Line #36 Literature/Incarceron


1	[[quoteright:200:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/incarceron200x300_4419.jpg]]
2
3	''Incarceron'' is a ScienceFiction (with the feel of, and marketed as {{Fantasy}}) duology by Catherine Fisher. It tells the story of the prison complex known as Incarceron. Incarceron is infinite, inescapable, and to top it off, it's a malevolent sentient being hell-bent on forever confining the thousands of inmates inside it. No one enters, no one escapes — except one boy. Finn is a troubled inmate with vague memories of another life outside the prison.
4
5	During a struggle within the prison, Finn finds a crystal key, which he and many others believe may be the key to Incarceron. He soon discovers that the key has another purpose; through the key, which turns out to function as a communication device, he meets a girl named Claudia. Claudia claims to live Outside Incarceron, but is doomed to an arranged marriage. With help from Claudia and from visions of the legendary Sapphique, Finn is determined to unlock the mysteries of his past and perhaps escape from Incarceron.
6
7	The sequel and conclusion, ''Sapphique'', reveals greater problems now that Finn has Escaped and is challenged as crown prince by a remarkably similar boy.
8	----
9	!!These books provide examples of:
10
11	* AIIsACrapshoot: Incarceron started out okay, but went horribly wrong. [[spoiler:In the end he's calmed via Jared]].
12	* TheAlcatraz: Since the creation of Incarceron, only Sapphique has escaped, although the Warden may come and go as he pleases.
13	%%%* AlienSky: A few of Incarceron's wings
14	* AnimalMotifs: Birds, in keeping with the freedom theme. The Havaarna inheritance is symbolized by an eagle, and the Wardenry by a swan. Jared's blue feathers show up multiple times in ''Sapphique'', and Sapphique is almost always represented winged. The motif is not always used positively, though: the Pretender's eagle mask underscores his usurpation, Incarceron threatens its prisoners with the metaphor of Prometheus eaten by the eagle, and "bird with a broken wing" is used for [[spoiler:the Maestra's]] death.
15	%%%* AntiHero: Finn and Keiro.
16	%%%* ArtificialHuman: If the cell-born actually exist, they would be this.
17	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: In-universe; not everyone is terribly good at maintaining Era, and Jared notes upon watching a game of croquet (from the mid-1800s, when they seem to be aiming for the 1700s at the latest) that Queen Sia cherrypicks whatever she likes best rather than going for accuracy.
18	* BadFuture [[spoiler: TheReveal near the end of Book 1.]]
19	* BecomeARealBoy: [[spoiler:Incarceron's goal in ''Sapphique'' is to acquire a human body.]]
20	%%* BelligerentSexualTension: Between Keiro and Attia.
21	%%* BigBad: Queen Sia is the main threat in the realm.
22	* BittersweetEnding: [[spoiler:Incarceron is calmed down and the masquerade has been broken, but some characters are dead and the Outside is reduced to a wasteland]].
23	* BodyHorror:
24	** The Half-Men are people who have been "repaired" by Incarceron with robotic components.
25	** Chain-gangs are groups of people fused together and sharing a consciousness. They assimilate their victims.
26	* BriarPatching: One of the tales of Sapphique involves him facing off against a giant mechanical wolf that threatens him with many deadly fates, but Sapphique begs above all else, not to be thrown into the lake. Of course, when he is thrown into the lake, he swims to safety.
27	%%%* BrainComputerInterface: The Glove.
28	%%%* BreakingSpeech: Incarceron is very proficient at this.
29	* ChessMotifs: Barely noticeable in the first book, but emphasized more in Sapphique.
30	* CharacterTitle: Both books. A bit clearer in ''Sapphique'' since Incarceron is a GeniusLoci and could also fall under ThePlace.
31	* ColdBlueEyes: The Warden, a cold and calculating man, has gray eyes, one of which actually appears in Incarceron's sky at one point. Queen Sia is also noted to have creepily pale eyes and is a terrible person.
32	* CommLinks: One of the properties of the keys is communication.
33	* ConnectedAllAlong: Turns out that [[spoiler: Claudia and Incarceron]] already know each other, although one of them doesn't remember it, and that [[spoiler: "Blaize", the Sapiens who rescues Finn and crew, is the Warden, so he actually meets Finn in person ''before'' Claudia does.]]
34	%%%* CosmicPlaything: The prisoners.
35	* CrystalDragonJesus: Sapphique, who is said to have been the only known escapee, is worshiped as a god, and is sometimes called "The Nine-Fingered One" by his followers. He gained this nickname as the result of losing one of his fingers to a beast within the Prison.
36	%%%* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Evian when his assassination attempt fails.]]
37	* {{Dystopia}}:
38	** Incarceron became one when men lost control over it.
39	** Outside could also be considered one, with the way Protocol keeps everyone in an enforced Era.
40	* EarnYourHappyEnding: The characters have to go through a lot, but the books end with things much better than at the start.
41	* EldritchAbomination: Incarceron itself is a living prison with alien skies and a twisted mentality, albeit it was created by man.
42	* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: John Arlex is the Warden of Incarceron. Very rarely does anyone call him anything else.
43	* EvilTwin: [[spoiler:The fake Giles (the Pretender) is evil in contrast to the real Giles]].
44	* FaintingSeer: Finn's visions come with seizures, unless he's already asleep.
45	* {{Fingore}}: With a title like "Nine-Fingered One", what were you really expecting?
46	* FollowInMyFootsteps: Claudia's father, the Warden of Incarceron, has raised her to succeed him and become the ruler of the Realm.
47	* FutureImperfect: The characters often reference real-life works of fiction (Alice in Wonderland, Moby-Dick, Sleeping Beauty, Scandinavian mythology, etc.), but end up mixing the references together, so that one of the characters believes he's heard a story about someone chasing a white rabbit for forty years and then being swallowed by said rabbit and travelling inside its stomach.
48	%%%* GeniusLoci: Incarceron.
49	* GildedCage: The Realm at first looks like a perfect place (for the rich at least), but it's actually ruled by a tyrannical elite who enforce Protocol. Just like in Incarceron, people are not free.
50	* GodSaveUsFromTheQueen: Queen Sia is the BigBad, and oppresses her people.
51	%%%* GoneHorriblyWrong: Incarceron.
52	* GoodAllAlong: [[spoiler:Lord Evian, though "good" [[WellIntentionedExtremist may be a speculative term.]]]]
53	* GoodIsNotNice: Keiro is a callous CombatPragmatist that everyone but Finn seems to assume will betray them the second it's convenient for him, but he honors his bond with Finn and saves him and Attia several times throughout the books.
54	* GrandTheftMe: [[spoiler:A heroic example; Jared puts on Sapphique's glove and enters the body Incarceron was trying to use]].
55	* GreatEscape: The main characters are trying to escape from a GeniusLoci prison. It is quite a feat.
56	* HadToComeToPrisonToBeACrook: [[spoiler:Before he was put into Incarceron, Finn was a gentle prince. His time in Incarceron changed him a lot, as lampshaded by many.]]
57	* HandicappedBadass: Jared's sickness tacks an "invalid" label on him that most everyone agrees upon. It doesn't make him any less of a badass.
58	* HedgeMaze: The Wardenry, in keeping with its fancy manor house status, has one. It's mostly portrayed positively, as a place Claudia and Jared can get privacy.
59	* HellholePrison: Incarceron treats its prisoners as playthings to manipulate for its own enjoyment.
60	* {{Hypocrite}}: Most nobles, especially Queen Sia, are happy to enforce the rules of Protocol on others while using all kinds of advanced technology behind the scenes.
61	* IcarusAllusion: Another Sapphique tale involves him building artificial wings to try and Escape via Incarceron's sky/ceiling. Incarceron doesn't approve and casts him down.
62	%%%* ImpaledPalm: Keiro uses it to steal Jormandric's rings.
63	%%%* IncurableCoughOfDeath: Jared.
64	* [[spoiler:ItWasWithYouAllAlong]]: [[spoiler: Claudia had been looking for an entrance to the Prison behind the gate, but found nothing. Only later is it revealed that the Warden keeps it as a charm on his watch.]]
65	%%%%* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Keiro.
66	* LaserGuidedAmnesia: Finn. He can't remember his childhood, but recalls vague bits from his past.
67	* LaserHallway: Incarceron can fill halls with lazers when it locks down as a security measure
68	%%%%* LiteralSurveillanceBug: A creation of Jared's.
69	* LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:Inverted. Claudia is revealed to not be the Warden's daughter; she was born in Incarceron.]]
70	%%%* MacGuffin: [[spoiler:The keys.]]
71	%%%** [[spoiler:Sapphique's glove in the sequel.]]
72	* MadeASlave: [[spoiler:Attia]] starts out as Jormanric's dog-slave, having been captured by the Comitatus during a raid on the Civicry.
73	* MalevolentArchitecture: Incarceron, naturally, is a prison that darkly plays with its prisoners.
74	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Everyone's visions/hallucinations of Sapphique, particularly when Jared dreams that Sapphique is taking care of him during a bad episode of his illness that comes on [[spoiler: during his flight from the Academy after an attempted assassination.]] He wakes up alone in the woods, but as recovered as if somebody really ''did'' take care of him.
75	* MeaningfulName: The name of Martor Sapiens, the original leader of the Sapienti who willingly entered Incarceron with the intent to guide and care for the inmates, is homonymous with "martyr".
76	* MedievalStasis: A collection of laws, simply known as Protocol, forbid progress in the outside world (although the Era they are trying to emulate is more like the Renaissance or later than the Middle Ages).
77	* MouseWorld: [[spoiler:Incarceron is contained within a cube that the Warden wears, and people enter it by crossing some kind of time-space barrier.]]
78	* NoHuggingNoKissing: No romance, although Claudia and Finn were engaged and [[spoiler: get married]].
79	%%%* NothingPersonal: The assassin sent after Jared emphasizes this.
80	* OneWordTitle: Also ThePlace, because Incarceron is where most of the first book takes place
81	* PatchworkMap: Incarceron's wings are varied in climate and what's inside them.
82	* PollutedWasteland: Several landscapes inside the prison, and [[spoiler: what the Outside really is]].
83	%%* PrinceCharmless: Caspar.
84	* PsychicDreamsForEveryone: By ''Sapphique'', not only is Finn still getting visions, but Attia and Jared have started having dreams about Sapphique too.
85	%%%* RedEyesTakeWarning: Incarceron's eyes are red.
86	%%%* SatisfiedStreetRat: Keiro
87	%%%* ScavengerWorld: Both inside and outside the prison.
88	%%%* ScienceFantasy: The novel has both fantasy and sci-fi elements.
89	* ShroudedInMyth: Sapphique is worshiped as a god after their escape from the infamous prison but little is truly known about them.
90	%%%* SilkHidingSteel: Claudia
91	%%%* SinisterSurveillance: Incarceron's Eyes.
92	* SplitPersonalityMerge: While they were originally separate, at the end [[spoiler: Jared's gentle personality is placed within Incarceron's, calming him]].
93	* SuperIntelligence: The Sapients, who created Incarceron and now hold all the advanced knowledge of the past before Era.
94	* TheStoic: Playing the nobility game Outside means being this all the time. The Warden is a master in hiding his emotions, and Claudia has learned from him (but she is less stoic when with Jared).
95	* TheWallAroundTheWorld: Near the end of the first book, Finn and gang fly a silver airship into the hole of what seems to be this. Whether or not it actually was is debatable.
96	* ThrowingDownTheGauntlet: Finn challenges the Pretender to a duel by doing the traditional "chuck a glove at him".
97	* ToughLove: Although John Arlex is hard on Claudia and has essentially raised her to become the perfect Queen, he eventually admits that he grew to love her as a true daughter.
98	%%%* TookALevelInBadass: Jared.
99	%%%* TraumaInducedAmnesia: [[spoiler:Finn had this.]]
100	* TrickedOutGloves: Sapphique's Glove in, well, ''Sapphique''. Rix also has several gloves that sparkle and are filled with acid.
101	* UnderestimatingBadassery: Everyone underestimates Jared.
102	* TheUnmasquedWorld: At the end of ''Sapphique'', [[spoiler: the holograms and everything that kept the nobility in power]] are broken, and the people can see what the world ''really'' looks like.
103	* WeatherControlMachine: Incarceron controls its own climate, able to make the temperature unbearably hot or freezing cold.
104	%%%%* WellIntentionedExtremist: Well, many of them. They're the Steel Wolves.
105	* WhatCouldPossiblyGoWrong: Let's face it, a sentient prison is not a good idea. Especially if there is no way out whatsoever.
106	* YouAreWhatYouHate: [[spoiler: Keiro hates the Half-Men, people with mechanical limbs that were either born with them or "fixed" by Incarceron. It later turns out that Keiro himself is a Half-Man, and one of the reasons he hates them so much is because he was born with it and he's not sure how far the mechanical parts go.]]

Context Literature / Incarceron