Genres:
Romance, Science Fiction, Robots, LGBTQ+
Pages:
295
Published:
July 23, 2025
The sole survivor of a massacre, Dr. Ciro Kwakkenbos, has spent the last six years in intensive therapy. He’s finally capable of working with Artificial Intelligence again—and comes to the Ceres colony determined to prevent robots from committing any future atrocities.
When he arrives, Ciro realizes the robot in charge of the colony’s security, S.A.G.E. (Sentient Automated Geo-sentinel Engineer), is dangerously close to complete sentience. S.A.G.E. is more interested in observing the colonists’ everyday lives (and matching them with appropriate musical soundtracks) than following its intended programming. Robots aren’t supposed to be charming, kind, or compassionate, either.
But as Ciro investigates, he discovers S.A.G.E. has learned how to lie and—possibly—harm and kill humans. Worse, S.A.G.E.’s memories have been hacked, deleting a deadly secret.
Despite the danger S.A.G.E. poses, Ciro can’t deny the feelings growing between them. Now Ciro must unravel the truth behind the missing memories—before S.A.G.E. and the colony are doomed.
✧ Overall Score✧
7/10
A fun read with a lot of interpersonal drama, worldbuilding, and scifi tastiness! Suffered a bit from an overly flippant tone in places and a romance that bloomed in ways I didn’t fully buy into.
✧ Enjoyment Score✧
8/10
Light hearted and easy to read with enough angst and meat to sink your teeth into. Kept my attention fully!
✧ Writing Style✧
6/10
Mostly well written with some good shining moments, but the flippant tone really ruined the mood and the immersion in places. Its that writing voice you see in a lot of LGBT speculative fiction. If you have read enough of it, you know the one.
✧ Plot✧
8/10
An interesting conspiracy! I feel like it was kind of obvious from the start and I don’t really see how the bad guy made such logical leaps but… Listen. Its a SFR. We take what we can get here and this was a very solid SFR plot.
✧ Characterization✧
6/10
There was effort here but everyone just kinda… Merged into a magic pixie cardboard archetype mush.
✧ Spice✧
4/10
Some tasteful fade to black with some genuinely interesting robo wire play~