Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 [Hardcover]

Alexander Gordon Smith (Author)

Book Description

Series: Escape from Furnace | Publication Date: October 27, 2009

Furnace Penitentiary: the world’s most secure prison for young offenders, buried a mile beneath the earth’s surface. Convicted of a murder he didn’t commit, sentenced to life without parole, “new fish” Alex Sawyer knows he has two choices: find a way out, or resign himself to a death behind bars, in the darkness at the bottom of the world. Except in Furnace, death is the least of his worries. Soon Alex discovers that the prison is a place of pure evil, where inhuman creatures in gas masks stalk the corridors at night, where giants in black suits drag screaming inmates into the shadows, where deformed beasts can be heard howling from the blood-drenched tunnels below. And behind everything is the mysterious, all-powerful warden, a man as cruel and dangerous as the devil himself, whose unthinkable acts have consequences that stretch far beyond the walls of the prison.

Together with a bunch of inmates—some innocent kids who have been framed, others cold-blooded killers—Alex plans an escape. But as he starts to uncover the truth about Furnace’s deeper, darker purpose, Alex’s actions grow ever more dangerous, and he must risk everything to expose this nightmare that’s hidden from the eyes of the world.

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Grade 9 Up—"Beneath heaven is hell. Beneath hell is Furnace." That's 14-year-old Alex's description of the underground prison a mile below the surface of the earth where he and other teen boys are incarcerated for life. The first title (Farrar, Straus, 2009) in Alexander Gordon Smith's new series begins when the protagonist is caught by strange silver-eyed men as he and a buddy are in the midst of a house burglary. Resigned to jail time, Alex is shocked when he's framed by these ghostly black-suited figures who pull guns and murder his pal right in front of him. Pleas of innocence are ignored and Alex lands in Furnace. Gangs bully everyone, the food is disgusting slop, bizarre guard dogs tear inmates apart, and boys are arbitrarily dragged away late at night and return as killing automatons. When all seems lost, Alex and his savvy cellmate devise an escape plan. Last minute calamities bring the plan to the brink of disaster, and a cliffhanger ending definitely carries listeners to the next installment. Using a variety of accents, Alex Kalajzic captures the teen's terrors and occasional black humor as well as the guard's monotone menace. Themes of fear and brutality are frequent and descriptions are occasionally visceral, but none of the scenes are gratuitous. Discussions about the consequence of bad choices, loyalty between friends, and prison life are among the topics that spring from this story, but male audiences will find the fast-paced survival saga most appealing. An additional purchase.—Barbara Wysocki, Cora J. Belden Library, Rocky Hill, CT
(c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Booklist

Positing a near-future backlash against teen crime (and teens in general), Smith sets his series opener in a squalid prison for juvenile offenders built deep underground and patrolled by surgically altered supermen with vicious, skinless dogs. Framed (like a suspicious number of his fellow inmates) for a murder he did not commit, Alex is plunged into a desperate struggle for survival amid constant sirens, lurid lighting, nightmares, gang violence, and terrifying encounters with the prison’s scary guardians. Smith establishes a quick pace with an opening chase described in staccato prose, closes with a convoluted but explosive escape for Alex and a handful of allies, and in between crafts a picture of prison life less raw and hideous than what is found in, for instance, Adam Rapp’s Buffalo Tree (1997), but frightening enough to boost reader interest in sequels. Grades 6-9. --John Peters

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) (October 27, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374324913
• ISBN-13: 978-0374324919
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (66 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #285,022 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars LOCKDOWN, November 1, 2009

By 

Haley Mathiot "Haleyknitz" (North Carolina) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 (Hardcover)

My summary: Alex was like any other boy. Go to school, hang out with his group, and control the monkey bars. But when he started stealing, his life changed for the worse. Out of nowhere, his best friend is murdered, and he is framed for it. he is sent to the child prison: a Hell hole. Worse than Hell. Furnace. When he's there, he is disgusted with the way people live. Kids do hard labor like chipping rock. Gangs kill kids. and he isn't the only innocent person who was framed. But there's no hope of escape. Nobody can escape furnace. Or at least, that's what they all say. But that's only because nobody ever has...

What I felt: Personally, the first time I looked at the cover, I found it just a little disturbing. I thought "eh, I doubt very seriously I'll like that book. But hey--they want to send me a free book? I'll take a free book." So no, I didn't really like the cover. They could have done much better, either artistically or graphically or even with the colors. But that's just me as an artist and a girl :D so I did judge it. boy was that a mistake.

The first sentence of this book seemed to grab me by the neck: "If I stopped running, I was dead." From there, the entire book held me and wouldn't let me go, from that first sentence to the very end. In fact, it held me after the end, too. I distinctly remember my blood racing, heart beating, sweating, adrenalin searing through my veins while I read this book! It was breathtaking and riveting to the last word. And even after the last word. I sat there, staring at the blank page, gasping and panting like a dog from lack of oxygen from reading a book. (that doesn't happen very often, people.)

Characters: The characters in this book were very relatable. They weren't super people, they were real. They handled the horrific experiences of Furnace the same way I would have--screaming in their sleep, crying, throwing up from the horrors.

Writing: the writing was very good--not one of those books where the author just says what he wants to say. Alexander Gordon Smith followed my creative writing teachers' first rule: Show, don't tell. It was an amazing thing to read, the language was very full in vocabulary, and it had good prose. There wasn't any really bad foul language either, like some of the other teen books I've been reading lately.

Recommendation: this book is a thriller, not a horror book, even though it's mildly graphic (mildly. Not really that bad. Descriptive enough to be kinda gross at times... but hey, it could be just because I'm a girl.). It's not the most horrific book I've ever read, but it's certainly not for an eight-year-old. Personally I'd recommend it for anyone fourteen and up (but that's just me).

I hope everyone gets a chance to read this book! It ranked my highest list: up with Harry Potter and The Hunger Games. Not only was the writing very good, but the plot was thick and complicated, intricately laid out, and mind boggling, and the characters were real people.

[...]

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great book, but certainly for older readers, December 2, 2009

By 

Enna Isilee "www.squeakybooks.com" - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 (Hardcover)

Ooh. I still have the chills. This book was delightfully disturbing. It was The Hunger Games, meets The Maze Runner. I found myself on the edge of my seat the whole time I was reading it. It's oh-so-very creepy & cruel to children. Which is my only warning, though that's a pretty big warning.

This book was surprisingly clean when it comes to language. After all, a bunch of teenage boys in a prison that the cover describes as worse than hell probably wouldn't have the best language, but the swearing wasn't extreme at all. Mind you, that doesn't mean there wasn't any swearing, but it didn't bother me too much, and I'm quite sensitive to it.

This book may end up giving me nightmares, but it was worth it. I love books with a good mystery.

If you don't mind horror-books, and you liked The Maze Runner, and you're okay with characters that are FAR too young to be dealing with that kind of stuff, then check out Lockdown: Escape From Furnace

Summary:

This book is creepy, and definitely for older teen readers, but oh-so-very good.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Perfect Pulp-Style Page-Turner, September 8, 2009

By 

The Music Man "If I Cannot Fly, Let Me Sing" (United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Lockdown: Escape from Furnace 1 (Hardcover)

(What's this?)

If this was the 1930s, I could easily imagine Alexander Gordon Smith's "Lockdown" as being snapped up and serialized in "Weird Tales" or "Amazing Stories". His fiction has the same scope and appeal that "Conan" author Robert E. Howard's does. "Lockdown isn't great literature; rather, it's a pure pulp story, very much like the Doc Savage and Kull The Conquerer were in their time, and that's a compliment. There's a real talent in being able to pen a breathless page-turner, a book that veers so closely to the absurd at times that I wanted to chuckle even as I was curious about what would happen next. The plot is simple enough - a 14-year-old boy gets caught doing a minor crime, and due to a savage new law put into place, gets sent to Furnace - a prison that's as dark and gritty as it's name, with no hope of paroll. There are savage dogs, unstoppable guards, jaw-droppingly harsh punishments, and blood - lots of blood. Plus, the entire complex is hiding something; the warden seems not-of-this-world, and it takes our protagonist all his wits and strength to avoid the roaming gangs of thugs who rule this inner world. Smith's prose is brutal and cracks with all the force of a whip; and if the novel descends into melodrama a bit too much, it's all for the good. The author has created an alternate reality that's heightened in every respect; perfect reading for teen boys who want something meaty to chew on. I admit, I'm looking forward to the sequel: "Solitary" due out Fall 2010.