As I mentioned in my recent review of Betrayal, I’ve been reading sci-fi novels that feature female cyborgs in an effort to decide how I want to portray Gemma in the final round of edits of my upcoming space opera, A Symphony of Starlight. Anna Mocikat’s Behind Blue Eyes proved to be another excellent example to study, since her main character, Nephilim, is the perfect combo of badass and relatable.
Unlike Gemma, who’s mostly human, or Number 1001 of Betrayal, who’s completely synthetic, Nephilim is a classic cyborg: a person who was once human but whose body and mind have been so interconnected with tech and machinery that her humanity and her machine characteristics are inseparable.
Nephilim exudes the badassery I adore in cyborg characters. With titanium bones, knives built into her arms, and computer-quick reflexes, she kicks butt in every circumstance.
But what makes Nephilim relatable despite her seeming indestructibility are her human characteristics–a doubting mind and a heart that’s just as breakable as any heart made of flesh.
At the beginning of the novel, Nephilim is already showing signs of doubt in her role protecting corporate society from the evils of free thought. When she “rescues” a group of children from a rebellious farming community, it doesn’t sit right with her that they see her as a monster.
Later, battle-induced glitches cause Nephilim’s computerized mind to detach from the grid, and she enjoys the freedom so much she decides to make it permanent. Secretly in control, she continues to play the obedient soldier by day, working to bring real justice as a vigilante by night and embarking on an affair with a rebel human.
But Metatron, the leader of Nephilim’s cyborg unit, has a much more personal attachment to Nephilim than she realizes, and her rebel lover is more than he seems. Nephilim’s secret bid for freedom could become the start of a revolution, but it also could mean her own undoing, and the death of everyone she holds dear.
Nephilim’s super soldier capabilities make for spectacular action scenes, but what made me care about the action were the high stakes each scene holds for Nephilim’s heart as she fights to save her friends and the man she loves.
And speaking of love, a note about the romance: I rated the spice level of this novel at two kisses, but while Nephilim’s affair with rebel Jake is heartachingly romantic, it’s not super spicy. All the sex scenes are fade to black and/or not described in detail. I added an extra kissy mark to my spice rating because the whole book has a bit of a black-leather vibe. There are lots of mentions of characters’ kinky sexual appetites, some descriptions of different sex clubs and brothels available to citizens of corporate society, portrayals of prostitution, and a general dark sexy vibe that I thought some readers might want to be aware of before jumping into this read.
Despite the dark vibe though, Behind Blue Eyes is really very sweet at its heart. Nephilim wants to be loved, to do the right thing, and to protect those she cares for. That contrast of darkness and light, humanity and machine, is what will bring me back to devour the rest of this series as soon as I’m able.
And it’s something I’ll take into account in my final portrayal of Gemma, too. I’m thinking, it doesn’t matter so much how far her mods go, but where her heart stands.
I adore how Nephilim takes a stand for her heart in Behind Blue Eyes. I highly recommend this book to fans of action sci-fi, cyberpunk, and anyone who loves science fiction with heart. The rest of the series is definitely going on my TBR!
