating I was not disappointed. I had a very good time reading this book, even batter than expected. What surprised me most was the inventiveness. Yes, this is a dying world, but it's given life by the author. Shadrapar is a character in the story in the way New-Crobuzon is in Mievilles work and it has a pleasing amount of weirdness going on with deep layers filled with giant spiders, ancient weapons, dead oceans, a possible time traveler and a man trying to change himself to survive in a dark world. There are expeditions in cave systems, duels, talking salamanders, a scientist lost in a jungle, mind powers, blind plesiosaurs, and a lot of chess. I loved it all. The characters are memorable. The main character is an academic surviving more by luck and a bit of cowardice than by physical prowess, and he writes in a bit of a self depricating way. It's almost a novel of manners and I liked the writing style that had a bit of the feel of a 19th century memoir to it (the society of Shadrapar with its class distinctions and underworld is a bit 19th century in style as well). This is a novel that shows one can tell a lot too in a novel if it's done well. The plot was built up well, with the main story about a prison island in the middle of the swamp and the character looking back on his life in the city in between. Lots of great ideas, some humorous observations and a lot of creativity on display. I liked this novel and it didn't even feel long at 602 pages. It made me want to check out more of Tchaikovsky's work. I read he has a novel out with parallel worlds where evolution has taken other roads, with e.g. giant space trilobites. That sounds like something that's right up my alley. ...more

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Jul 13, 2019 Aleksandra rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I absolutely loved this one. It is so vast in fantasy and so epic in storytelling, that almost reached the heights of a brilliant masterpiece.

The end of the world and a dying sun is unimaginable from the safety of a chair or a bed, of a fridge full of food and the safety of a home and family. And yet when you turn the pages of this book, you feel the self-centredness of humanity and our capability to survive somehow in the most extreme of settings. From the pits of the underground, through the I absolutely loved this one. It is so vast in fantasy and so epic in storytelling, that almost reached the heights of a brilliant masterpiece.

The end of the world and a dying sun is unimaginable from the safety of a chair or a bed, of a fridge full of food and the safety of a home and family. And yet when you turn the pages of this book, you feel the self-centredness of humanity and our capability to survive somehow in the most extreme of settings. From the pits of the underground, through the connections to nature, to being icons or even gods for the next civilizations.

The whole book is a memoir of a political prisoner in a dystopian future, in a floating prison in the middle of a vicious and ever-changing jungle. So at first, the only horrors are those of the immediate surroundings, of the fellow cellmates, of the Wardens, and then mostly those of the terrible, swampy jungle. And then the fantastic storytelling comes in place, slowly unfolding the story of the crime, of falling from grace and rising as a valuable person and actual hero of the story. Going back and forth through the events, and even re-retelling the story of the dying civilization once more through the eyes of another, it was a bit exhausting but brilliant. In all its length, it made the exact stops and turns to keep the reader's adrenaline at its pick.

The most amazing part of it was the fantasy of the author in incorporating the many variations of the future of humans. Whether loss of technological knowledge, time-travel speculations, extreme trans-humanism, development of psychic skills, evolution of the fauna and flora and the appearance of new forms of intelligence, and of course the perfection of artificial intelligence. It lacks very few other options, so it is overwhelming at times, but it serves the purpose: everything already happened and it is the end of humanity.

It is full of homages, of allegories and allusions. It is a very odd and complex story, but also, for me at least, very satisfying for my sci-fi, dystopian taste. ...more

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Apr 27, 2019 Nia Sinjorina rated it it was amazing

Whilst I am an avid reader of Scifi & Fantasy, I set high expectations for those authors that I allow to consume my time: command of the language and its concise use; ability to construct person and place within my mind; deep and consistent background; gripping pace and plot; something to say.

Suffice to say that a lot of authors, in these or most other genres, tend to rise to one or two, but not all of these expectations: I adore Neal Stephenson but he can go on; Peter Hamilton is a favourite bu ...more

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About Adrian Tchaikovsky

Adrian Tchaikovsky

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ADRIAN TCHAIKOVSKY was born in Lincolnshire and studied zoology and psychology at Reading, before practising law in Leeds. He is a keen live role-player and occasional amateur actor and is trained in stage-fighting. His literary influences include Gene Wolfe, Mervyn Peake, China Miéville, Mary Gently, Steven Erikson, Naomi Novak, Scott Lynch and Alan Campbell.

Books by Adrian Tchaikovsky

Empire in Black and Gold (Shadows of the Apt, #1)

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“We must be careful what we become when we seek to change things. An old principle of physics: if you push, you yourself are pushed in turn.” — 1 likes

“I was also unsure that once a man has raised the mob (for there is really only one mob, waiting in potentia to be raised) whether anyone can keep it from the barbaric acts of violence it strains for.” — 1 likes

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