The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson

 

Once there were three. Three friends who loved each other—Jenna, Locke, and Kara. And after a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, their three minds were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Locke and Kara had to go on without her. Decades passed, and then centuries.Two-hundred-and-sixty years later, they have been released at last. Given new, perfect bodies, Locke and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead.Everyone except Jenna Fox.

Standalone or Series? Series. Jenna Fox Chronicles #2
Format: Ebook, 304 pages
Published: August 30 2011
Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
Author’s Site: http://www.marypearson.com/
Author on Tweeter: @marypearson
Buy:The Book Depository

The Adoration of Jenna Fox was an excellent read, and it left an opening for a sequel, although it could be read as a standalone. The blurb sounded great, and I liked the continuation of the jigsaw puzzle cover.

Please don’t read this review if you intend to read the first book in the series, my review for which is, here.

At the end of book one, Jenna finally decides to free her friends Locke and Kara, because she remembers what it’s like to be a downloaded consciousness surrounded by nothingness. She flings their storage units and battery packs into deep water, hoping that with the lack of battery supply, they will finally be free. 

What Jenna and her father don’t realise is that an unscrupulous colleague secreted away copies of Kara and Locke, and these copies endure nearly three centuries of solitude. When they are finally released becoming human again seems to come much more natural to one than the other. 

Like book one the first few chapters start of suspenseful and contemplative. Unlike book one there’s a lot of action in this one, Kara and Locke make a bid for freedom, but their newly created bodies are precious, and their ‘creator’ is determined to get them back. W

The part about Kara’s and Locke’s changed relationship was interesting to start with but felt a little forced later on. A new character, Miesha, is one of the few people who seem interested in Locke as a person, rather than an asset or a ‘freak’ to fear, but the reader can’t help but wonder what her motivations are – friend or foe?

So the ‘people’ are all well developed, but it’s a bot that steals the limelight — Dot the bot, an artificial intelligence with a little more spark than most. Dot doesn’t stick to her duties like most bots, and plays a crucial role in Locke’s life. Detailing what she does will be a massive spoiler, so it’s enough to say that Dot the bot has more heart than many of the people Locke and Kara encounter in this story. 

Because the world in The Adoration of Jenna Fox had been decimated by a plague and wasn’t too far into the future, the lack of widely available gadgets didn’t surprise me. This sequel is set in a world nearly three centuries into the future, and we get to see some impressive tech. Here America has suffered yet another civil war, splitting the USA into two countries. Anyone that disagreed with the split was termed a non-pack and refused citizenship by either side. Locke meets several non-pacs along the way, as they are the only ones to help non-citizens/illegals like Locke. I thought this was a worthy sequel to the first book.

Related posts:  The Adoration of Jenna Fox