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 genetically-engineered humanlike biological construct dedicated to protecting Sidonia, a galactic senator's daughter. She will do anything to protect Sidonia—kill for her, die for her, and she would do so gladly. Sidonia, on the other hand, just wants Nemesis to be her friend.
When the Emperor realizes that Sidonia's father is plotting rebellion, he calls her to the Imperial court to serve as a hostage. Nemesis and Sidonia's mother realize that there is only one way for Nemesis to protect Sidonia: She must take her place. She must become Sidonia, travel to court, and live a life she was never designed for. To make matters worse, Diabolics were recently outlawed. The very existence of Nemesis is treason, and impersonating Sidonia is worse.
As rebellions rise and the nest of vipers that is the Imperial court tightens, Nemesis has to find out whether she is truly human or just a weapon after all.
The Diabolic is the first in a trilogy by S. J. Kincaid. The second novel is The Empress, and the third is The Nemesis.
This novel provides examples of:
- And Show It to You: Nemesis tears the heart out of the person who killed Sidonia.
- Anti-Intellectualism: After a massive supernova wiped out the five planets that were the primary archive of human knowledge, the prominent religion declared this a divine sign that all scientific knowledge was blasphemous. They went around destroying all other archives, banned all scientific education and research, and even banned creating more technology. Not just new technology, they banned creating more ships of the existing designs. Now, everything is maintained by robots maintaining robots, and the fact that all technology is slowly breaking down as it gets too old is a fact that is explicitly ignored, and bringing it up is considered blasphemy.
- Conspicuous Consumption: The only reason actual human employees are ever used. Robots and servitors can do anything, but hiring humans with free will who demand money and might turn on you is a sign of power and prestige.
- Dehumanization: Anyone who is not a noble is considered less than human. The servitors are bred and engineered for their roles, so that at least makes sense (though Sidonia argues vehemently that it's a self-fulfilling prophecy), but even the peasants are referred to as excess. As far as the nobles are concerned, they have no purpose but to make the nobles look good by having free-willed employees.
- Fair-Weather Friend: Gladdic wants to have good relations with Sidonia (she says she expected them to marry eventually), but he's a coward who quickly buckles when someone more powerful is around. Notably, in his first appearance he tries to warn Nemesis that she's going to get date-raped... but shuts up because Elantra glares at him. Nemesis quickly decides he is not worthy of Sidonia.
- Head-in-the-Sand Management: The Empire and the theocracy are both deeply invested in ignoring the fact that all their technology is breaking down. It is explicitly blasphemous to understand how any of it actually works, or to study the science behind it. Everything is maintained by robots maintaining robots, but that chain of maintenance is breaking down over time.
- He Knows Too Much: Sidonia cries to her teacher about how her family is sending Nemesis off to court instead of her. The teacher says "that's treason," and Nemesis kills her. She tried to pull her away from Sidonia so that she didn't have to watch, but ultimately did it without a second's hesitation.
- Hypocrite: The Emperor banned Diabolics and ordered them all killed... but kept his own. His explicit reasoning is nothing more than "I'm the Emperor, the rules don't apply to me."
- Lack of Empathy: Diabolics are born without empathy, though they have to have that section of their brain strengthened when they are imprinted on their charge. Sidonia points out that you can't laser-focus empathy like that; "civilized" Diabolics are capable of general empathy, but constantly being told that they aren't keeps those instincts mashed down. Nemesis jumps down into a fighting pit to save a dog monster that is being forced to kill an innocent slave.
- Living Weapon: Diabolics are designed to fight for their masters. They have no desires beyond that.
- Loophole Abuse: Nemesis values Sidonia's life above all other things, above Sidonia's desires and especially her own life. Sidonia, who just wants Nemesis to live, finds a way to make her prioritize her own life: She tells her that if Nemesis dies, she'll kill herself. With no other option, Nemesis agrees.Nemesis: All right. All right. I'll come back alive. I will do everything in my power to preserve my own life as I would preserve yours. I'll do it or I'll destroy this Empire trying.
- Oblivious to Love: Sidonia is blatantly in love with Nemesis. Nemesis can barely conceive of Sidonia seeing her as a person. When Nemesis suggests that she (Nemesis) could have sex with Gladdic to secure an alliance, Sidonia shoots that idea down, saying "I don't want anyone to touch you." Nemesis figures that Sidonia likes Gladdic more than she was letting on.
- Space Age Stasis: Enforced; all scientific knowledge is banned, any building technology is banned, and messing with either is declared blasphemy. Galactic society is maintained by robots maintaining robots who maintain robots, all the way down the chain to the smallest piece of technology. A growing faction within the Empire points out that this is not sustainable, and as spaceships get older horrific accidents are becoming more common. The Empire declares anyone who brings up these topics in public to be traitors.
- Terminally Dependent Society: Galactic society is completely dependent on their machines. Which wouldn't be a big deal except for the fact that it is explicitly blasphemy for anyone to understand these machines, or the science behind them. All their spaceships are centuries old and slowly falling apart because the machines that maintain them are also centuries old, but the Empire refuses to acknowledge any problems.
- Undying Loyalty: Diabolics are designed to be loyal to their masters and no one else.
