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The Fox Inheritance
The Fox Inheritance
The Fox Inheritance
Ebook333 pages4 hours

The Fox Inheritance

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

3.5/5

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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.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateAug 30, 2011
ISBN9781429926799
Author

Mary E. Pearson

Mary E. Pearson is the international and New York Times bestselling author of the Dance of Thieves duology, the Remnant Chronicles trilogy, the Jenna Fox Chronicles, and more books for young readers. The Courting of Bristol Keats is Mary’s debut novel for adults. She writes from her home in California.

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Rating: 3.7058823529411766 out of 5 stars
3.5/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    3.75 starsThis is the second book in a series. Locke and Cara have been “asleep” for 260 years. They were in a car crash with their friend Jenna that many years ago, and although Jenna's father was able to bring her back at the time, using 10% of her brain, Locke and Cara weren't woken up until 260 years later. After about a year of the doctor/scientist who brought them back getting them up to speed on life now, Cara and Locke figure out that he'll never let them go, as they are “floor models” to selling the technology. They need to get out and find Jenna, who is still alive...I listened to the audio and it did a good job of keeping my attention. I quite liked this. It's been way too long since I read the first one to remember anything about it, so I can't really compare. Things didn't go as I expected when they met up with Jenna. Definitely worth continuing the series for anyone who has read the first one, I think. I'll continue on, as well.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Lock, Kara, and Jenna were all involved in horrible accident that destroyed their bodies. Their minds were imprisoned in electronic devices. Unbeknownst to the outside world, the three teens were both aware and suffering in the nothingness that contains them. They could communicate in the void and still had each other. Then Jenna disappeared, leaving Kara and Lock alone. They wake up 260 years later in a world they don't recognize, where everyone they once knew is dead except for Jenna Fox. A scientist wants to use the technology that trapped their minds and created their new bodies to market to very rich people and is using them as advertisements. Kara is very different from the person she used to be. She's violent, angry, and blames everything on Jenna. Kara disappears and Lock must get to Jenna before Kara does. He embarks on a journey and picks up unexpected friends along the way. Can he warn Jenna before Kara gets to her?The Fox Inheritance is a great followup to The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Even though the beginning is similar to the first novel, Kara and Lock don't go through the same process of regaining their memories after waking up like Jenna did. Technology has become advanced enough that their memories are immediately accessible. The plot really takes off when the journey to California starts. Kara is nowhere to be found, which is creepy considering she's a sociopath. She could be doing or planning anything while Lock is running after her. On top of this already troubling situation, Lock has to avoid the scientist they ran away from and the government. The scientist wants to protect his investment and still use them for advertising, but can't call the police because of his own illegal activities. The government is after him because he has no identification and his existence is illegal because there wasn't any part of his original body used in the creation of his new, artificial body. The tension and suspense are what drives most of the story.On the way to California, Lock meets an unexpected ally who is one of my favorite characters: Dot Jefferson. She's a cab driving bot that has no legs and a big heart. The world has changed a lot and bots like her are a common sight everywhere. They do menial jobs and are bullied or ignored. Dot and many others of her kind dream and want freedom, but the consequences for such behavior are harsh. Dot is taking a huge risk when she goes with Lock and she proves invaluable to him. She represents the hope that is still alive within the dystopian society that values security over freedom. This characters also challenges our definition of humanity. dot is one of the most human characters in the entire book, but she was manufactured in a factory.My only criticism is the pacing is a little bit slow despite the tension through the first two thirds of the novel. Overall, The Fox Inheritance is an exciting sequel that outshines its predecessor. I would recommend this to younger readers and those looking for an introduction into the science fiction genre.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    “*4.5 stars*This was an awesome sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox, to me it was even better. We get to see Locke and Kara wake up 260 yrs. later and things have changed quite a bit. There is a lot more action and adventure in this book and I loved the Bots! Dot was such an awesome character, I felt myself feeling emotions as if she were a human. We get to learn so much more about what happened on the night of the accident. Also, got to know Locke better, which only made me love him! I have to say this was an awesome book and hope that last one is just as good!
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Set 260 years after The Adoration of Jenna Fox, this book follows the lives of Locke and Kara, Jenna's friends who were with her in the original accident. The story is narrated by Locke, who is extremely introspective and provides a surprisingly calm narrative -- which may be part and parcel of having had his consciousness locked in a little box for 260 years.If you've read the first book, you're undoubtedly curious to continue the narrative and read this one. Personally, I found this book less engaging than the first one, for a few reasons. First, the introspective behavior meant that even with plenty of action going on around Locke and his character, it never really felt active because of the interruption of his thoughts. We're also dumped into the future, 260 years later... and while there are hints of future reality -- non-Pacts, rebellion, V-screens, etc. -- we don't get to understand the future world in a way that might make the story more immersive and believable. It was a little frustrating to not understand society and only have hints dropped, but I suspect we'll have a better rounded view of the worldbuilding in the third book (yes, there is a third book). It wasn't a bad book, by any means, and the Bot character of Dot and one other (who I won't reveal the name of because, spoilers) were the most intriguing of everyone involved. I wish we'd had more of them instead of Locke's never ending thoughts, but like I said, it wasn't bad. I didn't put it down at any point in frustration, I merely turned the last page feeling mildly indifferent.That said, I do plan to read the third one, as I'm curious as to how the rest of the story will play out.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    First Impressions: When The Adoration of Jenna Fox was released a couple of years ago, I read it and fell in love with the story. It was one of the first books that re-attracted me back into the world of Young Adult novels, so I was thrilled to receive this book for a review. In the first book, I had loved the quick pace of the storyline and the unforgettable characters. I knew that I would love this second book just as much, if not more.First 50 Pages: Before I started to read The Fox Inheritance, I decided to revisit the first book and do a quick re-read so I could freshen my memory of the story line. Once I was done, I dived into the second book and read the entire book in a couple of hours. The second book is narrated by Locke and I immediately noticed that I didn’t connect as well with this character. In the first novel, if you have read it, you know that a particular incident sets the whole story in motion, a car accident. In this second novel, we get to revisit the car accident and find out more about that incident in greater detail that answers some questions that the first book doesn’t really cover.Characters & Plot: While I don’t think that this second novel is up to par with the first, the characters and the plot did have deeper, emotional attributes. Set in the future, 260 years after the car accident, The Fox Inheritance dives into great depth on an emotional level. Locke has to deal with not only his past, but making his way into an uncertain future. The book is jam-packed with all sorts of themes that I thought were a bit heavier than the first book. She introduces the concepts of forgiveness and guilt, letting go, and embracing unwanted change. The author really shines when she goes head-first with human nature and the concept of light VS dark. I could spend hours pointing out all of the themes in this book and analyze them to the ground. It’s one of those books I can easily see being used in a classroom setting for students to learn about book themes.This book has its ups and downs, per say. While I loved the themes and the darker imagery, the characters were not as well thought out. Their voices lacked a bit. I also feel as though the style of writing wasn’t nearly as good as the first book. It seemed jumpy at certain points and I had a difficult time keeping track of what exactly was going on.Final Thoughts: I didn’t love this book as much as I thought I would. I had high expectations and this book didn’t quite reach all of them. Still, it is a good companion novel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox. The Fox Inheritance leaves off with an open ending, so I’m curious to see if there will be another addition to the series. I hope so!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I may have been living under a rock for the past year, but it was only recently that I read The Adoration of Jenna Fox, which was an excellent book. I was a little concerned about a sequel though, as Adoration seemed like it was a stand-alone novel, and not really worth continuing. But, Fox Inheritance showed up on shelves this year, either proving that the publisher that this was a profitable enough franchise to continue, or that the author had more story to tell.Barely a few pages into Fox Inheritance, I knew that this book suffered from the former. More than anything, Fox Inheritance felt like an unnecessary sequel that added absolutely nothing to the original story. With such a massive time-jump, the author could virtually start the plot over that could be sustainable over numerous volumes. However, the plot of Inheritance was so far from the original concept of Adoration that I didn't even recognize it. It may as well have been a completely unrelated book that started a new series.Sadly, this is the end of the road for me and Mary Pearson. Adoration was an excellent book, but this was something else completely that didn't make much sense and is, frankly, not needed.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I decided to do these two books as a set, rather than individual books. Mainly the reasoning is because I feel the same way about both books- so to save my readers from reading the same review twice, I am giving you a combo! (Also, it is nice to see the books in a series- sometimes I pick up a book I read a review of and find out it is the second book in the series.)The most obvious assumption of these books- they were fabulous. The writing was excellent, the characters were developed well, and the author's storytelling is outstanding. But what made these books stand apart for me- they made me think. What is human life? At what percentage does human life start and end? I found myself pausing throughout both books thinking to myself the hard questions that the reader must face. What is humanity? There are so many ethical questions with this book- it seems like a fantastic book series to be read in a group. I can only imagine the conversations that these books would cause. I can't say they are my favorite books, and I probably won't read them again and again (they are too heavy for that!) I will say, though, that this book series has joined a very special group- the group of books that have changed and shaped me. This is a very special book series and I think anyone would enjoy it- sci-fi fan or not.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Most people liked the first book better but I liked The Fox Inheritance more.Maybe because it was more action filled. This book is about Jenna (book 1) and her 2 dead friends who died in the accident. Or so we and Jenna think. I loved Dot the Bot. The world we only saw glimpses of was interesting. I do think there will be another book. This book is not good enough to give it 4 stars. (4 star books for me are books I might even want to re-read and I do not want to read this one again) so I will give it 3 stars on goodreads but it is 3.5
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Wow. SO INTENSE. I didn't know what to expect from this since it was pretty clear that The Adoration of Jenna Fox needed no sequel. But this is mainly about Kara and Locke, Jenna's best friends who were in the accident with her. About what happened to them while Jenna was saved.The book is told from Locke's perspective, which was a plus. I love male POVs and Pearson did a great job on it. I felt Locke's voice was much stronger and distinct than Jenna's was in the first book. He was so confused and felt everything so intensely that the the pages were just bursting with tension. Some scenes were so engaging and so emotion-filled that they'd leave me drained. The richness of the emotional scenes was delightful. I love good earth-shattering moments and this story had tons! It was a constant inner battle, utterly thought-provoking. Even though the tension was palpable though, I did feel the pace a bit slow. Or probably everything just felt too urgent for them to slow down, so when every time they did, I got frustrated. A lot of things are going on at once. So I guess I was expecting a bit more action. Overall, it's a very unusual dystopia, that explores the true meaning of being human and the essence of who we are. It dives into some disturbing feelings and explores amazing sci-fi concepts. I ended up liking it even more than book 1. Can't wait for more!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Fantastic sequel to "The Adoration of Jenna Fox." I was hesitant to read it at first, since it was narrated by Locke and not Jenna's story. But I got over that pretty quickly. Locke is an awesome character and it was easy to let him take me on this journey. I love the futuristic world that Pearson builds here. Every detail was so vivid, from the landscape to social issues.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I enjoyed The Fox Inheritance, but not as much as The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Yes, some questions were answered, and the characters were well-developed but the "Inheritance" did not flow as well. This sequel is set 260 years after the fatal accident. It focuses on Locke and Kara and their struggle to find out who and what they are.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I guess people have different perspectives on this novel versus Jenna Fox, but while I thought Jenna Fox was beautifully written, it was so enclosed by location and plot that I felt like the story was limited.This was not the case for the Fox Inheritance. Locke and Kara were more intriguing to me than Jenna was-they were cooped up for years and then... didn't come back right? And the world had to get so much bigger now that we have fast-forwarded 200 years in the future and they have to come cross country to find Jenna. However, the star in the novel was Dot. She was the bravest non-human I've ever met! I was impressed by the scope of the novel, the description of how everything had changed, and the new technology that had been developed. All of these things were far more difficult to do in a book and I believe that Pearson succeeds.This book is definitely a must read for any dystopian YA fans!
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    I really liked the first in this series, "The Adoration of Jenna Fox". It was new and different, and was a very fast read. This one was more forced and I waded a bit through the story. Ability to skim so much and stay with the story is not a good thing.

    ***SPOILERS***

    Locke is so irritating that I wanted to slap him. He was passive, meek and lacked the ability to make a decision that wasn't approved by Kara. It would have been acceptable if he had found his voice earlier in the book, but even when he came to the realization of the nature of his existence, he still didn't have the foresight/insight/intelligence to make a rational decision. As a matter of fact, this is my note about 1/2 way through "I'm about to lose my patience for the moron."

    Kara, the antagonist of the two, was more relatable because she suffered a fatal flaw from bringing her back. Her decisions I understood, and her ultimate sacrifice meant that much more, because she was able to overcome the monster she had become.

    Jenna seemed too good to be true and I still don't trust Meisha; but, I will have to read the next book to know.

    Overall, it's not a bad series, even though this one worked on my nerves a little. It is a Young Adult book, and I think the YA reader is a bit more forgiving than I can be. With that said, I will read the next one in the series, "Fox Forever".
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Last year, I read The Adoration of Jenna Fox. When I heard there was going to be a sequel I was surprised and excited, especially since the viewpoint would be from someone new. One of my biggest problems with book one was that Jenna was not an especially likable narrator. Alas, sometimes it would be best for an author to let a story close without writing a sequel; this is one of those times for me.

    Locke did not make a better narrator for one thing. He never really coalesced into a real person. There just doesn't seem to be much to him; he may actually consist only of his love/obsession for Kara and Jenna. Rather than being focused on the ethical dilemmas involved in these technologies like the first book, I felt that the melodrama upstaged those questions.

    The love triangle just creeped me out. I agree with Alyss that it's not possible to be in love with two people at once, so I just could not care about Locke and his desperate need to please and be with both girls. The society is what's so interesting here, but the focus isn't really on that.

    Much of the plot was predictable, especially the climax. The unexpected things, like Jenna having a daughter, were not happy surprises. Reading over what I've written here, it definitely sounds like I hated this; I didn't, but it was hugely disappointing. On a five star scale, I would probably give it a 2.5/5, if that helps any.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    I received an Advance Reader's Copy of this book through the Amazon Vine Program in exchange for an honest review.The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson - scheduled for release on August 30, 2011.From the back of the book: "They say time heals all wounds, but they're wrong. After a terrible accident destroyed their bodies, the minds of three best friends were kept alive, spinning in a digital netherworld. Even in that disembodied nightmare, they were still together. At least at first. When Jenna disappeared, Lock 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, Lock and Kara awaken to a world they know nothing about, where everyone they once knew and loved is long dead. Everyone . . . except Jenna Fox."This is a well written, engaging sequel to Pearson's The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I have to admit that with the way that book ended, I did not expect there to be a sequel. Sometimes it's nice to be surprised. Though I enjoyed both books, I have to say I enjoyed this sequel more.What I liked about the book: It's a page turner. Even though I would classify this as a sci-fi book, it's also a thriller. There's a cross country chase, a mystery, and of course the good guys vs the bad guys. It even includes an ethical dilemma regarding bio-engineering. How far should we go to save/extend life? I liked that even though this is a sequel, it could very easily be a stand alone read. Pearson has created well developed characters (even the ones I didn't like - like Kara) and she's a master at world building.What I didn't like about the book: I liked it all.Fans of sci-fi futuristic stories will enjoy this book. It has a touch of dystopian flavor to it as well, though not enough that I would classify it as a dystopian novel.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Brief Description: A sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox, this book chronicles the awakening of Jenna’s friends Kara and Locke after 260 years of “cyber-hiberation.” Only their minds were kept alive in digital form, but new technology developed by a Dr. Gatsbro makes it possible for Kara and Locke to have new bodies (based on their old bodies but better) and a new life. However, 260 years of being trapped and isolated have affected Kara and Locke—with Kara being changed most profoundly. When they realize that Dr. Gatsboro is not quite the benevolent savior they thought, Kara and Locke decide they need to escape and find the only person from their past who is still alive—Jenna Fox.My Thoughts: I was really disappointed in The Adoration of Jenna Fox. I thought the premise was fantastic but poorly executed. (However, I was in the minority as many bloggers fell in love with the book.) I almost passed on reading this sequel but curiosity got the better of me—mostly because I was surprised to see a sequel. (As I recall, the first book said Jenna had destroyed the computers containing Kara and Locke’s minds.) I’m pleased to report that I liked this book better—probably because my expectations weren’t as high. Narrated by Locke, the book has more action (an escape and cross-country chase), and the future world that Pearson created interested me (particularly the relations between bots and humans). Although I thought this book was better than the first one, I still didn’t fall in love. The writing was simplistic, the plot was predictable and some discrepancies just bugged me. Perhaps, most importantly, I just couldn’t buy into the idea that people’s minds could be kept alive digitally. However, if you can suspend your critical thinking and read the first book, you’ll probably enjoy this one too.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    My daughter and I loved The Adoration of Jenna Fox and were excited about this sequel which takes place 260 years later when Jenna's best friends Locke and Kara who had been supposedly killed in the accident that Jenna survived have been brought back to life, thanks to an evil scientist who stole copies of their mind downloads. While this book had action and a cool futuristic ideas, for me, the story lacked the mystery of the first book. The plot was very predictable and the characters weren't really that interesting, with the exception of Dot. The writing is good though. Both my daughter and I rate it as pretty good--3.5 stars.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This sequel to THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX takes place 260 after the events of that story and are told form Locke's point of view. He and Kara have been removed from the black boxes where they spent those years and given strong, healthy new bodies. Locke is wondering when the doctor who did the procedures—Dr. Gatsbro—will let them leave his isolated estate.He learns that Jenna is still alive. He also learns that the doctor who rebuilt their bodies is planning to sell his procedure to the highest bidder even though the procedure is still illegal. He and Kara decide to escape from the estate and make their way to where Jenna is. Locke has come through those isolated years sane; Kara has not. She blames Jenna for their long period of isolation and is determined to have revenge on her. The story is a journey story. Locke experiences both the physical journey of traveling across the country and the emotional journey of adjusting to a world that is completely strange to him and in which everyone he loved—except Jenna and Kara—are gone. He makes friends along the way with a CabBot named Dot and with one of the humans who was one of his caretakers—Meisha. The story gives a reader a lot to think about as they contemplate what makes a human. The story also made me think about the nature of friendship and love. I liked watching Locke grow and I really liked connecting with Jenna again.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Interesting! Reminded me of the film 'I, Robot'. I even had to fight my tears at one point. Two questions puzzled me though: Why did Dr Ash make a copy of Locke and Kara's minds, but not Jenna's? And who hit Dr Gatsbro on the head?
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I absolutely loved the battle between science and morality that was presented in The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Without giving too much away (in case you haven't read it YET), Jenna Fox and her friends were in a horrible accident. At that time, technology had advanced so much that an entire human body could be replicated- not just cloned, but regrown, with everything it had before. But, the catch was, you could only reproduce up to a certain amount. For Jenna to live, an illegal amount of replication was necessary which left her father, the scientist who invented the technology, the tough choice of breaking the law, or letting his child die. Jenna lived.It's a remarkable story of self acceptance and adaptation and a damn fine dystopian novel. The Fox Inheritance is the sequel.Jenna was not the only one involved in the accident. Her two best friends were involved as well but their bodies were so far gone that even the Biogel technology could not save them. Before their bodies expired, Jenna's father uploaded the data from Kara and Locke's brains. Whether he had hoped to replicate them at that time or not, he did it just in case. When Jenna discovered that the essence of her two best friends were trapped inside a holding device inevitably, she did the kindest thing she could think to do and had the boxes containing what was left of Kara and Locke destroyed.But every good technician makes backups, and a rogue scientist at the Biogel lab made copies of Kara and Locke, and what remained of them, their brains, sat trapped in those boxes, forgotten for 260 years. And they can remember every excruciating, horrible day of it.So it's not a stretch to believe that when they are given new bodies and a second chance at life, they harbor much resentment. They endured an unthinkable hell and they blamed Jenna, because she got to live. Irrational? Yes, but it was the only thing they had to hold on to. Jenna is still alive, 260 years later and they feel she needs to answer for abandoning them. I struggled with this concept perhaps the most throughout this story and tried to feel things from Locke and Kara's point of view. Jenna was blameless. She couldn't do anything about the situation and their 260 year old vendetta wasn't realistic to me. I would have thought they'd go after the lab, or the government that wouldn't let them be reproduced. Jenna's my girl, and if it came down to it, I'd want Kara and Locke eliminated to save her. This is where I leave you on the story line. Kara and Locke are on the run from their creator, and hell bent of finding Jenna. You'll just have to read it to find out what they do to her.The world created in The Adoration was already riddled with scientific discoveries that are unfathomable in this day and age, but 260 years later the world has evolved into the most brilliant sci-fi setting. Fierce security regulations, everything automated and computerized, robots replacing people, humanity's ever slipping hold on itself. Good stuff, and yet, outside of the system, a much more primitive normality can be found, where life goes on day to day just as it always has. I loved that. I like the fear that a good dystopian evokes in me, but I love love when even in the worst of imaginable conditions, there is enough hope to drive people to hold on to the simple things that matter. We see a lot of that when we get to visit with Jenna again.I love Pearson's story telling. It's smooth and fast-paced. She gives you everything you want but layers it with enough emotion to make you work for it. And she gives you Officer Dot Jefferson- we should all be so lucky as to have a Dot."Customer Locke, I may not have everything you do, but I have more than you think and much more than I ever dreamed of. I told you, Bots dream. At least some of us do. Whether we are supposed to or not, whether it was ever planned or not, we dream. Some of us think beyond our cabs, we imagine where our customers go and what things they see. When they jump into our cabs, we imagine where they have been, and how it has changed them. Their worlds become our secret worlds, and sometimes we share those places with other likes us and sometimes we even dare to dream that those worlds could be ours one day. We don't know if that could ever be true for us, but we hear stories. And now...I am one of those stories. Escape is not about moving from one place to another. It's about becoming more."
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In The Adoration of Jenna Fox, we learned about Jenna herself, a girl who had been in a terrible car accident and scientifically re-engineered afterwards. Now, over two hundred years later, we learn what happened to her two friends, Locke and Kara.This is primarily Locke's story, as he is the narrator, and we jump in a year after he and Kara have recovered and are living with the doctor who gave them new bodies, using even less than 10% of their original bodies. As with Jenna Fox, much of the thematic element deals with the ethical questions of what makes someone human, what makes them more than an animal or machine. While it wasn't a bad book, my main frustration was that it never seemed to be "more." It rehashed the same themes, and, in my opinion, had the same downfall - those who are somehow less than human are empty, have "dead eyes," and this is never really explained or explored further. While I was reading, I enjoyed the story, but it's not one I'll mull in my mind as long as the first book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    In The adoration of Jenna Fox, Jenna was saved by having her mind put into a new, man-made body. Her father was unable to save her friends Locke and Kara, even though their minds were uploaded before death just like hers was. Hoping to release them from the living hell they were trapped in, Jenna threw the machines housing their electronic minds into a lake. Her friends were truly dead … or were they?In this sequel, a dubious scientist has brought Locke and Kara back to life 270 years after their bodies died. When they find out he is not as altruistic as he claims to be, Locke and Kara escape from him and go in search of the last link to their old lives: Jenna. It’s a strange new world of bots and automated superhighways, and Dr. Gatsbro is on their trail. Can Locke and Kara find Jenna? And if they do, what are Kara’s motives? Locke isn’t so sure anymore …What does it really mean to be “human”? Is it your mind or your physical body that determines who and what you are? You’ll think about these questions and more when you read The Fox inheritance.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This is the second installment of the eventual trilogy "The Jenna Fox Chronicles." The first book was The Adoration of Jenna Fox. When I started to read the second, I actually stopped and went back and reread the first because it I had forgotten a lot and it was a little confusing otherwise. I hadn't been wowed by the first book, but I found the premise interesting enough to continue on; the second one struck me as a bit better than the first.The story begins 260 years after Jenna Fox was saved from a should-have-been fatal car accident that took the lives of her two best friends, Locke and Kara. In the first book, Jenna’s father Matthew had developed Bio Gel to restore Jenna’s body along with the uploaded data from her mind. In the second book, we discover that the brains of Locke and Kara were salvaged also along with some of their DNA, but they were not restored. Finally, after years in limbo, they too get corporeal, thanks to new advances in Bio Gel, now called Bio Perfect. A year after their awakening, Locke and Kara are still kept in a captive but comfortable state by the scientist who restored them, Dr. Gatsbro, so that they can be presented as “success stories" to other potential customers for the life-preserving gel. But the two want to leave the estate, and they especially want to find Jenna and see why she never helped them. With the help of some unlikely comrades in a radically changed world, they set out to escape from Dr. Gatsbro, and to experience the lives that were taken from them when they were just teenagers.Evaluation: There is a lot to think about in this not fabulous but not bad book; is there a threshold of bionic replacements beyond which we are no longer human? How should “human” be defined anyway? And is love possible or even advisable when one of the parties ages and the other does not? As I indicated in my review of the first book, these topics have been tackled by other authors in a better way (compare, for example, Time Enough for Love by Robert Heinlein). But Pearson adds a coming of age angle and even a bit of "The Jetsons" that should help teens relate to this particular version of a provocative plotline.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I got a copy of this book through the Amazon Vine program. I absolutely loved The Adoration of Jenna Fox and was excited to see what the sequel would bring. It was a good sequel; although you should definitely read The Adoration of Jenna Fox first.It is two hundred and sixty years after the events portrayed in The Adoration of Jenna Fox and Jenna's friends Locke and Kira have finally been made bodies and had their minds uploaded to them. Only the man who completed uploaded them to their new bodies doesn't have their best interests at heart. When Locke and Kira decide to escape they are plunged into a world very different from the one they left.The whole premise behind this book is that when Jenna destroyed the back-ups of her friends' minds there was actually another copy of her friends out there. The story is told from Locke's point of view. Most of the story follows Kira and Locke; Jenna doesn't enter the story until the last third of the book or so.Locke is an interesting character, and while I wasn't as engaged with him as I was with Jenna in the first book, it was still neat to watch him experience the world after a gap of two hundred and sixty years. I love how Pearson throws in some new science and gadgets, but how she also drives home the point of how many things haven't changed.I think another reason (besides Locke and Kira not being quite as easy to relate to as Jenna) that I liked the first book better was that it tackled some really interesting political and social issues. This book does expand on those issues some and also focuses on other social issues. For example the issue of how many rights to give Bots (basically driods the service humans) comes up as does the issue of people who want to live off of the grid of society. These issues are interesting but not nearly as engaging or as shocking as the issues addressed in the first book (how much of you needs to be left for you to still be human).The story ends well and is pretty complete. There is some room left for a future story featuring Locke or Jenna.Overall a good addition to the series. Definitely not as good as The Adoration of Jenna Fox, the characters aren't as engaging and the issues addressed not as spectacular, but it is still a good story. There are some new interesting issues raised around robot rights and people who want to live "off-grid". It was fun to see how Jenna had changed in 260 years. If you loved The Adoration of Jenna Fox, definitely pick this up for a read. If you haven't read The Adoration of Jenna Fox go read it; it is a wonderful example of young adult science fiction that is engaging on both an emotional and intellectual level.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    After 260-years of purgatory, Locke Jenkins awakens with a body that seems familiar - yet somehow changed. His friend, Kara, who died in the car crash that killed Locke, also has a achingly similar body...but her mind isn't quite right. Locke and Kara soon learn that their minds had been downloaded and saved centuries ago by the father of Jenna Fox - another victim of the fatal crash. Although Jenna had been given a new life right away, the copies of Locke's and Kara's minds had collected digital dust until Dr. Gatsbro brought the teens back to life in this brave new world. But Dr. Gatsbro's motives are not altruistic. Locke and Kara make a desperate attempt to escape the doctor's nefariousness clutches...and are jettisoned into the foreign world of the future. But can Locke keep Kara from making a terrible mistake?When I read The Adoration of Jenna Fox years ago I really liked it, but as I was reading The Fox Inheritance, I realized that I remembered almost nothing of the first book (perhaps it wasn't so great after all?). I had to rely on spoiler reviews of the first book, and on the hints-of-what-came-before in the second book to remember. This made the first part of the book rather confusing. I'd recommend familiarizing yourself with The Adoration of Jenna Fox before starting The Fox Inheritance. Although I enjoyed this book, I wasn't as impressed as I had been after reading the first in the trilogy. The Fox Inheritance had some world-building and good characters. It brought some interesting moral issues to the table: Is it ethical to bring someone back to life after they're dead - and risk changes? Is it ethical to use a sentient being that of human-creation for our own purposes, or do they deserve civil rights? These are intriguing questions, but they've been explored in many other books/movies. So, in the end, I liked this book. It was a fun read. I'll probably pick up the third book when it comes out. But I would have been perfectly happy if this trilogy had stayed as ONE standalone book. And I'm pretty sure I'll forget the plot of this book within a few weeks.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    ** spoiler alert **This is a sequel to The Adoration of Jenna Fox if you have not yet read that book, beware this review will contain spoilers.260 years after leaving Jenna's story we travel across what used to be the United States to the Eastern states. We find out that unbeknownst to Jenna's father, one of his co-workers kept a copy of Locke and Kara's information. They have been brought back to life to be visual examples of Dr G's business. He keeps them hidden away in his mansion and displayed for wealthy businessmen to come and admire for the technology. Even though they are illegal specimens, it is known (because of Jenna) that it is possible, medically to reconstruct so much of the body with only the minimum cell samples. Early in the story Kara is unsatisfied with their current situation, and now that she has heard that Jenna is still alive, she has some questions that need answering, and they decide to escape.This side of the story is told from Lock's perspective. He is concerned about Kara's determination to find Jenna, she has mysterious and dangerous thoughts in her head and he fears for Jenna's safety. He is also still deeply in love with Jenna and desires them to all be reunited.I found the author's vision of the future in this book was very interesting. The United States being separated into two sections, run by politics. The Republicans and the Democrats and you can only move to a different side of the country every 8 years. There are also added factors of the nomads in which she refers to as "land pirates" as well as super fast moving cars, trains and more intelligent robot/cyborg beings. It is highly imaginative and yet a believable and interesting look of what could be possible for our future.My mind had a hard time grasping some more of the emotions that occur within Jenna, Locke and Kara. Most of them would include huge spoilers for you, but mostly I felt it hard to grasp onto how many emotions they have for being reanimated people. They not only experience human emotions of hate, anger, love, guilt and depression but it's the level in which they "feel' these emotions I had a hard time with. It's all very dramatic and overly emotional even for humans. In the first book we are also introduced to the fact that Jenna must eat only a bag of nutrients only every couple of hours to sustain her system, but in this continuation of the story, I don't remember there being any emphasis on the nutrients supplements, even in one part it refers to Lock eating off plates, but I don't remember being filled in with any information or changes in the technology that allowed them to be able to handle real food.The narrator for the audio book did a great job. There were times that I had to remind myself that this is somebody being reanimated after centuries and very confused about what was going on in the world because there were huge sections of just information about what he was thinking and "feeling". He is in a body that is similar to the one he has always known, but doesn't seem to be quite the same or work the same way. Although there is a lot of traveling from the East coast to the West coast and we get to meet a lot of different types of dangerous people along the way 80% of the story is just Locke's thoughts about what is happening, or did happen to him in the past. The narrator for the audiobook does a really good job of voicing the side characters as well.It is an interesting and unique twist to a science fiction look into our futures. How one day the advances in medicine and technology can bring us so close to being able to live for centuries at a time and still maintain our most basic of human emotions and drive to survive.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    This review contains spoilers for The Adoration of Jenna Fox.The first book in the series is a story of discovery, of Jenna's discovery of her new body and her new self and her parents' choices and deception. This book is less subtle, with less inner turmoil and more straightforward action. Backups of Locke and Kara's destroyed recordings were discovered and new bodies were created for them. Together they escape their "savior" and set off to find Jenna.I enjoyed The Fox Inheritance, but it didn't seem as thorough or complete a story as the first book. There are hints of all kinds of things - Escapees and Non-Pacts, a civil war and a divided America - but it all happened while Locke and Kara were stuck in their computers, so we only learn the bits and pieces that they're told on their frantic journey. The book feels incomplete. Maybe the third book will fill in some of the gaps.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    The style of the first book (The Adoration of Jenna Fox) was introspective and thought-provoking. The tone of The Fox Inheritance however, was intense. It had chase scenes, fist fights, and even dipped into the realm of the psychological thriller at the end.Where Jenna’s story was all about identity and what is required to make a person fully human, Locke’s and Kara’s story is more action-packed. The issues of identity and sentience were addressed in small ways throughout the plot, but there is much more tension and suspense as the characters run for their lives.I was skeptical about whether or not this book could carry on the story in a meaningful way. The Adoration of Jenna Fox had such a concrete ending and didn’t seem open to a sequel about Locke and Kara. My doubts were dealt with quickly at the beginning of the story, and the explanation of how these characters were brought back was completely logical.If you like fast-paced dystopian fiction then I recommend reading The Fox Inheritance. You don’t have to read The Adoration of Jenna Fox first to understand the story, but you will probably appreciate it more if you do.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Jenna thought she had destroyed her friends downloads, but unscrupulous men had saved them and brought them back to life. Once again the author grapple with what makes one human... there’s some adventure, some conflict, and sacrifice.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I have not read the book that precedes this one, but I enjoyed this one nevertheless. The predicament of the main character(s) was an interesting one, as was the future world portrayed in the book. I was interested right away to find out where the book was going and how things would work out for the protagonist. I found the pace just right, and the narration in the audiobook was very engaging. Good YA science fiction, of which, in my opinion, there's generally not enough!

Book preview

The Fox Inheritance - Mary E. Pearson

Chapter 1

My hands close around the heavy drape, twisting it into a thick cord.

About the same thickness as a neck.

I drop my hands to my sides and wipe them on my trousers like someone might see my thoughts on my palms. Someone like Dr. Gatsbro. I wonder just how much he really knows about me.

I look out the window. From the second floor, Dr. Gatsbro is a speck on the lawn. The girl I’m supposed to know stands a few yards away from him. I watch him talking to her. She ignores him like he is nothing more than vapor. I don’t know if it’s deliberate, or if her mind is trapped, like mine often is, in another dark lifetime that won’t let me go. There’s a lot I don’t understand about her, at least the way she is now, and though I’m a head taller and at least fifty pounds heavier than she is, I’m afraid of her. What is it? Something in her eyes? But I’m not sure I can trust my own eyes yet. Even my hands frighten me. Does Dr. Gatsbro know this too? He seems to know everything.

I turn away, looking at a wall of ancient bound books, and another wall covered with artifacts that reach back to some primordial age. Dr. Gatsbro is a collector. Are we part of his collection? Like stolen paintings that can’t be shown to anyone? Only for private viewing? His estate is miles from anywhere, and we have never been beyond its gates.

He has spent the last year teaching us, helping us, explaining to us, testing us. But some things in this world are unexplainable. Maybe that’s where he made his mistake, especially with us. Three months ago, he stopped being teacher and became prey. At least for her. I fear for him. I fear for me.

I return to the window to see if they’re coming. It’s time for our morning appointment. They’re closer to the house now, but Dr. Gatsbro is still yards from her. I try to read his lips, a skill I never had before, but his hand cups his chin and blocks my view.

Her back is to me. Her head tilts in one direction, and then slowly in the other, like she’s weighing a thought. She suddenly whirls and looks straight up at the window. At me. She smiles, her eyes as cold as ice. Her lips purse together in a kiss, and I feel their frost on my cheek.

I cannot turn away, though I know that would be the safest thing to do. I cannot turn away because she has an advantage over me. I cannot turn away for a reason she knows too well.

Because I love her.

She is all I have left.

I force my legs to move. To step away from the window. One step. Another. The last thing I see is her head toss back as she laughs. I fall backward into Dr. Gatsbro’s chair, running my hands over the arms, listening to the quiet rasp of skin on leather, listening to his antique clock tick, listening to the squeak of the chair as I rock, and finally, listening to their footsteps on the stairs—his, heavy and shuffling; hers, like a cat, following stealthily behind.

Locke, you’re here. Good. Dr. Gatsbro crosses the room, and I relinquish his seat to him. He sits down, and I listen to the whoosh of air that leaves the chair under his weight, like the breath has been snuffed from it. Sorry if we kept you waiting. We lost track of time out in the garden. Isn’t that right, Kara?

She looks at me, her eyes narrowing to slits, her hair a shiny black curtain barely sweeping her shoulders. Her lips are perfect, red as they have always been, red as I remember, but the smile behind them is not the same.

That’s right, Doc, she answers. Time got away from us.

Shall we begin, then? Dr. Gatsbro asks.

I think she already has.

Chapter 2

They’re not coming, son. No one is coming. They’re all gone.

It was a year ago that we woke up. The first thing I did was gasp for breath. One breath after another until I was choking, spitting, struggling for another breath and another, the red-hot pain searing my chest, but still I battled for air, like I had finally surfaced from a deep, dark pool. I passed out.

Later when I opened my eyes again, Dr. Gatsbro was there in a room of color and light. I closed my eyes and refused to open them, too afraid that this was yet another torture unleashed on me, maybe a torture I had unleashed on myself, a trick to make me think it was all over.

Come now, Locke. You’re safe. Look. Look at the world. Open your eyes.

That was when I heard Kara scream. A true scream that I heard through my ears, not through my mind. My eyes shot open, and I tried to get up, but something held me back. Yes, another trick. You still can’t help her.

Your friend is fine. Trust me. You can relax, boy. Relax.

Jenna! I yelled. What about Jenna? Where’s Jenna? I didn’t hear her. Not even a moan. Time had no beginning or ending for me anymore, but I knew that somewhere in the blackness, I had once heard Jenna too.

A short time later, Dr. Gatsbro explained to me where I was and what had happened. That was when I understood Kara’s scream.

Our families weren’t coming. No one was coming. They were all dead.

No one we knew was still alive.

We had been gone for 260 years.

By the next day, I was taking a few steps, and by the next, I was allowed to see Kara. I cried. Six feet three and two hundred pounds, falling to my knees, sobbing like a lost child. Kara didn’t cry. Her face was blank, but she came to me and held me and whispered in my ear the way she always had.

I’m here, Locke. I will always be here for you.

But afterward, when we were alone, she slapped me and told me to never, ever allow Dr. Gatsbro to see my weakness again. My face stung for the rest of the afternoon.

The appointments with Dr. Gatsbro began the next day. There was a lot we still needed to know.

Chapter 3

Do you know what today is? Dr. Gatsbro asks.

I look at Kara. In a microsecond, rage flashes past her eyes, but then it carefully becomes the smile the doctor expects to see.

One year since we woke, I say. Time is not a subject that we like to be reminded of, but better I answer than Kara.

That’s right! Dr. Gatsbro says happily, like he is acknowledging a birthday. And it—

It’s about time we venture out into the world, right, Doc?

Kara, dear, we talked about this in the garden. In good time. When I feel you’re ready.

Which will be never, you pompous asshole.

Kara’s thoughts, not mine. I still hear them occasionally, even when I don’t want to.

But I do have something special to mark the occasion. A visitor.

He studies our faces to see our reactions. Kara hesitates for only a moment and then smiles, good girl that she is. Whatever he sees on my face, he doesn’t like. Or maybe I have lapsed again, losing track of time and space as I often do, drifting to before, sucked back into my dark thoughts.

Does a visitor disturb you, Locke?

I’m quick to recover. No. It’s a surprise, is all. A good one. It will be very nice to meet someone new.

Tired of my company?

No. I sit up straighter and smile, at the same time angry with him for making me afraid. I feel like I’ve been afraid forever, conscious of every step I take, and for the briefest moment, I imagine my hands as enormous and strong and his skull as small and fragile as an egg.

Kara giggles. Do it.

I shoot her a startled glance. Dr. Gatsbro has been nothing but good to us. He’s our savior. I remember that. He’s the only friend we have now, besides the hired help at the estate. There is Miesha, who is our attendant by day; Cole, who is there for us at night; Hari, who monitors our health and creates activities for us; and Greta, who prepares our meals. As Dr. Gatsbro puts it, we live a life of privilege.

Who’s coming? I ask, leaning forward, trying to meet his eagerness halfway. I raise my brows and pull back one corner of my mouth in a grin. I know he responds to that facial expression.

He leans back, satisfied, tapping his fingertips together. First, a little review. I want to make sure you’re prepared for our visitor. And, Locke, he says, leaning forward, "I want you to work especially hard on your lapses. Focus. Our visitor might not understand. It’s essential that he see how truly exceptional you both are."

Essential?

Of course, I answer. My lapses are fewer now, but when your mind has grown accustomed to wallowing down endless black corridors for decades, it can’t be retrained overnight to move from one present thought to another. Drifting was my default mode and the one I used to survive. I still use it. Lapse is not a dirty word for me. When I lapse, I fall into silence and blank stares, remembering all the befores of my life, the bad and the good, before today, before the darkness, before the accident. Before. The life I once had.

Our review begins. I hope he skips the part about Jenna. It cost him a stitch on his forehead the last time. He took it surprisingly well, was almost pleased, in fact, saying it proved we were still our own persons. I doubt Kara will be so impulsive again. As she gains knowledge, she gains control. I’m always one step behind her, and that’s not a safe place to be. I look at her now, as beautiful as ever, and I want to hold her and protect her. If I love her enough, maybe I can make up for everything else.

Chapter 4

I had asked to see them. I needed to know. Dr. Gatsbro brought them from his lab in Manchester. He thought it was good that I asked. He called it closure. It didn’t close anything.

Alone, I told him.

They’re in the box. I’ll be in the library. And he left.

I sat in a chair, staring at the box but not ready to look inside. The whole afternoon I stared, remembering,

opening instead of closing,

     walking down the dark hallways,

          feeling for walls that disappeared,

               for ceilings that didn’t exist.

I sat there, losing track of time, just the way I did then. Wandering for hours, centuries—maybe only seconds—there was no way of knowing. I couldn’t even measure time with my breaths. There were none. No tongue. No fingers. No touch. No sound. Nothing. Only the tick of thoughts.

Tick

Tick

Tick

The darkness I had wandered in became something else, spreading, reaching, becoming more than I thought darkness could be. It was molten metal filling imagined lungs, ears, crevices, and pores. Darkness everywhere, until it had oozed in so deeply it was a part of me and I wondered if there would be room for anything else inside me ever again.

When Jenna disappeared, the only thing that gave me hope was Kara’s voice. It was the only light I had. The only air. Even when she screamed. Even when she accused. At least I knew I wasn’t alone. And when there were no screams, her thoughts reached into mine, and mine into hers.

Are you there?

Here. Always here. For you.

Are you there?

Locke, I’m here, here, here.…

Just a thought that can do nothing. Only know. Whatever hell it was, I knew we had gone there together. I told myself that someday, some way, I would get us both out. That’s what I hoped for. But the darkness creeps in there too, until hope is as black as every thought within you.

Locke, it’s getting late, Miesha had said through the door.

Coming, I called. Her footsteps receded down the hallway, and I walked to the table where the box sat and lifted the lid.

Closure.

In the bottom were two small black cubes no bigger than six inches across. Plain, not impressive, not as endless or frightening as the world inside them. Environments, is what Dr. Gatsbro called them. They were the so-called groundbreaking technology that Matthew Fox abandoned, at least as far as Kara and I were concerned. How could this six-inch cube be called an environment? How could an entire mind be uploaded into it? How could anything survive inside for 260 years?

This is where we were. This is where our minds were uploaded and kept spinning when the rest of the world thought we were dead. I had picked up the one labeled with my name first and held it in both of my hands. I felt sick, angry, and afraid all at once when I touched it, and then, unexpectedly, protective. If I could so easily disappear from this world once, could it happen again?

Then I lifted the other cube from the box and held them side by side, just as they had always been when they were on a forgotten shelf in a warehouse. I stared at the six-inch cube that had contained Kara.

Tick

Tick

Tick

Every bit. Every dark corner. Did they get it all?

That’s when Kara walked in, telling me it was time for dinner. She hadn’t wanted to see them. She didn’t need closure like I did, she told Dr. Gatsbro. Two steps through the door and she spotted them in my hands. She shrugged her shoulders and said, "That’s it?" like it was nothing, but I saw her eyes frozen on the black cubes and her chest rising in shallow breaths.

That’s it, I said.

She nudged a few feet closer. Her steps were calculated and cautious.

There were ten lifetimes in these, I said. Even if they’re empty now, it seems like they deserve more than a box in another storeroom.

It wasn’t lifetimes, Locke. Never fool yourself that it was.

She took the cubes from my hands, looked at them, turning them at different angles, then stepped to the side of Dr. Gatsbro’s desk and dropped them in the trash. She looked at me and then, as an afterthought, swept some papers from the desk into the can. There. Now, that’s a proper burial. That’s what they deserve.

Closure.

Maybe there’s no such thing.

Chapter 5

Kara, why don’t you begin? Tell us about the Fox Inheritance.

Kara slouches back and yawns. Zip. Snip. Here we are.

Dr. Gatsbro sighs. Perhaps only Locke should meet our visitor today? Unless you would like to try again with a bit more eloquence and flourish? I think our visitor deserves that much.

Kara sits up straight. A visitor is a curiosity she doesn’t want to miss. Which version?

There is only one, my dear. The one I’ve told you.

And the one Cole told us late one night when Kara and I discovered him in Dr. Gatsbro’s study, dipping into the liquor cabinet.

Right. Only one. She stands, and giving Dr. Gatsbro the flourish and eloquence he wants, she begins, carefully pausing, smiling, modulating her voice and moving her hands for effect in all the right places. Locke and I were in a most unfortunate accident. Technically, Locke died two weeks later, and I was removed from life support three weeks after the accident.

I think about Cole’s description. It had much more detail and color.

The medical records said you were in a gruesome wreck. Way beyond saving, but your families wouldn’t let go right away. Finally the doctors convinced them it was for the best, and legally, they had no choice. The law said you were beyond saving too. Your parents never even knew about the project. What Fox BioSystems did with you back then was illegal. Still is.

Luckily, Dr. Ash, a researcher at Fox BioSystems who had incredible foresight, managed to scan and upload our minds into a special environment using some untested but promising new technology. When others abandoned the project because of setbacks, he made his own copies of our minds and forged ahead, determined to save us.

Matthew Fox, the head of Fox BioSystems, abandoned the project when your parents had your bodies cremated before he could collect any tissue. It’s assumed that Fox destroyed the original mind uploads. But Dr. Ash was a colleague of his and secretly continued the project without the knowledge of Fox BioSystems. He made copies of your mind uploads—backups—and hid them away.

Dr. Ash then managed to retrieve tissue specimens so that our DNA was preserved.

Then he hired some, shall we say, unsavory characters to retrieve specimens from your old rooms when your parents weren’t home. I think they broke in during the funerals, actually. These people weren’t exactly trained in proper specimen recovery. Their expertise was more in the collection of items of value for quick resale.

"With painstaking attention to detail, Dr. Ash secured everything he needed."

With you, Locke, it was a nail clipping found in the corner of the bathroom. With Kara, it was a strand of hair from a brush. No one could be sure that either of those things belonged to either one of you, but it was all that they could find. Tokens, we call them. Those were stored with the uploads, along with your medical records and several photo chips they stole as well.

Through tragic circumstances, however, this brilliant and selfless man died before his hopes and dreams for us could be realized, and our uploaded minds became part of his estate, the value and importance unknown to his heirs.

It’s possible that Dr. Ash’s intentions were honorable, but the fact that he kept his actions a secret leads most to believe that money was his motivator—either blackmail or perhaps selling the technology to a competitor. He was in enormous debt. Unfortunately, shortly after the backups of the mind uploads were made and your DNA tokens were secured, he died under mysterious circumstances in a freak boating accident. Some think that his plan to eliminate the trail of unsavory characters he had hired backfired on him. Either way, he couldn’t carry out his plans.

And as a result of his untimely death, the uploads changed hands many times through several generations, waiting for the right person and the right technology to come along.

They were forgotten in a storage facility for decades. They were only labeled FOX, and came to be known as the Fox Inheritance. Finally, the battery docks that kept you suspended neared their expiration and gave a two-year warning signal. The small research facility that had acquired them didn’t have the resources to decipher the outdated codes, and they didn’t want to get mixed up in something they suspected might be illegal, so they gave them to Dr. Gatsbro, who was known to conduct research beyond established boundaries—for an agreed-upon price, of course.

Finally, after two and a half centuries, the right person came along—someone with the resources, expertise, and vision—to give us a second chance, our very own Dr. Gatsbro. Kara smiles sweetly at him and tilts her head like she is truly touched.

Dr. Gatsbro is silent. He finally nods. Excellent job, my dear. He turns to me. And for you, Locke, your job will be to describe your new bodies and how they are every bit as good as your old ones. Better even. Can you do that?

I look at my hands. Their sense of touch is amplified. They can detect a grain of sand in my palm. I rest them on my thighs, which are stronger and more muscular than the ones I remember from so long ago. Better. But not exactly mine. It’s taken me a full year to get used to that. Could he have made them the same, or did he just have to guess? I look up, his eyes still fixed on me. Yes, of course, Dr. Gatsbro. Better even.

I recite my well-rehearsed spiel, but I know my dramatics are subpar compared to Kara’s. Still, he seems pleased.

"Well done. He draws the words out like a gourmet meal. Very well done, he repeats to himself and sends us to our rooms to await the arrival of our visitor. When we are almost out the door, and perhaps at what he judges to be a safe distance, he adds, And if our visitor should bring up the subject of Jenna, leave that to me. Understand?"

He couldn’t leave it alone. My eyes lock on Kara, but she only nods and walks out of the room.

Chapter 6

Where were you, Locke? Where did you go when you didn’t answer me? When you left me alone? Where did you go? Why didn’t you answer me?

She doesn’t want to know.

She shouldn’t know.

Because where I went is hurtful, and I don’t want to hurt her. I went where I had to go. I went where I survived on gulps of memory and scraps of touch. I went where I remembered a good kind of quiet. A peace. I went to be with my memories of Jenna. Her voice may have been gone, but my memories of her were still alive.

I don’t remember where I went. I died. I shut down. I was lost in a black hole. Just like you.

Where were you, Locke? Tell me. Where were you?

Chapter 7

It was always Kara, Jenna, and me. Or at least it seemed that way. We were friends for only a year and a half before the accident, but for me it was a lifetime. We were instantly bonded. Maybe it was because it came at a turning point in our lives—just the right window where our worlds were all aligned, all needing something, maybe the same thing, maybe one another. We lifted one another up. Strengthened one another. We held hands. We crossed a line. We made one another braver.

I was the youngest. Only two months younger than Jenna, but a whole year younger than Kara. A whole year. I shake my head, thinking of that now, but then a year meant more. When you’re fourteen and you meet a girl who is fifteen and she smiles and is nice to you, nice, a new world opens up for you. And then when Jenna did the same, I couldn’t get enough of either one of them. Jenna was the first girl I kissed, and then Kara. It was only in fun, and I laughed right along with them, but inside it felt like something more. Something important. I was somebody different.

When Dr. Gatsbro told us that Jenna had survived the accident, I was relieved. More than relieved—I had to sit down, 260 years of guilt flooding out of me for what I had done. And for the first time, I thought I could see tears in Kara’s eyes. But when Dr. Gatsbro told us Jenna was still alive, that was when Kara had to sit down too. "They saved her? All these years, alive? Free? While we

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