Gilded Cage
Luke is your average teenage boy, until his family opts to start their slave days early, and he has no choice but to go along with them. In 'Gilded Cage' the monarchy of Great Britain was overturned in the 17th century by the Equals, hereditary magicians, who mandated that every non-Equal person serve ten years as a slave in government factories or in Equal homes before they turn 55. This slavery is enforced through the brutality of a magically-enforced government.
Abi, Luke's sister, is 18 so she doesn't have to join her parents and 10 year old sister, but she somehow manages to get her family a 'plush' gig serving on a nearby estate together and thereby avoid brutal factory conditions and not be split up. Of course, it doesn't work that way, Luke is sent on his own to the slave town while the rest are driven to the estate.
The premise is a good one, a dystopia and a variety of perspectives provides many sides to the system, high and low, inside and out. Unfortunately, it doesn't add up. First of all, young love rears its ugly head in the form of Abi's affections for her 'good' master. Its pointed out that she's something of a prodigy, with straight-A's, etc., so she's quickly appointed to the estates's central office and, by making a spreadsheet, gets things so organized she's telling other slaves what to do and even entrusted with planning special events for the family and despite (correctly) hating herself for it, fawns over an Equal. Marysuemarysuemarysue. Meanwhile, Luke is so pure-of-heart he gets recruited into a very small protest organization and is entrusted with important missions and they all bond. Their parents are one-dimensional and get out of the way of the plot.
Many perspectives are the Equals themselves, the three men-children of the Jardine family (of course the most ancient and best of the families) in particular, and the contrasting pictures they give each other and their peers and slaves are probably intended to provide depth, but instead see-saw wildly so that instead of seeing more sides of a character, you get a blur.
Still, the book kept a good pace, didn't waste too many pages with exposition and will appeal to readers of romance-fantasy. Two stars.
Gilded Cage
Next: 'Tarnished City'
