As many of you know I love reading both fiction and poetry; hence one review today is of one, while the other is of the other.
Incarceron
Catherine Fisher
The story is split into two narratives that come together.
First there is Finn. He lives in Incarceron, a vast living and ruthless prison very much like a world, but he has no memories of his earlier years, only a few flashes of a place he believes may be the outside. But how? No one comes in from the outside, just as no one escapes. Except there is the legend of one, Sapphique, who escaped many years ago. Then one day he discovers a crystal key and soon after begins speaking through it to a girl named Claudia.
Claudia lives on the outside, the daughter of the Warden of Incarceron. Soon she will be much like a prisoner in an arranged marriage to a royal flop. However, she soon believes that Finn may be the key to her escape as well.
We switch between the two places - inside Incarceron with Finn, and outside with Claudia. It takes a several chapters for the narratives to intertwine more, but both are interesting. We come to find that the outside is not necessarily a haven either. The motivations of the various characters also drives the reading forward.
I think what I liked most about this book were the questions it brought up about the nature of freedom. What does it mean to be free?
A quote a really liked goes as follows: "None of us have much idea where we are. Perhaps all our lives we are too concerned with where, and not enough with who."
Another idea was that of the implications of technology and how it can be both helpful and harmful to a society.
A final thing I enjoyed, which may not be enjoyed by some, is that the ultimate goodness or not of several characters is left unclear. There are some people who's true motives, or how they would act in a certain situation, or what they have done in the past, is left in doubt. Although often this might not be favorable, it made the most sense in this book where most characters must live duplicitous lives in order to survive. It is easy to paint characters black or white, but to make them gray and still likable is a challenge and I think it was achieved.
Although I have not read the sequel to this two book series (and I've heard it wasn't as good), I feel that this book was worth reading on its own. I'll read the second book, but even so this book has merit for the unique world it had created. It give you something to think about, which is fair praise for any novel. If you enjoy a bit of adventure, character development, as well as interesting ideas mixed into a young adult novel, I recommend this to you. Note: if you're looking for romance, there's little to none of that in this book at least. Perhaps in the next book.
To See The Queen
Allison Seay
I had the chance a week or so ago to see a poetry reading by a graduate of UNCG, now published poet. I bought her book and enjoyed it quite thoroughly.
I have noticed that nowadays with poetry it is becoming more and more common for poetry books to have a common narrative or theme that ties it all together, making the sum of the parts perhaps better than the individual poems. That is the way is was with this book of poetry. These poems deal with the authors own sufferings with depression and schizofrenia, a topic which drew me into the poems. From start to finish the poems are excellent, and yet there were few poems that I would pick out and read as a standalone poem. I'd post those few here, but they aren't online.
If you haven't had had the experience of a poetry book that is greater than the sum of its parts or are interested in the themes, by all means pick it up. Well, if you love poetry, that is.
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