Publication Date: November 1, 2016
Series: STANDALONE
Genera(s): Dystopian Sci-fi/Space Opera
Subjects: space colonies, genetic modification,
bodyguards, impersonation, royalty
Setting: In space, spaceships and space colonies
POV/Tense: 1st person, past tense: Nemesis
dan Impyrean
Age/Grade Level: Teen
Length: 403 pgs. (In ARC version, at least)
HC/PB: Hardcover
List Price: $17.99
Publisher: Simon & Schuster: BFYR
Summary/ product description: “Red Queen meets The Hunger
Games in this epic novel about what happens when the galaxy’s most deadly
weapon masquerades as a senator’s daughter and a hostage of the galactic court.
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.”
My Review: I’ve
had the great pleasure of reading an advance copy of this, provided by
Anderson’s Bookshop and Bookfair in Naperville, Illinois. They have a pre-pub
event August 22 that I had wanted to attend, but have class that night. The
author will be there to sign ARCs and there will be food. If you live in
Chicagoland and are interested, please contact them and pick up you ARC. Seeing
as this book has not yet been released and won’t be until November first, I
won’t spoil anything major, but I’ll tell you about it the best I can.
The Diabolic is a sci-fi story that takes place in
space. It’s part dystopian, part space opera. Nemesis is a Diabolic, which is a
genetically engineered bodyguard that is bonded to one person, and seeks to
protect only that person, even if it means harming the people that person care
about. Nemesis belongs to Sidonia Impyrean, the daughter of a galactic Senator.
Sidonia is summoned by the Emperor to the
Chrysanthemum, the space colony where the royal court is located. Sidonia’s
mother decides to have Nemesis go in her steed. Nemesis is taught etiquette and
under goes genetic modifications to her appearance and to make her body seem
more average in size and strength so she won’t be discovered to be a
Diabolic.
When Nemesis gets to court, she discovers that playing
a Senatorial heir might be harder than she thought. She might have to take
extreme measure to keep her secret and to protect the Impyrean family. She
soons discovers that in the royal court, there’s always some plot, scandal or
assassination attempt in the works and it’s best to trust no one.
The Emperor has three of his own Diabolics, even
though they were outlawed everywhere else, and knowledge Nemesis’s mere
existence could cause the execution of the Impyreans for treason. She thinks
his Diabolics might be on to her. On top on that, the emperor’s nephew and heir
Tyrus seems to be taking notice of her, and if rumors are true, then he’s
insane, but maybe there’s something cleverer about him that she thinks.
The characters of this book are pretty interesting.
Nemesis is very different from other YA heroines. She was meant to be a
bodyguard and not care about her own well-being. She’s like Rose from Vampire
Academy, but with the selflessness of Tris from Divergent. Sidonia is like
Lissa from Vampire Academy, then. Tyrus reminds me of Nikolai from the Grisha
series, though I won’t tell you why, except for some of the narcissistic and
ego-related humor. Some of the characters annoyed me because they talked overly
formally, like they’re from Elizabethan times to something. Some were so shallow
and back-stabbing.
I thought the sci-fi stuff and technology was cool,
except for the genetically modified “creatures” or “humanoids.” Nemesis is not
considered humor because she was engineered. She’s very strong and fast, but
they didn’t give her tear ducts, so she can’t cry. She denies that she feels
thing like other people. She can kill without remorse. It’s likely because she
was nurtured to kill and not part of her nature like she had believed. There
are Exalted, which are hairless innocents grown and cared for during a holiday
week only to be sent into a star to die. There are Harmonoids, engineered only
to play music. There are Servitors who are only meant to serve and have no free
will.
The cool technology includes machines that can change
you appearance easily with genetic alteration. You can have any hair color, eye
color, skin color, facial feature or even change your sex. There are hair
stilts, which can hold you hair in any style you please. There’s also
artificial youth so older folks can look young again. There are medbots to heal
you.
On the uncool side of things, there are drugs, like opioid
rubs, narcotics and inhaled euphorics, and they’re all legal in the empire and
they use the med bots to fix any problem that occur from them. There’s also the
Helionic religion, in which the worship the Living Cosmos and view any pursuit
of science or mathematics as heresy.
I recommend this to those who enjoyed The Jewel by Amy
Ewing, Red Queen by Victoria Avyard, any book set in space, or book about a
royal court. There is a kind of Capital-esque feel to the court, so I even
recommend it to Hunger Games fans.
Cover Art Review: One of the most gorgeous cover’s
I’ve seen! I love butterflies. This is one beautiful yet deadly butterfly. It’s
very metaphorical. I love that the knives and the title are metallic. This
cover is pretty symmetrical and simple, like Red Queen’s cover.
