Book Review: Incarceron by Catherine Fisher

Incarceron is a prison so vast its inmates can't fathom its dimensions.  Finn has always felt like he was not born there, but he can't remember much of his past.  When he comes across a unique crystal key that allows him to communicate with someone outside, he begins to hope there is a chance he can escape, but to where?

Things I Liked:
This book blew my mind.  Seriously, I was sucked into its twisting and complicated plot and couldn't pull myself out again until I was done.  Fisher has created such an interesting and unique world with a sentient prison playing a huge, albeit background, role in the story.  It seemed like every time I thought I had something figured out, there would be a new and mind-blowing revelation.  Sometimes I felt like I couldn't even keep up.  I loved the characters - especially because you just aren't certain if the bad guys are really bad or not.  Each character deals with their own demons and flaws and is so believable you just can't help rooting for them.  And the end.  Oh, the end!  I seriously need the next book!  One other thing that I really liked was that despite the fact that I read it really fast, this is a book I think I will love to reread.  It has a lot of depth that I'm sure I skipped over in my hurry to know.what.happens.next.  Some favorite quotes:

"We are rich, some of us, and live well, but we are not free.  We are chained hand and foot by Protocol, enslaved to a static, empty world where men and women can't read, where the scientific advances of the ages are the preserve of the rich, where artists and poets are doomed to endless repetitions and sterile reworkings of past masterpieces.  Nothing is new.  New does not exist.  Nothing changes, nothing grows, evolves, develops.  Time has stopped.  Progress is forbidden." p 243 

"...or is it that man contains within himself the seeds of evil? That even if he is placed in a paradise perfectly formed for him he will poison it, slowly, with his own jealousies and desires?  I fear it may be that we blame the Prison for our own corruption.  And I do not except myself, for I too am one who has killed and looked only to my own gain." p 312

Things I Didn't Like:
At the beginning I had a hard time picking up on what was happening.  There seemed to be a lot of new concepts being introduced all at once.  I adjusted fairly quickly though. Also it did do a lot of jumping from one perspective and place to another, but I really wasn't bothered, because the story kept me going.

Read-alikes:
Chaos Walking books by Patrick Ness
Inside Out by Maria V. Snyder
The Maze Runner by James Dashner

BOOK CONTENT RATINGS:
s-factor: !
a few (I think)

mrg-factor: none

v-factor: ->->
not very descriptive, but quite a few incidents

Overall rating: *****

Do you ever read a book really fast and then want to read it again much slower to savor it?

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