Kingdom of Cages

by Sarah Zettel

Book Overview

The award-winning author of Reclamation returns with a new fast-paced galactic adventure. When Chena and Teal Trust move to the planet of Pandora to seek refuge, they find terror instead. Their mother is murdered by scientists who want her genetic code, and Chena and Teal vow to fight the system that killed her.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0446524913
• ISBN13: 9780446524919
• Release Date: August 2001
• Publisher: Mysterious Press
• Length: 480 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.5" x 6.4" x 9.3"
• Age Range: 13 years and up

Customer Reviews

Immensely enjoyable

Zettel has created a real vision of place in the ecologically protected world of Pandora and its cramped, decaying orbiting station of Athena, and populated it with a wide range of fully-realized characters in a plot full of twists, turns, adventure, loss and redemption. Her main character, Chena Trust, is one of the best fictional characters I've ever met in a book. Zettel balances detail with suggestion to make her story move briskly through a real-feeling world. It's a deft maneuver, leaving her time to develop not only her protagonist, but half a dozen supporting characters to where you could pick them out of a lineup. I even like her invented names, though Chena's mother's is a bit obvious. This book was a runner-up, I recall, for the PKD award, and it deserves some award. Don't let the chance to read something really engrossing go by - this is for people who love sci-fi swashbucklers, character-driven adventures, and alternate history/future scenarios. Zettel also raises - in storyline, not preaching - important concerns about technology, human agency / freedom, and ecology. I'm definitely looking forward to my next book by this author.

Well I loved it.

All the worlds that humans had settled on were in trouble. All the humans were dying. The Authority called it "The Diversity Crisis". Only one planet remained untouched, Pandora. The Pandorans were isolated from the Authority and kept close to nature. No machines, no medicines, only "Guardians". The Authority was desperate and gave Pandora an ultimatum: Help find a cure or be destroyed. There was no need for prisons. Anyone who broke the law forfeited their body right. That meant The Hothouses took them for experimenting on to find a cure. The Eden Project was a theory of creating a fetus with a high immune system that would not turn against the body of the mother hosting it. Of course, this meant only certain females were compatible. Luckily, the closest genetically perfect hosts, one family, left the Athena Station and settled on Pandora. They were (single parent) Helice Trust, and her young daughters, Chena and Teal. If they refused to volunteer for the Hothouse, they were to be forced. Pandora was ruled by governments called "Family". Each colony (complex) had a Family. Each member of the Family had a "Conscience" which was a chip that strongly persuaded the member to do what was considered right. Each complex had a "City-Mind", an artificially created (but living) intelligence that WAS the complex, itself. Aleph was the city-mind for the Alpha Complex, where the story took place. She kept in touch with all the other city-minds. The city-minds took care of the Families, who in turn, took care of the villages in the colony. However, someone had been making covert alterations to Aleph without her knowledge. Someone who was out to force the Trust women into the Eden Project. Someone who altered nature's insects to kill any invaders the Authority may send. ***** This is the story of Helice, Chena, and Teal Trust. The story covers a ten year span, after all it deals with genetics. It is so well written that it was surreal! I found myself fully engrossed in the story and detested any time I had to stop reading. Highly recommended! *****

A surprising big win -- must read

Sarah Zettel has achieved something very hard to do, particularly in SF. This story is both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. You will be surprised to see how fully you will be drawn in.Helice Trust and her two daughters, Chena (age 13) and Teal (age 10), are refugees, with as little personal civil rights as refugees typically have. Determined to better their condition, Helice applies for and gets admittance to the villages of Pandora. She is aware that the global government, at odds with the rest of human civilization, has determined that her genetic makeup is nearly perfect to solve a problem they have to solve, and want to use her for biological experiments. In spite of being offered an easy way out (they're willing to pay everything she wants), she will not bear a child for them to be used as a lab rat. Although we don't get to know Helice that much in this story, she is certainly the moral center.Tam is the remote but protective official who has charge of the village, and he is determined to support Helice in her free choice. But he may be overmatched by the planet's politics.What fuels this books emotional impact is that Chena and Teal are fully convincing as real sisters. They love each other, and are capable of annoying each other only as real siblings can. One moment they are quibbling, the next playing a shared game that they made up. One of the games is to make up heroic stories about their missing dad, which they indulge in fully aware they are fantasies and not likely to be for real. Both girls are outgoing and inclined to get in trouble, but are still fully devoted to their mom and accept her corrections without question. Chena is more than willing to fight for what she wants, even willing to take on a fistfight with a bigger boy her first day on Pandora rather than take an insult, but is then perfectly willing to make friends with the guy's sister. It's hard not to like someone like that. Determined to do her part and help her mom, she finds a way to make money in their new home, and eventually ends up in a fight with nearly the whole planet.If this story has a flaw I think that the galactic crisis seems somewhat contrived. There is really very little explanation or theory why every human colony would go into an irretriveable death spiral, and the proposed solution really makes no sense. But that is the storm in the ocean; what this story is about is what is going on in the boat. Well worth reading.

An Absolutely Great Book

I have read all of Sarah Zettel's books. This is the very best. I will be giving it as a Christmas gift.The plot and characterizations are excellent. This is one book you will remember.

Hard to describe, but excellent story!

All the worlds that humans had settled on were in trouble. All the humans were dying. The Authority called it "The Diversity Crisis". Only one planet remained untouched, Pandora. The Pandorans were isolated from the Authority and kept close to nature. No machines, no medicines, only "Guardians". The Authority was desperate and gave Pandora an ultimatum: Help find a cure or be destroyed. There was no need for prisons. Anyone who broke the law forfeited their body right. That meant The Hothouses took them for experimenting on to find a cure. The Eden Project was a theory of creating a fetus with a high immune system that would not turn against the body of the mother hosting it. Of course, this meant only certain females were compatible. Luckily, the closest genetically perfect hosts, one family, left the Athena Station and settled on Pandora. They were (single parent) Helice Trust, and her young daughters, Chena and Teal. If they refused to volunteer for the Hothouse, they were to be forced. Pandora was ruled by governments called "Family". Each colony (complex) had a Family. Each member of the Family had a "Conscience" which was a chip that strongly persuaded the member to do what was considered right. Each complex had a "City-Mind", an artificially created (but living) intelligence that WAS the complex, itself. Aleph was the city-mind for the Alpha Complex, where the story took place. She kept in touch with all the other city-minds. The city-minds took care of the Families, who in turn, took care of the villages in the colony. However, someone had been making covert alterations to Aleph without her knowledge. Someone who was out to force the Trust women into the Eden Project. Someone who altered nature's insects to kill any invaders the Authority may send. ***** This is the story of Helice, Chena, and Teal Trust. The story covers a ten year span, after all it deals with genetics. It is so well written that it was surreal! I found myself fully engrossed in the story and detested any time I had to stop reading. Highly recommended! ***** Reviewed by Detra Fitch