Sapphique by Catherine Fisher Review

Title:  Sapphique
Genre:  YA
Pages:  464
Source:  ARC (Publisher)
Date of Release:  December 28, 2010

Finn has escaped from the terrible living Prison of Incarceron, but its memory torments him, because his brother Keiro is still inside. Outside, Claudia insists he must be king, but Finn doubts even his own identity. Is he the lost prince Giles? Or are his memories no more than another construct of his imprisonment? And can you be free if your friends are still captive? Can you be free if your world is frozen in time? Can you be free if you don't even know who you are? Inside Incarceron, has the crazy sorcerer Rix really found the Glove of Sapphique, the only man the Prison ever loved. 
Sapphique, whose image fires Incarceron with the desire to escape its own nature. If Keiro steals the glove, will he bring destruction to the world? Inside. Outside. All seeking freedom. Like Sapphique.

My Take: Part of the problem of being a Book Babe is I completely shatter all illusions that I have a life.  But I do.  That said, I will now make my comparisons because I do spent way too much time with my nose in a book. 

Sapphique is the legendary prisoner who escaped from Alcatraz  the Prison.  At this point we believe that the problem with escaping is not so much finding the exit or using a key but logistics prohibits easy movement.  Again, I am brought to "A Wrinkle in Time" which I totally did not get.  There's a 5th dimension of travel but it is, essentially, the Theory of Relativity and Star Trek's time and space continuum.  Kind of like Miss Frizzle and her Magic School Bus. Incarceron is a prison that may be as tiny as a cube on a keychain or may be something else.  It is not, however, as simple as going down some stairs to the center of the earth.   

Once again, two worlds exist within the book and two stories are constantly being told.  The conflicts are continuous and the Prison world just does not let up.  Those who are still there simply can not catch a break.  Incidently, now that Giles/Finn is Outside, there is a new contender to be king and I just don't know who the good guys or the bad guys are, anymore.

What this book really brought to my attention is how nebulous my truth and reality may be.  Maybe we are simply a tiny dot in a solar system inside a marble hanging from a cat's collar in a much bigger world.  Maybe my truth is only a fairy tale told in a galaxy far, far away.