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A review by jaodriscoll
Game of Cages by Harry Connolly
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.