The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson
What will the world be like 200+ years from now? The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson gives us a taste of the distant future, where you can jump into a cab driven by a life-like bot and get on (or off) the grid. Sure, it's easy to look something up on the iScroll embedded in your palm - but someone just might be tracking you...
The Fox Inheritance, Pearson's follow-up to The Adoration of Jenna Fox, tells us what really happened to Jenna's friends Locke and Kara after their tragic car accident. Their minds were suspended digitally for over 200 years before being downloaded into newly-created bodies that look almost exactly like they used to look. Told from Locke's POV, this book is for techies who dream of a future (im)perfect.
We held hands. We crossed a line. We made one another braver.
Though The Fox Inheritance could be read as a stand-alone, readers will have a better understanding of the story and its characters if they read The Adoration of Jenna Fox first. However, if you adored Adoration (as I did), make sure that you walk into Inheritance in the right state of mind: in other words, don't expect the second book to pick up right where the first one left off. The narrators have different voices and go on very different journeys. While the first book was highly introspective and showcased a protagonist having revelations about the world and about herself, the second has more action, as the characters travel across the country, running from the bad guys.
The Fox Inheritance will be available August 30th, 2011.
This review was cross-posted at GuysLitWire.
Favorite quotes from the book:
I have a fabricated body. I am in a world that is completely different from the one I was born into. What I think is all I have left. My mind is the only thing that makes me different from a fancy toaster. What we think does matter - it's all we truly have. - Page 105
...I remember a line from a poem that Jenna always liked - all I could see from where I stood - and I wonder if she remembers it too. Or was it Kara who liked it? It's hard to remember. - Page 207
"I saw why this world goes on," she says. "I saw all the hope of the future, even when this world is one big mess. Looking into Kayla's eyes made me hope for a better future. Maybe hope is all that's ever kept the world going."
"That's a lot to see in one little girl's eyes," I say.
"Yes," she answers. "It is." - Page 252
Picture yourself five years from now, son. Where do you want to be? Remember that. Every day. That's how you'll get there. - Page 291
Related Posts at Bildungsroman
He Said, She Said: The Adoration of Jenna Fox and The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson
Book Review: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Book Review: Fox Forever by Mary E. Pearson
Book Review: A Room on Lorelei Street by Mary E. Pearson
Mary E. Pearson Interview from 2008
Mary E. Pearson Interview from 2011