thistlechaser | Book #82 of 2026: Cage of Souls

Cage of Souls by Adrian Tchaikovsky.

Quick synopsis: Set in the distant future, a man writes about the world ending around him. Also goes to prison and nearly dies many times.

Brief opinion: Tchaikovsky books always have two things: The world ending due to man-made environmental damage and spiders. This book was no exception. And, honestly, it's getting a little old. Even if the spiders in this case were more creative than usual.

Plot: The sun is dying (because humans in the past, us, messed with it to try to make more energy) and there's one city of humans left on the planet. And one prison on an island in the middle of a deadly jungle.

Stefan Advani is writing the story of his life and the world dying around him. This book is the book he's writing, so we see it all through his eyes and his words. He ends up being sent to the island prison where things are rather hellish. It's run by a sadistic psychopath with no oversight.

Then the whole story grinds to a halt as the next 25% of the book is a flashback. As far as I can tell, it had no impact at all on the current-day plotline, other than derailing all the tension.

While Stefan is in the prison, something happens in the one remaining city, and it looks like the end of humanity for sure.

But hey, there are "web-children" who can live on the dying Earth just fine.

Editing: I don't know what it is with his books, but they always have some pretty big editing issues. Typos, wrong words used, wrong punctuation. Weird for a traditionally published book.

What I Liked/What I Didn’t Like: I loved the first 25% of the book! Life in the prison was so interesting, as was the alien-like malicious-to-humans jungle around it. But then the flashback started and the story hit a brick wall. All the tension? Gone. And it just went on and on and on. Then back to the prison for a bit before another flashback...

Tchaikovsky's books are generally quite long, and this one was no exception. I was bored and ready for the story to be over by the 80% point, which might have contributed to me not liking the ending at all.

Rating: 1-Hated / 2-Disliked / 3-Okay / 4-Liked / 5-Loved: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ - Okay. This is a hard one to rate. I really really liked the first quarter, disliked the second quarter/first flashback, mostly liked the next part, hated/skipped the next flashback, and didn't really like the ending. I probably should rate it lower than 'okay', but I really did like the beginning and Tchaikovsky is a good writer.

DNF #31: The Familiar (Animorphs #41) by K.A. Applegate. Not just a bad book, but a bad placement of it in the series. This book did the exact same thing as the last Animorphs book, Back to Before. Back to Before was a "what if" book: What if the kids never got the power to morph, they were just normal kids? This book was another "what if" story: What if the Yeerks won? I'm always down for a "what if" story, but two in a row was odd, and this one was just so poorly written. I gave it one star the first time I read it and just DNFed it this time.

DNF #32: We Can Never Leave by H.E. Edgmon. It's (luckily) a rare thing for me to dislike a book from the very first page. Something about Edgmon's writing put my teeth on edge, so I checked the reviews and yep, it was going to get even worse. The author breaks into the story to talk to the reader, things like: "This whole thing is reeking of a religious cult. Have you picked up on that yet?" Just not for me. DNFed early on.

DNF #33: Kaya Morgan's Crowning Achievement by Jill Tew. There was 100% not a single thing wrong with this book. Writing was good, characters were believable, everything was fine. So why did I DNF it? I just really don't enjoy "real people in the real world" stories. Since this one was set in a Ren Faire I had thought I might be okay with it, but nope.

The story dealt with themes of racism and loss. I was really impressed by how it handled both. I kept thinking I should finish it, but the story just wasn't of interest to me. Back to fantasy and sci-fi!