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J2
“Hello, Mother.” It was the last thing the notorious rebel Jemma7729 ever expected to hear, especially at her trial, in the middle of a courtroom brawl against the oppressive government. But there she her mirror image, the illegal clone J2. Younger, totally inexperienced but smart, ready to follow in Jemma’s footsteps—wherever they would lead. The Administrative Government of North America thought they could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Jemma was arrested. The “Trial of the Century” would see her swinging from a gallows. They didn’t expect her clone to show up! But she did. A younger, brilliant, lab rat. No one, not even the shadow government rebels, the Movers, could guess what J2 would do, could do. Now the Fedguards were back on alert, hunting the clone, determined to kill her and wipe her memory from the face of the planet. J2 had other ideas that would send her, and anyone she touched, on a dizzying high-speed adventure of loyalty, love, revenge, and danger.
- GenresScience Fiction
338 pages, Paperback
First published October 17, 2012
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23 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 19, 2012
In 2008 I had the pleasure of reviewing JEMMA7729 , by Phoebe Wray. Now, four years later, the author has finally come out with the much-awaited sequel, J2.
J2 begins with immediate action at the trial upon which Jemma, who was captured and arrested at the end of Book 1 after rebelling against the oppressive Administrative Government of North America (AGNA), now faces the gallows. In what people are calling “The Trial of the Century,” Jemma is pushed on stage in front of an audience to face the shock of her life: her own clone–a younger, smarter and just as gorgeous copy of herself. Needless to say, everybody is in shock, as no one ever expected Jemma to have a clone.
The irony of it is, J2 was created solely for the reenactment of Jemma’s criminal exploits during the L.A. Terror of 2208 as a way to celebrate the trial. In other words, J2 was created for entertainment purposes only. But in a twist of fate the situation goes havoc when J2 refuses to reenact something she believes to be untrue. She also discovers why Jemma had become a rebel–or “Mover”–and a saboteur: Jemma had blown up chemical labs where they made ingredients to alter people; she’d been trying to stop the government from altering people’s brains.
AGNA’s policy was unequivocal: “People who are dangerous to themselves and to others, malcontents, idiots, women who refuse to take their proper place in society, and social misfits, are altered for the greater good.”
In Wray’s fictional world, every respectful citizen has to stay trapped under the domes of the city because AGNA preaches that the countryside is toxic from the chemicals of endless wars and filled with mutants and deformed. Yet, this is a lie. The countryside, where the rebel Movers reside, is free and safe and beautiful. At the trial, Jemma urges J2 to follow in her footsteps, leave Chicago, escape to the countryside, and find the Movers.
Result? An insurrection. All hell breaks loose in the courtroom, Fedguards start shooting and arresting people…and J2 vows to finish what Jemma started.
J2 is a great sequel to JEMMA7729. Jemma was such a strong yet sympathetic character in the first book, I was wondering how the author was going to top her in this the second one. J2 is just as likable yet in a different way. Even though J2 is strong and brilliant, at the same time she’s incredibly innocent and naive about certain things. This makes for a very cute combination. J2 is loyal and brave and will fight for justice no matter what, even if she has to risk her life in the process. There’s a lot of action and the pace moves fairly quickly in spite of the author’s attention to detail when creating her fictional world. A kick-ass heroine with a kind heart, high-speed adventure, and a sprinkle of romance make J2 a fun, entertaining sci-fi novel.
J2 begins with immediate action at the trial upon which Jemma, who was captured and arrested at the end of Book 1 after rebelling against the oppressive Administrative Government of North America (AGNA), now faces the gallows. In what people are calling “The Trial of the Century,” Jemma is pushed on stage in front of an audience to face the shock of her life: her own clone–a younger, smarter and just as gorgeous copy of herself. Needless to say, everybody is in shock, as no one ever expected Jemma to have a clone.
The irony of it is, J2 was created solely for the reenactment of Jemma’s criminal exploits during the L.A. Terror of 2208 as a way to celebrate the trial. In other words, J2 was created for entertainment purposes only. But in a twist of fate the situation goes havoc when J2 refuses to reenact something she believes to be untrue. She also discovers why Jemma had become a rebel–or “Mover”–and a saboteur: Jemma had blown up chemical labs where they made ingredients to alter people; she’d been trying to stop the government from altering people’s brains.
AGNA’s policy was unequivocal: “People who are dangerous to themselves and to others, malcontents, idiots, women who refuse to take their proper place in society, and social misfits, are altered for the greater good.”
In Wray’s fictional world, every respectful citizen has to stay trapped under the domes of the city because AGNA preaches that the countryside is toxic from the chemicals of endless wars and filled with mutants and deformed. Yet, this is a lie. The countryside, where the rebel Movers reside, is free and safe and beautiful. At the trial, Jemma urges J2 to follow in her footsteps, leave Chicago, escape to the countryside, and find the Movers.
Result? An insurrection. All hell breaks loose in the courtroom, Fedguards start shooting and arresting people…and J2 vows to finish what Jemma started.
J2 is a great sequel to JEMMA7729. Jemma was such a strong yet sympathetic character in the first book, I was wondering how the author was going to top her in this the second one. J2 is just as likable yet in a different way. Even though J2 is strong and brilliant, at the same time she’s incredibly innocent and naive about certain things. This makes for a very cute combination. J2 is loyal and brave and will fight for justice no matter what, even if she has to risk her life in the process. There’s a lot of action and the pace moves fairly quickly in spite of the author’s attention to detail when creating her fictional world. A kick-ass heroine with a kind heart, high-speed adventure, and a sprinkle of romance make J2 a fun, entertaining sci-fi novel.
January 20, 2013
For those who enjoyed Phoebe Wray’s debut sci-fi novel, Jemma 7729, as much as I did, the projected sequel J2 was eagerly anticipated. And for this reader at least, J2 does not disappoint.
This book J2 is named after its protagonist, the clone of Jemma, who is present at Jemma’s show trial and escapes after a riot breaks out in the court room. The novel, like its predecessor, is set in North America 200 years from now, when the population lives in domed cities, each surrounded by a torus of farmland and connected with the others by high speed rail. Much of the countryside has been officially abandoned. Supposedly it’s been rendered uninhabitable by toxic and radioactive waste, the refuse of a destructive civil war, but that’s just another government lie.
The Constitution had been scrapped. Each dome is governed by a regional director appointed by and responsible to the dictatorial president, who is based in Los Angeles. The all powerful Fed Guards have replaced the police and function as army and Gestapo as well.
The underlying principal of the regime is a strict patriarchy. The whole system is directed at keeping the inferior females in their place. But why? There was a civil war in which women played an important part, but lost. The entire female gender was blamed for it, and the result is AGNA (the Administrative Government of North America). It also includes Canada and Mexico, but only the resistence movement recognizes the right of those two former countries to regain their independence.
J2 is the only name Jemma’s clone she has, though some call her Jay for short. She escapes from the Chicago dome makes her way into the forbidden interior. There she links up with the leaders of the resistance known as the Movers, introduced in the first book. They had admitted Jemma into their ranks and they do the same with J2. It takes a few chapters for them to learn to trust her, however, and in those chapters not much “action” happens, not in the conventional sense. Instead, the action of this part of the novel is J2′s campaign to build trust with the activists who had worked with Jemma. Wray makes this work without becoming tiresome or sentimental. It’s an effective piece of writing.
After that, the focus shifts to the Chicago dome, which has been leaking of late, due to the skewed priorities of the local administrator. Known as Marlin9901, he prefers to allocate funding and personnel to tasks more important to him, such as tracking down dissenters and creating distracting propaganda such as a “winter festival.”
The novel culminates in a massive breakdown of the authoritarian system of AGNA, but only in the Foundry Region around Chicago. Elsewhere the AGNA dictatorship still stands, setting up the possibility of a trilogy.
I’d gladly read the last book of such a trilogy if Phoebe Wray should choose to write it. As for J2 itself, I give it five stars out of five, even better than its predecessor.
This book J2 is named after its protagonist, the clone of Jemma, who is present at Jemma’s show trial and escapes after a riot breaks out in the court room. The novel, like its predecessor, is set in North America 200 years from now, when the population lives in domed cities, each surrounded by a torus of farmland and connected with the others by high speed rail. Much of the countryside has been officially abandoned. Supposedly it’s been rendered uninhabitable by toxic and radioactive waste, the refuse of a destructive civil war, but that’s just another government lie.
The Constitution had been scrapped. Each dome is governed by a regional director appointed by and responsible to the dictatorial president, who is based in Los Angeles. The all powerful Fed Guards have replaced the police and function as army and Gestapo as well.
The underlying principal of the regime is a strict patriarchy. The whole system is directed at keeping the inferior females in their place. But why? There was a civil war in which women played an important part, but lost. The entire female gender was blamed for it, and the result is AGNA (the Administrative Government of North America). It also includes Canada and Mexico, but only the resistence movement recognizes the right of those two former countries to regain their independence.
J2 is the only name Jemma’s clone she has, though some call her Jay for short. She escapes from the Chicago dome makes her way into the forbidden interior. There she links up with the leaders of the resistance known as the Movers, introduced in the first book. They had admitted Jemma into their ranks and they do the same with J2. It takes a few chapters for them to learn to trust her, however, and in those chapters not much “action” happens, not in the conventional sense. Instead, the action of this part of the novel is J2′s campaign to build trust with the activists who had worked with Jemma. Wray makes this work without becoming tiresome or sentimental. It’s an effective piece of writing.
After that, the focus shifts to the Chicago dome, which has been leaking of late, due to the skewed priorities of the local administrator. Known as Marlin9901, he prefers to allocate funding and personnel to tasks more important to him, such as tracking down dissenters and creating distracting propaganda such as a “winter festival.”
The novel culminates in a massive breakdown of the authoritarian system of AGNA, but only in the Foundry Region around Chicago. Elsewhere the AGNA dictatorship still stands, setting up the possibility of a trilogy.
I’d gladly read the last book of such a trilogy if Phoebe Wray should choose to write it. As for J2 itself, I give it five stars out of five, even better than its predecessor.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews