The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid

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: 1^st 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.

Ruin and Rising by Leigh Bardugo

Series: The Grisha Trilogy (bk. 3)

Genera(s): High Fantasy

Subjects: abilities, magic, kingdoms, good vs. evil, war

Setting: A high fantasy world, the kingdom of Ravka and surrounding countries

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, past tense: Alina Starkov

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 417 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover, now in Paperback

List Price: $18.99/$9.99

Publisher: Macmillan: Henry Holt

Summary/ product description: “The capital has fallen.

The Darkling rules Ravka from his shadow throne.

Now the nation's fate rests with a broken Sun Summoner, a disgraced tracker, and the shattered remnants of a once-great magical army.

Deep in an ancient network of tunnels and caverns, a weakened Alina must submit to the dubious protection of the Apparat and the zealots who worship her as a Saint. Yet her plans lie elsewhere, with the hunt for the elusive firebird and the hope that an outlaw prince still survives.

Alina will have to forge new alliances and put aside old rivalries as she and Mal race to find the last of Morozova's amplifiers. But as she begins to unravel the Darkling's secrets, she reveals a past that will forever alter her understanding of the bond they share and the power she wields. The firebird is the one thing that stands between Ravka and destruction—and claiming it could cost Alina the very future she’s fighting for.”

My Review:  Ruin and Rising is the final book in the Grisha Trilogy. I read the 1^st Grisha book, Shadow and Bone months before it’s release, met the author and a pre-pub event in Naperville and gave her her first piece of fan art ever. (I feel like a bad fan!)

Only now did I read the second and third books. Siege and Storm was a pretty good sequel, and Ruin and Rising was a great finale.

Alina’s hair turned white at the end of Seige and Storm. Why are there so many fantasy books with white-haired girls? Anyways, her abilities don’t seem to be working and now she’s stuck in a cave with a bunch of people who think she’s a living saint. The Apparat doesn’t seem to like her friends and claims they are plotting against her when actually they were all just trying to break out and her Alina get some sunlight in hopes of her being able to summon again. Once they get out, they have to find Nikolai, find the firebird aka the third amplifier, defeat the Darkling and destroy the Shadowfold. They got a lot on their shoulders.

I really like this fantasy series because it’s so unique. Ravka is supposed to be like imperial Russia. The palace looks Russian with onion domes. The language appears to be Russian. Rather than just swords, there are pistols. It’s more like the 1800s than the middle ages.

The characters are pretty great. Alina is kind of stubborn like many YA female heroines. Her powers are cool. She can control light (summon sunlight). Mal is a tracker. He’s not grisha, but her loves Alina. He’s pretty funny and I love the romance and banter between them. Nikolai, who pretended to be a privateer named Strumhond in the second book, in a prince and very funny and clever. He likes to build things, and comes up with crazy ideas and plans. He made ships that can fly with the help of Squaller grisha. The Darkling, who is the villain, is complicated. I liked him in the first book, but I’m not a fan of him. He can control shadows and darkness. Genya is a tailor is can change people’s appearance. David is a Durast and Genya’s boyfriend. He’s very smart and jokes go over his head. There are lots of other characters, like Zoya, Tamar, Toyla, Nadia, and more.

The ending was both surprising and not. I kind of saw some connects, especially Mal’s. There’s a lot of action and scary heart-pounding moments.

I’m sure every body’s read this series by now if they read YA, but if you haven’t, I recommend it to fans of Red Queen, The Young Elites, The Orphan Queen and Throne of Glass.

Cover Art Review: Very nice vector illustration with textures. The title type is nicely rendered and very unique.

Let the Wind Rise by Shannon Messenger

Series: Sky Fall (bk. 3)

Genera(s): Paranormal Romance

Subjects: sylphs, weather, elementals, abilities, mythology, supernatural, love

Setting: in the desert of Southern California, and on Mount Washington and in Nebraska and Oklahoma

POV/Tense: 1^st person POV, present tense, rotating between Vane and Audra

Age/Grade Level: Teen

Length: 407 pgs.

HC/PB: Hardcover

List Price: $17.99

Publisher: Simon and Schuster: Simon Pulse

Summary/ product description: “Vane Weston is haunted. By the searing pull of his bond to Audra. By the lies he’s told to cover for her disappearance. By the treacherous winds that slip into his mind, trying to trap him in his worst nightmares. And as his enemies grow stronger, Vane doesn't know how much longer he can last on his own.

But Audra’s still running. From her past. From the Gales. Even from Vane, who she doesn't believe she deserves. And the farther she flees, the more danger she finds. She possesses the secret power her enemy craves, and protecting it might be more than she can handle—especially when she discovers Raiden’s newest weapon.

With the Gale Force weakened by recent attacks, and the power of four collapsing, Vane and Audra are forced to make a choice: keep trusting the failing winds, or turn to the people who've betrayed them before. But even if they survive the storms sent to destroy them, will they have anything left to hold on to?”

My Review:  Let the Wind Rise is the 3^rd and final book in the Sky Fall trilogy. I waited so long to finally read this series. I decided to series-binge it. I had copies of the first 2 books autographed and sitting on my shelf for a long time. I bought the 3rd book. I picked the perfect time of year to read this because it's set in summertime, in the desert of Southern California. If you have not read Let The Sky Fall and love paranormal romance and fantasy, then check it out. It’s very unique, since it’s about Sylphs, which are wind elementals. There’s a lot of cool Air-bender stuff, like controlling the winds and making tornadoes.

The series is told from the perspectives of two main characters, Vane and Audra. I really like Vane. He reminds me of Ethan Wate from Beautiful Creatures, or David from Steehert (The Reckoners) by Brandon Sanderson, and Percy Jackson or Magnus Chase from Rick Riordan’s series. He’s a Westerly and wasn’t aware of it for the last ten years until Audra triggered a break though and told him. Audra is pretty awesome too. She’s a tough fighter, a guardian and an Easterly. They fall in love, even though Vane is betrothed to a princess named Solana. There’s this evil sylph named Raiden who killed her parent and took over they’re castle. Vane must help Audra and the Gale Force defeat him. This series has a lot of action and humor and fantasy elements. I especially love Vane’s inner monologue and his dialogue. He is hilarious. I wish I could get a boyfriend like him. I wouldn’t want him to be lazy, but Vane’s defiantly not that lazy anymore. Audra is such a bad-a, and totally got his butt into shape.

If you have not read the series, then stop reading this review now.

In this final book, Audra is now Raiden’s prisoner, as well as Gus, a young member of the Gale Force and Vane’s new guardian. Audra bonded with Vane through a kiss at the end of the first book and through that bond she knows the Westerly language that Raiden desire to learn. Audra decides to break that bond to protect the language and it works. She forgets Westerly completely. She’s also afraid that breaking her bond will affect Vane’s love for her.

Meanwhile, Vane is planning with the Gale Force and now the leader, Os, decides he wants to teach them the power of pain, which means ruining the wind, breaking it. This is because the wind spikes that Vane wove with the power of four didn’t seem to be defeating the living storms, so Os have to break a Northerly within it to make it work. Vane is completely against this evil power of pain stuff. He wants to find a better way, or at least someone who won’t become a crazy power addict using it. So he seeks out Aston, an ex-Gale and ex-captive to Raiden and his awful torcher. Aston has experience with the power of pain and really wants Raiden dead. They also need Arella, Audra’s criminal mother, and Solana to help them. Vane, Solana, Aston, and Arella plan a rescue mission to save Audra and Gus, while Audra and Gus are trying their best to find a way to escape on their own.

And the escape is only part of the book. The rest of the book is an action-packed finally that will keep your heart racing till the very end. Will Vane be able to kill Raiden? Will Audra ever forgive her mother? Will Vane and Audra restore their bond? So many questions. Trust mean, the ending will leave you breathless. Will Vane and Audra get what they deserve? I will say I am pleased with the ending.

Cover Art Review: The cover is kind of cool, but the type choice seems to conflict with the image. It almost feels like a cover from a fantasy book from a decade or more ago. Or even more like a middle grade book.