Incarceron takes place in a time in the future that man has succeeded in creating an inescapable utopia for mankind. This utopia becomes hellish when it becomes self aware and starts to torture the now prisoners of this place. The setting takes place in the future, but the inhabitants are quite reminiscent of the 17th century. This time period should be brimming with unimaginable technology besides the prison that amazes us, but these elements remain unseen. This is due to the king sending the prison's inhabitants back to this kind of era. This brings up a very interesting setting that no book has. Books are able to bring us into situations we can't encounter on earth, but only in our imagination. Fisher took advantage of this element of book writing to create a very interesting setting that I have not seen in my small library of books. My experience with this book was fun because I was able to be brought in to an interesting idea that had a developed story around it. The summary of an inescapable self aware prison is alluring enough, but when it is put into a book it draws the reader with its uniqueness and brings them along for the dramatic twists it has in store.
This book had some predictability to it in which we could expect what would happen, but we didn't know how that result came to be. For example we knew they were living in a self aware prison, but how does such a setting emerge unexplained. The reader frantically searches for the answers to their questions this book surfaces. As the reader looks for these answers they can guess what can happen, but the book is just one step ahead of your theories and surprises you with an answer that you wouldn't have expected. What made it so enjoyable was as you try to guess what will happen, you end up getting some right and some wrong. The predictability and unpredictability of the book brings the reader to enjoy the twists that they experience and leaves a lasting impression upon them as they experience the plot alongside the characters.
Monday, January 6, 2014
Incarceron: Characters
Incarceron had some very lovable characters in which I couldn't like just one. The variety of the characters is very well chosen. These characters fit within the qualities of most fantasy characters. For example, the orphan thief who wasn't evil and wanted to save the land; the intelligent, rebelling, future queen; the evil, cruel queen; and the morally ambiguous best friend of the thief. These characters can all be traced back to ancestral fantasy stories. But as shown in many books, there is character progression, characters change as the book progresses. The characters all become more complex as we learn about their desires and goals in the story that engulfs us further into the plot. An example could be the father-daughter relationship between Claudia and The Warden. The Warden is seen as this powerful man that handles the prison, yet he can't handle his own daughter.
Out of the protagonists, Claudia is the one who has the deepest development, but Finn is the one we all love as he comes in and gets our attention with his courageous acts and visions. Another interesting character is Finn's best friend, Keiro, who is quite experimental with his moral choices. Finn and Keiro have a special bond in which they both have each others backs no matter what. Finn stays with Keiro despite his bad qualities that may make him undesirable to others, but Finn has a heart of gold and looks past his flaws and thinks Keiro would do the same for him. Although Finn puts Keiro on a pedestal, Keiro is only using Finn to get out of Incarceron.
Overall these characters allow the reader to pick any one to focus on as their favorite as Fisher gives them a good amount of attention even though some may have more than others. The character progression deepens the bonds the reader has with that character as we follow their journey through this hell and how they try to cope with living in such an environment. Incarceron does something that many books like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are doing by giving the reader more options to choose from in terms of protagonists that broadens the spectrum of readers that may be pulled in. This is one of the main reasons I liked this book so much, bringing me back to the days of middle school sitting down and cramming a book in one day because I refused to put it down out of enjoyment for the book.
Out of the protagonists, Claudia is the one who has the deepest development, but Finn is the one we all love as he comes in and gets our attention with his courageous acts and visions. Another interesting character is Finn's best friend, Keiro, who is quite experimental with his moral choices. Finn and Keiro have a special bond in which they both have each others backs no matter what. Finn stays with Keiro despite his bad qualities that may make him undesirable to others, but Finn has a heart of gold and looks past his flaws and thinks Keiro would do the same for him. Although Finn puts Keiro on a pedestal, Keiro is only using Finn to get out of Incarceron.
Overall these characters allow the reader to pick any one to focus on as their favorite as Fisher gives them a good amount of attention even though some may have more than others. The character progression deepens the bonds the reader has with that character as we follow their journey through this hell and how they try to cope with living in such an environment. Incarceron does something that many books like Harry Potter and Percy Jackson are doing by giving the reader more options to choose from in terms of protagonists that broadens the spectrum of readers that may be pulled in. This is one of the main reasons I liked this book so much, bringing me back to the days of middle school sitting down and cramming a book in one day because I refused to put it down out of enjoyment for the book.
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