Rating: 
Summary: Oddly Compelling
Review: I don't usually like books that romanticize evil. I tolerate them only when they are extremely well written. This one is.Matthews presents a disturbing universe and asks us to care about a character who engages in sadistic acts. For the most part, we do care about him. He is psychologically interesting and, evil as are his actions, he is so much better than most of the other evil people around him. At least he has standards and limits. Among the most fascinating aspects of this series are the reactions of other people to the main character. Victims who forgive and even love their victimizers are nothing new. But Matthews helps us see the psychology behind it. I look forward to other novels in this series.
Rating: 
Summary: Holocaust+Sex????
Review: I found this book to be a bit disturbing, and not so much because of the gory subject matter but because of the way that the author eroticizes these subjects. This book is essentially soft-core S/M erotica with a sci-fi fascist setting. The torrid descriptions of his relationships with his male and female "involuntary bond-slaves" and the victims strapped to his torture devices are really quite steamy. I find this approach to the whole issue of torture, slavery and genocide a little dangerous, and honestly not what I was expecting at all. Personally i like my s/m porn a little more consensual. Maybe that's just me. Now the book is undeniably well written, and you could defend it as a character study of a monster, but really, the author makes every attempt to arouse (pun intended) our sympathies for Andrej, while at the same time excusing all of his evil behaviors. The protagonist, Andrej, is consistantly held up as a moralist in the way that he treats his slaves and victims with respect. Some lip service is paid to his self-hate and remorse at his actions, but mostly the author and all of the characters in the stories excuse Andrej for the atrocities he commits because he "can't help himself" once he starts hurting someone. This is a little irrelevant, i think. Would we accept the same excuse from any of the monsters who regularly pop up on our TVs? Anyway, call me squeamish, but fiction that deliberately evokes the Holocaust and the German death camps, and at the same time endeavours to titillate, makes me a little queasy.
Rating:
Summary: an excellent, dark story
Review: I just finished reading this story, and I do not think that I have the words to do it justice. it tells the story of a man with a strong moral code performing a job as best he can in an enviroment that is horrifing to comprehend. his job is doctor and the official tourturer for the government. when he is sent to a prison, he tries to carry out his duties as "humanely" as possible. when it becomes apparent that he is the only one in the prison that feels that the prisoners are deserving of dignity and humane treatment, his own career, and possibly his life, is in jeopardy.
Rating:
Summary: Let's not get too serious
Review: I think that previous reviewers have put their senses of outrage on overdrive: let's remember that Miss Matthews' world is a FANTASY one - there is no Judiciary - and where do the Germans come in to it??? "Prisoner of Conscience" is actually a very interesting insight into the nature of wickedness (the old "two sides to every person" story), and wouldn't work at all if the writer were not sympathetic to her man. It's a bit grisly in parts but basically a fab read. Susan R Matthews is a really refreshing new(ish) talent on the sci-fi scene - and, my goodness, wasn't it about time for one?
Rating:
Summary: He's mad enough to be honorable; read it, read it, read it.
Review: I've read both of these books, and I want more, but I have a strong, strong warning: Don't try to read this late. You'll have nightmares. At least I did. The subject matter is repulsive. Torture, mass murder (or attempted genocide), the slow destruction of a man and his honor. Ugh. But I couldn't put it down, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I just can't drop it, or the images it leaves me with. Imagine the gulag and the worst of the Nazi extermination camps, combined. Imagine a man whose accomodation to the worst thing he can do is to flip some mental switch, and taps into that place of dark, bloody, unacceptable erotocism that (I suspect, anyway) most men have inside them. He is mad. No one can accomodate the rigid code of Andrej's upbringing, the ethics of a healer, and the inappropriate enjoyment of his work without being quite, quite mad. But his honor remains, because he is mad, it becomes the one true thing left him. When he betrays it, by torturing one of his security, the backlash shakes him. It also makes it possible for him to see past his psychotic pleasure, to the fact that something is rotten. I couldn't put it down. It gave me nightmares. I'll read the next one. Buy it, read it.
Rating:
Summary: Good stuff !
Review: Imagine Serbs given free hand over Moslem prisoners in a Nazi-style work camp, and you'll have some kind of idea of how Pyana relate to the subjugated Nurail, and what kind of mess the protagonist Koscuisko has walked into as he takes up his duties as medical officer and Inquisitor at Domitt prison. For all that his duty requires that Andrej be a monster and a curse to the Nurail, his honor leads him to individual acts of compassion at considerable personal risk. It is interesting to watch the author lay down additional threads, begun in the first book and continued here, in what one suspects she will pull together and weave into the Koscuisko Legend. But seeing the threads does not mean we can guess the tapestry. The author works subtle surprises, like the element of mysticism in a book that would seem on its face to be brutally "hard" science fiction. Unlike all those books jamming the shelves where you know how it's going to end almost before you get started, and unlike all those authors content to give us the umpteenth re-working of the predictable same ol' same ol', Matthews keeps her story fresh and keeps us wondering where she is going. Prisoner of Conscience is a worthy successor to An Exchange of Hostages and I'm looking forward with much anticipation to the next installment. There is every reason to expect great things.
Rating:
Summary: A disturbing, insightful view of dichotomy in a mans soul
Review: Prisoner of Conscience is not a delightful book, yet it is a book that keeps you mesmerized and enthralled to the end. It is a profound and deeply disturbing story of a young man set upon a task that he can not enjoy, overcoming the obstacles to come to grips of what he is and what he must do and not lose his humanity in the process. Susan R. Matthews weaves a story that captures the imagination and doesn't allow you to put it down until it is over, makes you want more.
Rating:
Summary: Quite Horrifying
Review: The descriptions of torture were truly awful, and the main character Andrej Koscuisko was truly a villain himself. I hope he learned the evils of his own acts, even if they were within Protocol. The Bench deserves to be overthown and destroyed. Torturing someone to obtain information or a confession is a crime. A confession obtained from torture is worthless, because the torture victim will admit to anything.
Rating:
Summary: Quite Horrifying
Review: The descriptions of torture were truly awful, and the main character Andrej Koscuisko was truly a villain himself. I hope he learned the evils of his own acts, even if they were within Protocol. The Bench deserves to be overthown and destroyed. Torturing someone to obtain information or a confession is a crime. A confession obtained from torture is worthless, because the torture victim will admit to anything.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralling, good characters. READ it
Review: The most original book of last year was Exchange of Hostages. Now the sequel has finally arrived, and its very, very good. Prisoner of Conscience, is definately a middle book. The characters and the universe are established in the earlier book. If you have read Exchange of Hostages, you can appreciate Prisoner of Conscience, if you haven't read Exchange of Hostages, you should immediately go out and get it. This is a wonderfully crafted book. The sentences range from short, and straightforwarded, to carefully formal and elaborate. The vocabulary, especially the newly created words, is inspiring. The point of view changes from character to character. This last technique is done quite brilliantly, especially compared to other books whcih have been ruined by this method. This book is easy to read and reread. Exchange of Hostages was horribly innovative. It had a new and repellant government, with thoroughly harsh and ruthless institutions. The shock has worn off by Prisoner of Conscience. This novel is now concerned with how people live within this government. Everyone in this story from the Fleet officers, to the rebels, the prison guards, the prisoners, the torturer and his flunkeys, the prison commander and his, are all trapped within the system. Some of the people choose to become monsters, others choose not to, some defy the strictures that bind them, others obey them, and still others enforce them. The people are throughly enjoyable, well enjoyable isn't the right word. Some of them are throughly rotten. The main villian, Geltoi, is a greedy, ruthless, self centered bigot who needs to be surrounded by sycophants. Even our hero has his putrid side. Andrej Koscuisko, describes that aspect of himself as " monstrous and unholy". All of them are very well drawn, distinct and individual. There are so many of them too. Belen, chief sycophant to the villian; Kaydence and Code and Joslire, part of Andrej's guard; Chief Warrant officier Caleigh Samons; Fleet Captain Irshah Parmin; Bench Captain Vopalar and her officiers; Robis Darmon, rebel and victim, as well as the main hero and villian. In conclusion, this is a very good read. I highly recommend it and its predecessor. It has a believable but nasty society, and very believable villians. Some of the villiany is squashed, and some of the good guys are rescued; but enough remains to provide another book, or two or three.
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