No really, don't try it.
I was first acquainted with Ms. Catherine Fisher many years ago, and I will forever recall our meeting with a wince and a shudder.
The time in which I got to know her was very brief and utterly horrifying. Someone, perhaps my mom, came home with an extremely tantalizing, thick, nasty-looking volume.
It was named The Sphere of Secrets.
I pried it open with sufficient excitement, thinking I had found a trove of treasure. It was, as you may conjecture, a trap.
Fisher proceeded to barrage me with a crooked tale of adventure, intrigue, and assassination. She forces the reader to shadow the parallel stories of several characters, each with their own hopes, dreams and motivations- but their ultimate goal in their world is survival.
She cleverly weaves a tale of mystery and fear with so many twists and cliff-hangers that one begins to think she actually enjoys leading her characters and readers astray to the brink of their deaths.
The book defeated me in a mere two days. I had to put it down, away, and out of my sight, not wanting to hear or feel the adrenaline and fright of the clamoring voices coming from the book, the suspense hissing in my head.
But recently I picked up another book of hers, Incarceron. In typical Fisher style, the book does not disappoint. It is fierce and daring, and she mercilessly rips the reader's heart out in the end.
Incarceron is a running mockery of humans and our construction of this thing we call "reality." Fisher likes to play mind games, and she always wins. Though perhaps not as often as Isobelle Carmody (oooooh, DISSSS. Yeah, Isobelle really takes the cake, but thats for later.)
If you are looking for a story to raise your blood pressure and kidnap your rationality, please consult my dear friend Catherine Fisher. She knows just the thing.
