Legacy.exe

By: J. A. Gillette

Narrated by: Steph DeMartino

Success and failure, reason and passion, Blair and Roslyn. When these two roommates volunteer for a brain mapping experiment at Michigan University, all they’re looking for is one last shared experience to cap off their semester together. Despite Roslyn’s misgivings, Blair leaves her behind and enters the imaging chamber without a care in the world. Then fifty years pass in the blink of an eye.

Blair wakes up alone in New York City, far removed from everyone she’s ever loved, including Roslyn. She’s been murdered, but a digital copy of her mind remains trapped inside a synthetic body. With the help of a cheery young AI and a street-savvy private investigator, she resolves to hunt down her killer before they can strike again.

But Blair soon discovers she’s not quite alone as she believed; Roslyn’s memories are still alive inside her. In pursuing the mystery, these two head-mates learn their deaths may be as closely linked as their new lives. It’s a test of cooperation and compromise for these polar opposites, and if they fail, one or both of them could be deleted forever. They’ll either live together, or die alone.Content Warnings: Violence, suicidal ideation, radical ideologies, transphobia, violationRepresentation (POV characters): Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), lesbian, bisexual, BIPOC, intersex

©2025 John Gillette (P)2025 John Gillette

Engaging from start to finish!

the narrator did a great job bringing the story to life. I typically don't enjoy distortion effects in my audiobooks, but they were really appropriate and worked well here.

Like nothing I’ve ever read!

This was such a wild ride! It’s truly not like anything I’ve ever read and I really enjoyed it! Imagine going in for some testing and then waking up 50 years later in an AI body! The mind of Blair is placed in an AI body and when she wakes up she finds out she has died and now needs to figure out who killed her. And her ex fiancé who died 40 years ago is also inside the AI body as well! This was really such a great read!

This is an exceptional audiobook

Okay, wow. This audiobook was a ride. I could not stop listening. The narrator’s performance was phenomenal. They use voice modulation in a way that doesn’t feel like a gimmick, but actually thoroughly enhances the experience. Each character feels genuinely distinct, which adds so much depth to the story’s exploration of identity and the impact of advanced technology.

This story is doing a lot, but it’s all done well. There are some really compelling cyberpunk and retro-futurist vibes here, paired with deeper questions about what makes someone a person. What’s identity when your memories are fractured or not entirely your own? What does it mean to have a soul when you’re made of code and tech? None of it is heavy-handed, which I appreciate. You’re just immersed in the tension, the pacing, and the slow realization of what the world has become, and who these two women are now.

Blair and Roslyn are so different, and watching them navigate that emotional baggage from inside the same body was fascinating. There’s a lot of prickliness, resentment, regret, and moments of surprising tenderness. Also: major props for writing characters who feel like real people. They are messy, driven, scared, and sometimes self-righteous. There is SO much baggage between these two and the world they find themselves in does nothing except add to that complexity. The story doesn’t sand those edges down.

Even though Blair doesn’t remember fifty years of her life, she’s forced to carry the weight of them, and the mystery builds so well around that. Every twist worked for me. And the relationships are all genuinely engaging.

Fast-paced, emotionally complex, and weird. This is one of those books that asks big questions while still giving you a satisfying murder mystery and strong character dynamics. I’ll absolutely be reading more from this author and have no idea where this series might go from here.

Thanks so much to the author and R&R Book Tours for the complimentary ALC. This review is voluntary and all opinions are my own.