A review by iam
The Android and the Thief by Wendy Rathbone
3.0
3.5 stars
The Android and the Thief is a heartbreaking and at times dark book that at the same time manages to be gentle and beautiful.
Trev is the adopted son of a big crime lord (think Italian mafia in space) and feels crushed under his father's tyriannical rule over him and his siblings. Despite his father's power, Trev manages to come up with a plan to escape the man's grasp - by going to prison.
Khim is an android. In this book, "android" doesn't mean robot with an AI, but simply a genetically engineered human that has been vat-grown and who was birthed at age 20 with fake memories. Following that birth comes intense conditioning (aka brainwashing) to either become a the perfect soldier (strong but submissive, following orders but never hurting other humans) or the perfect lover (meaning basically able to endure whatever sexual scenario). As might be obvious from that setup, androids don't really have rights - they are owned by "normal" humans. I suspect that this book plays in the same universe as another of the author's books, [b:Letters to an Android|22798547|Letters to an Android|Wendy Rathbone|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1406512062s/22798547.jpg|42347105], which has an almost entirely similar setup regarding androids.
Khim is a solider, but when he becomes injured the military no longer has use for him and he gets sold to the highest bidder, who wants to use him for what is apparently the only other option for an android aside from war: sex. Khim snaps when he is sexually assaulted while drugged out of his mind, kills one of the rapists and since he's an android with no right to defend himself is thus sent to prison.
Which is where he meets Trev, who has no idea there is more connecting the two of them than just being cellmates.
The book is very heavy in the abuse area. There are graphic scenes of rape and there is emotional manipulation, violence, humiliation, solitary confinement, extreme invasions of privacy, corporal punishment and child abuse. Due to their experiences, both characters experience heavy trauma which they handle in different ways.
Yet somehow the book isn't exactly dark. The mood was never oppressive or got too heavy for me, which was probably because of the beautiful prose. The writing is very good and has truly beautiful phrases, most of which describe the introspective thoughts of the two main characters. Especially Khim's mind is very vivid.
For the most part this book was 4 stars for me, but I ended up giving it 3.5 stars because of there are HUGE plot holes. One in particular is at the very beginning and I waited the entire book for it to get resolved just for it to never be brought up again. The ending, while sweet for various reasons, was anticlimatic compared to the excitement and high stakes before, and didn't particularly make sense to me either.
I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
The Android and the Thief is a heartbreaking and at times dark book that at the same time manages to be gentle and beautiful.
Trev is the adopted son of a big crime lord (think Italian mafia in space) and feels crushed under his father's tyriannical rule over him and his siblings. Despite his father's power, Trev manages to come up with a plan to escape the man's grasp - by going to prison.
Khim is an android. In this book, "android" doesn't mean robot with an AI, but simply a genetically engineered human that has been vat-grown and who was birthed at age 20 with fake memories. Following that birth comes intense conditioning (aka brainwashing) to either become a the perfect soldier (strong but submissive, following orders but never hurting other humans) or the perfect lover (meaning basically able to endure whatever sexual scenario). As might be obvious from that setup, androids don't really have rights - they are owned by "normal" humans. I suspect that this book plays in the same universe as another of the author's books, [b:Letters to an Android|22798547|Letters to an Android|Wendy Rathbone|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1406512062s/22798547.jpg|42347105], which has an almost entirely similar setup regarding androids.
Khim is a solider, but when he becomes injured the military no longer has use for him and he gets sold to the highest bidder, who wants to use him for what is apparently the only other option for an android aside from war: sex. Khim snaps when he is sexually assaulted while drugged out of his mind, kills one of the rapists and since he's an android with no right to defend himself is thus sent to prison.
Which is where he meets Trev, who has no idea there is more connecting the two of them than just being cellmates.
The book is very heavy in the abuse area. There are graphic scenes of rape and there is emotional manipulation, violence, humiliation, solitary confinement, extreme invasions of privacy, corporal punishment and child abuse. Due to their experiences, both characters experience heavy trauma which they handle in different ways.
Yet somehow the book isn't exactly dark. The mood was never oppressive or got too heavy for me, which was probably because of the beautiful prose. The writing is very good and has truly beautiful phrases, most of which describe the introspective thoughts of the two main characters. Especially Khim's mind is very vivid.
For the most part this book was 4 stars for me, but I ended up giving it 3.5 stars because of there are HUGE plot holes. One in particular is at the very beginning and I waited the entire book for it to get resolved just for it to never be brought up again. The ending, while sweet for various reasons, was anticlimatic compared to the excitement and high stakes before, and didn't particularly make sense to me either.
Spoiler
So Dante, Trev's father, can figure out a super elaborate plan and ruin Trev's life that way, but he can't find Trev later when he hides just half an hour away in a house that belongs to the same person who tried to help Trev earlier but got found out??? Especially when this time one of Trev's siblings knows about it?I received a free copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.