Book Review: INCARCERON by Catherine Fisher

[rj_anderson]

INCARCERON JUST ATE MY BRAIN.

It's like the mutant YA love child of Gormenghast, Tad Williams' Otherworld books, and the Hungry City Chronicles by way of Lord of the Flies and starring Jack Bristow from Alias as the Warden. The two main characters are deeply flawed but also intelligent and sympathetic, the supporting cast are varied and well-drawn, the plot is deep and convoluted without being opaque, and Catherine Fisher's descriptions make me want to lick the page especially when Jared is involved. I WANT THE SEQUEL NOW (thank goodness there will be one: Sapphique is scheduled for August 2008).

penwiper26, remember your post about The Queen of Attolia? I was reading this book doing the "Check, check, check..." thing as well. It started here:

Dazzled, she withdrew her eye from the lens. When she turned to face him tiny flickers of light blurred her sight, played over his tangle of dark hair, his narrow face and spare figure, the unlaced tunic under his robe.

"He's brought the wedding forward," she said.

Her tutor frowned. "Yes. Of course."

At which point I had to put the book down and say "GUH." right out loud.

Anyway, this is the kind of book that could spawn an entire fan community full of plotty multi-chapter genfic, insanely loyal factions for each of the characters and ship wars all over the place, if anybody outside the UK had heard of it. Though I hear that Catherine Fisher is going to be published in the US soon, if she isn't already -- seems she's written quite a few books and I am now going to have to track them down and read them ALL.

Do I need to say it? Recommended.

Comments

[drmm.livejournal.com]

Actually, Snow-walker, Darkhenge and the Oracle trilogy are published in the U.S. currently. I've got all of those, although I still haven't had time to read the Oracle books. I did enjoy both Snow-walker and Darkhenge, although I didn't fall in love with them (of course, it's been a while since I read them, so I've forgotten my initial reaction).

[mary-j-59.livejournal.com]

A Catherine Fisher I haven't heard of yet - thanks! I'd recommended her to you about a year ago, and was just going to mention all of the above titles - my sister and I both loved Darkhenge and the Oracle Trilogy is pretty amazing, too. I haven't read Snow-walker yet. But she's definitely an excellent writer. This recommendation, plus your news that Megan Whalen Turner is working on a fourth book, makes me very happy.

(And my sister, who's also thrilled by this news, just mentioned Kate Thompson, who's also an excellent writer and also loves Catherine Fisher - she's just written one called The Last of the High Kings. So many good books!)

[penwiper26.livejournal.com]

:)

Contents noted, Jeeves.

[kbaccellia.livejournal.com]

Yes, this is one awesome book. I reviewed it a few days ago on my blog.

[olmue.livejournal.com]

I was going to say that some of her books are already in the US, but someone beat me to it. There are others, though, that I hadn't heard of before that I read in German. Haven't had a look yet at Incarceron.

[elizabethcbunce.livejournal.com]

I've been waiting for this one, because I *devoured* the Oracle Prophecies. Unfortunately, now is not the time for INCARCERON (whimper), so it's best that I don't even let it in my home yet.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

Ooh, sounds good, just from your brief comments.

You could comment MORE if you wanted....

[emmaco.livejournal.com]

The good news is that Incarceron was shortlisted for the YA fantasy/SF Cybils award (http://dadtalk.typepad.com/cybils/2008/01/2007-science-fi.html), which might help generate more interest for the book. (I was the proud nominator of it, hurrah!)