Fox Forever

Pearson completes her Jenna Fox trilogy with this gripping and bittersweet volume. Locke Jenkins, whose consciousness was stored for 260 years until illegal technological advances allowed his body to be rebuilt (and enhanced), returns to his hometown of Boston. He's left Jenna, once the love of his life, in California, taking only her urgent wish that he embrace this second chance at life. First, Locke must repay the Network, a shadowy resistance group, for engineering his escape from earlier dire circumstances. The favor they ask greatly compromises his ethics: Locke must find out where the government is hiding an imprisoned rebel leader by ingratiating himself with Raine, the beautiful and conflicted daughter of a regime official. The city Locke arrives in doesn't resemble the Boston where he grew up, but there's less futuristic world-building in this installment than in The Fox Inheritance. What remains consistent is Pearson's seamless blending of speculative science with well-plotted action, as well as her ability to create introspective characters who ask challenging questions about what it means to be both human and humane. Ages 12 – up. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio. (Mar.)