The Legacy Human by Susan Kay Quinn
What would you give to live forever? Seventeen-year-old Elijah Brighton wants to become an ascender—a post-Singularity human/machine hybrid—after all, they’re smarter, more enlightened, more compassionate, and above all, achingly beautiful. But Eli is a legacy human, preserved and cherished for his unaltered genetic code, just like the rainforest he paints. When a fugue state possesses him and creates great art, Eli miraculously lands a sponsor for the creative Olympics. If he could just master the fugue, he could take the gold and win the right to ascend, bringing everything he’s yearned for within reach… including his beautiful ascender patron. But once Eli arrives at the Games, he finds the ascenders are playing games of their own. Everything he knows about the ascenders and the legacies they keep starts to unravel… until he’s running for his life and wondering who he truly is.
The Legacy Human is the first in Susan Kaye Quinn’s new young adult science fiction series that explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world… and how technology will challenge us to remember what it means to be human.
Praise for The Legacy Human “This book is Hunger Games (without the violence or controversy) meets Divergent.” “This story is so intense I felt I couldn’t get a proper breath.” “Science fiction with philosophical depth!”
Brooke's Review:
I want to thank the author for providing me with a copy of this book to read and review. I'm a huge fan of Quinn and love everything she writes. Receiving this book for free has in no way altered my opinion or review.
I'm always up for some sci-fi. and Quinn writes really great sci-fi. So when offered this book, I jumped right in. and of course I wasn't disappointed in the least.
Eli is an artist. But he's only human. And he wants badly to become an ascender because that would mean he could get the medical care his mother so badly needs. So when given the chance to compete in the olympics, he jumps at it, despite others who think he should hold back. But Eli is more than he appears to be, and those who want to win will stop at nothing to try and get him disqualified.
Of course, Quinn builds her story around Eli, but we also meet several other characters who play key roles in the story. I really loved how Quinn shaped them and made them all so very different, each personality coming out off the page. Cyrus is the tough best friend, who will ultimately do anything for Eli. Kamali and Basha lend the girl side to the story, and just a bit of romance. But for me, the secondary character who stole the show was Delphina. Such great sass in that character, and I truly love some sass!
I really like Eli. He's got this vulnerability about him that drew me right to him. But he's also not afraid to do what needs to be done. And the love he has for his mother is beyond anything that you can imagine. He would do anything for her.
I love the world Quinn builds for us with this book. A world where humans are no longer the dominant species. Where something other has come to be of higher intelligence and being and the humans are treated as mere slaves or worse. I will say that I had some trouble picturing the world outside of the buildings the characters were in. I wanted badly to know what it looked like. But I also understood where most of the plot too place, kind of an indoor city of it's own.
And there's nothing rushed about this plot. Quinn gives us a slow rise to the epiphany, building on what we know from the chapters before. But the book is by no means slow. The plot moves along at a good pace, keeping you interested from beginning to end. And of course Quinn throws in some great plot twists, keeping you on your toes, as well. Never really knowing who you can trust and who could be the enemy. I especially love that part of the book!
And I truly love how Quinn builds her book, insinuating some slight romance, but not relying on it to keep people intrigued and wanting more. Sure, you want for there to be something to happen, but you're also good with how the plot is interesting and can stand all on it's own with all the kissing and such you see in so many YA books these days. This is not to say that I don't want more, or want to see the characters take this on in the future (hint hint Susan).
Overall I was in no way disappointed with the first book in this series. It left me wanting more. Left me with questions I know will be answered in the future while still completing the arc of the storyline. Anyone who is a fan of Quinn's previous Mindjack series will be pulled into this and won't want to turn back. A true sci-fi tale that keeps you hooked from beginning to end!
The Duality Bridge
What does it mean to be human? Elijah Brighton is the face of the Human Resistance Movement. He’s the Olympic-level painter who refused an offer of immortality from the ascenders—the human/machine hybrids who run the world—in solidarity with the legacy humans who will never get a chance to live forever. Too bad it’s all a complicated web of lies. Worse, Eli’s not even entirely human. Few know about the ascenders’ genetic experiments that left him… different. Fewer know about the unearthly fugue state that creates his transcendent art—as well as a bridge that lets him speak to the dead. But the Resistance is the one place he can hide from the ascender who knows everything the fugue can do. Because if Marcus finds him, he’ll either use Eli for his own nefarious purposes… or destroy him once and for all. The Duality Bridge is the second book in the Singularity series and the sequel to The Legacy Human. This thrilling new young adult science fiction series explores the intersection of mind, body, and soul in a post-Singularity world.
Author Susan Kay Quinn
Susan Kaye Quinn is the author of the Singularity Series, the bestselling Mindjack Trilogy, and the Debt Collector serial, as well as other speculative fiction novels and short stories. Her work has appeared in the Synchronic anthology, the Telepath Chronicles, the AI Chronicles, and has been optioned for Virtual Reality by Immersive Entertainment. Former rocket scientist, now she invents mind powers, dabbles in steampunk, and dreams of the Singularity. Mostly she sits around in her PJs in awe that she gets to write full time.
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