Cage of Souls

This book is clearly inspired by The Book of the New Sun, both in its premise (a hero is thrown in the midst of central events occuring on a mysterious dying Earth in the far future), but also in its structure (lots of high ideas resulting in a chain of disparate events that tie together). It's not as obscure, though; I was surprised at how quickly and obvious some mysteries were revealed.

Dying-earth-at-the-very-far -reaches-of-time-story except there's a Soviet time traveller from 1972, God is a big crab, killing people with your mind?? Teleportation, probably. A man turning himself into a grotesque creature just like that guy in Perdido Street Station - you know the one - genetic tampering, weird humanoid creatures that aren't human but are probably the future of intelligent life, death weapon that dissolves people, a woman who's too beautiful to even comprehend because a man wrote this, old technology like out of The Pastel City, sentient rats? I was extremely here for 95% of this.

I didn't think I was going to like this story of a man sent to a prison island. But the whole weird and baroque setting of a dying earth with a dying sun, with maybe no hope for humanity, but hope for SOMETHING else instead kinda hooked me. I kept thinking of Clark Ashton Smith/China Mieville/even Lord Dunsany a little. Strange, strange world, brutal prison, oddly likeable characters. I listened to the audiobook version, and the narrator was quite entertaining.

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 who's been sentenced to life on a floating prison in the midst of the jungle, and he tells us almost his entire life story in non-chronological order. He's an odd protagonist who mostly just sort of muddles through life, and who has many flaws he openly confesses. This humble honesty, coupled with mostly good intentions and a cheerful, unflagging spirit that remains with him even through great suffering and various troubles, make him very relatable and likable despite of those flaws. The eccentric characters around him, though, are truly intriguing and unique, and will surely stay with me for a long time, teasing me with their many mysteries (which sometimes remain mysterious, this is not the type of all-knowing book that will give you all the answers and explanations). Everything about this story and world is utterly fascinating and I don't want to spoil your fun of discovery by describing it too much. Just read it yourself! This book will definitely remain one of my all-time favorites and I can't wait to read more by this author.

I really enjoyed this and in my mind it was basically what the world of The Time Machine would look like to those living in it and not some dew-eyed traveler. I am always amazed at Tchaikovsky's ability to create worlds that are so very different from each other but all work.