Incarceron (2007) is a young-adult fantasy and science fiction novel written by Catherine Fisher that was first released on May 3, 2007. Published by Hodder Children's Books, it is the first in a line of novels centered on Finn and Claudia, two adolescents individually confined by the Warden of Incarceron. A sequel to the book, entitled Sapphique, was published in 2008. Incarceron was first released in the United States in 2010 and appeared on the New York Times children's bestseller list. 20th Century Fox owns the film rights to the novel. The book has been released in paperback and as an audio book, read by Kim Mai Guest. Inspiration and origins Catherine Fisher "wanted to write a book about a prison" and conceived Incarceron, an automated world controlled by a personified mechanical power. Incarceron is vast and expands through whole villages, forests, cells and corridors. Setting Incarceron is a futuristic prison and an artificial world—a living artificial world run by Incarceron, an artificial intelligence. This tireless, inhuman "overlord" controls all life as it monitors inmates by means of cameras that appear as glowing red lights and dispenses punishment and death on a daily basis without mercy. Escape from Incarceron is a concept which few believe in, except those who insist that Sapphique, the legendary Sapient, has in fact achieved this very act. Initially, the intent of Incarceron’s creators, the Sapienti, was to incarcerate all the criminals in the world and repair their morals to form a perfect society, controlled with the help of the Prison entity "Incarceron". The prisoners and seventy Sapienti inside were sealed off from the world in order to control all variables in this experiment, with the exception of the prison Warden to oversee the project. However, after years of isolation and the failure of the perfect society, those inside have no way to seek help or escape when the Warden abandons the experiment’s aims. The Realm The Sapienti created Incarceron during a time of advanced technology and discovery. However, since then, King Endor released a royal decree that Time would be "stopped" in order for humanity to survive, and now the Realm is trapped in the 17th century. The King justified that they were making a world “free from the anxiety of change.” The Protocol prevents the development of science and evolution, and has since hindered Sapienti, and provided problems against freeing those in Incarceron. Change