Carmilla Reads

Gilded Cage is a bit like Animal Farm with magic. It's told from the perspective of seven characters, and set in an alternate Britain where the ruling class are called Equals and have magical powers, while the non-magical populous must submit to a decade of slavery.

It's the first book in a series and while most of the threads are neatly concluded by the end a couple remain. The characters are varied, although most represent a type rather than a fully realised individual, however that seems to work in the depths of this them versus us narrative.

I enjoyed it and will probably pick up other books in the series at some point. Vic James is particularly talented when it comes to describing settings, all of which feel very real in spite of their strangeness.