Review: The Diabolic

Title: The Diabolic
Author: S. J. Kincaid
Publisher: Simon & Schuster BFYR
Release Date: November 1, 2016

A Diabolic is ruthless. A Diabolic is powerful. A Diabolic has a single task: Kill in order to protect the person you’ve been created for.

Nemesis is a Diabolic, a humanoid teenager created to protect a galactic senator’s daughter, Sidonia. The two have grown up side by side, but are in no way sisters. Nemesis is expected to give her life for Sidonia, and she would do so gladly. She would also take as many lives as necessary to keep Sidonia safe.

When the power-mad Emperor learns Sidonia’s father is participating in a rebellion, he summons Sidonia to the Galactic court. She is to serve as a hostage. Now, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia. She must become her. Nemesis travels to the court disguised as Sidonia—a killing machine masquerading in a world of corrupt politicians and two-faced senators’ children. It’s a nest of vipers with threats on every side, but Nemesis must keep her true abilities a secret or risk everything.

As the Empire begins to fracture and rebellion looms closer, Nemesis learns there is something more to her than just deadly force. She finds a humanity truer than what she encounters from most humans. Amidst all the danger, action, and intrigue, her humanity just might be the thing that saves her life—and the empire.

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Where do I start?

The Diabolic was not at all what I expected. It was both fun and stressful. More than once I gasped out loud.

Our story is of Nemesis, the Diabolic for Sidonia, a senator's daughter. She is stronger than a normal human, faster than a normal human. She loves only Sidonia. So when the emperor declares all Diabolics must be destroyed, Sidonia's family conceives a plan to keep Nemesis alive. And when the emperor calls Sidonia to his home to work as a hostage against her father--a man interested in science when it is forbidden to even speak of science--Sidonia's family sends Nemesis in her place. Because if Nemesis died to save Sidonia, it wouldn't matter. The important girl would still be alive. 

Of course, nothing goes as planned. And Nemesis has to change her way of thinking about everything in order to appear just as human as anyone else. 

I loved all of the characters. But there was one thing that was character related that I definitely saw coming from the very beginning. Still, Nemesis was an awesome and badass character who just couldn't see how human she truly was. I love how the plot was constructed. It's fairly complex.

One of my only gripes with the book is that it was fairly predictable, even with the complex plot. The other is the end. It's not a bad ending. But I wasn't overly enthused with it. I lied, I have another one. A question really. If science is so forbidden, how do they make the Diabolics and genetically modify anything? How do they maintain their communication systems? I don't understand. It is the one thing that makes absolutely no sense to me.

Overall

I really enjoyed it. If you can get by some of the things that don't make sense, you should check it out. If you want really hard and realistic science fiction, you might want to skip it.

Note: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.