Legacy Code (Fractured Era Legacy Book 2)

Legacy Code takes place in the future and depicts a society that is no longer living on Earth. All humans were forced to leave earth three years ago and have been traveling on space ships trying to find a suitable planet to settle on. Currently the fleet is orbiting a planet named Soren. It is uninhabitable, but they have created an outpost and mining operation to replenish the supplies of the fleet.Era and Dristan have been paired for life. Dristan was there to comfort Era when her dad was killed in a hull breach accident. Autumn Kalquist paints a bleak existence for the colonists trying to find a new earth. Besides having to ration everything, including clothes, couples have to apply to have children. Once approved, they must undergo genetic testing to ensure that the baby doesn't have the Legacy Code. It is a genetic defect that will ensure that the baby will die within days of being born (or so the government has told the people). To save resources, the babies that have the Legacy Code are aborted.The day has come for Era to find out the fate of her unborn baby, or as the government refers to it as a collection of cells. Dristan is to meet her at the doctors office, but while Era is headed there, the ship goes into a security lock down briefly. Era makes it to the appointment on time and grows anxious when Dristan does not show up. Dristan is part of a maintenance crew and Era fears that he has died in a hull breach just like her father. At the appointment the machine that is supposed to painlessly determine if the baby has the Legacy Code breaks down. Instead Era has to get an amniocentesis and has to wait for the results.Era finds Dristan to be okay and he was helping on containing the hull breach. During the investigation it is found that other members of Dristan's crew committed treason by sabotaging the hull. As a result the members were 'air locked'. Dristan was allowed to live, but was sent to Soren for a 8 month stint on the deadly planet. As Era tries to deal with the good chance that Dristan will die on the planet, she learns that her baby has the Legacy Code.Era does not want to give up hope on her baby. She starts to follow a rumor that she heard that the Legacy Code is a lie. The last third of the book follows her journey to find the truth.I read this book in just a few days as it grabbed my attention and didn't let go. The last third of the book was very gripping and I got through it in less than a day. Autumn did a great job in creating his characters. As with any science fiction book, there is a lot of technology that doesn't exist today and it would have been nice to have a little bit or a more thorough explanation as to what the devices and technology did. But, being a life long science fiction reader I was able to overcome this quickly. Overall, this is a really good book and I can't wait for the sequel.

If you are looking for your typical Scifi novel with with visions of a bright hopeful future, this is not the book for you. While this book is very well written, the author paints a very bleak picture of the future. We know that the people are colonists fleeing a dead Earth, hopeful that the next "jump" will leave them in a system with a habitable planet to colonize. Our 2 main characters: "Era" and "Dritan" are a young couple on board the main colony ship expecting their first child. The problem for them is that while humans have left a dead Earth, they took everything bad with them that destroyed Earth in the first place, the petty greed, selfishness, mistrust, immorality, and created a society that suppresses all free speech and thought, censors information, creating a stratified society in which the elite on these ships exploit the "lower classes" taking the best for themselves and eliminating those who protest the exploitation. In the process, they have abandoned all the good things that should have been the cornerstones of a new, better society, such as constitutional rights, the rule of law, due process, religion and morality. They exploit the "legacy code" (genetics) to control the population of the lower classes, claiming the fetuses are defective and should be aborted. While it may be true that some pregnancies are defective, it is hinted that many are not. While it isn't mentioned, I would suspect that none of the upper class pregnancies are ever found to be defective. The slightest infraction is labeled treason, punishable by death or assignment to work on the mining operation on a stopover planet, which is tantamount to a death sentence. These conditions force unrest and rebellion, resulting in more executions or banishments to the plant Soren When members of Dritan 's team are executed as saboteurs, he and his team are assined to the planet and Dritan dies. Era's baby is diagnosed as defective and she gets scared begins to question the government; her actions eventually lead to her downfall. What is depressing is that the government never attempts to analyze the cause of the unrest in order to improve conditions and prevent the rebellion; like any petty dictatorship it just keeps executing "traitors". One has to wonder if the government is committing a slow form of mass suicide and they will have killed off most of the colonists before the find a planet to colonize and. The author paints a very bleak future for humankind.

This book is hard to put down. I'm not a lover of space cadet pew-pew action and this book is certainly not that. It focuses on the human aspect of the characters and the day to day reality of what they face under the command structure in space. There is a theme of authoritarianism judgement and punishment, as well as elitist intelligence hoarding.The characters are well drawn and believable, if a little removed from the reactions we might face in the modern day. The main relationship in the book is endearing and enduring, pairing characters of a different class. I grew attached to the main character quickly and was rooting for her.However, the ending was abrupt, cruel and not to my taste. Despite being necessary for the direction the following book goes in, it would have been nice to leave this book on a lighter note. As it was, it left me wondering if it was worth reading the next book in light of a key plot point being severed, which is why I could not bring myself to award a full five stars. I'm glad I did read the next book as we find out much more about the devious nature of the fleet's captain. We also gain a better idea of what is likely to happen in the future, and a better image of all levels of the society. I can see a new world being built in this series with an indeterminate future.

There is a Star Trek Voyager episode that centres around a 'generation ship' with a traditionalist/totalitarian leadership and rebelious elements in the crew. They sabotage the ship in order to break away from the regime.Likewise the Legacy Code, only no outside 'do gooders' to help, just 'traitors' questioning the regime while knowing that a one way trip thought the airlock awaits them if caught. Lots of story and dramatic potentials in this simple setting.The writing is simple and direct. It held my attention, despite being male with no experience of pregnancy. A short book, presumable the first instalment of a longer work, I finished it in two sittings reading off the laptop - just kept reading and never got around to transfering it to my Kindle.Just one niggle, why are these star ships held together with 19th century technolgy? Rivets? really? It's not surprising they are in such a bad condition and panels keep failing, in fact there's no need for sabotage to explain the failures. Surely the author could read up on current ship and aircraft construction, nothing too technical, just a children's "how thing are made" type of publication.

I started with this one not realising it was the 2nd in the series. It is quite a short book and although part of a series it is self-contained.There are a fleet of space ships looking for a new planet to call home, they have obviously been traveling for a long time as the fleet has become dilapidated and in need of constant repair. So far so good I think everything was well described.I was not that impressed with the actual story which centred on the main character’s pregnancy and whether there was an actual incurable defect.Apart from the two main characters none of the others were memorable. At the end, which was depressing enough anyway, I did not really care what happened to any of them.There are no doubt more to come in the series but I will not be reading them.

Another short, quick to read, novel by Autumn Kalquist. The idea is good, the writing simple, the imagery quite vivid. But although detailed, the characterisations were irritating, more like naughty children than late teenagers and I found myself totally exasperated at their actions. But perhaps this is deliberate to emphasise the life that had been taken away from them. But I really wish that there had been less repetition of nausea and vomiting.Despite all of the above, I am curious and will be reading the next book in the series to find out what fate (sure to be bad) awaits Tadeo, one of the lesser protagonists of this story.

I felt as though we were missing something from Era and Dristan's relationship and would've liked this to have been built up a little more to understand the strength of their feelings for each other.I did really enjoy the book though and the world of varying sizes of spaceships and the problems encountered with hardware failures and people navigating how to live best with scant resources and dithering options. The relationships between the characters were interesting and the corruption within the fleet was awful - I expected the fleet to be pretty much gone by the end of the book!Era's story was interesting and I would have liked to have heard more from her.