I really enjoyed the concept of the book but I found it overwhelming with all of the characters, it was a bit hard to follow, and so I couldn't get into the story. I enjoyed it overall but there was a lot going on.

There is definitely a market for this sci-fi thriller as it has all the elements that should appeal to a broad audience. robots, social experiments, sex, action, and even some horror elements however the story missed the mark for me with the ending.

The writing was good, the plot very interesting and I wont actively discourage anyone from reading this at all. Yet it could have been so much better.

I LOVE thrillers. It's one of my favourite genres ever and I live and breathe for murder and the macabre.
The problem I've been having with my thrillers lately, though? They lack the thrilling part of the reading. I want my thrillers to capivate me; I want some uniqueness in the writing, something that makes me want to read the 500th version of the same plot (because, let's be honest - it's more or less the same all the time). Even if I already know what's happening or who the killer is - it's the chase that's supposed to be exciting and one major point in that, even more important than the main character, is a great cast of side characters.
Why am I giving a lecture about my criteria for a great thriller? Because this was just an example of why a thriller is the same over and over again. A group of people; one is the odd one (in this case it's AI) - people die, chaos ensues, everyone is a suspect, everyone could be the AI and/or the murderer .- sounds technically good. The idea of a real-life Turing test also intruiged me. But that was about everything.
Let's get to the stuff that annoyed me about this book.
First - the name of the place where the test is being held. Eden. Incredibly creative. Not. Make it sound like paradise even though you already know it's anything but. Using this Red Hering might've worked a couple of years back, but now? At least it didn't work for me. Or did the author chose a biblical name because by creating AI human is showing themself off as God? I don't know; I am just really not a fan of the name. Sorry.
Next up - the number of participants. Yes, you probably need a big group of people for this test to work, but unless you intend to actually use them, please don't overdo it. It shows that you made up this huge number of people for one reason only: Numbers. And for me, that's just not working in a book. Especially in a thriller, where you are used to smaller, close-knit groups of people with one rouge who goes about killing. For just one book, there were too many characters thrown in the mix.
Last main point that did not work for me was the edning. It was just... so... unfinished. I was hoping for a little bit more horror and was left with none.
Bonus points go out for the content warnings at the beginning of the book, though. That was well done and greatly appreciated.

I received a free ARC by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Robots, romance and adventure? Yes please! I didn't put this book down and read it in a day, so addictive, with plot twists you can't see coming! The romance is sexy, the characters well developed and the author has you second guessing everything throughout the book which adds to the intrigue!
Perfect for fans of Hunger Games and Westworld with a major cliff hanger at the end, which I love to hate! I'm eagerly awaiting book 2! Just read this one, I promise you won't regret it.

Sentient androids and human sci-fi thriller-ish. This book was absolutely excellent and I could read a whole collection of these books honestly, refreshing scary and an interesting conundrum.

It is hard to believe that this was Hunter's debut as a novelist because Sentience is extremely well-executed. she managed to navigate over 20 characters without making me feel confused and frustrated.

Premise - AlgorithmOS is nearly complete in their endeavor to market AI research to the American government. Their final test before confirming the functionality of their work is to place the models in a real-world scenario among humans. The purpose will be to test the AI's adaptability to environmental stimuli, and their ability to pass as human. Our protagonist is Leo Knox, a young member of a Chicago motorcycle gang that has found herself signing a waiver in order to take part in this experiment that the world has never seen before. She is there as a result of her ex-girlfriend's attempt to get her out of the gang, and the company is offering a pretty good pay-out. Win-win right? Leo and 20 other participants are to enter a natural expanse of forest and lakeside, where they are to survive together for 10 days and try to divulge who is AI. They are informed that 4 among them are AI, shouldn't be too hard, right? Well, it doesn't go as planned. Nothing with AI is as straightforward as we are led to believe.

I correctly guessed two of the four AI in the group, but I did not see that ending coming at all!

This novel is fast-paced, character-driven, and so exciting. I felt like I was one of the participants in the experiment because I was constantly trying to figure out who the AI were alongside each of the characters. Hunter presents a whodunit-but-make-it-AI concept that is seamless and page-turning. She held my attention in the way only a seasoned storyteller could. The allure of the atmosphere she created at the start of Sentience successfully grew and burst in perfect union with the finale. I adored the flaws in the characters she imagined to life... or artificial life... and led me do develop strong emotional reactions to each of the key players. Emotional engagement from myself as a reader, especially when there are so many characters laid out in front of me, is a huge feat and I was so impressed. I didn't care about the characters in Paolini's To Sleep in a Sea of Stars nearly as much as I did in this novel which holds 25% the page count Paolini presented.

I recommend this book to all friends that show interest in jumping into the world of sci-fi, as well as friends that are long-time lovers of all things robot. On a superficial level, this book is a mature sci-fi version of The Hunger Games but with way more interesting characters. Dear Courtney P. Hunter, can we make this a series please?

•Character development- 4☆
• Story Plot- 3☆
• Side characters- 2.5☆
• Flow of the story- 4☆
• Overall - 3.5☆

This book was sooo good!! I couldn’t put it down!! The author focused on topics that really allows the reader to think and ponder if each character made the right choice!!! I would recommend this book to anyone! It was a great read!

I really enjoyed this book. Character development was good. The plot was very interesting. Not a lot of typos.

This book actually surprised me!

I admit, I did judge the book by it’s cover but the synopsis was quite interesting (like a mix between Westworld and The Hunger Games) which is what led me to requesting it.

And I’m glad I did! It didn’t take long for the book to grip me. There were a lot of characters that the book introduces you to but it becomes clear who is more important as I continued reading. I did have trouble guessing who the AI were and I liked the way this was revealed as I was reading the book. As you can imagine, when humans try to play Creator, it never ends well and this concept was well executed by Hunter.

I am hoping Hunter is already working on the sequel because it is something I’m quite eager to read as the ending of the book left me hopeful for what’s to come.

All in all, a great debut independent novel that reminded me how important it is not to judge a book by it’s cover!

I feel vaguely guilty giving an arc such a negative review but honesty is the whole point. So I mostly hated this book.

Let me qualify that. I hated the writing. This book BADLY needs an editor to rewrite the entire thing. It jumps around for absolutely no reason, there's no sense of flow whatsoever, and every voice sounds exactly the same. The description is incredibly stilted and kept yanking me out of the action, and forced this disconnect from all of the characters. There were also a looot of grammatical mistakes, though I read an arc so some of those may have been fixed. I skimmed after around 35% because otherwise i wouldn't have finished.

Also, there were several gaping plot holes that bothered me, and too many characters, most of whom did not have a personality and didn't really do much.

I did give this two stars rather than one only because i found out if you skim and only read the dialogue it was actually sort of compelling, and the few characters with personalities were interesting. The entire concept is actually brilliant and if anyone wants to write it differently i would happily read it again.

I do not recommend this book unless it gets seriously edited. 2 stars.

2.5 Stars - Artificial intelligence Turing test meets Hunger Games (Sci-Fi/ Thriller)

A survival story of 20 research participants within a controlled outdoor expanse ("Eden"), where 4 of the 20 are A.I. (which is unknown to all members except the researchers). The test/research is to identify the A.I. by the end of the agreed period with a bonus reward of successful identification. There are no safe guarantees of proceeding, not even from death. Participants enter at their own discretion. The participants (ie. Hunger Games contestants) battle for survival, and use their individual skills to contribute as a community (eg. medics/military/scouts), or decide to sabotage their peers upon rising suspicions of artificialness to selfishly protect oneself or win the prize.

Great concept, poorly executed. Needs massive editing. Too long, too many characters, very busy overall and messy ending. I'll break it down.

Too many characters: Keeping in mind that the human brain can only really memorize 5 +2/-2 bits of new info in their short-term working memory, the number of characters needs to be limited to no more than a dozen to aid strength of retention and investment. (There's 20 participants + 5 or so researchers + a few investors). When the 20 participant characters are introduced simultaneously with very brief backstory, I found this really difficult to connect. Considering roughly 5 participants really make it to being main characters, with 10 being secondary, I'd completely rid the additional 5. Also, the character naming was strangely too similar. (Aiva/Eve, Leo/Luca, Ripley/Riley etc. It seemed deliberate but I think it hinders the relatability with this many characters).

The overall story felt very busy. There's too many instances of sudden survival mishaps. I get this is the name of the game, and crucial for displaying the individual skills, but I started to desensitize to the chronic nature of incidents and drama, when I just wanted something ELSE to happen. By around 50% the researchers point of view is revealed - by this point I was already bored and uninvested in the protagonists. It would be interesting to include this much earlier, like 25% of the way in. There's also a strange insertion of sudden sex scenes, including immediately following a traumatic death, and it just feels off-kilter. Also, Leo rolls her eyes too much.

The ending fell flat and felt messy. It felt ordinary or expected, but not in the rewarding sense. It felt messy due to the chaotic nature of introduced characters, the dialogue, some more last-minute info into the researchers, and a sudden event with some researchers that I just didn't see coming because I didn't gain a sense of their motives to build to that point. I just think the ending needs refinement and possibly an overhaul.

I also went into this expecting a horror edge, as it was outlined. It didn't feel terrifying, or suspenseful. It was more of a prolonged drama and action thriller. This just wasn't my type of book, but perhaps it would warm up to someone who loves action and drama more!

Pros: Includes content warning - that's a nice touch! Seeing the researchers point of view was interesting too. I liked hearing about the types of A.I.'s programming.


I read the advanced readers copy supplied by Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Yikes!

Overall I enjoyed the book. It really made me think about how people perceive themselves (self-worth) based on their memories/experiences. It felt a little rushed at the end compared to the middle, but I am intrigued enough about the storyline that I will read the next book in the series (assuming there's a next book with how it ended!).

I received a copy of this from Netgalley in return for an honest review.

This book started off so strong. I was immediately intrigued and ready to read a great sci-fi mystery where I am also wondering who the AI's were. I enjoyed the book for the first 45% I want to say. After that it took a turn I wasn't expecting and it sort of took me out of the immersive feeling I had previously. There seemed to be too many characters to keep track of once the factions separated out. It was hard for me to follow because some characters were grouped but then managed to change groups and I just got lost.

I did like the insight into the company in part 2. It helped me to understand the actual experiment going on, but once again, it sort of took me out of the main plot. There was just a lot of back and forth within the same chapter and that is a minor pet peeve of mine. I don't want to read three or four perspectives with setting changes in the same chapter.

Overall the writing was great and while I was taken out of the story a few times, it was clear Hunter was very good at absorbing the reader. I will probably give her another chance with her next book.

2.5 stars

While the premise definitely sounded interesting, the overall story wasn't really for me.
Let's break it down.

Good things:
• the writing was pretty good and clear
• very interesting premise
• while there were a lot of characters, the main ones definitely felt distinct
• the 'behind-the-scenes' parts about the company were interesting

Things I wasn't a fan of:
• despite the characters being written quite well, there were way too many for the length of the story. In the beginning I really couldn't keep track of all the characters
• I felt the book tried to do too many things (thriller-esque setting in Eden, love story, background of the company, etc), making it a very 'busy' story, especially at the end. The ending was too rushed, causing it to become kinda underwhelming.
• pretty much everything that happened was negative, and at the end I was kinda sick of all the misery
• the parts in italics contained a lot of different things which made it kinda confusing

Overall I think this book just wasn't really for me.

The beginning of this book reminded me a lot of The Hunger Games, but with a twist. To be honest, this was a DNF for me (which I hardly ever do), only because I became so incredibly confused by the number of characters thrown at me in seemingly one paragraph! I would have had to take the time to make my own chart just to keep things straight. But don't let my review deter you if you like that kind of thing. I recommend this for readers who are up for the challenge.

Before I begin my review for Sentience by Courtney P. Hunter, I would personally like to thank the author, publishers and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this ARC and I have reviewed it honestly.

Q: What do you get when you mix Westworld, Black Mirror and Red Rising?
A: Sentience

A science experiment. An arena. Brutal tests. 20 human participants. 4 AI's. Nobody knows who's real and who's robot... Not even themselves. Welcome to Sentience.

Sentience features, but is not limited to, the following themes:
○ Sci-Fi
○ Artificial Intelligences
○ Survival Arena
○ Romance
○ Human Nature
○ Triggers


My overall rating for Sentience is…

4.5 Stars!

My mind is literally blown. Literally! This story was an insane and bitter-sweet, emotional roller-coaster. The brutality of human nature when survival is on the line is incomprehensible and utterly terrifying. Hunter has woven a web of words to destroy you in her debut novel. Unbelievable world building and characters you can't help but feel for. If you want to take a stroll into Sentience, take a life jacket. You'll need it.

I rated this book a 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4.

I must say  I was hooked on concept alone, this reminded me a bit of the Black Mirror series, which is scary and awesome at the same time.

Starting the book, the first issue for me was the amount of characters right at the beginning. I had a hard time getting acquainted with them and remembering who they were through the rest of the book, except for 7 or 8 characters that stood out.
I think it was a bit difficult to keep up with everyone since some of them just popped out of nowhere in the story and then they were gone just as quick. Later in the book the author started to focus on a few selected characters at a time and it got way better.

I'd like to mention Leo, who was my favourite character (along with Ripley). I loved her background and I enjoyed so much being able to keep up with her evolution through those weeks. She was really well developed and her motivations were strong and made so much sense, you can easily see yourself empathizing and rooting for her.

I thought the first part of the book took a slow pace and lacked a bit of action, however, I want to say that the author did a great job depicting the characters actions and emotions throughout the book, that's for sure. It was at the second part that I really started to get into it. The story was unravelling at a great pace at this point, one revelation after another, with some intense moments to add up as well.

As for the plot twist: I didn't see that coming! I couldn't figure out who were AI until it was revealed to the reader, which was great. It was a surprise for me and I loved the outcome!

I would like to mention as well the fact that we also get to see the other side of the story. It was so cool to see some of the people working at the company face moral issues, while others just thought about the money. I don't know what's scarier, what the people inside Eden could do in extreme situations, or the actions of the ones who were controlling the experiment.

This is a book that leaves you thinking, no doubt about it.

I love a good cyborg story, and this hit all the right spots - plus tension, a mystery, action/excitement and suspense!

I found this book to be thought provoking. It's a very interesting take on where artificial intelligence is going. It's a fast paced book that shows the best and worst of humans and AI. A well written book.

What an interesting premise for a book. I frankly cannot believe this is a debut novel. It was immediately captivating and held my attention throughout. Despite a large part of the book being from Leo's point of view, the author is actually putting us, the reader, in the drivers seat by determining who is and is not a real human. As a sci fi fan, I'm fascinated by the endless potential fall out from this kind of Artificial Intelligence. I sincerely hope this becomes a series. Bravo Courtney P Hunter for writing a bestseller. I could easily see this becoming a tv miniseries. Every character is meticulously thought out. Kai is viciously evil. The company itself is ruthless and the potential for this kind of sentience on society is an easy sell when the writing is this good. I enjoyed every word. Thanks to Courtney P Hunter for asking me to give her book a shot.