Review + Giveaway: Sapphique

SAPPHIQUE (Incarceron #2)
Catherine Fisher
Young Adult
460 pages
Penguin
Releases December 28, 2010
Received from publisher for review

THE STORY
For so long Finn dreamed of escaping the sentient prison he and his oathbrother Keiro battled on a daily basis, knowing all the while they might not ever reach what lies beyond it's ever-changing walls. With the help of Claudia, a young girl from Outside, Finn has finally gotten his taste of freedom, only it's sweetness is not quite as potent as he imagined.

Things on the Outside aren't much better than the brutal reality of Incarceron, and while Finn knew how to battle the prison, the world of politics and the social etiquette expected of him as the long lost heir to the throne is baffling. Add in the guilt of leaving Keiro behind, and his dream has turned into a nightmare.

To make matters worse, a new young man has stepped forward claiming to be the lost prince, and he has the memories Finn has long since forgotten, though visions of his former life still plague him. While Finn deals with a potential usurper, Keiro and companion Attia try to find a way out of Incarceron on their own, realizing it's watching their every move but unaware of the prison's own plans for escape. Soon the separate worlds in which Finn and Keiro reside will collide, allegiances will be severed, and nothing for either reality will ever be the same.

MY THOUGHTS
The sequel and conclusion to Incarceron, Sapphique continues to build on the astounding world introduced previously, a world where surety is replaced with possibility and concrete knowledge with ambiguity. We straddle two radically different environments while reading, both which should be pristine, unblemished paradises where virtue and magnanimity flourish, but have instead been infected by greed, ambition, and the desire to rule no matter how small the territory under their thumbs. In this world, complacency doesn't exist and the most basic human desire of wanting rather than needing is prominent. The want of power. The want of control. The constant, nagging want to acquire new things without heed to the consequences of such inclinations. These intriguing musings and profound questions regarding our own natures are coupled with a world of limitless creativity, a combination that holds us in a fascinated stupor we're in no hurry to shake off.

Just as with Incarceron, Sapphique is predominantly story and world-driven, the characters distanced from us and seemingly devoid of deep emotion as they've been forced to survive in separate but equally stifling worlds that have stripped them of anything other than an instinct to survive. Because of the nature of the worlds in which they live, the cold and aloof demeanor is understandable and, in Incarceron, was easily explained away in that context. However, in this second installment, the lack of an emotional connection is a more significant barrier, one we struggle to traverse but are ultimately unable to do so. Where we had a spark of life from Finn previously, one that could have guided us to the attachment for which we so desperately search in this book, it has now been thoroughly doused by the guilt of his escape and his decision to leave his friends behind with what he's quickly realizing may have been an empty promise of return. The shiny newness of the world, though it still holds us transfixed, is unable to satisfy us completely, and there is a noticeable vacancy where our welcome entanglement with Finn, Claudia and the remaining characters should be.

Additionally, where the open-ended nature of the conclusion of Incarceron wasn't bothersome since we knew a sequel was coming, the questions we are left with at the end of this story are far more troubling. Not only is the end open to interpretation, which is absolutely fine, it's crowded with blatant and perplexing enigmas in a world already blanketed in the endless blackness of possibility. Every door we walk through to search for answers transforms into a false passageway, a conjured illusion to keep us guessing, and we realize our questions in fact have no answers and no solid form to be revealed, they only change shape along with the prison itself to present us with a different facet for examination, but still one that yields no absolutes. Every character we meet is peering out at us through a mask, and beneath it is yet another mask, this one more detailed and convincing than the last as their identities, motivations, and allegiances are more difficult to decipher than ever. Though allowing us to form our own conclusions is welcome, a bit more information and just a couple of answers would have been appreciated after such an arduous journey.

The world of Incarceron and Sapphique is truly breathtaking; a marvel of imagination and creativity that seems to make the depths of our own minds shallow in comparison. Though this second and final installment is not quite as strong as its predecessor, it's still an intriguing read that raises powerful questions and delights us with fantastical elements we won't soon forget.

Rating: 3.5/5


GIVEAWAY:

The fabulous Sandy over at Pirate Penguin's Reads has generously donated her ARC of Sapphique and offered it as a giveaway to accompany my review, so a huge thank you to Sandy! To enter, just leave a comment with your email address so I have a way to contact you if you win. Contest will run through December 30th after which time a winner will be chosen and announced on the blog. Because I already have this ARC in hand, the contest is US only, so sorry to all my international readers, but stay tuned for my New Year's giveaway January 3-9 as it will be international! Good luck everyone!

Review: Incarceron

INCARCERON (Incarceron #1)
Catherine Fisher
Young Adult
442 Pages
Penguin
Available Now

THE STORY
Incarceron is a sentient prison. It lives and breathes. It creates and destroys. And its inmates are subject to its whims each and every day. Finn is one such inmate, though he is different from the others he's met. Finn is sure he came from Outside, bolstered in his belief by brief flashes of a different time and place and a man of legend named Sapphique, the only person to ever escape Incarceron's grasp.

Finn and his oathbrother Keiro have been fighting for their lives for as long as they can remember. Though Incarceron rules everyone, there are bands of individuals constantly squabbling for power, and infighting is an everyday occurrence. It's only when a strange woman recognizes a mark on Finn's wrist that he dares to truly hope his visions haven't been figments of his imagination, but rather snippets of a life before imprisonment.

The woman leads Finn to a crystal key and a young woman named Claudia, confined herself to a prison of an entirely different kind. She's on the Outside, forced into an arranged marriage to cement her father's power. Together Finn and Claudia must weave their way through Incarceron's mysteries, but soon they find that like the prison, the Outside has secrets of its own.

MY THOUGHTS
Ms. Fisher certainly knows how to write a captivating and completely unexpected story. The questions Incarceron raises are the type to keep one pondering for days after reading, constantly musing over a plethora of possible answers. Incarceron started as a social experiment, one where the dregs of society would be locked away but given the best tutors, the finest education, and an ideal environment where everything they could possibly need would be provided. It should have been paradise. A promised land. A second chance. Instead, it's dreary, dark, and full of hatred, greed, and brutality which begs the question as to whether a perfect society can truly exist given the inherent flaws of human nature? Will the strong always dominate the weak? The rich forever enslave the poor? And perhaps more interestingly, will those with a will to see things change silence their voice in favor of the safety of anonymity? Fascinating questions indeed.

The dichotomy between the Outside and Incarceron is a beautifully executed aspect of the story. On the one hand we have the prison, an environment perpetually changing, shifting and moving forward moment to moment. On the opposite end of the spectrum is the Outside, a culture forever trapped in the traditions of a far distant past. The people are static, vehemently denying progress though their technology, medicine, and education are extremely advanced. Instead of embracing their knowledge, they choose to follow customs akin to the time of royalty and court life, even to the detriment of their own people. Instead of saving a young mother dying in child birth with their modern medicine, they choose to let her perish so as to adhere to Protocol. It's absolutely riveting to bear witness to two such contradictory social experiments as they go spectacularly awry, and to be a bit of a voyeur pensively watching as dissension and deception run rampant through both, letting us know that human nature cannot be controlled solely by social and physical parameters, but like Incarceron itself, has a spirit all it's own.

This is a book far more story-driven than character driven. The strength of it lies not in the characterization, as I felt it difficult to fully connect to either Finn or Claudia, but in the mystery and intrigue so beautifully woven page to page. What we think is solid and concrete information is proven to be merely an illusion, one our hand falls clear through as we attempt to grasp understanding, and we emerge on the other side presented with yet another piece to the ultimate jigsaw puzzle that is Incarceron. No single sliver of knowledge stays still long enough for the reader to decipher it's meaning, but instead we are forcibly thrust into the tumult, all the information we need to solve the puzzle rattling around in our heads but moving too quickly for us to allow them to take shape. The answers remain a shadow, ever just out of reach, and like Finn and Claudia, we find ourselves at the mercy of Incarceron to put them together for us.

I'm typically drawn to the stories with dazzling, passionate characters, ones where I get swept up in the emotion and the conflict, but the plot of this one is strong enough to make up for the deficiency and I look forward to putting my mind to work unraveling the riddles of Sapphique.

Rating: 4/5