Scan barcode
shaekin's review
4.0
My official rating is probably more like 3.5. I more than liked it, less than really liked it. There are hints given of the twenty palace society that aren't fully explained, but it shows there's some interesting history and lore there, not just randomly created monsters which I like. The reason I think I'm not at really liked it is getting into the book took me longer than it typically would and it feels like I'm just dumped into the story. But, by the end, I was definitely invested.
There's quite a bit of gore and violence and death so you'll want to skip this one if that type of thing bothers you.
There's quite a bit of gore and violence and death so you'll want to skip this one if that type of thing bothers you.
helalost's review
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror and Violence
odunayo_y's review
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Gun violence, Murder, and Violence
Moderate: Cannibalism, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal death
Minor: Misogyny, Racism, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment
mngwinn's review
3.0
The first third is incredibly slow and introduces some characters I never manages to distinguish between, but the last third was more of what I enjoyed from the first book in the series.
qwerty88's review
4.0
Devoured this book in 24 hours. On a weekday. I don't know what it is. I generally don't like anti-heroes, and the prose isn't anything to write home about, and the plot is mostly just running around and the protagonist missing key clues on when he's being manipulated. But someone it drags you through in a rush of "and what happened next?" Unfortunate that the series won't go beyond the three books.
carol26388's review
1.0
The next in my streak of reading books I’d rather not be reading. Remember when I said, “I don’t know why I do this to myself, I really don’t”? I still don’t know the general answer, but in this particular instance, I suspect the combination of series OCD, a suspicion that the books weren’t nearly as good as GR reviews claim, and Connelly’s strangely successful $50,000 kickstarter despite his publishing house dropping this series.
Second in the “Twenty Palaces” trilogy by Harry Connolly, Game of Cages essentially recycles the first book. If that distilled assessment sounds strangely similar to my review of Caliban’s War (which recycles Leviathan Wakes), that’s because it is. Authors! Something a little different for your sophomore effort, please! Since we’re all just recycling hacks here, I’ll just click over to my other review and cut and paste a bit…
This review, which may or may not reference drug use, The Yellow Submarine, foreigners that speak English in front of concealed heroes, and will generally pick apart the book until you can't possibly enjoy it, will be continued at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/game-of-cages-by-harry-connolly/
or, if you prefer:
http://carols.booklikes.com/post/667305/game-over
Second in the “Twenty Palaces” trilogy by Harry Connolly, Game of Cages essentially recycles the first book. If that distilled assessment sounds strangely similar to my review of Caliban’s War (which recycles Leviathan Wakes), that’s because it is. Authors! Something a little different for your sophomore effort, please! Since we’re all just recycling hacks here, I’ll just click over to my other review and cut and paste a bit…
This review, which may or may not reference drug use, The Yellow Submarine, foreigners that speak English in front of concealed heroes, and will generally pick apart the book until you can't possibly enjoy it, will be continued at http://clsiewert.wordpress.com/2013/10/28/game-of-cages-by-harry-connolly/
or, if you prefer:
http://carols.booklikes.com/post/667305/game-over
jaodriscoll's review
2.0
This book is why this series failed.
I was prepared to give this one star but act 3 didn't so much save the book as it made it tolerable. That's a real shame, because I liked the first book a whole lot.
So here's the major issues:
A) Act 1 problems. The entire auction sequence could have been scrapped or moved later. Having it happen so early in the book warped the narrative in all the wrong ways because I had no connection with disparate voices. None of these people were given space to breathe and grow and the whole sequence was way too crowded as Ray spends much of the time just eavesdropping. The absence of Annalise is really felt, because Ray as a character is best explored in opposition and contrast to Annalise. Catherine is a piss-poor replacement, and much of the 'arc' of act 1 is a retread of the last book. Someone from the Society doesn't trust Ray and he earns their trust over time and they begin to trust him. That's cool and all, but the author's already done that story last book with a much more compelling character in the form of Annalise. Catherine's role is an issue, and I wish the author had figured out a better way to use her.
B) Act 2 problems. Much like Act 1, but I got the sense that there was a story that could have been developed here. The narrator's mom is mentioned and abandoned with no fanfare. This could have helped give the narration some sense of structure or given Ray an internal journey, but it's not there. The story stretches out way past its breaking point and loses narrative cohesion. A series of things happen to Ray, rather than happen because of him. A parade of characters are introduced, abandoned, reintroduced, abandoned again, and the cycle continues. Nothing was really gained or lost. It's like the author forgot to give this part of the book a real point or goal. A Peer shows up and has no impact on the story whatsoever.
C) Serious character issues. Most of the side characters are a forgettable mass of people, barely established. I'd basically count 'the townspeople' as a character, and boil this book down to 6 characters: Ray, Catherine, Annalise, Zahn, The Sapphire Dog, and 'The Townspeople'. Eventually the last 2 characters become the same character and I couldn't be bothered to care that much. More emphasis should have been put on the kid and how the whole Tommyknockers feeling is screwing up everything. More care should have been taken to differentiate people. Oh, and a random Peer showed up and barely merited any fanfare or interaction at all. This is only the second Peer the series has introduced and he's completely and utterly forgettable. This is a serious problem because there's supposedly this auction happening with an impressive cast of characters but you wouldn't really know that and the only one that really matters is Zahn, who's introduced way too late.
D) Prose issues. This is something I overlooked in the first book because I liked the story so much, but they're still present. Too much is laid plain in the text, and the reader barely has to do any work themselves, which leads to skimming over whole paragraphs because everything is so plainly stated. No subtext.
Still though, the real meat of this book starts to take shape once act 3 starts and Annalise shows up, giving the story needed momentum. The problems of act 1 and 2 really drag act 3 down, which is frustrating. There should have been a lot more planted in the earlier acts for act 3 to be able to pay off, but since there isn't, Act 3 revels instead in spectacle, to decent, even good results. I wish they'd planted more of a buildup of the Sapphire Dog starting to take control, rather than backloading all the 'It's learning' stuff into the end of the book. A different book might have taken advantage of Ray's backstory or made better use of Catherine. Maybe if Annalise had shown up or the other Peer whose name I have already forgotten was more a presence, act 3 could have been great, but it merely turns a bad book into a passable one.
So very disappointed right now.
I was prepared to give this one star but act 3 didn't so much save the book as it made it tolerable. That's a real shame, because I liked the first book a whole lot.
So here's the major issues:
A) Act 1 problems. The entire auction sequence could have been scrapped or moved later. Having it happen so early in the book warped the narrative in all the wrong ways because I had no connection with disparate voices. None of these people were given space to breathe and grow and the whole sequence was way too crowded as Ray spends much of the time just eavesdropping. The absence of Annalise is really felt, because Ray as a character is best explored in opposition and contrast to Annalise. Catherine is a piss-poor replacement, and much of the 'arc' of act 1 is a retread of the last book. Someone from the Society doesn't trust Ray and he earns their trust over time and they begin to trust him. That's cool and all, but the author's already done that story last book with a much more compelling character in the form of Annalise. Catherine's role is an issue, and I wish the author had figured out a better way to use her.
B) Act 2 problems. Much like Act 1, but I got the sense that there was a story that could have been developed here. The narrator's mom is mentioned and abandoned with no fanfare. This could have helped give the narration some sense of structure or given Ray an internal journey, but it's not there. The story stretches out way past its breaking point and loses narrative cohesion. A series of things happen to Ray, rather than happen because of him. A parade of characters are introduced, abandoned, reintroduced, abandoned again, and the cycle continues. Nothing was really gained or lost. It's like the author forgot to give this part of the book a real point or goal. A Peer shows up and has no impact on the story whatsoever.
C) Serious character issues. Most of the side characters are a forgettable mass of people, barely established. I'd basically count 'the townspeople' as a character, and boil this book down to 6 characters: Ray, Catherine, Annalise, Zahn, The Sapphire Dog, and 'The Townspeople'. Eventually the last 2 characters become the same character and I couldn't be bothered to care that much. More emphasis should have been put on the kid and how the whole Tommyknockers feeling is screwing up everything. More care should have been taken to differentiate people. Oh, and a random Peer showed up and barely merited any fanfare or interaction at all. This is only the second Peer the series has introduced and he's completely and utterly forgettable. This is a serious problem because there's supposedly this auction happening with an impressive cast of characters but you wouldn't really know that and the only one that really matters is Zahn, who's introduced way too late.
D) Prose issues. This is something I overlooked in the first book because I liked the story so much, but they're still present. Too much is laid plain in the text, and the reader barely has to do any work themselves, which leads to skimming over whole paragraphs because everything is so plainly stated. No subtext.
Still though, the real meat of this book starts to take shape once act 3 starts and Annalise shows up, giving the story needed momentum. The problems of act 1 and 2 really drag act 3 down, which is frustrating. There should have been a lot more planted in the earlier acts for act 3 to be able to pay off, but since there isn't, Act 3 revels instead in spectacle, to decent, even good results. I wish they'd planted more of a buildup of the Sapphire Dog starting to take control, rather than backloading all the 'It's learning' stuff into the end of the book. A different book might have taken advantage of Ray's backstory or made better use of Catherine. Maybe if Annalise had shown up or the other Peer whose name I have already forgotten was more a presence, act 3 could have been great, but it merely turns a bad book into a passable one.
So very disappointed right now.
glennisleblanc's review
3.0
The second book picks up about 6 months after the end of the first book and Ray has not heard a peep out of anyone from Twenty Palaces until today when someone picks him up from work as backup for an auction. Things go wrong of course and Ray and Catherine are trying to hunt down the predator before anyone else gets hurt or someone decides they want it for themselves. The actions of the townspeople were a bit odd until it was revealed the entire town was under a spell cutting it off from the rest of the world. Ray gets the snot beat out of him but manages to come out on top. The book ends with not many questions answered about Twenty Palaces and I have to wonder if they will be answered in the next one.
More...