Reviews for Kingdom of cages

The average rating for Kingdom of cages based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2016-03-10 00:00:00 Diana Vernon The story of a small family at the center of crises that could leave humanity extinct. Chena and Teal, and their mother Helice Trust are barely surviving on Athena Station, the independent space station serving the planet of Pandora. Pandora is the closest match found to the original Earth biosphere before it was mostly devastated by humans. It's also ruled by cities of ultra-authoritarian conservationists who maintain order among themselves by using brain implants called Consciences to enforce conformity and loyalty. Normally that would be plenty of reason to leave them alone, but Pandora is the only place in the galaxy that humanity is not suffering a spectrum of conditions called the Diversity Crisis. Humanity is dying and they're all coming to Pandora for a cure. The story begins with the small Trust family arriving on Pandora to build a life for themselves, unaware that the scientists of the conservationists (called hothousers because they live in domes) have identified Helice as having the perfect genetic makeup to be a subject of their experimental regime to "cure" the Diversity Crisis. They approach her, but she refuses. Unfortunately she's too important and they won't take no for an answer. This book is all about desperate people in desperate situations where everything that's happening is monumentally unfair. It's about right and wrong in situations so dire that right and wrong may not even apply. The hothousers are in a completely unfair situation, people who just wanted to live a life of isolation but are now forced to deal with the rest of humanity. The immigrants also are in an unfair situation, denied the basics of medical care and education, and subject to experimentation. And all the humans in the galaxy dying of the Diversity Crisis with the Pandorans who just don't seem to care (they don't; there's a chip in their heads that makes it so they can't). And what happens to the Trust family is even more unfair than any of that, because they are needed and that causes some profound violations. This was really well written. You feel for most of the characters, even the one that's going slowly insane, and at most points in the book it's pretty clear that all of these characters are screwed. The hothousers in particular, and their biomechanical AIs, have a really alien point-of-view because of their Conscience chips that comes over strongly in the book. And that brings up a fairly major theme of the book as well: family, in-groups, out-groups, implicit and explicit othering. It's all very chunky. The only criticism is perhaps that the overall length of the book makes the ending feel a little rushed, even though it's very satisfying.

Review # 2 was written on 2016-03-10 00:00:00 Pia Hilton I found this a bit slow to get going, but once it did it was an intelligent and thought provoking read. The characters in this book were all faced with terrible decisions and it was easy to see that, even when those actions seemed horrific, quite often they were acting in a way that they thought best for the Good of the Planet, or the Good of the People, or the Good of the Family. Zettel certainly makes you question your ethical views here, but never in a preachy way. There were no cartoon villains but a lot of flawed people making difficult choices. In amongst the sci-fi action, there was a rather wonderful coming-of-age tale in the relationship between two sisters, and I really enjoyed that aspect too. This is the first Sarah Zettel book I have read but I will definitely be seeking out more of her work.