Cage of Souls

By: Adrian Tchaikovsky

Narrated by: David Thorpe

Length: 23 hrs and 10 mins

Publisher's summary

Humanity clings to life on a dying Earth in an epic, far-future science fiction novel from an award-winning author.

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, Shadrapar is a museum, a midden, an asylum, a prison on a world that is ever more alien to humanity.

Bearing witness to the desperate struggle for existence between life old and new is Stefan Advani: rebel, outlaw, prisoner, survivor. This is his testament, an account of the journey that took him into the blazing desolation of the western deserts; that transported him east down the river and imprisoned him in the verdant hell of the jungle's darkest heart; that led him deep into the labyrinths and caverns of the underworld. He will meet with monsters, madman, mutants.

The question is, which one of them will inherit this Earth?

©2019 Adrian Tchaikovsky (P)2019 Head of Zeus

original and not random

never thought I would hear a voice actor this versatile. makes me want to speak with a posh accent the rest of the day. the story was very unique to me and I love how AT finds ways to make future/other worlds palpable, realistic, and surprising. I did indeed feel like I was living amongst the prisoners of the island for a good portion of the story. i love how the story concluded, which is rare for me.

I liked it

It seemed a little long in parts, but overall it was a beautiful story about a very different and similar world. I loved it and would recommend it to anyone with attention span and patience. Significantly different than his Children of X books, but very good nonetheless. Narration was solid.

Compelling story, interesting concepts

A far cry from my typical diet of technological sci-fi, but immediately engaging with a range of excellent characters, even the narration is superb. I'll be recommending this book very highly to anyone even vaguely interested 👍👍

Very entertaining!

I really enjoyed the plot in this book. The characters were very multidimensional and the author did a wonderful job with imagery. Would definitely recommend!

obsessed

i was obsessed with this book and listened to it with a fervor. I loved the narration too. Probably one of the best narration out there.

a journey worth the purchase

I don't think this is a strong as some of his other work, and I'm still not sure how I feel about the storys overall framing device... but this tale had all the unexpected character and world building that Tchaikovsky is well known for. Definitely a bleaker story but it still had plenty of hope, and I felt for the characters whenever they had to go through physical or emotional distress.

very detailed and imaginative

like the characters the settings imagination, it was really exciting. and I would read it again

Thoroughly enjoyed

It was a very original story. Stephan tells us the story of his fortune and misfortune. Enjoyed it.

Amazingly written, felt like watching a movie.

Incredible. This author does something wild with my mind. His words just make me forget sometimes when I'm recalling this book that it was a book and not a movie. It just is all so incredibly descriptive and colorful that it becomes that it becomes so effortless for everything to just play out like some great show that it's easy to forget all of this is a book when I think back on it.

I just loved everything about this. Initially I was a bit confused at the start as he saved the world building for the middle of the book and started it off with plot, plopped into a world as-if I'm just sorta supposed to know what's going on. It was disorienting but likely purposeful as I imagine the MC felt that way a bit too.

I really enjoyed the fleshing out of the world like this and letting things that are odd stick out and slowly finding out that this world isn't a world I'd recognize at all until it reveals that it really isn't.

Its incredibly well written for characters too. There are great side characters just eased into this as well. With easily identifiable characteristics, personalities and way of talking that makes it easy to pick out who is who in a crowd.

The plot is a slow burn, not helped by the fact that mid way there is a giant world building flashback. So you get a bit turned around right when the plot starts to happen, just for it to start back up again after the flashback. Again not a complaint but a cool artsy way of setting up a story.

By the end it just really easily made itself so memorable. I was so satisfied with the story I got. At some point I just wish I could spend more time with the characters before things wrapped up but, not all books need to be a series. This really had it all and a satisfying ending was part of that.

Fun Story

Overall the story was good. Had some good twists and ended well. I enjoyed all the building of the plot, but to some extent it got a little old once in a while. I still throughly enjoyed the story though and would recommend it to anyone. Get it and enjoy!