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Summary: Something has gone wrong at the Domitt Prison
Review: . . . but Andrej Koscuisko - bereft and staggering - may not be able to see through to the truth of it before it is too late. It has been three years since Andrej Koscuisko completedhis training as an Inquisitor - a military torturer for the Judiciary. His latest assignment is at the Domitt Prison, but Andrej's "processing" of the prisoners brings a terrible secret to light. Pursuing that secret may bring justice to a victimized people, but it may also signal the end of Andrej's career - if not his life. My debut novel, =An Exchange of Hostages,=is also available from Amazon.com.
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Summary: Steppenwolf
Review: ...This book is about the trauma of reconciling all that you are with all that you wish you were...not pleasant endeavor at best and avoided by the stupid and unnecessary for the extremely healthy...but certainly a type of art and path toward beauty. The author's study of relationships under stress, and horror, and loyalty, and sexual need, and...everything else is extrodinary and worthy of sharing a portion of your life with. If you would like the perfect foil for this excellent book read The Immortals, among the worst books I've ever read, by Hickman I believe. After reading this pollyanic, cotton candy version of a death camp you will appreciate what the author of Prisoner of Conscience has woven for you. Kudos.
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Summary: Adventures in corruption and torture of a man of honor.
Review: A fascinating book which I could not put down even to sleep. The main character, Andrej Koscuisko, is a sometimes impetuous and certainly phsychotic Fleet officer of royal lineage with the blood of genocide on his ancestral hands. He is also a compassionate surgeon who deeply loves the convict/slaves bound to his service as a security team as punishment for their crimes by means of involuntary brain implants called "governors." On occasion his duties require him to serve the judicial arm, or "Bench," of his tyrannical but fastidious intergalatic government by administering, within carefully defined parameters, torture to his unfortunate "clients" both to extract confessions and information as well as to punish them with extended, excrutiating termination. To his great dismay, he enjoys his work tremendously. The nature of his work and his sense of right and wrong unavoidably bring not only himself but the members of his beloved "bond-involuntary" security team in harm's way. The relationship between Koscuisko, the protective master careful of harming his involuntary servants, and devoted slave, constrained to absolute submission in word, deed and thought through brutal medical implanting, is poignant. Some aspects of the main character Koscuisko remind me of the character Severian in Gene Wolfe's tetralogy beginning with The Shadow of the Torturer. At other times in the book, especially when Koscuisko is being noble and gentle, I saw strong similarities to another of Mr. Wolfe's characters, namely Patera Silk in The Book of the Long Sun. The pshychotic twist the Author uses is excellent. One could almost catch a whiff of Inspector Arkady from Gorky Park and Polar Star in Koscuisko's dogged determination to do the right thing no matter what it might cost him. Actually, I wish there were more of Arkady in the main character with the tools of Severian... A wonderful book. I will immediately read the preceeding book in the series, Exchange of Hostages. Bravo
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Summary: Worth the wait
Review: After reading An Exchange of Hostages, my first question was when in the next one due? I needed to know how Andrej would fare. As kids, we used to taunt interrogators with "Do you want the truth or just an answer?" I've always believed an inquisition was only good for "an answer." The inquisitor will get the answer needed, rather than the truth. Susan Matthews shows us a man so skilled and competant as an inquisitor that he can find the truth, inspite of the means he is compelled to use.
I, too, was compelled, and finished the book within 24 hours of getting my hands on it.
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Summary: This book glows with an inner light.
Review: After reading the first book about Andrej, the second one offers an even more astonishing emotional journey in an inhuman world, where, amazingly the echoes of the holocaust wail in a mystical fog of pain,a world where a sadistic man is elevated to near sainthood, and it is awe inspiring, that it can be so, and there's a profound lesson in this,no wonder Matthews is often likened to Dostojevski,for that's very approppriate, to say that she brings the emotional, and in a certain way, religious experience into the world of science fiction. By writing a mercilessly hard story,the author makes the light of Andrej's humanity enormously comforting.May all of us who ever have to face evil in any form, outside and within ourselves, have the strenght and courage the doctor has.
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Summary: Run Screaming
Review: After reading the first book of the trilogy, I was intrigued enough to order the other two. After 57 pages of Prisoner of Conscience, it wasn't Andrej Koscuisko that was being held prisoner, but me. Most disturbing was not the depictions of torture or slavery (all rehashings of the first book) but rather the mangled use of "Shakespearian English". For real insights into the darkest depths of the human soul, in a SF setting, I recommend Michael Marshall Smith.
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Summary: A dark and intriguing world
Review: Although this book was frightening in its descriptions of the ways of Domitt Prison, I enjoyed it. I like dark science fiction/fantasy, and this certainly qualifies. The book captured my attention, but it wasn't among the best I've read, and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who is squeamish or easily disturbed.
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Summary: Superb Character Study
Review: Aside from a few minor quibbles with language and a slightly bumpy beginning, Prisoner of Conscience is superb. The characters we met and came to love and fear in An Exchange of Hostages grow and become more real. The dark study of An Exchange of Hostages is continued. In the Amazon.com interview with Susan R. Matthews the author says that one of her favorite writers/ writing models was Joseph Conrad. While the prose styling (thankfully) does not betray this model, the thematic development and structure do. In this book I felt once again as I felt when I read Heart of Darkness--a gathering of horror and of revelation, and a profound reflection of society's truisms and foibles. If An Exchange of Hostages held up a mirror to each person, Prisoner of Conscience holds up a mirror to society and asks the same hard questions. This book is serious science fiction by a writer who is obviously skilled in her art and gifted at handling serious thematic material. From the first sentence you are drawn into the narrative and into the gradually unfolding horror of genocide, hatred, and in some very real ways the interior workings of corporate America. Throughout the work I was reminded of Hannah Arendt's observation of Adolf Eichmann--"The Banality of Evil." This book and its predecessor are two of the must-read science fiction books not just of the year but, perhaps, of the decade.
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Summary: Imagine American MPs in Iraq
Review: But wait. We don't need to imagine, do we?
It's terrifying how topical this book about an officer struggling over blowing the whistle on prison abuse has become. Does he risk further alienating his chain of command? Will they shuffle him off before the truth gets out? Or will he remain loyal to his superiors, and his own lust for domination? It's another book Under Jurisdiction, bring tissues.
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Summary: Original, intelligent, disturbing.
Review: Exchange of Hostages and Prisoner of Conscience are not for the faint of heart. They are dark disturbing books. Having said that - I must say, I could not put this book down. The characters and story line are original and fascinating. I certainly hope the third book in the series is planned and on the market soon.
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