Incarceron

Title: Incarceron
Author: Catherine Fisher
Publisher: Dial
Copyright: 2010
ISBN: 9780803733961

Reading Level: Grades 9-12
Interest Age: Grade 7 and up

Genre: Science Fiction--Dystopia

Reader’s Annotation: Incarceron is a sentient prison large enough to be a world unto itself, but only the Warden knows where it is.

Plot Summary
Incarceron takes place in two very different worlds. Claudia’s world is all about the politics of court and is restricted by Protocol—the requirement that everything conform to the Era. Years ago, after a war that “hollowed the moon and stilled the tides” King Endor decreed the end of human progress. All traces of modernity were removed and society was remade in the image of a pre-industrial, feudal Era. At the same time the great prison Incarceron was made, and a quarter of the world’s surviving population shut away inside forever. Incarceron is both a world—of dungeons, cities, and beautiful landscapes—and a sentient being. Finn lives in Incarceron, but he believes he hasn’t always been there. He is a “starseer” with memories (or are they just dreams?) of Outside. When Finn finds a key with mysterious powers, he sets out with a loose band of allies to follow in the footsteps of the legendary Sapphique, the only prisoner ever to Escape from Incarceron. Finn soon learns that he can communicate with Claudia, who is the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron, through the key. Though Claudia is Outside and wealthy, she has problems of her own—she’s engaged to a brutish prince, and his mother, the queen, keeps sending her barely-veiled threats.

Critical Evaluation
I found Incarceron disappointing because its premise is so compelling. The glimpses into the histories of the repressive regime and the prison provided in the chapter-starting epigraphs are more interesting than the action. The beginning and end of the story feel planned and solid, but in between the plot wanders. The characters keep doing things, but they seem to be motivated more by the author’s desire to explore the imaginative settings she’s created—both inside and outside the prison—than by emotion or logic. For example, the mysterious stranger who rescues Finn et al midway through the novel later tries to poison them, then lets them go. Fisher doesn’t even try to explain his motivations. In fact, the characters, with the exception of Incarceron, are pretty flat. There’s the beautiful, spunky heroine; the cold, haughty father; the devil-may-care pretty boy; the superstitious, grumpy old man; and the sensitive hero with a mysterious past. Their voices are difficult to distinguish and they all tend to say their lines either “bitterly” or “sourly.” Also, there are timeline inconsistencies--the prison has existed for either about 80 years or centuries. There are enough interesting elements to keep you reading, but with a little more care (and better editing) Incarceron could have been much better.


Curriculum Ties: N/A

Booktalking Ideas: Read some of the epigraphs that begin the chapters. They provide insight into the history of the dystopian society of Incarceron and are without exception very intriguing.

Challenge Issues: Mild language and violence

In the defense file, I will include my library's selection policy, ALA's Library Bill of Rights, ALA's guidelines on free access to libraries for minors (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/intfreedom/librarybill/interpretations/freeaccesslibraries.cfm), and ALA's strategies and tips for dealing with challenges to library materials (http://www.ala.org/ala/issuesadvocacy/banned/challengeslibrarymaterials/copingwithchallenges/strategiestips/index.cfm). I will also include my library's reconsideration form, in case challenges to this book cannot be defused with "tea and sympathy." I'll include positive reviews from Booklist, Children's Literature, Kirkus Reviews, and Cooperative Children's Book Center Choices, along with mixed reviews from Library Media Connection and The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books.

About the Author
Catherine Fisher was born in Newport, Wales. She graduated from the University of Wales with a degree in English and a fascination for myth and history. She has worked in education and archaeology and as a lecturer in creative writing at the University of Glamorgan. She is a Fellow of the Welsh Academy.

Catherine is an acclaimed poet and novelist, regularly lecturing and giving readings to groups of all ages. She leads sessions for teachers and librarians and is an experienced broadcaster and adjudicator. She lives in Newport, Gwent.

Catherine has won many awards and much critical acclaim for her work. Her poetry has appeared in leading periodicals and anthologies and her volume Immrama won the WAC Young Writers' Prize. She won the Cardiff International Poetry Competition in 1990.

Her first novel, The Conjuror's Game, was shortlisted for the Smarties Books prize and The Snow-Walker's Son for the W.H.Smith Award. Equally acclaimed is her quartet The Book of the Crow, a classic of fantasy fiction.

The Oracle, the first volume in the Oracle trilogy, blends Egyptian and Greek elements of magic and adventure and was shortlisted for the Whitbread Children's Books prize. The trilogy was an international bestseller and has appeared in over twenty languages. The Candleman won the Welsh Books Council's Tir Na n'Og Prize and Catherine was also shortlisted for the remarkable Corbenic, a modern re-inventing of the Grail legend.

Her futuristic novel Incarceron was published to widespread praise in 2007, winning the Mythopoeic Society of America's Children's Fiction Award and selected by The Times as its Children's Book of the Year. The sequel, Sapphique, was published in September 2008.

http://www.catherine-fisher.com/about.asp

Why is this title included?
I'd wanted to read Incarceron since it came out. I saw it reviewed on Amazon.com's Best Books of the Month list and bought it for my teenage sister. It's one of her favorites. Plus, other reviewers have found it much less flawed than I did.