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Overview
When a Pincent Pharmaceutical van is ambushed by the rebel group known as the Underground, its contents come as a huge surprise-not drugs, but corpses in a horrible state. It appears that the pharmaceutical company's top drug, Longevity-which is supposed to eradicate disease and ensure eternal life-isn't living up to its promises. Now a virus is sweeping the country, killing hundreds in its wake, and Longevity is powerless to fight it. But when the unscrupulous head of Pincent claims that the Underground is responsible for releasing the virus, it's up to Peter, Anna, and their friends to alert the world to the terrifying truth behind Longevity before it's too late.
Editorials
VOYA -
Discovering a way to circumvent death does not lead to a carefree paradise in Malley's The Legacy. Instead the world is a dystopia where children are outlawed, resources are scarce, and the inoculated population is unprepared for a mutating virus. One hundred and seventeen years after Albert Fern creates a drug that seems to promise eternal life, people are dying and the drug Longevity is no longer the panacea it was once thought to be. While the government struggles to hide the numbers of sickening and dying citizens, the Resistance—those who reject the unnatural existence of eternal life—fights to seize the opportunity to expose the government as a corrupt, deceitful overseer. The third and final entry in the series that includes The Declaration (Bloomsbury, 2007/VOYA December 2007) and The Resistance (Bloomsbury, 2008/VOYA October 2008) works fairly well as a stand-alone story. A prologue competently sets the scene and, although Malley does not spend much time world building, enough details are included in the story line to inform readers without bogging down the pacing. Aside from Jude, however, the focus of most of this book, there is not quite enough background and development among the members of the Resistance to make their interpersonal dynamics as compelling as they are important to the story line. Still, those looking for a suspenseful, dystopian read will be satisfied, and fans of the series will be "dying" to get their hands on this. Reviewer: Catherine Gilmore-CloughKirkus Reviews
This conclusion to the trilogy that began with Declaration (2007) carries two simple lessons: "Richard Pincent was the most evil man in the whole world" and "a world full of old people completely sucked." The immortality drug Longevity might no longer be working. Though the dastardly Richard Pincent, owner of Longevity, spreads wild tales about Underground terrorists poisoning the Longevity supply, teenage revolutionaries (and Richard's grandsons) Peter and Jude know it's not true. But certainly something is killing Legal people, despite the drug that should be keeping them safe in their placid, middle-class boredom. Perhaps they rely too much on wicked medicine and not enough on Nature's own beautiful circle of life? Peter and Jude frantically attempt to prove their heroism, but events are far beyond their control. Ironically, it's not the young heroes but the generation of those who "outstay their welcome" who will bring about the new Eden: a nearly depopulated, post-pandemic, technophobic farming world. Any subtlety the earlier books may have enjoyed is lost in what is now a straightforward thriller. (Science fiction. 11-13)