Strange Horizons

Strange Horizons has a review of The Princes of the Golden Cage. Here’s a snippet: "Mallet has picked a fascinating setting and shows a knack for inserting cultural details without overbalancing the action. Having recently read Alev Lytle Croutier’s Harem: The World Behind the Veil, I recognized much of the information—the royal obsession with tulips, the penchant for assassination via interesting poisons, and the accurate descriptions of harem life, for starters—but Mallet is also true to the literary traditions of the ancient East. Readers of the Arabian Nights will smile at the way she incorporates the old tales into Amir’s investigative research. … Mallet is refreshingly candid about the racier aspects of the culture, as enthusiastically citing the sexual practices and bloodier rites of passage as describing the velvet divans and silver belts."