“Darkly engrossing, SINthetic shines a stark light on the age-old question, what does it mean to be human?” —Julie Kagawa, New York Times bestselling author The Artificial Evolution They look like us. Act like us. But they are not human. Created to perform the menial tasks real humans detest, Synths were designed with only a basic intelligence and minimal emotional response. It stands to … basic intelligence and minimal emotional response. It stands to reason that they have no rights. Like any technology, they are designed for human convenience. Disposable.
In the city of New Lyons, Detective Jason Campbell is investigating a vicious crime: a female body found mutilated and left in the streets. Once the victim is identified as a Synth, the crime is designated no more than the destruction of property, and Campbell is pulled from the case.
But when a mysterious stranger approaches Campbell and asks him to continue his investigation in secret, Campbell is dragged into a dark world of unimaginable corruption. One that leaves him questioning the true nature of humanity.
And what he discovers is only the beginning . . .
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I just finished SINthetic and I have to say that if anyone goes into this book thinking J.T. Nicholas’ writing style is an extension of his Wife Julie’s, they are wrong. It is wholly unique and completely epic!! 5 STARS!!! It has an air of IRobot (without the robots and the Detective is on the side of the Synths), and with a fresh take and a unique spin on what could happen with Genetic Engineering. What could happen if people suddenly decided to start playing God?? It kept me intrigued, held my attention, and had me trying to put together clues and guess what was going to happen next. It is fast paced, and a darker take than a lot of sci-fi/fantasy books now-a-days, which I completely loved. I can’t wait to get my hands on SINdicate!!
Honestly, this book had me all over the shop as to whether I enjoyed it or not. At first, I was confused. Either I missed it or it just wasn’t there, but I couldn’t figure out whether the main character was a man or woman for too long at the beginning. I didn’t particularly care either way, I just needed to imagine this character in my mind’s eye, and I was afraid to commit to anything in fear of having to change what they looked like. It was a bit frustrating. Other than that, I was pulled into the story pretty quickly. The dialogue was realistic as was the inner voice, and Mr. Nicholas has an amazing gift of description. With that being said, I felt like there was too much description at times. This book was pretty full of action, and the over use of place description and inner thought tended to drag some scenes along needlessly. But again, nothing to turn me off from the book. I just found myself skimming from time to time.
My real problem with this book was the massive plot hole of humanity and synthetics. Had the author made these beings electronic, rather than live beings, I would have bought the enslavement and less than human treatment. Heck, he could have made it an alternate world and I would have been okay with it. As is, I found it to be very unrealistic, and since it’s the basis of the entire story, a major problem. We are a society of people generally well informed about genetics. Couple that with the fact that we wouldn’t allow people to treat animals the way these synthetics are treated, it just wouldn’t happen. Had the author gone with a computer-based humanoid “synthetic” that evolved to have a conscious, I would have gladly gone along with that and enjoyed the story immensely.
But, I admit, I’m a stickler for realism, even in fantasy. I want to believe a story; I need to.
Don’t get me wrong, this was a good book! The action scenes were intense, the dialogue and description were superb, and the protagonist’s inner voice was fabulous. J.T. Nicholas is a talented writer, and I’d be happy to review more of his books. I just hope he takes more care in tidying up those loose plot ends. I would have loved to have rated Synthetic a lot higher. As an writer, I think Mr. Nicholas deserves it. But as a story, it just doesn’t. So, I’ll average the two scores. 4 for writing, 3 for the storyline. Average 3.5 stars.