Incarceron

Incarceron Series, Book 1

By: Catherine Fisher

Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest

Length: 11 hrs and 36 mins

Publisher's summary

Incarceron is a prison so vast that it contains not only cells, but also metal forests, dilapidated cities, and vast wilderness. Finn, a 17-year-old prisoner, has no memory of his childhood and is sure that he came from Outside Incarceron. Very few prisoners believe that there is an Outside, however, which makes escape seems impossible.

And then Finn finds a crystal key that allows him to communicate with a girl named Claudia. She claims to live Outside - she is the daughter of the warden of Incarceron and is doomed to an arranged marriage. Finn is determined to escape the prison, and Claudia believes she can help him. But they don't realize that there is more to Incarceron than meets the eye. Escape will take their greatest courage and cost more than they know.

©2010 Catherine Fisher (P)2010 Listening Library

Critic reviews

“By delving into the philosophy of imprisonment and the development of society; discussing how history informs the present; and exploring self-awareness and sentience in nonhuman characters, Incarceron becomes something of a tour de force.” (School Library Journal)

“Fisher’s characters are emotionally resonant, flawed, determined, and plagued by metaphysical questions.... With some well-timed shocking twists and a killer ending, this is a must have.” (Booklist)

“Fisher’s dystopic future, in which technology and decay coexist in a dazzling kaleidoscope of images and time periods, is brilliantly realized.... Elegant, gritty, often surprising.” (The Horn Book)

Loved this book

What did you love best about Incarceron?

the storyline was something not yet written about it was a great take on alternate reality, in a way that was understood as we have learned in history class period information and yet in the future which is not to far off.

Any additional comments?

my only issue is i had imagined the voice in my mind for the main female character to be more tough and not so broken and fairy like.

I love it!

The narration was pretty good, the story is by far one of my favorites, and the overall feel of this book is great.

Exciting and imaginative

This is a bold, ingenious and consistently surprising fantasy, with very strong characters. One half of the story is like Tudor-era historical fiction, with a lot of court intrigue, and the other is a sort of post-apocalyptic steampunk prison-break action yarn. You have to hand it to Fisher for integrating them so smoothly. Anyone who likes Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games trilogy will probably find this novel appealing. My one reservation is the narration. The American narrator decided to give all the character's "British" accents although she can't really do them. Some characters sound cockney, others sound Irish, others sound Australian and still others just sound bogus. It's really distracting/annoying.

Creative and Entertaining

I enjoyed this book and thought that the narration was good.

The book is interesting for the first 30 minutes and then drags for an hour or so but once your're into it 2 hours it is great This book takes place in two worlds/dimensions, the "real world" and Incarceron. I found the portions about Incarceron to be more interesting, probably because it is a new and foreign world. The chapters in the book flip focus back and forth between Incarceron and the "real world". One chapter is about Incarceron, the next is about the "real world" and so on.

The book focuses on the parallel lives of the two main characters: Fin and Claudia. Both are trying to escape their own prisons, Finn who is literally trapped in Incarceron and Claudia whose life is like a prison.

This is a great book and I would and have recommended it to others. The world, people, creatures and concept of Incareceron is creative, interesting and entertaining.

I look forward to the second book: Sapphique, which should be released in Dec 2010.

Incarceron is a lot like Elantris by Brandon Sanderson. If you like Elantris then you will like Incarceron and vise versa.

Winging Characters

I read this back when I was a kid, I didn’t remember how terribly whiny and self centered every single character is. Good story and performance, but I’d have to stop due to anger at the characters once in a while.

Wonderful Story!

An absolutely great story with superior narration. This has been the most enjoyable audiobook I have listened to so far. I am looking forward to listening to the sequel!

Great Story

Loved this book, bought the second as soon as I finished the first. Its a great story for a multitude of ages.

good, but a little confusing

it was a good story but it was easy to get lost and it was pretty easy to get bored.
overall it was one of my all time favorites.

great book, hard to follow the narrator

love the book, i read it many times growing up, and with my busy schedule i hardly have time to read. sometimes its just good to listen along and read a good book with my girlfriend while im doing other things. however, listening to this book i couldnt understand or follow along with the narrator at all, there was no clear break between chapters, and i couldnt help but feel that the accent and the sound of and endless run-on monotone sentence was a bit underwhelming. i found myself rewinding the book several times every couple min to get a recap.

What’s with the accents?!?!

Great and imaginative story. The narrator is fine when she is just reading the narrative. But WHY must all fantasy characters have a British accent? The narrator is not good at accents or voices. If this is not your strong suit, please don’t ruin the story by doing poor accents and annoying voices.