Received from 6of8, who picked it up at a book sale.

Unabridged audiobook read by Kim Mai Guest; 11 hrs 37 min on 10 CDs.

So there's this gigantic prison, enclosed to the point where its inhabitants aren't even sure the outside even exists, where everyone is poor and savage. Finn believes he was born outside, though he cannot prove it. Elsewhere, Claudia lives in a world of "protocol" that forces everyone to live like it's sometime in the 1800s. She's the daughter of the highly political Warden of Incarceron, and as such she is betrothed to a bratty prince she hates. While I kind of enjoyed not knowing who all was telling the truth or what exactly was real (Is Claudia really outside or is she in Incarceron without knowing it? If not, where is this gigantic prison located?), the characters were kind of flat and the plot was kind of boring. Maybe someone else might get swept up in this world, but I spent much of my time waiting for everyone to just get on with it.

A note on the audio: I question the wisdom of hiring an American narrator when all the characters speak with British accents. Especially when said narrator isn't especially good at said accents.

Putting on Mt. TBR! It sounds like something I would enjoy and I have an audio bookbox coming my way soon. I hope to get it earread by then!

As I looked at the cover of this book, I realized the key looked familiar. In fact, it was an image used on a magnet I bought during the YA Saves movement regarding young adult literature. I had to ask on BookCrossing what book it was from. It was among other logos of amazing examples of quality YA, so I started this book with high expectations.

I like to say that if I love characters I can forgive plot being bad. Sadly, it doesn't work the other way around. This is a fascinating setting--a prison that is so large and has been held tight for so long that its inhabitants don't realize there even is an outside. And it's a great concept--the warden's daughter becomes able to speak to a few prisoners and the prisoners communicate back. It's even a great plot, filled with political factions, conspiracies, uprisings, power plays, and more. But the characters? I didn't feel a thing for them.

They weren't all completely one-dimensional, but they didn't have a lot of depth either. They were defined by their actions and connections. I never got a sense of any of them. They just acted as they needed to in order to further the plot. I liked them just fine, but I really didn't care if they got away with their plans or not. Except I kind of knew they would get away with it, because it'd be a pretty boring book to go so far just to have them die in the attempt.

There were certainly some twists I didn't see coming, and the concept was really neat, especially because you learn at the beginning of the book that the prison is alive and then you get to see it in action throughout the story in some clever ways. But I'm pretty indifferent to the story because I just didn't care what happened to the characters.

Adding this to BigJohnLefty's First CD-Only AudioBookBox.

Chosen from BigJohnLefty's CD-only bookbox

I thought hard about how to rate this book because melydia is right, Kim Mai Guest doesn't do the story any favors. But she never mispronounced a word, and was distinct enough with characters' names that I got them all correctly spelled in my head. I've heard lots worse.

But I wound up with ten stars because I really LOVED this book. I wasn't even aware how much I was invested until after I finished, and found myself walking to my car eagerly anticipating another session of visiting and learning about the world of Incarceron, and then realizing, no, the book was all done. I kept talking about it to DrSlump, so he listened to it and liked it as much as I did. We'll be recommending it to our library's F&SF club next year.

I respect and understand KateKintail's position on liking characters - in fact, I think I'll start using that as my reason for not liking any of E. M. Forster's work. But I liked Claudia immediately, and gradually got interested in Finn's life also. DrSlump was just the reverse, liking Finn first, and only later finding Claudia appealing. Is this our respective gender identifications showing up?

The most fun from reading F&SF is working out the setting from the author's carefully spaced clues, and Fisher has done one of the best jobs ever. We keep working around the central mysteries of Incarceron - where is it? Is it completely sealed, as alleged, or is it at all possible to enter or leave it? We spend just enough time moving though it with Finn to see a good sample of its varied ecologies and settlements. And the world Claudia lives in is just as carefully detailed. As KateKintail says, there are lots of plot twists, almost none of which I foresaw. The suspense was constant - both DrSlump & I had quite a few driveway moments.

We also found Fisher to be a very good writer. Claudia's arranged marriage is to a Crown Prince who is understood by everyone, including himself, to be incapable of ruling. At one point his mother, the Queen, dismisses him by saying "Go shoot some animals, or whatever it is you do." How much that sentence tells us about the two people, and their relationship! She sees Claudia as strong enough to wield true power, but is she perhaps also strong enough to defy the Queen?

The ending left several situations unresolved, so in five minutes online I had found there was a sequel, called 'Sapphique,' and requested it from the library. This in turn left quite a few challenges for the characters, but I'm more satisfied. There are lots of additional comments I'm longing to add here, but won't so as to avoid spoilers. I'm definitely looking forward to our library book club discussion.

Media Mail to Rebikkila for Booklady331's Audio VBB.
EAT June 12.

I caught this in the audio bookbox.

Sent as part of an audio bookbox.

Gotcha! Thanks, rebekkila!