The Iron Cage

by Andre Norton

Book Overview

Snatched from his family by an alien race, Jony endures torturous experiments and comes to live with the People, a gentle tribe of intelligent animals. Reprint. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0451451937
• ISBN13: 9780451451934
• Release Date: December 1992
• Publisher: Roc
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 0.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.8"

Customer Reviews

Is an animal just a "thing" to be used?

The author makes a case for animal rights by describing the plight of an abused cat on planet Earth, compared to a parallel story about animal-like aliens on a distant world. Both are mistreated by brutal humans who consider them to be nothing but "things," not individual creatures with feelings and inherent value. Although it's not quite clear, the novel apparently takes place in Norton's Forerunner universe. (Click on my name to see a list of about 40 related books.) Iron Cage seems to feature the Psychocrats who also make an appearance in Ice Crown, and in Gods & Androids. The story moves along at a fast pace and addresses some important issues. It was generally fun to read and held my interest to the end. As an animal lover, I appreciate the author's intent in writing about this theme. However, I don't agree that animals are equal to people. From a literary perspective, the book is not as strong as other "raised by animals" tales such as Tarzan and the Mowgli / Jungle Book stories by Kipling. Nevertheless, it is thought-provoking and worth a read if you are a fan of this author. * * (SPOILERS - PLOT SUMMARY) Most of the book explores the relationship between three human children and a race of aliens called "The People," who are so primitive that they are almost animals. The children and their mother have been brought to the planet by a different race of aliens, who keep them in cages and experiment on them. The humans escape, but the mother soon dies, leaving her kids to be raised by The People. By the time the oldest, Jony, is about fourteen, he feels completely at home with the tribe. However, there are hints that The People don't entirely trust him. When he discovers the ruins of an old city and indulges his curiosity by exploring it, The People become enraged and turn against him. He has stirred up memories of something terrible that happened there when The People first encountered humans, long ago. Jony and his siblings find themselves torn between their human ancestry and the aliens who have been their family until this point.

Great anthropomorphic adventure!

Iron Cage is the story of a young boy, Jony, who escapes from an alien race which used humans as experimental tools. He finds friends with the People - a race of bear-like, intelligent animals. When humans arrive upon the planet, and try to subject the People to their will, Jony finds himself in a difficult posistion - should he protect the People? Or should he join his own kind?I really enjoyed this book! The only reason, in fact, I'm denying it that last star was because the story was sometimes hard to follow. Despite this, read it anyway!

Excellent, well crafted reading

This is one of those books that really make you think and re-evaluate your values and beliefs. Andre Norton is great, and this is one of her best efforts! If you like this one, try 'Breed to come'.

Best Andre Norton ever (and one of the best books ever)

Iron Cage is about Rutee and Jony. They were captured by a society of cruel aliens who did tests on them and controlled their mind. They managed to escape right before Rutee was scheduled to be "dumped". They were taken care of by "the people" a clan of intelligent bear like creatures. Rutee died but Jony took care of Geogee and Maba, the two children that came of a mind controlled raper, on the alien ship. Problems came when humans landed on this planet. Geogee and Maba considered the humans their people. They later discovered that the humans were doing cruel experiments on the clan. The war started and Jony, Geogee, Maba, and the clan won. This book is my favorite Sci-fi ever, and I tried the other Andre Norton books but I didn't like any of them as much. Iron cage is the type of book you will want to pass on to your children through tradition.