Thursday 13 January 2011

Book Review - The Legacy

Synopsis
When a Pincent Pharma lorry is ambushed by the Underground, its contents come as a huge surprise - not drugs, but corpses in a horrible state. It appears Longevity isn't working and the drugs that are supposed to guarantee eternal youth are failing to live up to their promise. A virus is sweeping the country, killing in its wake, and Longevity is powerless to fight it. When Richard Pincent of Pincent Pharma suggests that the Underground has released the virus, something has to be done to put the story straight once and for all and alert everyone to the truth. 




My Review
I requested this as soon as i knew it was coming out. I loved book one 'Declaration' and enjoyed book 2 'Resistance' and so was looking forward to book 3. it took a few months before it was released then i had to wait for it to arrive and so the other books weren't fresh in my mind, but i did get back into the story quite quickly. This one starts with a prologue which actually takes you back before the beginning of book 1.
Albert is researching a cure for cancer when his daughter is taken ill, he finds a cure, but it is the ultimate cure, it will heal you of every illness and renew your cells so you don't die of old age either. It looks like he has created a form of immortality.
His assistant is hungry for the formula and the fame that comes with it and so takes the formula and gets rid of Albert.
It then skips to 120 or something years later and back where book 2 ended. Anna has escaped the 'surplus halls' a place where children who were born 'illegally' are sent. She has found that she isn't a waste on society but a valuable human being. She is happily living with Peter, her brother Ben, and her baby Molly.
The Underground are still trying to sabotage Pincent Pharma, destroying drugs, stopping the children from being taken away, trying to restart the circle of life. But one raid on a van of what they think is drugs reveals piles of withered dead bodies, and they aren't the first. Hundreds and thousands of people are mysteriously disappearing, and word gets out of an illness, it seems the drugs aren't working anymore. Pincent Pharma try to cover the catastrophe by blaming the Underground.
Can Anna, Peter, Jude and Sheila uncover the truth before everyone either dies of the disease or gets killed by angry scared people. 
I'm a bit confused about how i feel about this book, i enjoyed parts of it, but at other times it was a bit too political for my liking. The author makes quite a debate about the value of life, and why one person can think that they have more right to live than others. Should we have eternal life on the consequence that no new life can be born. It is an interesting subject but it felt a bit forced. There were a few surprises in the story line that i enjoyed and i found myself trying to figure out who was on what side and what was going to happen. 
One part of my brain was saying, 'this isn't that good, and not at all believable,' but the other part was saying 'keep reading i need to know what happens, this is getting good.' the result was that i couldn't put the book down and was up until 1.30 in the morning finishing it!
I think i was mainly disappointed because i loved book 1 so much and felt they went downhill from then on, but i would say, it was worth finishing and i really liked how it ended.

My Rating
I would give this book a 6.5/10. Worth a try.

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