The Diabolic by S. J. Kincaid: emotionless pseudo-humans who 'definitely' don't love their dog

The Diabolic 

by 

S. J. Kincaid

Nemesis is a Diabolic. A genetically engineered killing machine that is bred and trained to protect a single person. Because who wouldn’t want an emotionless pseudo-human who can and will kill anyone they think poses a threat to their charge following them around 24-7. It sounds like the beginning of a lovely relationship. Nemesis is the Diabolic assigned to Sidonia, the daughter of a galactic senator renowned for his controversial views. When said views land the family in disfavor and the emperor summons Sidonia to the capital Nemesis knows it’s not in Sidonia’s best interest. 

Sidonia would be a hostage, should her father become troublesome she would die.

So Nemesis takes her place instead. Taking on Sidonia’s identity Nemesis travels to the most dangerous place in the galaxy. The capital of an Empire full of sly, backstabbing senators who are just as likely to invite you to tea as knife you. In all honesty, a Diabolic in disguise is probably more useful here than anywhere else.

Characters

Nemesis: I surprisingly liked her. 

She actually reminded me a lot of Celaena from Throne of Glass (you know, before she got weird). Complete with murderous tendencies and an adorable dog companion. I’m always surprised when I end up liking a character who casually murders people as much as Nemesis does.  Then again, my sympathy might come more from here inhuman treatment as a Diabolic than anything else. Her stories of being trained to kill anything and everything were unsettling to say the least. Heartbreaking to be more accurate. So yeah, Nemesis is good in my book.

Sidonia: I’m not really fond of Sidonia. She had basically two character traits. Having to always be protected by Nemesis and insisting that Nemesis was a real person. The second one was nice and all, but for goodness sakes her constant weakness was so frustrating. She doesn’t do anything active in the whole book I swear.

Tyrus: Again, I surprisingly liked him. In fact, I almost wish we’d gotten some narrative from his point of view. Tyrus is the nephew of the Emperor, whose family has the distressing tendency to die young. Meaning they’re all murdered savagely before they can pose a threat to the throne. Tyrus avoided this fate by pretending he’s completely off his rocker. Which is simultaneously hilarious and really sad. Still, he was clever, devious and I really enjoyed his character.

Likes

The setting was interesting: Because it’s all space and technology but really old technology! Essentially humans were really advanced but then they just sort of stopped making advances. And everything became stagnated until they didn’t even know how to build or improve on their tech. So, everything is ‘state of the art’ but actually crumbling and old. It’s awesome.

Yay for morally grey characters who were actually morally grey: which sounds kind of evil but I promise it’s a good thing. There are too many YA characters who are all like ‘oh I’m so dark and scary! I’ll kill you soon as look at you! Fear me!’ and they do absolutely nothing that could be even remotely called evil. 

That is obviously not how Nemesis and Tyrus operate. In fact, they regularly sacrifice or straight up murder people to gain a little power here and there. It’s pretty interesting all in all. Even if totally evil.

Dislikes

Everything about the romances: where do I even start. They’re just . . . so messed up. Let’s start with the fact that it’s a love triangle (Sort of) with Tyrus and Sidonia head over heels in love with Nemesis, who for her part is still trying to figure out if she’s even physically capable of being in love. First of all, why? I like Nemesis I really do! But nothing about her absolutely screams ‘put me in a terrible love triangle that isn’t even a proper love triangle!’. Does it make any kind of sense to put a superpowered, murderous pseudo-girl into a love triangle! No! no it does not. But that’s just my rants on love triangles in general, just wait ‘til you get a look a couples.

So, let’s start with Tyrus and Nemesis. While I liked them both as characters, I certainly do not like them as a couple. There’s no trust between them, and there shouldn’t be as until they fell in love they would gladly betray the other to gain the upper hand. Tyrus actually does this! He literally did not trust her from day one and it’s only his ‘undying love’ that convinces him he should save her! There’s even a point where Nemesis chooses to believe a story that might be a total lie. A lie that would expose him as the murder of somebody she loved. And what does she do? She gets married to him anyway promising that if she ever finds out that his story isn’t true, she’ll kill him. 

There’s some happy marital bliss right there! 

Shoot me, but I don’t think that’s a good relationship. Much less a cute one.

Unfortunately Nemesis and Sidonia aren’t much better. Mostly because, Nemesis doesn’t have a choice about loving Sidonia. Her brain has literally been engineered to love her. And the idea of some sort of relationship, specifically a sexual one, is just kind of gross. Again, shoot me, but I don’t think being forced to love your love interest is romantic in the slightest. 

So I basically didn’t root for any of the relationships. They were all just gross.

In the end, I honestly enjoyed pretty much everything about The Diabolic. The setting was great. The characters, when not engaged in ‘sweet nothings’ and other crap, were awesome. Heck, even the politics was interesting especially since one wrong move means poison in your drink, or a dagger in the back. Despite the gag-inducing romances.