Incarceron (Incarceron, #1) in What's the Name of That Book???

Jul 01, 2010 Trin rated it did not like it

Shelves: fantasy, ya, amnesia, 2000s, welsh-lit

Basically, it's Escape From New York, except with fantasy instead of post-apocalyptic trappings. The characters are stock, and the action is propelled along by a lack of information and dull action setpieces that transpire without any real sense of excitement or danger. I never got a visceral—or even bare-bones visual—sense of what the living/mechanical/whatever prison of Incarceron is supposed to be like. And, as with far too many YA/fantasy/sci-fi/action/adventure books I've struggled through, ...more

14 likes · Like · see review

May 12, 2010 Chelsea rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, 2010, youngadult, alternatehistory

Aaargh. I need to start reading stand alone novels, because the wait for all these sequels is killing me. And now I have another one to add to the list.

This one grabbed me hard from page one and so there I sat, all day, at the Book Shop, ignoring the display I should have been putting together (though I did get it done!) as I plowed through. I love that Fisher just drops the reader into this wildly different world, and expects you to keep up and piece together the details of her characters' real ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Apr 01, 2013 Kate rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: age-ya, steampunk, teen-book-club, 2013

Three years ago Finn awoke inside the prison. He doesn't remember anything before that, and since then he has felt the prison watching him. Outside the prison, Claudia is betrothed to a prince, but she desperately wants to find Incarceron, of which her father is the Warden. She believes the prince's half-brother and true Heir is trapped inside. When both Finn and Claudia find keys, they unlock the ability to communicate with one another.

The beginning was a bit confusing. The end was a little co ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 25, 2010 Emma rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Incarceron is a prison like no other.

It is a closed system; nothing enters the prison. And nothing ever leaves. Incarceron was built to be self-sufficient. Nothing goes to waste. Food is recycled, materials made over and over. Prisoners, when they pass, are not buried or burned--their atoms are used to create new inmates.

In a prison so vast, most prisoners cannot imagine a world Outside their misery.

Finn is different.

Seventeen or eighteen years old, Finn has no memory of his past. No one believe ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Nov 25, 2010 Sara ♥ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2010, action-adventure, young-adult, books-i-own, suspense, science-fiction, dystopian, challenge-fall-2010

WOW! That was a REALLY cool book! I tried SO HARD to stay up late last night to finish it, but my eyes would NOT stay awake... and with only 15 pages left! And OF COURSE, the second book doesn't come out for a month. Why does that always seem to happen to me? SRLSY!

Anyway, so this book is kinda sci-fi/dystopian... Like amazing technology EXISTS in the world of Incarceron, but it's being suppressed by the ruling monarchy in order to keep themselves in power. So the idea is that generations ago, f WOW! That was a REALLY cool book! I tried SO HARD to stay up late last night to finish it, but my eyes would NOT stay awake... and with only 15 pages left! And OF COURSE, the second book doesn't come out for a month. Why does that always seem to happen to me? SRLSY!

Anyway, so this book is kinda sci-fi/dystopian... Like amazing technology EXISTS in the world of Incarceron, but it's being suppressed by the ruling monarchy in order to keep themselves in power. So the idea is that generations ago, for whatever reason, the ruling people decided to build a really huge prison (called Incarceron) to house all of society's low-lifes. The place was super high-tech, fully sustainable, etc., etc. The idea was that they would lock the people in and never have to worry about them ever again. They could have their perfect little world and be separate from the rest of society. The location is a secret, but it's rumored to be underground. The only person who really knows anything specific about the prison is the Warden of Incarceron.

But, of course, no "perfect" society ends up being perfect. Long ago, the computer that runs everything took over (à la HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey) and things haven't gone well for a long time. The system is running out of organic material to recycle and things (animals, people, etc.) are starting to be part human, part machine. Society has broken down (of course) into smaller warring groups. There is a (little bit) higher class and a lower class that don't get along... All sorts of crap like that.

So there is this 17-year-old boy, Finn, and 2 of his peeps who live in Incarceron, who dream of Escape. There are legends of a guy named Sapphique who was able to escape a long long time ago, and they hope to be able to follow in his footsteps. Finn remembers waking up in Incarceron about 3 years ago, but he doesn't remember anything from his life before.

On the Outside, there's a girl named Claudia, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, who is betrothed to the prince of the land. And she is NOT excited about it. (He's an idiot and would be a TERRIBLE husband.) She doesn't get along with her dad and is really fascinated by Incarceron, though she knows almost nothing about it. She dreams of going inside to that perfect society.

So Finn, through some interesting circumstances, finds a crystal key thing and Claudia steals an identical one from her dad, and through them, they are able to communicate with each other. Finn and buddies have it confirmed to them that there really IS an outside (and thus their hopes for escape are not COMPLETELY in vain) and Claudia realizes that Incarceron is NOT all it's cracked up to be! There are a lot of other details I'm not going to go into, because they're totally spoilery, but Finn and Claudia decide to pool their resources to try and bust Finn and company out of Incarceron.

This is a pair of books (Book 2, Sapphique, comes out December 28th) so the story isn't over yet, but this book covers Finn and buddies' attempt at escape and the time leading up to Claudia's wedding... Eeeeek!

Overall, this book was super-intriguing, action-packed, and just plain cool. There were twists and turns I wasn't really expecting (like where Incarceron really is... whaaaaa?) I can't wait to read the second book! ...more

Like · see review

Mar 23, 2010 Esther rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ya, author-female, __mine-and-i-m-keeping-it, favourites, zz-2010, fantasy, zz-2010-from-my-own-shelves, steampunk, dystopia, series-loved-or-to-continue

Amazing!! My favourite book of 2010

1 like · Like · see review

May 22, 2012 Sara ♥ rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: suspense, young-adult, audiobook, 2012, science-fiction, dystopian, challenge-summer-2012

Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... So I REALLY didn't like this book as much as I did last time. I'm trying to figure out what the deal was.

Some of it was the narrator. This book does NOT translate well to audio. Or maybe it was the narrator. I REALLY didn't think her voice was right for this book. (She was OKAY for Anna and the French Kiss, but I just don't think she does voices (especially male voices) very well!)

Some of it was the writing. I think the first time, I was reading so fast, I Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.... So I REALLY didn't like this book as much as I did last time. I'm trying to figure out what the deal was.

Some of it was the narrator. This book does NOT translate well to audio. Or maybe it was the narrator. I REALLY didn't think her voice was right for this book. (She was OKAY for Anna and the French Kiss, but I just don't think she does voices (especially male voices) very well!)

Some of it was the writing. I think the first time, I was reading so fast, I blamed being confused by the plot on myself, for going to fast and skipping over things that must have been important. But with an audiobook, the narrator reads every word to you. And this book is confusing. I think science fiction/dystopian writing can be tricky, because you have to describe a world that isn't familiar in a way that the reader can picture it, you know? And I don't think that's Catherine Fisher's strong suit. I really couldn't picture the inside of Incarceron at ALL, so it was mostly just people running around through unknown terrain that really didn't make any sense. Plus, the belief system inside Incarceron and the political situation outside weren't very well-developed or maybe well-described.

And the relationships were... not clear in their intentions. In other words, I didn't know what to do (mentally) with Attia's feelings for Finn. I didn't GET the bond between Finn and Keiro. Mostly I just felt like Keiro was a big jerk-face and wanted someone to push him down a big cliff and watch him go splat! There were rumors about Jared and Claudia that seemed totally unfounded (but I was reading some spoilery reviews of Sapphique and (view spoiler)).

So I don't know what to expect AT ALL from the sequel, and honestly, after reading those spoilery reviews, I don't think I even want to know. I think I'll just write my own ending in my head about how Finn and Claudia live happily ever after, free everyone in Incarceron, get rid of the queen and her jerk-face son, Keiro and Attia can fall in love, I suppose. Or both die. I don't particularly care which. And Jared? I don't know. Whatever. See? I don't even care enough to come up with a good sequel in my mind. I doubt I'll be reading the official one. ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jul 22, 2011 Isabel rated it it was ok

Shelves: scifi

resounding meh.

Like · see review

Oct 19, 2010 Evan rated it it was ok

Shelves: youngadult, sci-fi

Incarceron set itself up to be both physically and psychologically intriguing, but didn't quite live up to either promise. Maybe it would go further in its sequels, but it didn't give me enough to read on. ...more

Like · see review

Feb 01, 2010 Snail in Danger (Sid) Nicolaides rated it liked it

Shelves: science-fiction, children-ya

Probably more like a 3.5. Doesn't seem overwhelmingly original, but it was written well and interesting enough to make me wish that the sequel was available in the U.S. ...more

Like · see review

May 13, 2010 Jessie rated it liked it

Shelves: readaloud

Solid 3 stars. There were some twists I saw coming and some I didn't. Decent dystopia. I'll put the sequel on my to-read, but I don't know if I actually will get to it. ...more

Like · see review