Incarceron, Catherine Fisher

This book is for the Steampunk Reading Challenge, hosted by Dark Faerie Tales.

Description

My thoughts: Catherine Fisher does create a very interesting world here, with a sentient prision (Incarceron) who turns against its prisioners at every turn, making living in it a living hell. But story-wise, I just disliked way too many things to make this a stellar read.

First, it took me way too much time to read a book this big. I felt my reading was dragging on because apparently nothing was happening, except it was - the action scenes just weren't creating the sense of urgency they should. I couldn't care enough for what was going on and engage in the characters' worries. Then the big revelations were way too obvious. Seriously, I could tell Finn's secret in the first 30 to 50 pages (and that never happens to me). The discoveries we make about Incarceron were a bit more interesting, though.

The characters made me harder to care for them as well. They either are cardboard-like (Finn), despicable (at least we're told so - the queen, Casper or even John Arlex), ou just annoying (Claudia, I'm talking to you, with your selfish and thoughtless actions). Jared was interesting enough, and I felt bad for Keiro and Attia. I'd like to know more about Sapphique as well.

The bright star in the book is the worldbuilding, really, and even that got me questioning the book. A previous king decided to prohibit any kind of technology or technological advancements in order to avoid turbulence in society, thus this society is frozen in time, but one can't tell exactly when. Many people on Goodreads mention the Victorian era, but I personally got a few French court circa Louis XIV vibes.

The creation of Incarceron and its idiosyncrasies was what truly captivated me. The notion of a sentient entity, responsible for all the lives in it, and determined to make everything harder to them, was just wonderful. The imagery of the prison was quite interesting as well, and I just wish there was more "screentime" dedicated to Incarceron.

I will still be reading the second book, because I'm curious about a few things, and I refuse to let the disappointments in this book to get me down. But this could have been a much better book (and read).