Sorry to say, this book is awful and I couldn’t bear to finish it. DNF at 30 percent. It’s a blend of sf and police procedural. An illegal android is on the the run with her human “boyfriend?” “friend with benefits??” which is icky and ludicrous. We have access to her thoughts and feelings—yes, feelings. We spend more time in her head, listening to her motives—yes, motives. And she spends more time contemplating ethical and moral dilemmas even more than Abbie Hoffman, Mahatma Ghandi, and Mother Theresa combined. I stopped at the point where she was mulling over some trash she found and was beginning to contemplate about litterbugs. Hard stop. No. Atrociously bad sf and even if you don’t mind bad sf, the plot drags. Nothing plot-related happened the entire time I read, making it too tedious to even be a decent pot boiler. If you already have this book on your shelf, I’d advise saving it for the next pandemic in case you run out of toilet paper, or recycle if you must. That way, the android would be happy you are obeying the robots’ third adage of “reduce, reuse, and recycle.”

This was really disappointing.
The story line was very repetitive with it appearing to one giant chase.
There seemed to be very little development of the characters and no progression of the story.
As stated above disappointing particularly after the first book.

“Unbound” eBook was published in 2018 and was written by Lance Erlick (https://lanceerlick.com). Mr. Erlick has published a dozen novels. This is the second in his “Android Chronicles” series.

I received an ARC of this novel through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this novel as ‘PG’ because it contains some scenes of Mature Situations. The story is set in the not too distant future. The primary character is Synthia Cross, probably the most advanced humanoid robot in the world.

Cross was built in violation of laws governing robots that can pass for humans. While she has been in hiding for six months, the US government, the FBI, the NSA, foreign governments and other sentient robots are now after her. She desperately wants to prevent other robots from reaching the same level of development as she has reached. Too many want the advanced robots to build an army or other sordid purposes. Cross fears that too many intelligent robots without the proper self-control will put humanity at risk.

Cross not only has her own native advanced AI but also some of the personality of a woman, Krista Holden, who her maker downloaded into her. Cross, along with a human she has made contact with must avoid all who pursue them while she attempts to remove the other androids from the wild.

I enjoyed the 7.5 hours I spent reading this 274-page science fiction novel. I liked the general plot of this story with the main character being the android. I think the writing could have been a bit more polished, but I enjoyed the story. While this is the second book of the series, it reads well on its own. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a 3.6 (rounded up to a 4) out of 5.

Further book reviews I have written can be accessed at https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/.

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

I could not get into this book. There was nothing about it to grab my attention and I found the premise to be sort of dull and overdone. It was sort of like reading a teenage boy's android fantasy. I just wasn't into it.

Unbound is the second installment in the Android Chronicles series. It picks up right where the events of the first book left off. Synthia, the main android character from the first book, is in hiding with the human Luke from those hunting her for her advanced technological capabilities. While in hiding, Luke helps her upgrade and become even more advanced. Krista's mind is also still present in Synthia's mainframe, acting as her human conscience. Synthia uses her advanced capabilities to spy on those out to get her and to discover that other androids are on the loose. All these events lead to Synthia becoming unbound in a multitude of ways - unbound from her directives, unbound from her creator, and unbound from Luke. She eventually comes out of hiding and tries to survive while dealing with the ramifications of the presence of the other androids. Mr. Erlick does a great job of continuing to develop Synthia as a hybrid android operating under the influence of a human's mind. The flow of the story does get a bit slow as Synthia struggles to make human like decisions with all the inputs she's getting. Also, because Mr. Erlick has introduced so many new characters (both android and human based), the story tended to get a bit garbled for me at times. Regardless, if you enjoyed the first book, I recommend picking up this one.

In the book Unbound, author Lance Erlick writes about Synthia, the most advanced artificial intelligence android ever built. But the independence that Synthia’s creator built in to her causes her to escape and begin to reinvent herself with the help of her human friend Luke. But are there others like her? Are they being used to chase her down and destroy her?
This was a good fast paced book but it was very creepy. The book is written from Synthia’s point of view and I liked how the author used her drone controlling ability to show you what was happening with other people. But Synthia is way too human and it’s scary. I received a copy of this e-book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I kept reading Unbound thinking that I would get some resolution to Synthia 's troubles. What I got instead is a story where Synthia is constantly escaping form capture but her base problem is never solved. In fact the ending left here at the same spot she was in when book one ended. The only difference is she is with another person. I hope book three gives some resolution.

I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

I haven't yet read the first book of this series, but that did not detract from the fun of reading Unbound.

Synthia is a humaniform android. Unfortunately, humaniform androids are outlawed. She escaped her creator and has been living with a guy for six months, upgrading herself and staying under the radar.
Her creator has made another android and set it to chase Synthia down. The government and other entities also want to find Synthia for their own reasons.

I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys android sci fi.

I chose to read this book after receiving a free e-copy from the author. All opinions in this review are my own and completely unbiased. I read Reborn, the first book in this series and knew I like Lance Erlick’s writing, so I was happy to read this book.

Unbound is about artificial intelligence, particularly Synthia, who Dr. Jeremiah Machten developed. Synthia got away from Machten, who was keeping her prisoner, and she is now on the run. She’s also continued to evolve on her own. It seems like everyone wants to find Synthia, all with their own reasons.

The characters are well developed and at times Synthia seems more human that the humans. She’s continuously in conflict with her directives, trying to figure out what they should be, and “feelings” that she doesn’t understand.

I recommend Unbound to anyone who likes science fiction about artificial intelligence. It took me a little while to get into it like the first book did. Once I got into it, though, it kept my interest throughout. It did have more detail about Synthia’s processing than I cared for, but that’s more of a personal preference. I’m looking forward to reading the next book in the series to find out what happens!

Creating human-like androids has been made illegal. Still one exists and many people including the US government want her. When she goes missing, there’s a world-wide hunt for her. Synthia, the android, however does not want to be found. Since she escaped her creator she is bound and determined to not be replaced, but with so many people wanting to enslave her again, she needs to be more clever than the others. Synthia learns that Vera, her predecessor in her creator’s labs, has been updated and is also hunting her, not to find Synthia, but to kill her.

This is a crazy good read. It is fast paced and Synthia is a cleverly conceived main character.

There are a few hitches, such as Erlick’s penchant for reintroducing characters. More than once he introduced Synthia’s creator’s business partner. It wasn’t bothersome enough to throw the book against the wall, but it did take this reader out of the book long enough to verify that readers already knew who this guy was. Then there’s the few pages where he gives every detail about how Synthia works; again, I was pulled out of the story because it was all done in a couple of very long segments instead of the detail being introduced as Synthia used a particular detail to evade her hunters, like he does when Synthia is surfing her channels. Erlick seemed particularly interested in ensuring the reader knew her batteries needed to be recharged (batteries? really?)

However, those few glitches weren’t enough for me to put the book down. The writing is lively and the storyline creative. If you like stories about robots, etc., this is the book for you.

Unbound is a great continuation of the Android Chronicles (I actually went back and read book 1 Reborn, but it wasn’t necessary, I just really like to understand the character’s backstories). This is another very fast paced read, my only criticism is I still don’t know where anything stands at the end of this book. I know it’s the second book in the series, wasn’t expecting a big finale, but this book creates more questions than it answers. Definitely makes you wanting for book 3.

Please note, I was given a copy of this book through NetGalley for my honest review and it has no impacted on how I reviewed the book.

This book follows Synthiam, the first of a number of artifically intelligent androids to be released. Her main motive is to prevemt the singularity as best she can. The book is a thriller that follows her journey to try to turn in the other six androids released six months after her escape from her creator. There is a host of characters from different organizations trying to hunt her down and it was a relief that there were a number of women among them. My favorite character was Marcy Malloy a Chicago cop who couldnt let a few murders go. That being said the androids read a little bit coldly (which might have been on purpose) but which made it a little harder to connect with them. I found the pacing to be a little bit strained (not enough rising and falling action - and carried the same level of intensity throughout) and the dialogue was pretty choppy. I enjoyed the premise of the book.

I’ve read these two first books of the series in a row (« Reborn » is the first and « Unborn » the second) and it was a very satisfying read.

The first thing to know before choosing to read the series, is that the story, if very interesting, is never riveting, nor sensational or emotional. It’s not a heart-breaking story either. But it isn’t a flaw per se! The story is actually written in a very realistic way, with a serious reflection, without any drama but thorough, about singularity, Artificial Intelligence wise. What could be the risks to be overwhelmed by Artificial Intelligences someday?

The story takes place in a near futur. Differences are few, but essential: an abundance of security recordings via cameras, miniature drones and such, and advanced androids – so advanced they could pass for humans. Could but shouldn’t, as these androids are forbidden by law. Androids are made robot-like or with at least a robotic face. Of course some secret programmes are working to perfect their own forbidden android…

Our heroine, Synthia, is one of these very rare and outlawed androids. She as been made female, and very beautiful, by an absolutely brilliant (and rather mad) scientist. She’s different from others (for a reason I can’t tell, but is very important for the story) and is trying to break free from her abusive owner. I say abusive because the reader, perceiving the story from Synthia’s point of view, quickly root for her, as they understand and admit her individuality.

Synthia’s adventures will be numerous but always in a realistic way. The manner how people (scientists, police, special forces, various powerful organisations legal or not) consider the situation is meticulously developed. And if some of them are afraid of the real possibility of androids taking over the world, annihilating or subjugating humanity, more of them want to pursue their experiences, convinced that they could manage controlling androids much smarter than any human.

The story (the two first books’ narration is quite linear) shows and explains how androids could override their programming and « want » autonomy. But our android is a wise one. She doesn’t want singularity, she believes that she was made for a human world as it is, and would have wanted to be the only one. She also wishes to be let alone, which is unacceptable: she’s to dangerous and to valuable…

If you wonder about the pronoun « she » it’s not a misuse of language but a narrative choice (actually Synthia’s so advanced in her technology that she’s able to change her appearance at will).

This story will particularly appeal to geek readers: the use of technology by Synthia, who’s able to multitask, override and hack any system, using any camera, phone or drone to monitor her ennemies’ activities and keep a head start, is very enjoyable!

I also appreciated the reflection about artificial intelligence and ownership: being up with Synthia’s thoughts the reader realises very soon that she’s her own person. But all the humans of the story (well, except two rather trouble ones who are in love with her) think that she’s nothing more than a very advanced machine, without any individuality or personality. Which should have been the case but for her mysterious difference…

Note that this series is clearly feminist. The feminine characters are numerous, clever and frequently in position of authority. There are also many examples of abuses of power by men over women and, in general, masculine characters varie from abusive and weak to bulking bullies! Alas not so fanciful to be sure… The women of the story aren’t angels at all, but are just struggling and fighting to be respected and considered.

A very good read for readers who like their reads to be food for thoughts!

Achei um ótimo livro, me surpreendeu. Valeu a pena ler em outro idioma. Gostaria de lê-lo em português.. Apesar do idioma é uma leitura que eu recomendaria facilmente.

This was the second book in a series, but probably could stand alone if someone just picked it up. It’s more on the hard core sci fi than my taste usually leans towards, but it was ok. I had trouble getting into the plot at the beginning, but around the middle it picked up.

Thanks NetGalley for the ARC