Review: The Diabolic (S.J. Kincaid)

Publication date: November 2016
Amazon price: $8.99 USD (Kindle)

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

Synopsis: Nemesis is a humanoid called a Diabolic, designed to be the perfect bodyguard to a Senator’s daughter. When her charge’s life is threatened, however, Nemesis must take her place among royalty and deceive the entire court.

TL;DR: Not the best book ever, but good enough that I’ll probably read the sequel.

Trigger warnings: one character narrowly avoids being raped by two people and there is discussion about how many other children these people have raped in the past. Violence and cruelty to animals.

Millenia from now, the human race has expanded to the stars. The ruling class lives on impenetrable fortresses floating in space, ruling over the Excess – normal people who live on planets. Much of the society is completely dependent on machinery to survive and enhance their beauty; however, the Emperor has declared that learning science and math is heretical to the galaxy’s religion and forbidden any advancements. The machines that transport people from place to place, that make them look younger and more beautiful, and that heal their most grievous of injuries in a matter of minutes are breaking down, and soon will be useless. Despite this, any attempts to learn how to fix them is met with death.

Nemesis is the name of a Diabolic, a humaniod creature who was created to be faster and stronger than any human and bonded to Sidonia, the daughter of a heretical Senator, to be her protector. After Sidonia’s father makes a bold move to educate the Excess on science and math, the Emperor demands that Sidonia come to his capitol as a political hostage. Nemesis is sent in her place, and finds herself in the center of a nefarious plot to silence all dissent forever, even at the cost of the entire human race.

The Diabolic was a fun read – pretty quick to get through, long enough to not skimp on detail or story but not so long that I got bored reading it. I finished this in two days.

I loved the main character, Nemesis. She has been bred to feel only one emotion for one person. She loves Sidonia with every part of her, and will do anything necessary to keep her safe. She has internalized a lifetime of people telling her that she is not a person, but a thing – a pet – and can feel nothing else for anyone – not romantic love, not joy, not sadness. Her tear ducts have been bred out of existence, because she has no need to cry.

But, she has to be weakened in order to pass as a human. I liked this twist because it took her from having a huge advantage of her enemies to almost at a disadvantage. She has to deal with denying her true nature, which harms her, but in her mind it’s worth it to protect Sidonia.

Sidonia is soft and gentle despite the coldness of her mother, who is focused on restoring the family’s good graces with the Emperor after Sidonia’s father’s attempts to re-introduce science and math to their society.

Tyrus, who will eventually become emperor, is also more than he initially appears and is very clever. He seeks to help other people not only to further his own agenda but also because it’s the right thing to do. When he uncovers what Nemesis is, the two join together to bring about permanent change – and exact revenge.

I couldn’t quite get my hands on the plot for awhile, but that’s a good thing. I didn’t really know where this was going for awhile, so I was happy to discover along with Nemesis. That being said, there are a few ‘twists’ that I was able to guess right away, one very early on. This didn’t dampen my enjoyment, but it’s clear that the focus of the novel is the characters themselves, not the story.

This book wraps up neatly but I believe that Kincaid later decided to make this the first of a trilogy, which is a decision I definitely agree with. Given that this was more character-driven than story-driven I didn’t enjoy it as much as, say, The Hunger Games, but I still plan to finish out the trilogy.

Format read: Hardcover (400 pages)
ISBN: 1481472674

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