Legacy Code (Fractured Era #1)
by Autumn Kalquist
Blurb:
Space is a brutal home.Three hundred years ago, the Earth died, and the last humans fled. Beaten. Broken in more ways than one. Their descendants carry the Legacy Code—mangled genes that force them to abort half their unborn children.
When Era and Dritan Corinth get placements on the safest ship in the fleet and win a chance to have a child, they feel lucky. Until the day Era’s supposed to find out if her baby has the Defect, and the ship suffers a hull breach.
An investigation uncovers new threats. Dangerous secrets. Lies. Treason.
Era begins to question everything she’s been taught about the fleet, their search for a new Earth, and the Defect. But the answers she seeks were never meant to be found…
Legacy Code is a suspenseful, dark post-apocalyptic read that has earned five star reviews from fans of books like Hunger Games, Divergent, and Red Rising, and has been compared favorably to Wool, 1984, and the new Battlestar Galactica.
My Review:
Wow this book surprised me in the best possible way, for a story of only 100 pages, it sure packs a lot of action and story into it. I won this book during a giveaway during The Telepath Chronicles release day party, I am looking for more sic-fi books to read and I entered a few giveaways for books that looked. Imagine my surprise when I actually won one! Then my moodreader tendencies came into play and I just had to read this book now.
Legacy Code is a fast story focussed book. We get to know Era, a women aboard the spaceship Paragon. She is pregnant and about to find out whether her baby has the defect. A lot of things happen and it almost seems impossible how much story there is in only those 100 pages. I just had to keep reading, there was so much going on and I wanted to find out how it all tied together. The story was done really well and it really carried this book.
I also have to mention the ending, Autumn really takes a risk there, but I think it was a great ending. Although it was a bit of a shock. This book is also pretty emotional, lots of emotional things happen and as it’s all packed into a small amount of pages it all follows each other pretty quickly.
The characters was given less attention, but still enough to get a feel for them. It is told in the third person perspective, but it really worked for this book. Also we get to know Era not through what she thinks, but mostly through her actions. Her actions really speak for her and show a lot about her characters and at the end of the book I felt like I knew her. The side characters are less important, but I really liked Era her best friend Zephyr and her husband Dritan. The other characters were more on the background.
There isn’t much focus on the world building, but we do get to know quite a bit about the fleet and the spaceships thanks to what happens with Era. I liked getting a feel for how this society worked and how they lived on the fleet all their lives and were searching for a new planet. While I would’ve liked a bit more world building, I really liked the world building we did got and I was able to create an imagine in my head of what it all looked like. There is also some new technology and terms that take some getting used to, but usually from the context it was easy enough to figure out approximately what it did or meant.
To conclude: I was happily surprised when I read this book. I started it on a whim, but quickly got sucked into the story. This books is fast paced, filled with story and has some emotional scenes. I liked the characters and the world building and how as the story progressed you got a good idea of them, even though the focus was on the story. All in all I would recommend this to fans of the sci-fi genre and I can’t wait to get my hands on the next book in this series!
You can add this book to your to-read list on Goodreads
It sounds like a really solid novella – I expect a bit less in terms of world building and characters when I pick up a novella and that works, if the story is solid. I’m glad it worked! I’m definitely interested!
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I think the author is kinda writing a series were each book is only 100 pages, but it was really well written! The shorter lenght really works for this book, it tells the story it needs to tell and never feels rushed. Indeed the world building and characters get less attention, but the story is solid and makes it work. Thanks for stopping by!
This is interesting! I love stories set in space (space opera is something I want to read more of!). I’d love it if there were more than 100 pages, but I wouldn’t mind it as long as the story is well-written. I’m off to get this then ^.^
I thought it was well enough written I didn’t even realize it was short, the pace is done really well. And luckily there will be sequel, so that the total lenght of the story is still longer then only this book.
I don’t read a lot of sci-fi but this one sounds pretty good. Thanks for sharing your review.
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I really enjoyed this book! Since this year I am trying to read more sci-fi and I discovered some good new to me authors.