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A review by ihateprozac
The Fox Inheritance by Mary E. Pearson
4.0
This book follows Locke and Kara as they awaken 260 years after their infamous accident. Given new BioPerfect bodies with the help of a shady scientist, Locke and Kara soon break out and try to track down the infamous Jenna Fox. They discover that the world has changed a lot in the last 260 years.
Surprisingly, medical science hasn't changed a lot in the last 2.6 centuries. While society has become relatively accepting of BioGel bodies, only the slightest of progress has been made in the field. The genetic engineering and tampering with native species appears to have stagnated for the time being. But while the medical community have come to a standstill, society as a whole has seen massive change.
The United States has seen another civil war, of which the cause is unknown, that has divided citizens not geographically, but ethically. Rather than splitting the country into North vs. South or East vs. West, the author sums it up perfectly in saying that 'each citizen got to choose which parent they sided with in the divorce'. From what the author shows us, citizens live in relative harmony despite having chosen different sides.
While you'd expect that people on the losing side of a war would live in relative poverty, that's not the case here. Regardless of which side they chose, American citizens have access to wealth and a wide range of public services. It's those that refused to choose a side who are now marginalised. Referred to as 'Non-Pacts', this group are excluded from most aspects of public life, living on the fringes and often resorting to crime.
I've read a number of dystopian texts in which war is a major theme, but I've never seen it done in this way! It's so fascinating that there are no geographic borders, and that it doesn't matter which side you picked during the war, so long as you picked one. People from either side are equally welcome to food and shelter, and somehow manage to live in harmony despite knowing they fell on opposite sides of the fence. But if you decided that both sides were wrong, you're a non-citizen and are relegated to the sidelines forever.
I hope the war and its effects on society are explored further in the next book. I'm curious as to what they were fighting over, especially considering it was something that had people refusing to take a side. I'm also curious as to how people can live peacefully together, when they believe that their neighbour was wrong. Surely there are times when peoples' opinions cause them to come into conflict!
I also hope we see more Bots with feelings in the next book, because I absolutely fell in love with Dot. She reminded me of Alice from Twilight: while the series as a whole was infuriatingly bad, thinking about Alice and her fun personality never fails to make me smile. Dot is the same. While the first book ended atrociously, the image of her in a wheelchair with a sombrero and a smile is enough to redeem the whole series for me. I'm not too embarrassed to admit that I shed a tear when she passed away, and I sincerely hope we see more delightfully devious Bots in the next book.
One thing I hope the author never revisits is Kara and Gatsbro. I've read enough [b:Pretty Little Liars|162085|Pretty Little Liars (Pretty Little Liars, #1)|Sara Shepard|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1284559818s/162085.jpg|2191061] that I've learned to never put my guard down when an author doesn't provide cold hard proof of a villain's death. We never got an explanation as to how Gatsbro was revived after being bludgeoned with the paperweight, and we learned that BioPerfect is capable of adapting and evolving. I wouldn't put it past Gatsbro and Kara to magically grow gills and come back with a vengeance.
I'm curious about where the next book will take Locke. Though I don't think he's emotionally strong enough right now, I hope that he can eventually follow in Karden's footsteps and mount a resistance. I think Allys will then become his second in command and they'll fall in love. Locke thinks that he's in love with Jenna, but the author has been steadily planting the seeds for some Locke/Allys romance. They've got the cute flirty banter downpat, and Locke has commented on how Allys doesn't seem to have found true love yet, as evidenced by her 6 husbands. Jenna seems intent on not outliving Kayla, so it'd just make sense for Locke and Allys to get together.
The first and second book have varied so much in tone that I don't know what to expect of the next one. The first book focused so heavily on the medical industry, but this took a backseat as the second book became a stock standard sci-fi action flick. It's almost as if the books were written by two different authors. I felt that The Fox Inheritance was better written than The Adoration of Jenna Fox, but the mythology in the second book was lacking.
Sure, there's only so much you can do with sci-fi, but it just felt so generic to me. Robots, guided cars, ID that must be kept on your person at all times, touch screens embedded in your palm...I felt like I'd seen it all before. The original take on the civil war redeemed the book a little, but I hope the author can step it up in the next book.
Overall: While The Fox Inheritance provides us with better quality writing and fewer plot holes, the tone of the story and mythology of the universe take a huge hit. It's as if there are two different authors here, taking the medicine-driven The Adoration of Jenna Fox and turning it into a generic B-grade sci-fi action story. The original take on civil war is fascinating, but needs to be explored more in the next book to make this saga stand out.
Surprisingly, medical science hasn't changed a lot in the last 2.6 centuries. While society has become relatively accepting of BioGel bodies, only the slightest of progress has been made in the field. The genetic engineering and tampering with native species appears to have stagnated for the time being. But while the medical community have come to a standstill, society as a whole has seen massive change.
The United States has seen another civil war, of which the cause is unknown, that has divided citizens not geographically, but ethically. Rather than splitting the country into North vs. South or East vs. West, the author sums it up perfectly in saying that 'each citizen got to choose which parent they sided with in the divorce'. From what the author shows us, citizens live in relative harmony despite having chosen different sides.
While you'd expect that people on the losing side of a war would live in relative poverty, that's not the case here. Regardless of which side they chose, American citizens have access to wealth and a wide range of public services. It's those that refused to choose a side who are now marginalised. Referred to as 'Non-Pacts', this group are excluded from most aspects of public life, living on the fringes and often resorting to crime.
I've read a number of dystopian texts in which war is a major theme, but I've never seen it done in this way! It's so fascinating that there are no geographic borders, and that it doesn't matter which side you picked during the war, so long as you picked one. People from either side are equally welcome to food and shelter, and somehow manage to live in harmony despite knowing they fell on opposite sides of the fence. But if you decided that both sides were wrong, you're a non-citizen and are relegated to the sidelines forever.
I hope the war and its effects on society are explored further in the next book. I'm curious as to what they were fighting over, especially considering it was something that had people refusing to take a side. I'm also curious as to how people can live peacefully together, when they believe that their neighbour was wrong. Surely there are times when peoples' opinions cause them to come into conflict!
I also hope we see more Bots with feelings in the next book, because I absolutely fell in love with Dot. She reminded me of Alice from Twilight: while the series as a whole was infuriatingly bad, thinking about Alice and her fun personality never fails to make me smile. Dot is the same. While the first book ended atrociously, the image of her in a wheelchair with a sombrero and a smile is enough to redeem the whole series for me. I'm not too embarrassed to admit that I shed a tear when she passed away, and I sincerely hope we see more delightfully devious Bots in the next book.
One thing I hope the author never revisits is Kara and Gatsbro. I've read enough [b:Pretty Little Liars|162085|Pretty Little Liars (Pretty Little Liars, #1)|Sara Shepard|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1284559818s/162085.jpg|2191061] that I've learned to never put my guard down when an author doesn't provide cold hard proof of a villain's death. We never got an explanation as to how Gatsbro was revived after being bludgeoned with the paperweight, and we learned that BioPerfect is capable of adapting and evolving. I wouldn't put it past Gatsbro and Kara to magically grow gills and come back with a vengeance.
I'm curious about where the next book will take Locke. Though I don't think he's emotionally strong enough right now, I hope that he can eventually follow in Karden's footsteps and mount a resistance. I think Allys will then become his second in command and they'll fall in love. Locke thinks that he's in love with Jenna, but the author has been steadily planting the seeds for some Locke/Allys romance. They've got the cute flirty banter downpat, and Locke has commented on how Allys doesn't seem to have found true love yet, as evidenced by her 6 husbands. Jenna seems intent on not outliving Kayla, so it'd just make sense for Locke and Allys to get together.
The first and second book have varied so much in tone that I don't know what to expect of the next one. The first book focused so heavily on the medical industry, but this took a backseat as the second book became a stock standard sci-fi action flick. It's almost as if the books were written by two different authors. I felt that The Fox Inheritance was better written than The Adoration of Jenna Fox, but the mythology in the second book was lacking.
Sure, there's only so much you can do with sci-fi, but it just felt so generic to me. Robots, guided cars, ID that must be kept on your person at all times, touch screens embedded in your palm...I felt like I'd seen it all before. The original take on the civil war redeemed the book a little, but I hope the author can step it up in the next book.
Overall: While The Fox Inheritance provides us with better quality writing and fewer plot holes, the tone of the story and mythology of the universe take a huge hit. It's as if there are two different authors here, taking the medicine-driven The Adoration of Jenna Fox and turning it into a generic B-grade sci-fi action story. The original take on civil war is fascinating, but needs to be explored more in the next book to make this saga stand out.