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Gilded Cage (Dark Gifts), by Vic James
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A darkly fantastical debut set in a modern England where magically gifted aristocrats rule, and commoners are doomed to serve—for readers of Victoria Aveyard and Susanna Clarke
NOT ALL ARE FREE.
NOT ALL ARE EQUAL.
NOT ALL WILL BE SAVED.
Our world belongs to the Equals—aristocrats with magical gifts—and all commoners must serve them for ten years.
But behind the gates of England’s grandest estate lies a power that could break the world.
A girl thirsts for love and knowledge.
Abi is a servant to England’s most powerful family, but her spirit is free. So when she falls for one of their noble-born sons, Abi faces a terrible choice. Uncovering the family’s secrets might win her liberty—but will her heart pay the price?
A boy dreams of revolution.
Abi’s brother, Luke, is enslaved in a brutal factory town. Far from his family and cruelly oppressed, he makes friends whose ideals could cost him everything. Now Luke has discovered there may be a power even greater than magic: revolution.
And an aristocrat will remake the world with his dark gifts.
He is a shadow in the glittering world of the Equals, with mysterious powers no one else understands. But will he liberate—or destroy?
Praise for Gilded Cage
“Beautifully characterised and compellingly plotted, Gilded Cage is an impressive debut.”—The Guardian
“An alternate modern-day England where enticing drama and social unrest mix with aristocratic scandal and glamorous magic . . . conjuring up the specters of Les Misérables and Downton Abbey . . . an absorbing first installment that presages an intriguing new fantasy series.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Gilded Cage is a heart-pounding combination of dark magic, political revolution, and forbidden romance that had me addicted from the first page!”—Danielle L. Jensen, USA Today bestselling author of The Malediction Trilogy
“Devious and deliciously dark with lashings of magic, mystery, and mayhem, this juggernaut of a book will keep you hanging on by your fingernails until the very last page.”—Taran Matharu, New York Times bestselling author of The Summoner Trilogy
“A dark and intriguing vision of an alternate, magic-drenched Britain, Gilded Cage kept me up long into the night.”—Aliette de Bodard, author of The House of Shattered Wings
“Brisk plotting, sympathetic characters, and plenty of intrigue will keep readers on the edges of their seats, eager for the next book in a very promising series.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
- Sales Rank: #172125 in Books
- Brand: Del Rey Books
- Published on: 2017-02-14
- Released on: 2017-02-14
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.54" h x 1.19" w x 5.78" l, .0 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 368 pages
- Del Rey Books
Review
“Beautifully characterised and compellingly plotted, Gilded Cage is an impressive debut.”—The Guardian
“An alternate modern-day England where enticing drama and social unrest mix with aristocratic scandal and glamorous magic . . . conjuring up the specters of Les Misérables and Downton Abbey . . . an absorbing first installment that presages an intriguing new fantasy series.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Gilded Cage is a heart-pounding combination of dark magic, political revolution, and forbidden romance that had me addicted from the first page!”—Danielle L. Jensen, USA Today bestselling author of The Malediction Trilogy
“Devious and deliciously dark with lashings of magic, mystery, and mayhem, this juggernaut of a book will keep you hanging on by your fingernails until the very last page.”—Taran Matharu, New York Times bestselling author of The Summoner Trilogy
“A dark and intriguing vision of an alternate, magic-drenched Britain, Gilded Cage kept me up long into the night.”—Aliette de Bodard, author of The House of Shattered Wings
“Brisk plotting, sympathetic characters, and plenty of intrigue will keep readers on the edges of their seats, eager for the next book in a very promising series.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
About the Author
Vic James is a current-affairs TV director who loves stories in all their forms. Her programs for BBC1 have covered the 2016 U.S. presidential election and Britain’s EU referendum. She has twice judged The Guardian’s Not the Booker Prize. Gilded Cage is her first novel, and an early draft of it won a major online award from Wattpad for most-talked-about fantasy. She has lived in Rome and Tokyo, and currently lives in London.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
One
It was an unusually hot weekend in mid-June and sweat pooled along Luke Hadley’s spine as he lay on his stomach on a blanket in the front yard. He was staring blankly at a spread of textbooks. The screaming was distracting, and had been going on for a while now.
If it had been Abigail trying to revise, Daisy and her pals would never have been allowed to make such a racket. But Mum had inexplicably gone into overdrive for Daisy’s birthday, which had turned into the party of the century. Luke’s little sis and her friends were careering round behind the house shrieking at the tops of their voices, while some unforgivably awful C-pop boyband blared through the living room window.
Luke stuffed his earbuds in as deep as they’d go without rupturing anything, and turned up the volume on his own music. It didn’t work. The catchy beat of “Happy Panda” was backed by the delirious vocals of ten-year-old girls massacring the Chinese language. Moaning, he let his face fall forward onto the books spread out on the grass in front of him. He knew who he’d be blaming when he failed History and Citizenship.
Beside him, her own exams long since completed, Abi was lost in one of her favorite trashy novels. Luke gave it the side-eye and cringed at the title: Her Master’s Slave. She was nearly finished, and had another pastel-covered horror lined up. The Heir’s Temptation. How someone as smart as his big sister could read such rubbish was beyond him.
Still, at least it kept her distracted. Uncharacteristically, Abi hadn’t nagged him once about revision, even though this term’s tests were the most important until he finished school in two years’ time. He turned back to the mock exam paper. The words swam before his eyes.
Describe the Equal Revolution of 1642 and explain how it led to the Slavedays Compact. Analyze the role of (i) Charles I, the Last King, (ii) Lycus Parva, the Regicide, and (iii) Cadmus Parva-Jardine, the Pure-in-Heart.
Luke grunted in disgust and rolled onto his back. Those stupid Equal names seemed designed to confuse. And who really cared why the slavedays had begun, hundreds of years ago? All that mattered was that they’d never ended. Everyone in Britain except the Equals—the Skilled aristocrats—still had to give up a decade of their life. Those years were spent confined to one of the grim slavetowns that shadowed every major city, with no pay and no respite.
Movement caught his eye and he sat up, scenting distraction. A stranger had walked up the driveway and was peering through the windows of Dad’s car. This wasn’t unusual. Luke jumped up and went over.
“Brilliant, isn’t it?” he told the guy. “It’s an Austin-Healey, more than fifty years old. My dad restored it. He’s a mechanic. But I helped. It took us more than a year. I could probably do most of it myself now, he’s taught me so much.”
“Is that right? Well, I reckon you’ll be sorry to see it go, then.”
“See it go?” Luke was nonplussed. “It’s not going anywhere.”
“Eh? But this is the address in the advert.”
“Can I help?” Abi had appeared at Luke’s shoulder. She nudged him gently. “You get back to your revision, little bro. I’ll handle this.”
Luke was about to tell her not to bother, that the man had made a mistake, when a stampede of small girls hurtled around the house and thundered toward them.
“Daisy!” Abi yelled repressively. “You’re not to play round the front. I don’t want anyone tearing into the road and getting run over.”
Daisy trotted over to join them. She wore a large orange badge with a sparkly “10” on it, and a sash across her chest bearing the words “Birthday Girl.”
“Honestly.” Daisy folded her arms. “It was only for a minute, Abi.”
The man who’d come about the car was looking at Daisy intently. He’d better not be some kind of pervert.
“Birthday girl, is it?” he said, reading the sash. “You’re ten? I see . . .”
His face went funny for a moment, with some expression Luke couldn’t work out. Then he looked at the three of them standing there. It wasn’t a threatening look, but it made Luke put his arm around his little sis and draw her closer.
“Tell you what,” the man said. “I’ll give your dad a call some other time. You enjoy your party, young lady. Have your fun while you can.”
He nodded at Daisy, then turned and ambled off down the driveway.
“Weird,” said Daisy expansively. Then she gave a war whoop and led her pals in a prancing, cheering conga back round the rear of the house.
“Weird” was the word, Luke thought. In fact, the entire day had felt not quite right.
But it wasn’t until he lay awake in bed that night that it all came together. Selling the car. The fuss over Daisy’s birthday. The suspicious absence of nagging over his own exam revision.
When he heard hushed conversation floating up from the kitchen, and padded downstairs to find his parents and Abi sitting at the table studying paperwork, Luke knew he was right.
“When were you planning on telling me and Daisy?” he said from the doorway, deriving a grim satisfaction from their confusion. “At least you let the poor kid blow out the candles on her cake before your big reveal. ‘Happy birthday, darling. Mummy and Daddy have a surprise: they’re abandoning you to do their slavedays.’ ”
The three of them looked back at him in silence. On the tabletop, Dad’s hand reached for Mum’s. Parental solidarity—never a good sign.
“So what’s the plan? That Abi’s going to look after me and Daisy? How will she do that when she’s at med school?”
“Sit down, Luke.”
Dad was an easygoing man, but his voice was unusually firm. That was the first alarm.
Then as he stepped into the room, Luke noticed the documents Abi was hastily shuffling into a pile. A suspiciously large pile. The uppermost sheet bore Daisy’s date of birth.
Understanding slid into Luke’s brain and lodged its sharp point there.
“It’s not just you, is it?” he croaked. “It’s all of us. Now that Daisy’s turned ten, it’s legal. You’re taking us with you. We’re all going to do our slavedays.”
He could hardly say the last word. It stole the breath from his chest.
In an instant, the slavedays had gone from being a dull exam question to the next decade of Luke’s life. Ripped away from everyone and everything he knew. Sent to Manchester’s filthy, unforgiving slavetown, Millmoor.
“You know what they say.” Luke was unsure whether he was berating his parents or begging them. “ ‘Do your slavedays too old, you’ll never get through them. Do your slavedays too young, you’ll never get over them.’ What part of that don’t you understand? Nobody does days at my age, let alone Daisy’s.”
“It’s not a decision your mother and I have taken lightly,” Dad replied, keeping his voice steady.
“We only want the best for you all,” Mum said. “And we believe this is it. You’re too young to appreciate it now, but life is different for those who’ve done their days. It gives you opportunities—better opportunities than your father and I had.”
Luke knew what she meant. You weren’t a full citizen until you’d completed your slavedays, and only citizens could hold certain jobs, own a house, or travel abroad. But jobs and houses were unimaginably far off, and ten years of servitude in exchange for a few weeks of foreign holidays didn’t seem much of a trade.
His parents’ reasonableness knifed Luke with betrayal. This wasn’t something his parents just got to choose, like new curtains for the living room. This was Luke’s life. About which they’d made a huge decision without consulting him.
Though they had, apparently, consulted Abi.
“As she’s eighteen,” Dad said, following Luke’s gaze, “Abigail is of age to make up her own mind. And obviously your mum and I are delighted that she’s decided to come with us. In fact, she’s done rather more than that.”
Dad put his arm round Abi’s shoulders and squeezed proudly. What had the girl wonder done now?
“Are you serious?” Luke asked his sister. “You’ve been offered places at three different medical schools, and you’re turning them down to spend the next decade saying nin hao every five minutes in Millmoor’s Bank of China call center? Or maybe they’ll put you in the textiles factory. Or the meat-packing plant.”
“Cool it, little bro,” Abi said. “I’ve deferred my offers. And I’m not going to Millmoor. None of us are. Do what Dad says: sit down, and I’ll explain.”
Still furious, but desperate to know how you could do days without going to Millmoor, Luke complied. And he listened with a mixture of admiration and horror as Abi told him what she’d done.
It was insane. It was terrifying.
It was still slavedays, and because he was under eighteen it wasn’t like Luke had a choice one way or the other. His parents could take him wherever they wanted.
But at least they weren’t taking him to the hellhole that was Millmoor.
Mum and Dad told Daisy the next morning, and she accepted the news with a stoicism that made Luke ashamed. For the first time, he allowed himself to think that maybe his parents’ plan was the right one, and that they’d all get through their days just fine, as a family.
A few days later, once it had all sunk in, he told his best friend, Simon. Si let out a low whistle at the big reveal.
“There’s a department within the Labor Allocation Bureau called Estates Services, where the Equals go for their house-slaves,” Luke said. “Abi made an application for us there. We’re being sent south to Kyneston.”
Most helpful customer reviews
23 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
Get swept away.....
By Old Coast Customer
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I am a 55 year old woman and I am unapologetic that I got swept away in the story. the author has taken the time to beautifully set the stage for this story. Her ability to describe the characters, scenery, and magical happenings are really wonderful.
I did not want the book to end, and cannot wait for a follow up to continue a story I already am deeply involved with.
So much treachery, back-stabbing, young love, mystery, suspense, there are just not enough words to describe all the twists and turns in this book.
For a first novel, this is an excellent effort, and I am very much looking forward to more from Vic James.
She is now on my watch list of authors.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
Gilded Cage by Vic James
By Tiniferous
This book has a very high chance of being my favorite book for all of 2017! It was so amazing! I haven't read a book this good in a long time. I absolutely loved it, from beginning to end. While it is the first in the series (it will be a trilogy), it didn't read like a first book of more to come. By the end I could tell there would be a sequel, but the whole time I was reading the book I thought that it very well could be a standalone novel. The story was written that well. It felt complete in itself, yet left me so in love with the gray areas of the situation and intrigued by the characters that I will be highly anticipating its sequel.
In this dystopian fantasy, the Equals (people with magical abilities) hold all the power. They control the government and make all of the decisions. The common people, who have little rights to begin with, must spend 10 years of their life as a slave and give up their rights completely during that time. Abi manages to apply for her entire family, including her younger brother and sister, to do their slave days together on the estate of an Equals' family. However, it is not as great an achievement as it originally seems. Her brother, Luke, gets denied and is sent to work in a backbreaking slave town instead, while working on the estate is definitely different than the family imagined.
From these two places, the story does an excellent job of painting the picture and viewpoints from the Equals, from the position of servants living on the estate, and from those working in the slave towns. Everything flows seamlessly together in a way that left me seeking more and becoming enraptured with the world and the characters. It was great to get to see from all of the different perspectives, and that element itself is one of the key things that made this book so great. I found myself enjoying both sides, not just one or the other. (If I had to pick favorites, I would say Luke and Silyen are my two favorite character story lines!)
The political conniving, the plight of the common people, and the bonds between the characters left me wanting more at every check point. Like a good dystopian should, I was left mourning the injustices occurring to the people and yearning for characters to act on it. Another thing I loved about this particular dystopian is the time spent on the oppressors. I got to know not only the common people affected by this situation, but those with the power to do something about it and blatantly refused to. Gilded Cage doesn't work in shades of black and white, but instead with many hues of gray.
Rating
I adored this book. I know I will read it many more times to come. I give it a full 5 out of 5. I would highly recommend it to any fans of dystopian worlds in particular, but it is so good that I would suggest it to many, many others as well.
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful.
I thought it was gonna be a much better book. More complex
By M. Avery
I was unimpressed, unfortunately. I thought it was gonna be a much better book. More complex, more immersive. Compared to Luke, you don't get much of Abi. When you pick up this book, you think you'll mostly be following around Abi in the book. It's mostly Luke, and some other characters. I think the use of jumping around from character to character was used way too much. I usually don't mind reading different view points in a book.....but this tool was a little abused.
In fact, it hindered the author from being able to develop the characters and get the reader emotionally engaged. Had the author not put herself in a position where she had to gloss over/quickly go through the parts of the story that would have been perfect for emotionally engaging the reader in order to keep the story moving. For example, building the budding romance between Jenner and Abi. We got about 3 sentences that informed us that they shared little looks, he kept her longer than necessary, etc. We were also informed of his attributes. We didn't get SEE his attributes. Or SEE the budding romance. Had we, we would have cared about him. Had we, we would root for them.
A good book, a good story, doesn't TELL you, they SHOW you. They use words and phrases that bring you in and make you feel. This book does not.
Being slaves for 10 years was a little unbelieveable. I get it, the author changed the history of modern earth in order to make this work. She's far from the first author to do so. I love fantasy, paranormal books. But it just didn't make sense that just a handful of people are Equals and everyone else were commoners that had to slave for 10 years of their life. And that's it's been this way for a few hundred years. I just don't see it this author's particular setup as viable, even in an alternate earth with a totally different history. I feel like a revolution would have happened MUCH sooner in all honesty. Perhaps that's just me though.
I kept thinking the setting was modern, as there are many modern elements mentioned.....but it also seemed historic as well, as there were a lot of historic elements....and for some reason the two didn't mesh quite right. Maybe because I don't live in England and never actually been??? So I deem a lot of things "England" historic??? I'm an American reader of historical romances as well, though I haven't read one in many years. A lot of those historic romances took place in historic England.
Idk, it might just be me.
The author attempted to be suspenseful.....but it just didn't work. That's the only way I can put it
Anyways, it seemed the author was on the verge of something great....and it just fell flat.
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