Incarceron-Catherine Fisher

Incarceron
Catherine Fisher
Dial, Jan 26 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780803733961

Energy resources are severely depleted since the war occurred. To save what is left of civilization; Incarceron Prison was built to house dissidents, radicals and criminals. This was sealed up so no one can enter or leave. The idea led to a closed environment with excellent shelter, decent food and medical supplies so Incarceron would become a Utopia. Instead reality and the dream fail to match as the world became hell on earth.

Finn believes his visions are memories of a life outside the prisons. He wants to escape along with his oath brother Keiro, slave girl Attia, and sapient Gildas. On the Outside, time stopped and society has become medieval with advanced technology banned by the ruling Protocol. Claudia, daughter of the Warden of Incarceron is expected to marry the Queen’s son and heir Earl Casper; she does not want to marry him. She was to wed his half-brother Giles who died in a freak accident whom she wanted to wed. When evidence surfaces that Giles is alive and inside Incarceron, she vows to get to him at the risk of her life.

Readers will quickly understand why the London Times calls this the book of the year as the story line plays out on several Orwellian levels that hook diverse age groups. Incarceron is a huge prison with an internal caste system and incredible security. People are there for life to include newborns. Finn is a loyal person taking care of friends inside a horrible containment zone risking his life to do so. Claudia likewise does the same when she tries to breach the great prison to save her beloved. Catherine Fisher provides a powerful futuristic as if the Knights of the Round Table took the Journey to the Center of the Earth only to find a 1984 setting.

Harriet Klausner