by
Gregg Rosenblum
272 Pages (396 KB)
Published by HarperTeen (January 7, 2014)
Genre: Teen/Young Adult, Dystopian, Science Fiction, Action & Adventure, Fantasy
Reviewed by Desiree Putaski
Our fight for freedom is humanity's last hope for survival.
Siblings Nick, Kevin, and Cass are struggling to survive in a world where deadly, sophisticated robots have turned on their creators and enslaved mankind. Fugitives from one of the bot-controlled Cities, the siblings venture into the woods. But when they are attacked by bot foot soldiers, the siblings are separated . . . and for the first time, they are on their own.
Cass is captured and brought back to City 73 for re-education, where she emerges a completely different person—and learns the truth about where she comes from. Kevin is living in a hidden, off-the-grid refuge run by a robotics genius who could be their only chance at defeating the enemy once and for all. Nick, desperate to reunite his family, joins up with a group of rebel soldiers to take down City 73 by whatever means necessary. But the soldiers have their own ideas about how to fight this war, and if he's not careful, Nick may find himself in even greater danger than he was with the bots.
A war between humans and robots is on the horizon, and only one side will survive. But what the siblings don't know is that their movements are being closely monitored, and they are more important to the bots than they could have ever imagined. . . .
An ARC of this book was provided in exchange for an honest review.
Fugitive X picks up where Revolution 19 left off…. Like literally 5 minutes later. I started reading this book without having read the first one and while there were some parts where I had to go back and read them again to see if I could glean further information from the passage, for the most part this book could stand alone (you don’t have the whole back story, so I would suggest starting with Revolution 19). As a recap of the first book, robots rebelled against their human masters and creators in the Great Intervention. Those who survived fled to the forests and created camps, or Freeposts. Those who were not lucky enough to escape were put their “re-education”; where their memories were wiped (they were of course given new ones that made them true believers in the robots) or if they were unable to be re-educated they were executed.
Nick (17), Cass (15), and Kevin (13) are now on their own. The Freepost they helped establish has been destroyed by the robots and now they are on the move again. Unfortunately, very early on the siblings are separated and this book delves into each of their stories.
Kevin is captured by robots and taken to “The Island”. Fortunately for him, his captives are not the evil robots he has been running from, but the creations of The Governor to help assist in building The Island. He is given all the necessities to live in exchange for work. The Governor takes a special interest in Kevin though and realizes he has a special talent when it comes to technology. There is an interesting twist within Kevin’s story. And you just have to read the book to find out what it is.
Cass is injured while chasing the screams they believe to be Kevin’s through the forest. She is knocked down by a robot and falls onto a stick that punctures her lung. Nick finds her, but feels his only choice is to allow her to be captured by the robots and taken back to the City. It’s the only place she will receive the medical attention she needs to live. The robots find her and she is taken back to be healed and re-educated. Cass’ story finds her reunited with her “biological” family; but the Senior Advisor (he’s the head of the evil robots I guess you could say) pulls her from her new reality and sends her back into the forest, seemingly to be bait to catch Fugitive X.
Nick, after allowing Cass to be taken by the robots and losing Kevin, joins up with Erica; a trader who goes from Freepost to Freepost. Nick decides that the only way he is going to find his brother and rescue his sister is to join up with the Rebels. Erica says she knows where their camp is and leads him to them. The Rebels have a hard time trusting, but eventually take both Erica and Nick in. Nick realizes that his robotic eye (this is something else that happened in book one, but the robots replaced his blind eye with a robotic eye) makes him an excellent marksman and gives him the ability to see in situations where other humans cannot. During his adventures with the Rebels he is reunited with Lexi and Farryn (and I have to say that I totally love this name! While I have had to struggle to convince my brain that it’s not a girl name, I think the name is awesome). Lexi doesn’t trust Erica, and Erica could care less. Through all the plot twists, people are betrayed, almost killed, reunited, memories are lost and new ones are made. But in the end, the siblings are reunited. Cass remembers who she is (while she still harbors some of the new memories she was given during her re-education, she does realize that Nick is not her enemy), Kevin is brought into the Rebel camp by Captain Clay (yea, so that was a twist I didn’t actually see coming, but maybe I should have) and unbeknownst to Nick they now have the technology to get into the City undetected.
But who is Fugitive X? Is it Nick with his robotic eye? Is it Kevin with his ability to work with technology with little formal training and his connection to Dr. Winston (the Father of Modern Robotics)? I think we can safely say it’s not Cass since she was basically used as bait by the Senior Advisor to catch Fugitive X. We know that the Senior Advisor wants Fugitive X because he feels he is the only one that can break the code that will allow them to replicate themselves. By the end of this book you get the feeling that the robots are starting to evolve into something more human.
All in all, I enjoyed this book. I have started reading the Revolution 19 and will definitely pick up book three when it comes out. I am eager to find out exactly how all this plays out.
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About the Reviewer:
Desiree lives in Hampton, VA (for the time being anyway). She's a military wife, married to her best friend and busy raising three little heathens (well, still raising two anyway, one is now 18 and getting ready to leave the nest!). She is a stay at home mom and spends a lot of time having conversations with her two rescue puppies. She stays active with volunteer work through the PTA at her children's elementary school and helping out in the classroom whenever possible. She loves history (and lives in the perfect place for it!), scrapbooking, and of course reading. Her greatest adventure was living in Alaska for four years and they hope to move back there one day.