Great writing, a nice quick pace, and a driving plot kept me from putting this book down much once I'd started in on it. Still, it wasn't totally satisfying for me.

The dystopian world Catherine Fisher creates in the book is totally intriguing: After a violent upheaval called the "Time of Rage" the government takes control and puts all the criminals (along with the meek and the poor, I think) into a vast prison called Incarceron. Incarceron is supposed to be a utopia, but the sentient (artificial?) intelligence that controls the prison turns it into a hellish wasteland. Meanwhile, outside the prison, the elite are forced to live in a false feudal-ish era because the government has decreed that modernity and change are dangerous.

So you have a 17-year-old boy, Finn, and his motley group of friends inside Incerceron trying to get out. And you have a girl, Claudia, trying to discover the secrets of Incarceron to escape an arranged marriage to the future King. Not a bad setup.

My criticisms are largely matters of taste, I guess. None of the characters were particularly likable. Finn and Claudia were both hella angsty. And there wasn't very much in the way of humor or good feelings. If you don't mind 442 pages of dark, dreary, and tense then this will surely thrill you. As for me...I wasn't thrilled.

Another criticism, and a tiny bit of a spoiler, is that this book seems to be true sci-fi, but kind of drifts into fantasy in the end, by which I mean the conclusion lacked a logical explanation. Maybe the second book will do a better job of explaining Sapphique (I'm guessing so, since it's title is "Sapphique"). We shall see. ( )

This book would make a wonderful film, with its cinematic blend of 18th-century costume drama, mythological fantasy, and post-apocalyptic cyberpunk fun. Fisher tells an engaging story that has a bit of a Golden Compass feel to it.

However, the characters weren't compelling enough for me to consider picking up the sequels. It wasn't just that Claudia didn't interest me (I have a low tolerance for rebellious princess-types). Finn was even likable, and his quasi-mystical seizures gave a lot of texture to the story.

Yet both leads lack depth - not only do they not change during the story, but the reader knows everything there is to know about them by about page 50. In general, none of the emotional moments or reveals in this story surprised me, and there are few moments when the main characters surprise themselves. Which would be fine for many action-driven YA novels, but the narrative seems to demand a bit more that what Fisher gives us.

So, an imaginative book but not one that appealed to me as an adult reader who enjoys complex characters.

(Minor quibble: Sapphique sounds less like a trickster god and more like a Francophone feminist bookstore. But maybe that's just me.) ( )

I read through this one really fast. I really like the parallel story lines, but I felt like some of the characters were a little under-developed. I'm still wholly invested in Finn and Claudia though, and can't wait to start Sapphique today. ( )

This was one of those books that I really wanted to take my time reading---the writing is clean, evocative; the characters flawed and intriguing; and I didn't want to miss any of the details that might be important later. But the mystery of Incarceron is so compelling that I had to keep reminding myself to slow down, to savor the story as it unfolded. That turned out to be just about impossible...I couldn't put the book down! Someday I'd like to go back and rediscover all of the subtle touches that make Incarceron's world so vivid and engaging---and because the book pairs a suspenseful adventure with some fascinating notions about technology and the nature of humanity and its prisons, I know this is a book I can look forward to reading again! ( )

Solid 3 stars. There were some twists I saw coming and some I didn't. Decent dystopia. I'll put the sequel on my to-read, but I don't know if I actually will get to it. ( )