Review for "Dawn of the Cyborg" by Marie Dry

I received an ARC from Black Opal Books in return for an honest review.

A brief synopsis and then my honest opinion:

Balthazar and his fellow cyborgs are slaves who are forced by their Tunrian creator to indiscriminately slaughter "Naturals" (Tunrians who have chosen not to be cloned). The cloned Tunrians rule their world and they consider the cyborgs to be subhuman machines because they do not possess an incomplete ryhov, a tattoo that Tunrians believe is an outward indication of a soul. Balthazar's Tunrian masters are furious and outraged that he has a ryhov. Balthazar's creator has taunted him numerous times over many years by telling him he will never have a full soul because he is just a slave and the woman who holds the rest of his soul is far away on Earth.

After a disturbing incident during a massacre of Naturals, Balthazar becomes self-aware enought to overcome the part of his programming which forces him to obey his creator. Determined to save his fellow cyborgs and acquire his soul from the human woman, Balthazar reprograms his fellow cyborgs and they fight off the Tunrians long enough to take over the space ship the Tunrians intend to use to travel to Earth.

First contact with the humans on Earth does not go well! Balthazar blackmails the human President to give him Aurora and in exchange Balthazar will not bomb more Earth cities. The human President blackmails Aurora, by threatening the sister Aurora is desperate to save, into sacrificing herself to save humanity and to act as a spy against the aliens.

This isn't a story of insta-love based on lust and I appreciated that. Balthazar and Aurora must actually work hard to appreciate the feelings and attitudes of the other. Balthazar is consumed with rage against the cyborg's treatment at the hands of their Tunrian creators and he has no tolerance for anti-cyborg humans on Earth. From the beginning, Aurora is reluctant to comply with the President's blackmail to betray the cyborgs in order to save her sister but she is even more resistant after she comes to care for Balthazar.

As Balthazar and Aurora attempt to accomplish their opposing goals, the survival of humanity and Aurora's sister, Balthazar's soul, and their love for each other are on the line. The book is does not end in a cliffhanger but the signs are there for a sequel, which I will put on my auto-buy list!

Wow! This is the first Marie Dry book I have read but it won't be the last. Marie's writing skills are top-notch. The pacing of the development of the main characters' feelings for each other and the suspense of Balthazar's decision whether to destroy humanity or not unfolds at a rate slow enough to allow for it to seem realistic but not so slow as to drag in the middle. I volunteered to read and review the book through a thread on this forum. To tell you the truth, I was in a rut and I decided to volunteer on a whim just hoping to pass a few hours but I wasn't expecting much - was I ever wrong!

I love the cover art! Balthazar is Yummy with a capital Y.