Recent Read: Incarceron Saga

Once upon a time, I saw this book.

I thought it looked pretentious. So I passed it over.

Five years later, I ended up in the library with Café Effervescence's very own Lyn, and I ended up finding it again, as well as its sequel:

So I decided to give the series a chance.

I am so glad I did.

The two have to be read together. You can't do one without the other. First of all, Incarceron ends on a cliffhanger that Sapphique resolves. But more importantly...Sapphique is just better.

The story: there are two realms. You have Incarceron, the gigantic living prison from which no living being has ever escaped...except for the legendary, messianic Sapphique. Who is he? Was he even real? No one can say for sure, though everyone wants to believe. Finn, a young prisoner, finds a key--the key on the cover of the first book--and thinks he can use it to escape the same way Sapphique did.
Then you have the outer Realm. A post-apocalyptic world suffering from the aftermath of a war known as the Years of Rage, it's been remodeled so that despite its futuristic technology, it's completely medieval, as medieval times have been perceived as a fantasy utopia. Of course, they're not, and technology is traded on the sly while the upper class stomps on the poor. In this world, Claudia, the daughter of Incarceron's warden, gets ahold of a similar key as Finn's, and through this, Finn and Claudia become connected. They realize there's more to both their stories than meets the eye--I won't ruin the twist--and strive to break Finn out of Incarceron so that they can both benefit. This isn't even mentioning the duplicity of the warden, the secret of Incarceron's location, the plot to wed Claudia to the evil queen's son, the plot to assassinate said queen...
That's the first book. Despite how awesome that sounds, believe me when I say the second one is so much better. I can't really tell you the story there, since that would spoil most of the first book. I'm just going to say that inside Incarceron, certain prisoners met in the first book renew the quest to escape, and  in the outer Realm, people are starting to become disillusioned with the protocol that keeps the world stranded in the past. Most importantly, though, the most jarring twists from the first book are actually debated. It suddenly becomes possible that they weren't actually true--that the revelations were lies. And one of them, we never actually see for ourselves whether it's true or not. Sapphique ends in a complete enigma. If you like your stories neatly wrapped up, which I generally do--I'm surprised I liked it so much--Sapphique won't satisfy. But if you want to go on a rollercoaster experience of not knowing what's real, what isn't, and what to expect...or if it even matters so long as certain lives hang in the balance...the ending of Sapphique is pure beauty. It asks questions about the plot that won't be resolved. A character knows things he shouldn't know. Another character's identity is completely reformed...and that may have been who he was all along, or it may not.
That's one of the major selling points for Sapphique. It not only created a great enigma, but pulled it off in a way that I wasn't angry, despite my love of definitive closure. The saga entire is great for other reasons as well. The goings-on in the outer Realm are a not-so-subtle satire on our fascination with medieval culture and utopia, which could have been pulled off better but still provides nice commentary. The best parts are probably inside the prison itself, however. That's where creativity runs free. Cyborgs, rogue tribes, traveling enchanters, frozen tundras, mutant monsters, sky-high towers...Incarceron is as big as an entire planet, and it never runs out of surprises or creative concepts. It's actually packed with Nightmare Fuel (at this point, you can tell I avidly read TVTropes.org), and some of the concepts are pretty horrifying...in a way that satisfies those who are looking for a dash of creepiness.
The characters probably aren't as compelling as those in other literature, but there are fascinating things about them, particularly their morals. Claudia, Finn, Keiro, and Attia are all caught at one point or another between doing the right thing and doing the selfish thing, and each of them leans toward one or the other to a different degree. As you get to know them all, while none are entirely perfect or complete monsters, you'll be able to figure out who leans more toward helping others and who leans more toward being self-serving. But they're all connected and eventually have to work together to fix what's broken. The villain, Sia, is also fascinating, especially in Sapphique. In the first book, she is presented as a diabolical schemer, but in the second, she begins to show weakness, and may not be as much of a monster as initially painted. She may, heaven forbid, just be a human that fell to human weaknesses! Then there's Sapphique himself. You'll have to come to your own conclusions about him. To say any more would be to spoil the saga!
It's not deep literature, but the Incarceron saga is definitely one to pick up if you want to experience some creative fantasy/sci-fi while having your mind exercised not by deep questions about life but by questions about what truly happened in a series of events. I believe Fisher has stated that it's over, and she's not doing any more books in the series, and frankly, I wouldn't want any more. I think the ending was perfect, and any more story would spoil it. She's putting her energy into doing other books, and I definitely want to check them out after this. So, strict fans of layered satire and complex characterization should probably give this one a pass, and people who NEED every question answered will be disappointed, but fans of fantasy, science fiction, fun, and being taken on a mind trip will find this an absolute gem.