SIN BREAKER

A debut novel creates a grim, dystopian world in which evolving robots pose a deadly threat.

In the future Vancouver, Fusion, a terminal disorder carried by both men and women, has ended sexual intimacy. Instead, humans have turned to synthetic sex bots to provide them pleasure. Other synthetics form a subservient labor force. Police Detective Wendy Chrome discovers things are changing in this ordered world. Aberrations are popping up, including a male sex bot impregnating human women and a pair of synthetics falling in love. The Binding Program, which makes humans the robots’ masters, is breaking down. This results in robots gaining sentience. Chrome and her fellow detective, Gregory Brand, attempt to discover what is causing these phenomena. Contributing to the problem are those performing illegal experimentation, such as sleazy synthetics technician Kaleb Johansen, who will skirt any societal law to satisfy himself. Caught in the middle are sex bots Naomi Graves and Zephy. Naomi’s human personality was transferred by Kaleb into a synthetic. There are larger forces at work behind this revolution that no one suspects. So the more Chrome and Brand investigate a series of seemingly unrelated events, the more dangerous their mission becomes. Soon they’re struggling to save humanity from a synthetics’ uprising. In this tale, Aegis has developed a complex world that unquestioningly accepts an unsettling status quo. It’s a society where men rule and women like Chrome are treated only slightly better than synthetics (Chrome “wanted to call them out as the chauvinistic idiots they were, but she knew from experience that others wouldn’t support her”). The intriguing novel is populated by a series of flawed characters, whether it’s Naomi, a human vapor addict now stuck in the body of a sex bot; Zephy, the quick-thinking synthetic at the forefront of the evolution; or cynical Chrome, still filled with regret at the loss of her first love. The author integrates thought-provoking concepts, such as the overlords versus an underclass, within the structure of this thriller. The work explores the question of what happens after the revolution.

This captivating tale ponders whether technology actually enhances humanity.