The Diabolic by S.J. Kincaid

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Category: Young Adult
Genre: Fantasy, Sci-fi, Dystopia
Content: Some drug use, sexual predators, a couple of brutal killings


Nemesis is a Diabolic. Created to protect a galactic Senator's daughter, Sidonia. There's no one Nemesis wouldn't kill to keep her safe. But when the power-mad Emperor summons Sidonia to the galactic court as a hostage, there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia.

She must become her.

The Diabolic is a Young Adult fantasy/sci-fi with a dystopian aspect to it as well. This is closer to fantasy to me because the sci-fi is very soft with really no explanation behind how any of it works, because much of it wouldn't work. The book is set sometime in the far future out in space. I will say that I think this is for older teens as there are some themes in the book that are too mature for younger ones. There is some drug use and a couple of sexual predators that are dealt with at one point. There is also some killing and brutality in this book.

For the most part I really liked it though. It was very readable and hard to put down. It was interesting to read from Nemesis's point of view as she learns and grows and realizes that she is more than just a diabolic - which is a genetically engineered person created to protect, like a bodyguard, and not really considered a person by society. I enjoyed reading as Nemesis came to the realization that she was, in fact, a person with her own wants and needs. I also enjoyed the romance between Nemesis and the person she ends up falling in love with (I won't spoil who that is here).

The political machinations in the book were interesting but not too complicated. This is where I would have liked to have gotten more than one point of view. It would have made Tyrus's decisions more interesting if we had witnessed his thought processes instead of being told from Nemesis's point of view, but that's the downside of first person narration.

I had a hard time believing in the religious aspect of the book where learning new technology is outlawed. I could see if it was outlawed for the lower class citizens, but with the elites having access to that knowledge. That would have been more believable. It would have kept the masses in check and under the Emperor's thumb, but for the Emperor and the whole upper class to also not have this knowledge, was silly. How would they expect to be able to maintain what they already had? And yes, I know we are told in the book that they think the bots will maintain it, but even bots break down eventually and someone has to know how to fix them. Surely they would know that and wouldn't want to lose what they already had, especially since they are living out in space and depend on that tech. So this part of the story was completely implausible to me.

There were a couple of other things that slightly annoyed me. First, there were some inconsistencies in the story. One example of this is the fact that Nemesis doesn't have tear ducts but there are parts of the story where her eyes blur when she is upset like they are filling with tears or something, and her eyes are crusted over when she wakes up once. That can't happen without tear ducts. Plus can you imagine what it would be like to not have tear ducts? Your eyes would be extremely dry. The other is a spoiler so I won't talk about it here. 

There were a few twists in the book that didn't surprise me at all. I predicted every one of them, but I didn't mind that because I enjoyed reading the book so much. As I said, this book kept me glued to it. The sci-fi and space fantasy aspect was very appealing to me, as well as the slow burn romance, which I didn't feel was too overdone. I always like a little bit of romance in the books I read. So in spite of the negatives I've pointed out, I would still recommend this, because I liked it anyway.

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