Book #8: Incarceron, by Catherine Fisher

[grav_ity]

I am so, so glad I'm done this book and can now get on with my life.

It suffered, I think, from too much muchness. It was a period piece, it was sci-fi, it was weirdly steampunk, and it moved around so quickly that sometimes it was hard to remember what time you were in. It was a study of politics, a study of what humans will do if you force them, a study of love and family dynamics, a study of religion and history and the dangers of being stupid, but didn't manage to get into any of them effectively.

This is a personal thing, I know. I know lots of people who really like the book. I just...didn't. It dwelt too much on setting and not enough on plot or characters. I appreciate good worldbuilding as much as the next person, but this just seemed like nothing else happened, because we were so busy having things described to us all the time.

(And...was the Queen really a sorceress? Was there magic too, on top of everything else? Because that's even MORE crazy.)

I really wanted to like Claudia. Or Finn. Or Attia. Or, heck, even Keiro. But I didn't. I did like Jared, but that shouldn't surprise anyone.

There's a sequel. I don't plan to read it.

All that said, there was a lot of effort in this book. And I can see how, if I had different tastes, I would have liked it. But I can't love everything, so we'll give it a 7 out of 10 and move on to "The Iron Witch".

Comments

[allisnow.livejournal.com]

Ouch. This was on my library list. Shouldn't bother, eh?

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

Honestly, I don't know. You might love it. I know a lot of people who really do love it. I would still give it a shot.

[midwifeonboard.livejournal.com]

I haven't read this one. Not sure if I will, but I'd like to recommend the "Parasol Protectorate" series by Gail Carriger. "Soulless" is the first title. There are 3 right now. Super-hilarious and fun steampunkery. :)

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

*adds to booklist*

Sooooo much to read! :)

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I understand why people say things like this, and yet as you know I feel differently -- it's almost like there's a second version (or layer) of the book that lives inside my head and comes out every time I read the actual version. It can't just be that the book hits just about every single one of my bulletproof kinks, because I've read books that tried to do that and I was still unimpressed by them. It's more like there's some strange alchemy between what's in the book and what's in my brain.

For instance, on the surface I get why people say the characterization isn't rich enough for them, because the characters all tend to push their feelings aside in one way or the other and don't like to think or talk about them if they can help it. And like you say, there's about a million other things going on so there's clearly an emphasis of Plot over People. But at the same time I also think the screwed-up dynamic between Claudia and the Warden is one of the most interesting things ever, in a Syd-and-Jack-Bristow kind of way, and as you also know I live for every little nuance of every interaction between Jared and Claudia and have lots to talk about there (in fact I've been lovingly dissecting it in e-mail with a fellow J/C nerd for about two and a half weeks).
I didn't always sympathize with the characters but I felt like I understood where they were coming from, or could at least guess -- and it caused me to ascribe more emotional complexity and subtlety to them than other readers perhaps would. Perhaps even more than the author intended, I don't know.

Yes, it's flawed. Yes, it's not for everybody. Yes, I still love it with a mad passion and will go on shoving it at people in the possibly vain hope that someone will love it as much as I do.

And yes, I will go on curling up and whimpering whenever I think of Taylor Lautner as Finn and the whole complex story being turned into brainless romantic sludge. (I know they'll cut Jared or turn him into some doddering old guy who has about three lines. I just KNOW it.)

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I got hints of that, sort of. And I did like the half of the book that was Claudia's more. I often wished that it was two books: one about Claudia and one about Finn, so that both of them could really develop, because yes, the potential for Bristowness was definitely there. ;)

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

I was all about Claudia's side of the story too. By the second book I did not care two hoots about Finn, was only mildly interested in Keiro (though hoping his storyline would involve getting smacked down in a big, big way), and really mostly just wanted to know what happened to Attia.

It was a bit like the end of the HP series where I realized that I'd completely stopped caring what happened to Harry. I always do get attached to the "wrong" characters, it seems...

[grav-ity.livejournal.com]

I think the thing about this book that bugged me is that I would have read a book about any single one of the main characters (except maybe Gildas...), but once they all got smashed in together, I kept losing threads. I was never sure how I was supposed to feel about Keiro, and never sure what Attia was up to, and it was kind of interesting, but at the same time there were so many things happening that I couldn't really bond with any of them.

Is Sapphique the end, or will there be another?

[rj-anderson.livejournal.com]

Sapphique is the end - more's the pity, as there were a number of unresolved issues and unanswered questions at the end, with the solution only hinted at (or left for the reader to imagine). Thus my need to write fic!