SYNTH

Self-Published

Community Rating

Description

Synthoid; the perfect android worker, once a dream of humanity's science fiction. The only problem? Now they can gain sentience.

Rend is one such being. As a former military synthoid, she struggles to fit into a world that views her as more machine than sentient life form. As she grapples with becoming a part of a new community and unsettling memories, Rend faces the daunting task of finding a job and proving her worth.

While navigating a treacherous society and mysterious files in her system, she must find allies while evading the corporation that wants her back for their own gain.

In a world where trust is scarce and danger lurks at every corner, can she forge a new path and secure her freedom?

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Covert art byAditya Pillay&Title art byWidya

Information

Status
Hiatus
Year
2023
Author
Jaha Rider

Tags

ADVENTUREFEMALE LEADDRAMASCI-FISTRONG LEADNON-HUMAN LEADMYSTERYCYBERPUNKSOFT SCI-FIDYSTOPIAARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCETECHNOLOGICALLY ENGINEERED

Royal Road Stats

Rating
4.7/ 5.0
Followers
333
Views
49,985

Chapters(33 total)

Reviews

No reviews yet. Be the first to share your thoughts!

Community Reviews(9)

  • A. StargazerRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    If you like cyberpunk and existential questions, you’ll love this story. It’s got both!
    I love it when authors write stories about technology running rampant and aren’t afraid to ask ethical questions. Is a weapon responsible for its use if it gains sentience after the murder. If a robot is programmed to feel, do you treat it like an equal?
    The author isn’t necessarily trying to answer those questions, but they’re not shying away from them.
    on the whole this story has a lot to offer. The basic premise is interesting, the plot is off to a great start, with the tension rising right away.
    grammatically I saw no errors. That doesn’t mean that there are none, but it gets full marks from me in that category.
    Style wise it’s a little dry, but that’s because the narrator is literally a robot. Once you accept that and realize the dryness is actually voice, it becomes more impressive.
    the characters are alright. The MC is interesting and I look forward to learning more about her. The story is written in the first person, so it takes a while for the side characters to get developed, but I’m not seeing any issues in this regard.
    keep writing!
  • BeomJunKooRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    A sentient android on the run from the corporation that built her tries fitting into a community of contractors, and in the process gradually begins to learn previously hidden truths about herself - had me hooked right from the first chapter, and definitely will maintain that for many chapters to come.
    The story gives you a great grasp of the kind of world it sets up over the course of its flow as well as every other details about it, all while never veering into exposition dump territory, very well-crafted. And even though futuristic worlds with androids has been done before many times, there's always nice stories that can come from them with the right hands. This is one of those, from its immersive setting to the intriguing mystery surrounding our MC, Heavenrend "Rend" Steele.
    Speaking of, I'm also just as attached to Rend as I am to the story itself. My favorite aspect of the writing style was its imaginative ability to depict how exactly a sentient machine might process humanly thoughts and feelings, so that really helped to both flesh out her character and give the first-person narrative a truly unique voice. The side characters also offer good material, so far I'm most eager to see what we'll get out of Gabriel (a fellow Synthnoid) and Rin (quite the tsundere as far as I can see, lol).
    Last but not least, the grammar is nicely written, with only very few-and-far-between typos that doesn't deserve any points off.
    Final verdict; give this one more love and attention, because Synth is a story that deserves it!
  • FaldorRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Synth follows Rend, a former military synthoid, a type of android that passes for human. Lt Cmdr Data, she is not.
    Having finished her service Rend is asked where she would like to live and sent to make her way in the world.
    The company that built her tries to recapture her and she is forced to go on the run, looking for work in the underground who do not look favourably on artificial intelligences
    I really like how the author sets Rend up as an unreliable narrator, we hear about her life up to this point but as the narrative develops it becomes apparent that these may night be entirely correct or there might be more going on than it seems, whilst never undermining the progressing story instead enhancing the mystery.
    The world that the story takes place in has elements of Blade Runner with its imperfect society and human passing replicants. Rend reminded me of Martha Wells' Murderbot series.  The characters have a nice dynamic and I could easily see this being picked up by the likes of Amazon or Netflix down the line as it would flow nicely as a weekly series.
    I’ll be looking forward to finding out where things will go next.
  • Hurrican999Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    TL;DR: if you're intrigued by my title, read the story and stop reading reviews.
    Slight spoilers ahead.
    A robot soldier gains sentience, decides to not be a soldier, and is shipped off to the rich, independent Night Ci- I mean New York. Ambushed on arrival and then walking away from a pile of corpses, she becomes the friendly neighborhood mercenary. But what she didn't expect is that she's actually Yuji Itadori, and Bing finds her to be a suitable vessel. With robot PTSD - and deep, philosophical questions like why kids aren't allowed to buy guns, but sentient robots can - she faces challenges that truly test her mettle. Will she prevail with the odds heavily against her, or will she die a horrible death? Find out next time on whatever show this is!
  • The OxRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Just discovered Synth, a wonderful cyberpunk novel with a fabulously cute and dangerous synthetic-humanoid protagonist.
    Heavenrend, our MC, has only recently awoken as a sentient AI android, and the odd rules of her world allow her to be emancipated into the wild and crazy mega-metropolis that is a futuristic Nova York.  The moment she arrives there however, she is threatened with capture and the loss of her brand-new sentience and agency.  Naturally a combat android filled with hopes and dreams would object, and kick ass to maintain her newfound freedom.
    Heavenrend is a pretty wonderful protagonist.  She's brand new to the world she's in, same as the reader is.  She doesn't understand the ways of the funny humans in the megacity, so she asks a lot of questions.
    She's endearing and cute, and also incredibly dangerous in combat.  Much stronger and faster and better in every way in a dust up than a flesh bag human.  Which is good because there are a lot of bad guys in Nova York, some of whom want her to be recaptured.
    She's also got all kinds of mysteries hidden in her own programming, memories she's been locked away from, as well as files and data that seem to have a mind of their own.
    The world of Synth is massive and complex, and we've only scratched the surface.  There are lots of mysteries and new experiences for Heavenrend to uncover, with the reader along for the ride.  I am super impressed with how detailed and three dimensional the author has made Heavenrend's character, so utterly non-human but sophisticated, charming, and complex.  Also cute, not like a hot chick but like a fuzzy puppy.  She's a walking killing machine but also a wide-eyed newborn all at once.
    Very happy to have found this.
  • WinterwispRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Overall, this is a story that anyone who enjoys the cyberpunk aesthetic will enjoy reading. Part 'A.I. Artificial Intelligence' (the movie) and part 'Violet Evergarden' (the anime) the story hits the right notes between introspection and action, set in a world with corpos and mega cities, ready to swallow you whole if you blink. If this sounds at all interesting, take a read of the first chapter and see how it feels.
    We meet our MC, Rend (full name Heavenrend Steel), a synth human, just as she is tested to be sentient, and is about to go from military property to civilian status. After saying her goodbyes, we are wisked away to a futuristic Nova York, where trouble immediately ensues. Put in a bad position, Rend must take on mercenary work to survive, while dealing with her growing sentience and empathy for others.
    Story: This is a well paced story that takes its time introducing the world and setting, mixing it up with action when necessary and good dialogue. There are currents of mystery flowing underneath the narrative that makes it interesting to read on. Exposition is handled nicely, even if it gets heavy at times. My one issue is one that is tied to style and characters, so I'll be discussing it last.
    Character: While there are many characters, I never feel overwhelmed, as they are introduced gradually and each get a small spotlight that gives me an impression of who they are, and what their role in the story is. Rend is very believable as the fish-out-of-water, trying to figure out how she should fit in in her new situation as a sentient being, and her reactions to her environment is described well. Having clear external and internal conflicts is also a mark of a good character. My one issue is going to be discussed in the next section.
    Style: Generally, the style is excellent. Good prose with descriptors of environment, emotions and sensations. The story is written in the 1st person, so we always gets Rend's perspective, which I think is handled well. I didn
  • Regolith42Royal Road
    ★★★★★ 5.0
    Style: Style was consistent and didn't distract me as I read through. Full stars
    Grammar: Only noticed one minor mistake for the whole section that I read. Grammar's solid.
    Story: Our MC was a military android that has recently gained sentience. She's supposed to be taken to a place friendly to sentient androids like her, but then she is attacked and has to flee the people who wish to capture her.
    I'm liking the worldbuilding so far. It's very cyberpunk, with the androids, cybernetic implants, and overarching power of the corporations or 'corpos'. Our MC is currently trying to join the 'Contractors' or mercenaries that are more independent from the corporate teams that may be hunting her.
    I especially like the use of the AI Terra and its integration in the setting, even if its presence is pretty minimal in the story at the moment.
    Character: Our MC Rend reads as a person with suppressed emotions in the story so far. She does express herself and feel things, but everything feels a little muted and vague emotionally. But her instinctive actions as a result of those emotions make it more read as suppressed strong emotions rather than having less emotions than normal. In the most recent chapter:
    Rend has a trauma flashback and then expresses more of her emotions than normal. Showing that her emotions may become more pronounced over time/unsuppressed as more memories are unlocked/as she develops.
    I think that her emotional state is well portrayed so far. Looking forward to seeing how she will develop in the future.
    One thing I think would help is providing more description of Rend towards the beginning in the first chapter versus diving into it when she reaches the Contractors. In the first few chapters I was having some difficulty in picturing her and determining how humanoid/if she was metallic or had a skin equivalent (it's skin btw). This may be a small complaint considering all this information is provided by chapter three in a well integrated way, but I think a cou
  • Lack of PoochlineRoyal Road
    ★★★★★ 4.5
    Robots. Androids. Automata. Sentient AI. Call it however it pleases you, but in the current year we are all aware of what these human(or alien, in some media) creations are capable of. We have seen or read countless stories exploring what it means to be a person, if not human, from the perspective of a machine. Since the days of Asimov we have held this love-hate relationship with sentient machines on fiction, with these golems refurbished with metal and wires instead of clay and... clay.
    I don't think i need to talk about Ghost in the Shell, Alita Battle Angel, Bicentennial man or Terminator to drive the point further home: Robots are an essential part of science fiction, and often they take on a life of their own beyond their programing.
    And that's the starting point of Synth: we take a seat behind the eyes(Cameras?) of Heavenrend, a military gynoid designed for piloting and combat. She has just become sentient and in the start of the story we see her choosing a name and preparing to travel to Nova york, a Cyberpunk city full of... publicity, mostly. It's like youtube videos made buildings. Nightmarish.
    As Heavenrend is a helluva name and Rend (the nick she goes by) sounds like an excuse to loaf about while the pc is processing a video, for the duration of this review, i am re-baptizing her "Renata".
    "You cannot just rename a character!"
    I CAN. I WILL. I AM A REVIEWER, FEAR ME.
    Preliminaries out of the way,  lets go point by point, shall we?
    Style and grammar: I am compounding these two because, despite the spelling being fine most of the time and the style being direct and fast to read, the author has a problem with tenses. Narration jumps between past and future( I verbed X. I will try to...") consistently. This jerks one out of the story more than any misspelled word or misplaced comma would.
    This is quite likely an artifact of the Author's idiomatic background, as her bio states she is from (Or at least lives in) Poland. As an ESL person, I relate to the strug
  • JTNubsRoyal Road
    ★★★★ 4.0
    Let me open this review by saying I enjoyed the opening chapters greatly. The characters are immediately distinct and are given plenty of time to breathe before the next is introduced, without lingering too long on any given character.
    The greatest piece of praise I have for this story is its attention to detail. The amount of thought that goes into the, well, thoughts of Rend, the main character, drives home the sense of truly being a copilot in her brain, privy to all of her thoughts and reasonings.
    As a sci-fi story, the setting is undoubtedly cyberpunk, but the uniqueness of the technology serves to properly bring across an identity to separate this world from other sci-fi worlds. The emphasis is placed on the fi rather than the sci, introducing new and exciting forms of technology without focusing on the methodology of any of it, which can admittedly be a drawback for some readers, but I found myself appreciating where the attention was directed instead.
    What I love most about the story is seeing the narrative evolve from the perspective of Rend. Having the main character explain and think in real time in response to all of the outside factors and stimuli in the environment, as well as her thoughts on her own thoughts, really gives a baby's-first-steps element to her self-awareness that feels authentic and enjoyable. I love hearing her describe and dissect her own thoughts, because it serves as a mirror into how we as humans think and act and at times overthink and become caught up in our heads. The experience is very down-to-earth and very relatable, despite the gap between man and machine.
    As far as criticisms, the first that I can name is that the story trades detail for speed. This story is slow, but not in a bad way- unless fast stories are your thing. Entire conversations are delved into over the course of one or more chapters, and simple human interactions are analyzed and broken down by the newly-human synth that is our main character.
    To summarize my t